Harbour Island to Spanish Wells

Harbour Island to Spanish Wells – 13 nautical miles sailed, 2 miles in dinghy

I didn’t even open my eyes until 8:30. I staggered, blurry eyed, to the stove and fired up the kettle, trying to recall if anybody had fallen off the boat last night or if we were all present and accounted for. I wasn’t sure, but the dinghy was up in the davits and there was no sign of disorder so I assumed everything was cool.

The next to surface was Catherine, who joined me in the cockpit and we chatted for a while, enjoying the predictable, but welcome, morning sunshine. Ana arrived next, then John and we assembled in the cabin to recount the evening’s event while Ana and I made pancakes and scrambled eggs.

The breakfast helped the healing process along and soon we were underway, headed back to Spanish Wells after our plundering of Harbour Island. The strong winds east yesterday had shifted south, which was good for our Devil’s Backbone passage, but had left large swells that rolled and rocked the boat as we twisted through the narrow spots with waves breaking on coral on both sides at times. We made it through but it was a little scarier than last time.

Just before entering the narrow channel of Spanish Wells from the east are six mooring balls, but unfortunately all of these were already taken by boats, so instead we pulled up to Ronald’s Service fuel dock which was closed Sundays, hoping we could stay. We tied up the boat, tried calling all the numbers we could find for Ronald with no results, then drove John and Catherine in the dinghy back to their boat, passing at least ten surfacing turtles along the way. There was talk of happy hour at the nearby Wreckers Pub, but everybody was feeling and looking a little spent so I had my doubts.

Ana had a nap in the afternoon while I sat in the cockpit doing some writing, listening to music, and allowing myself to be regularly distracted by the many fishing boats passing by. This is the fishing and lobstering centre of the Bahamas, and a real Bahamian working town as there are no resorts on Spanish Wells, just small guesthouses. As I was tapping on the keyboard a man came up to the boat and said hello. I found out he was Kyle the owner and I apologized for taking up space on his fuel dock but explained we had tried to contact him. He was totally cool and said it would normally be fine for us to stay here but he was expecting a lobster boat to return tonight, with anywhere between 10,000 and 60,000 pounds of lobster tails, and it would required the entire dock. Despite being officially closed on Sunday he was happy to fill up my jerry cans with gasoline for the dinghy and also found me another dock we could rent for the night if we wanted to. We chatted while he filled up the gas and he gave me a rundown of how the lobster boats work, how long they stay out for, and how they catch the lobsters. He was also the owner of the lobster processing plant and seafood store located right behind the fuel dock. I asked if he could give us a tour of the plant, and he said he’d love to but there are strict regulations in place for food processing and non-employees were not allowed within the building. But I did plan to return the next morning to see them offloading the lobster boat.

We sailed out to a nearby anchorage called Gun Point and were admittedly relieved when Happy Hour with Catherine and John was called off due to extreme exhaustion. We enjoyed our quiet night on SeaLight and were asleep earlier than usual.