Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 Sojourn and Bluejacket hoisted sail and lifted anchor, engines off for a southbound sail.

 

 

 

We had between 10 and 20 knots blowing us along the 40 mile trip to Governor's Harbour.

 

We did crank the engines briefly for safety sailing thru Current Cut.  We timed it well as we had 3 knots pushing us thru the cut.

 

Bluejacket going thru the cut.

 

A fairly long day included a couple of miles of rain - got a nice free freshwater rinse!

 

Amazing that we are the only two boats in Governor's Harbour.  This is normally a busy anchorage in the middle of the winter.  I guess we're a tad early.

We'll go ashore today to stretch our land legs.

Spanish Wells, Eluethera, Bahamas

 We went into town and filled up with diesel. We’re pretty happy with the $6.42 per gallon. 

Then after reanchoring, we rode the dinghies back to have lunch at Buddhas. Forgot to snap a photo but I had an extremely yummy chicken Philly sandwich. The crew from the Margaret Lee met us there for lunch and it was fun getting to know them. 

Sojourn and Bluejacket will head south along Eluethera now as the wind will be favorable for sailing!

Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 Beautiful warm and sunny here.

Still only the two of us in the huge anchorage. 

 

I hear a rumbling outside - a local tug boat passed by.

 

Around noon, we went ashore again with Jerry & Donna for lunch.

 

The fuel tanker was in port - so now we're sure they'll have fuel for us tomorrow.

 

We had lunch at Wreckers - we had never eaten there before.  The menu was quite "spendy" by our standards.  ($7-8 beers and $25 hamburgers.....and that's before the 10% VAT and 15% service charge!!!)  So we opted to drink tap water and share a $20 pizza.....it was delicious and I'm pretty sure it had a pound of mozzarella cheese on it!  (The kindly made half of it with pepperoni and half without!)

 

Then we were back on the golf cart to go find friends Mark and Michelle aboard Reach.  They texted and said that they were in a marina and invited us for a visit.  On the way up the channel we spotted another Manta!  I had to go say hello of course.  It's Emmanuel IV, live-aboards. 

 

Wow, that's a lot of purple....I've never seen a boat decked out in purple.....

We did find Reach and had a nice chat with them.  Forgot to snap a photo but we'll see them often during the winter.

 

Then it was just off to tour the island some more on the golf cart.

 

Jerry took us down a cart path - they really enjoy decorating for the holidays!

 

We really should come back and wander after dark....but we're usually too lazy at that point in the day!

 

Just more well kept houses.  Fun to tour.

We ended the day by snacking on some of the last Thanksgiving leftovers. 

Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 The 30 hour passage from West Palm Beach to Spanish wells was a bit of a drag for me. We pulled the anchor at 4AM and Bluejacket did the same.  As we went out the inlet, the seas were larger than I had anticipated, not dangerous but the swells were pretty large.  We also had 7 other boats that apparently set their alarms for 4AM as well, all outgoing in the channel at the same time.  

The seas are lumpy for the first few hours and I had failed to take any sea-sickness medication.  I had looked at the forecast wind and it was very light so I assumed that the seas would not bother me.  But I definitely got a case of the 'ole mal de mer.  Over the first few hours I did take some medicine that helped a bit.  But otherwise I slept some and made sure I stayed hydrated.  By Saturday morning I was feeling pretty good but not hungry at all. 

Bluejacket stayed about a mile behind us and matched our speed for the entire trip.  We did chat on the VHF a few times overnite just to say hello.   

Saw many cargo and cruise ships - fun to see them all lit up in the middle of the night.

 

By mid-morning on Saturday we were passing the small islands at the northwest tip of Eleuthera.

 

Nice to be back in the clear water again!

 

Anchored near town - amazingly only one other boat anchored here.  The time we were here last spring there were dozens of boats anchored in this bay. 

 

 

 The sun is blazing so we put out all our sunshades.  Note the yellow "Q" flag we're flying.  This means that we have not cleared customs/immigration so we are in "quarantine".

 

Bluejacket arrived a few minutes later.  We both got in the dinghies to go to customs.

 

Down the channel.

 

The customs officer was not in the office.  Donna inquired at the shop next door and the nice lady, Ashlay made a few calls for us to find out when we could return.  While waiting for a customs officer, Donna and Jerry rented a golf cart for the day. We joined them for a fun tour of the island going all the way to the tip of Russell Island.  Stopped at the Eagles Landing Restaurant for a fun meal then Jerry drove us all around to see the sights.

 

 

Nice to see all the houses decorated for Christmas.  They really get into it on this island!

 

This person's yard is an amazing light show.  We spoke to the guys doing the install - it will be ready to light this coming weekend.  Unfortunately, I expect we will have moved on by then.

 

Pretty view from the park.

 

We drove by the concrete block factory.  Pretty cool process - I didn't realize they actually manufactured blocks on the islands.  I assumed they were shipped in.

That's about it for the island tour as my camera somehow corrupted the rest of my photos.....

The customs officer did meet us at the office eventually - so we're officially checked into the Bahamas for the winter!  The Q flag came down and now we're flying the Bahamian courtesy flag.

 

Supper was some Thanksgiving meal leftovers and an early night as we were a bit tuckered out!

West Palm Beach, FL

 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Lots of cargo and cruise ship activity in the harbor - I guess they don't stop for holidays!

I spent a good while in the morning getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner - Kris & Dean got delayed for hours behind a broken drawbridge so they didn't make it.  But we had a great time with Jerry & Donna.  Chatted, played a fun game of 5 Crowns, ate waaaayyy too much as usual.  

 

We're both going to get up and leave in the wee hours - destination Bahamas!  Keep up with us on our Red Dot on the upper right screen (on computer displays, it's not on mobile displays.) 

West Palm Beach, FL

 With all the rain we've had, it's no surprise that the area is foggy.  We were off anchor early to motor the 50+ miles south to Lake Worth/West Palm Beach.  The forecast offshore showed seas at 4 feet, but we were skeptical because the wind had died down so much.  We decided it was worth 20 minutes to motor out the Ft. Pierce inlet and see how the seas were actually.

Duane helped as lookout while we motored out to sea.  Once we got southbound, there was in fact, a large "swell" - but it was not uncomfortable so we continued on southbound.

 

A few hours later, the skies had cleared and the seas were almost calm, just gently lifting us with passing swells.

 

Looking like touristy south Florida now.

 

About 7 hours of motoring later we dropped anchor in the harbor south of the inlet. 

 

Jerry and Donna are here as well and we will get together for Thanksgiving dinner.  Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday.  We will likely leave in the early morning hours Friday for a long run over to the Bahamas.  I'll keep you posted on the Winlink emails.  If you're not on that list and want to be, just shoot me an email.