Wonderful People

Wonderful People   …   Saturday 23 February

I really like it here in Spanish Wells. It's so colorful - a photographers dream. But the thing that struck me most today is just how friendly the people are. We took the Nassau - Spanish Wells - Harbor Island ferry over to Harbor Island. It was an exhilarating 30 minute ride at what must have been 15-20 miles an hour through the "Devils Backbone", a treacherous stretch of water for which cruisers are highly recommended to hire a local pilot. Once we arrived we wandered along the dock in search of a map. We must have looked a bit lost because a guy came up to us and asked if he could help. We told him we needed a map and he said "I've got one in my truck" and off he went to fetch it. Whilst we wandered the town a couple of other people asked if we needed anything. We got talking to number of locals, sometimes because I would ask if it was OK to take their photo, but not always. It just seemed like a really friendly place and on reflection, that is pretty much true of all the places we've been in the Bahamas. Harbor Island, or Dunmore Town to be more precise, is an interesting mix of beautiful well maintained properties and areas where the housing was basic and run down to say the least. We looked at a few menus posted in fancier looking restaurants / hotels. They looked great, but it was clear that you could easily spend $100 per person on a meal. On the other hand the "Supermarket" seemed to have very little in it. Fruit, vegetables and meat seemed particularly in short supply. In order to save time and money we had brought some sandwiches and fruit from the boat and ate these on yet another beautiful beach. This one is supposed to have pink sand (let's just say it's subtle) and is ranked as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. We did later stop at cafe overlooking the harbor and ate smoked dolphin (fish) dip with pita chips along with a coke/sprite that we had to buy from the liquor store across the road - a somewhat strange setup. Anyway we caught the ferry back to Spanish Wells and as we passed the mooring field Gloria recognized one of the boats as belonging to some people we had met back in River Dunes, NC during Hurricane Sandy. We then bumped into Walter and Donna as we took the dinghy back to the boat and met up later for drinks. This proved to be a great opportunity to share our experience because are doing a similar trip but in opposite directions, so picked up lots of information on the Exumas and hopefully helped out with our knowledge of the Abaco. Tomorrow we head out down Eleuthera with the intention of making a passage over to the Exumas on about Wednesday, ahead of a period of sustained north westerly winds that are predicted.

Mike

Spanish Wells Harbor - from the deck of the fast ferry

Valentine's Marina and Resort - upscale accommodation

Run down and basic - the other end of the scale on Harbor Island

"Radio" - the name everyone calls him because of some historic role he played in winning a local baseball game  (I think). 72 years old, he was friendly and fun, but very difficult to understand

Lady cleaning yellow tail snapper

A Reddish Egret in the uncommon white morph - note the bicolor bill - it has a very characteristic fishing style, running around and flapping it's wings

The mooring field in Spanish Wells - now completely full - you can just make out "Cotinga" with the red hull on mooring ball number 4