Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 Walking around Spanish Wells was a treat.  I love all the neat lawns and colorful houses. 

 

 

Walking to the east end of the island we relaxed at a little gazebo on the shore.  Pretty herons at low tide (or pretty nice big white birds, I'm not an expert...)

 

As we were wandering we ran into our friends from the airport Chris & Corina from Sublime and Fred and Ingrid from Gizmo.  We'll probably run into them again during the winter.

 

Took the opportunity to get a snapshot of our little group - don't get to do that much!  Took our masks down just for a minute for the photo.  (Sorry we were turned a little bit too much into the sun)

 

As we were walking we could see that many of the houses were decorated for Christmas on a grand scale.  Unfortunately I found that this does not photograph well in the daylight.  But I did want to include these dragons.  They would look well on someone's yard in Oriental!!!

 

In the afternoon, we were told to go to the doctor's office "near the Eagle's Landing restaurant".  Thought it was cool to have  a restaurant named after our airport!

 

Easy process to get another nasal swab Covid test.  And Yay! About 30 minutes later we all got our emails.  We're all negative again.  So this completes our requirements by the Bahamas government (unless we actually get sick, of course) and we are free to roam now.

 

 Another lovely sunset!  

 We'll set off tomorrow morning for Hatchet Bay on the mainland Eleuthera.  (The island of Eleuthera travel ban has been lifted so we are now free to go ashore anywhere.  There is a curfew in place 10PM to 5AM but we won't be ashore during that time).  

Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

The evening was uneventful - a mail boat came thru the anchorage.

 

Another pretty sunset.  We'll have a busy day tomorrow.

 

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!

West End, Bahamas

 Duane forgot to turn off the cellular service on his iPhone last night, so this morning when we got in range of BTC cell towers, his phone grabbed a signal and charged us for 24 hours of service....no big deal - just $10.  But wouldn't want to pay that every day for the winter!  

So, one more post before we go "dark" for a few days.....

Back up to yesterday....we left Jensen Beach leisurely in the morning.

 

 

The trip seems longer because we had to wait for a couple of bridges to open (some open on demand, some open only on the half hour).

 

 

 

And one bridge only had one span opening -  we had plenty of room but it sure felt like a tight squeeze!

 

 

Approaching Lake Worth things started to look quite like a city.

 

 

After anchoring for a few hours and a nice brunch on What If, we departed Lake Worth right at sunset.

 

Not much to tell about the crossing - we had both sails up with a reef in the mail just in case the winds got up.  We started with one engine on low RPM but later in the night we shut that off and sailed the remainder under wind power alone.  Did our 3 hour shifts and it worked fine as usual.  

 

Arrived right at sunrise - a little too early at West End because customs doesn't open until 9AM.  We anchored outside and will wait here until they open.

 

And Duane put up our "Q" flag as we're required to do, and no one except the captain can leave the vessel until we clear customs.  (It's just a solid yellow flag).

 

 That's it for a few days.  We'll use some good weather to sail on this afternoon, probably to Eleuthera.  I'll post again as soon as we find some BTC sims for our cell phones.

Lake Worth, FL

 Update!!!  

We all got out negative Covid PCR tests overnight and we've all now received our Bahamas Travel Visa!  So we're all set to leave from Lake Worth this evening.  We should be at customs at Old Bahama Bay tomorrow morning.  

I will not have internet or cell  service for several days - there is no BTC location anywhere near where we'll be.  If you need to contact me, you'll have to do it on the HAM radio email.   

 

Jensen Beach, Fl

Around noon, Cathy's package that we were waiting for still hadn't shown up at the marina.....

I looked outside and saw a familiar boat pass by on the way to the fuel dock - Bluejacket - neighbors at Oriental.

 

After they got fuel & water over at the dock, Jerry and Donna rafted up with Esmeralda next to us.  We were chatting boat-to-boat about Cathy's package - and it was agreed that they would pick up Cathy's package and bring it to the Ragged Islands with them.  Cathy can pick it up from them there in a few weeks.  Cool, we were free at that point to head south.

 

 

Since we were so late leaving, we only made it about 30 miles south to Jensen Beach.   No worries, we have plenty of time tomorrow as we await the results of our Covid tests.  (Ed's has come back negative - his is the only one processed so far).

Anchored at Jensen Beach - there's always a bridge nearby, isn't there?  Dinner was on Sojourn - Cathy brought a yummy "Eclair pudding dessert".....a few games of Hearts and time to rest before our overnight (hopefully) tomorrow.

 

 

Vero Beach, Fl

 Last day at Vero Beach, we hope!

Walking past the parking area at the marina - love the twisted trees and the Spanish moss everywhere.

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but our grill had a bit of a failure when I used it yesterday.  The little steel plate that diffuses the flame had rusted thru over the summer.  We'd replaced most of the insides of the grill two years ago (it's a Magma brand which is supposed to be all stainless steel and made for use on boats....)  Since we hadn't grilled much at all  over the summer - we didn't notice.  Soooo, if we wanted to grill this winter, we had to do something - and do it today because we would get no more chances.  

To the rescue is fellow Manta owners Scott and Tina on Sangrias.  They live with their boat in the back yard about a mile north of the marina and offered their vehicle for us to go get the grill repair parts.

Fun long dinghy ride up to their place on a little canal off the Intercoastal.

 

 

Had a nice chat dockside with Scott and Tina - caught up a bit on their cruising plans later this winter.  Hope to cross paths with them in the Bahamas.

 

 

We stopped back by the marina and picked up Ed and Cathy for them to do a last grocery run, got all our stuff and were back to return the car in a couple of hours.

Said goodbye to Scott and were off in the dinghy back to the marina.

 Sangrias all decked out with Christmas lights.  Would be cool to have the boat in the back yard.....maybe we can dredge a canal all the way to Pittsboro????

 

Sorry, it was dark by the time I took the photo - but the grill is back in business for another year!   Now we have to catch some fish and lobster.....

The plan is for a 10AM Thursday departure from Vero Beach to points south.  Assuming we get our negative Covid tests, we should be out the Lake Worth inlet sometime Friday.

Vero Beach, Florida

 We now have a plan - depart from Lake Worth on Friday, arriving in the Bahamas on Saturday.  Knock wood that everything holds together and we can follow thru.  

We have to:

1 - get our Covid PCR tests done

2 - we have to get the negative results emailed to us

3 - we have to get a health visa from the Bahamian government using those negative results

4 - we have to check in with Bahamas customs & immigration before 5 days has elapsed since the test was done.

5 - in 5 days after reaching the Bahamas, we have to go to a Bahamian government location and get another Covid test

6 - then we are free to roam the Bahamas, but have to check in daily online with our health status.

 7 - of course we will have to abide by their rather strict mask rules, no problem.  We hope to be in the out islands well away from people

 

 

So, day 1 of this plan has been Tuesday. 

We ordered and received next day freight our Covid PCR swab tests from Everlywell.com if anyone is interested.

Picked them up first thing from the community "mail cart" at the marina.

 

Easy to follow instructions, nasal swab just like you see in the news - put the tip in a vial of liquid, seal and ship back to the lab next day air freight.

 

We had a nice dinghy ride a couple of miles away to get to the nearest UPS drop box.   Beautiful but rather chilly day at 60 degrees!!  I'm definitely looking for warmer weather again!  

I decided to do a little "pre celebration" and pull out the last lobster from the freezer.  It didn't seem right going back to the Bahamas with a lobster from last year.....thawed Duane a steak since he's allergic to shellfish.  Just some lemon pepper, butter and lime juice for the lobster.  Schreiber steak seasoning, of course, for the steak.

 

 

Onto the grill, added hushpuppies and more butter for dipping, coleslaw and mac n cheese for a decent imitation of a Bahamian meal.

 

Vero Beach, Fl

 We took the dinghy about a mile across the Indian River to the closest grocery store for fresh stuff.  We're loaded to the gills with canned goodes/dry goods, but our fresh veg supply has about run out.  This will probably be the last U.S. grocery run this year.

 

Back to the dinghy with our shopping complete.  Shopping is not so easy when we're on the boat with no ground transport, but part of the fun.

 

Back to the boat....a rather dreary and overcast day.  Still warm but cooler temps are on the way for a day or two.