We are a bit tardy keeping the webblog up to date because we have had difficulty finding strong internet connectivity plus time to write. Seems like there is one or the other but not both.
Over the past two weeks, though, we have slowly sailed north up the coast of Eleuthera stopping each evening at a new town or beach.
Sally and Conrad got a nice shot of Tides Inn sailing up the bank.
We also stopped at Palmetto, Governor's Harbor and Rainbow Cay. The sights were all very interesting but none of these anchorages were as ideallic as Alabaster - being either rolly or questionable holding.
At Alabaster Bay we had a bonfire ashore with Its About Time and Another Adventure with sausage dogs and Bahamian rice and peas, then watched the sunset, hoping for a green flash but clouds blocked the view.
Interestingly, there were very few shells on the oceanside, but the same spectacular views as those in the Exumas. Eluethera has much more vegetation and birds than the Exumas and used to have farms and ranches before the soils were exhausted.
Current Cut can be a dangerous passage if you don't pick your window properly. The current can run over 5-6 kts and if running against strong winds can create steep waves. We arrived at ideal conditions and passed through with no problems.
With the right sunlight conditions it is pretty easy to stay in the channel. Blue - good; turquoise - bad! The blue water is 30-40ft deep and the turquoise 3-6ft, On our other (port) side there is a green reef (about 3ft deep) that comes well out into the cut which you must give a wide margin to avoid the current sweeping you onto the reef. Again, not a big deal with the correct lighting and wind/tide/current conditions.
After passing through Current Cut, we anchored that afternoon off Meeks Patch. This is a popular anchorage spot and previous cruisers have even left a picnic table for cruisers to use. We dinghied out to the offshore reef north of Russell Island and collected some lobster and fish for dinner. We also met up with Robert Smith, an old Navy buddy from our days in Japan, who is cruising the Bahamas on his Shannon 38.
With a forecast for a strong frontal system coming through we decided to pick up a mooring ball inside the Spanish Wells harbor. There is no anchoring inside the narrow harbor so its either mooring ball or marina. The weather never materialized but the mooring field was a great staging place to tour Spanish Wells, which we have never been to before. We'll put pictures of Spanish Wells in our next blog entry.
