Days 121 and 122

Nassau Harbor Club Marina to Spanish Wells Yacht Haven, Spanish Wells, Eleuthera (docked)

May 16 and 17, 2022

May 16

Gray, cloudy days are good days to complete tasks especially when it’s either raining or about to rain.

John changed Lailia’s oil since we’d motored about 100 hours since he changed it in Fort Lauderdale. I bought groceries and completed a lot of work on my laptop.

May 17

Spanish Wells is one of the funkier places in the Bahamas and it has been on our itinerary for quite awhile. It’s actually an easier route to get there from Nassau than from the Exumas.

We haven’t been in really deep water since we approached Nassau from Hoffman’s Cay back at the end of March (which seems like forever ago). I had forgotten the sapphire blue of these depths.

We had rain near us much of the way (or at least I think so – slept a lot). Boating in squally weather with wind and lightning can be stressful but we were lucky: we had some light rain but no strong winds or lightning. We even had some menacing clouds when we were getting close to Spanish Wells – somehow they didn’t impact us at all.

We have no shore power at the dock today; the pedestal does not work. There are showers here, so there’s something good. If we can get the depth in this narrow channel that has mangroves on the opposite shore we may move to a different dock tomorrow at high tide.

Tonight we walked through the town. All of the islands we have visited have had their own flavor. The flavor here is really different – lots of flowers, nice roads, and pretty cottages.

Budda’s Bar is well-known. Everyone we met who has been to Spanish Wells told us to visit. We’re really glad we did: delicious drinks including the Dizzy Budda that doesn’t taste like it has 8 different liquors in it. Since it’s green it has to be healthy, no matter how much liquor is in it.

Somehow this little place on a small island in the eastern Bahamas has really good Philly cheesesteaks, too. It’s not quite Philadelphia/Delaware/New Jersey quality – mostly because the rolls are difficult to replicate -but it was pretty close.

It’s narrow enough here that we could easily walk to the ocean side of the island to enjoy the view.

The docks are in a mangrove channel so tonight the water is flat calm. There’s some breeze and very little light pollution. After the chaos of Nassau’s hustle and bustle, this is a perfect place to soak up some Bahamas flavor.