Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 We're back online!!  

This will be a rather longish post....We went into the Old Bahama Bay marina to clear customs.

 

The marina was virtually deserted....I believe they have more traffic in the summer time (fishing boats coming over for a few days from Florida). 

 

 

Duane took all our paperwork in to the customs office just a few steps away.   Harry, from the conch salad stand had walked by and offered to make some for me....couldn't resist.  He got busy and said he'd bring it over to the boat. 

 

 

Very quickly, Duane was finished with the customs paperwork.  We had everything in order and it was a breeze.  We're cleared for 120 days when we'll have to check back in with customs where ever we are at that point.  We still have to get our "rapid" Covid tests in 5 days to complete the requirements (plus check in with them every day for the next 14 days to verify we're symptom free).  Now we're free to take the "Q" flag down and hoist the Bahamian courtesy flag.

 

 

 

Harry made quick work of my conch salad and brought it over....yum - it was delicious and all gone at lunch!

 

 

Nothing more to do at West End, we pushed off and headed out to Eleuthera.  We needed to be somewhere protected because high winds/frontal passage was forecast for Monday.  Sailing offshore south of Freeport - these (I think) are some sort of petroleum platforms. 

 

 

And then a little further there were several cruise ships anchored.  You could tell they had engines running by smoke coming out of the smokestacks.

 

Passed a couple of tankers.  Always interesting to see something other than wide open seas.

 

 

 

Beautiful sunset - the winds were decent a good part of the early evening - but by sunrise they had really gotten pretty light.

 

Uneventful overnight.  Duane let me sleep 5 hours straight!!  So I was pretty rested.....

Arriving at the tip of Eleuthera.  Starting to really feel like the Bahamas now!!

 

Anchored in Royal Island harbour, nicely protected from the upcoming bad weather that is forecast.  We were alone with What If for a little while, then several other boats joined us.  This is when I got a friendly surprise - Chris and Karina from Sublime waved and said hello as they prepared to anchor.  I met Chris several years ago when he was a customer at the Siler City Airport!!  Small world.

Since we got to Eleuthera fairly early in the day, we had some time for a few chores.  One thing that's been bugging me is that our bottom step has been dragging in the tannic water of the intercoastal waterway.....and is stained this ugly yellow.  (The boat is loaded with supplies/fuel/water, so is low in the water....)

 

 

We took the opportunity of a calm anchorage - lowered the dinghy to take a lot of weight off the stern - and I used a sponge saturated in Barkeepers Friend cleanser to melt away the stain.  So much better....

 

  

 

And we found this little lizard/gecko on the boat.....don't really know where we acquired him....but he needed to be taken ashore since I'm pretty sure he'd perish pretty quickly on the boat.  We took the dinghy over to the mangroves and set him free.

 

  

Then we couldn't resist the calm before the storm to get out on the Egg Island reef for some snorkeling. 

 

  

Was just so nice to be back in the water again!

 

  Enjoying my new underwater camera - a Olympus Tough 6G.

I haven't even played with any of the settings but I think it takes clearer photos and retains more of the color than my old camera.

 

And right before sunset, several of the boats decided to to a quick "raft up" - tying the dinghies together for a little social hour.  Fun to chat with a few new boats including Chris and Carina from Sublime.

 

The next day, the winds really did arrive.  I took the opportunity to do a couple of loads of laundry and thought it was cute how these two pairs of long pants were "flying" in the breeze.  They dried in about 10 minutes flat!!

 

The winds and rain were as forecast, but no harm other than What If had to reset their anchor and it dragged.

 

But this morning was bright and clear, winds down to about 15 knots.  We moved with What If over to the anchorage near Spanish Wells, took the dinghies in and got our internet setup.  Everyone was very nice - inside the store everyone wore a mask.  

 

We have an appointment with the doctor in Spanish Wells for our 5-day test tomorrow at 4pm.  Then we'll be free to roam!