We had a great downwind sail across the Northeast Providence
Channel to Royal Island. There was a grand
procession of nine boats leaving the Lynard Cay area that same morning, all with
the same destination. We were third boat
to pull anchor and the full moon was still bright in the sky as the sun was
coming up. The air was unseasonably crisp
and the anchor chain felt warm on my hands as I pulled it, perhaps for the last
time, from Abaco waters.
Rainbow Connection was the only boat left
in the harbor and I couldn't help but photograph her as we motored by.
Her two young captains had plans to leave the following day
when wind velocity was predicted to be much higher. Rainbow
was a boat designed to handle a lot of wind and much bigger seas, and Tania and
Jemel liked to sail her that way. They were the kind of sailors who refer to
Chris Parker as "conservative".
Rainbow was the prettiest boat
I'd seen so far, and we'd all grown quite fond of her (and her owners) as we'd
been bumping into them since Florida. We
spent a memorable evening with them on the beach on Lynard Cay, sitting around a
drift-wood fire swapping stories until late.
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| Tania helping the girls start mini beach fires with flint and steel |
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| Wren was determined to befriend Bailey |
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| Moon rise on Rainbow Connection |
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| Bahamian hot dogs |
Jemel and Tania had both grown up sailing Bahamian waters. In fact Rainbow
was given to Jemel by his grandfather (now 81), who they were on their way to
pick up in the Exumas for a week of sailing.
They had both been boat-schooled, and Tania had never even lived in a house! They spent winters cruising on Rainbow with their dog Bailey, and
summers in Alaska as the only crew on a fishing boat seining pink salmon. Scott and I couldn't help but envy how simple
their lives were. The girls were
completely enamored with Tania; brave,
smart, confident, capable, not to mention beautiful. She told stories of building forts on the
beach as a kid, and explained to them how to make bowls out of coconut shells. She even had a hermit crab on Rainbow which she'd been keeping as a
pet for 13 years. She gave them a copy of Dr. Doolittle, one of her favorite books, which they've since
devoured. They returned to Kiawah that
night, starry eyed. Tania was exactly
the kind of woman you want your daughters looking up to. I would expect nothing less from someone on a
boat named Rainbow Connection.
We landed in Royal Harbor with just enough light left in the
day for the girls to take the paddle board out to peruse the harbor.
We spent the next couple of days exploring ruins of an old
1950's resort , snorkeling, paddle boarding, and fishing. The water is a chilly 72 degrees due to a
rash of recent cold fronts. A little too
cold for me and the girls to want to stay in for too long. This has forced us to invent a new sport which we are calling MASUPS
(Mother Assisted Stand Up Paddle Snorkeling).
I'm even beginning to understand "MASUPS
speak" (muffled exclamations emanating from children's snorkels), "O, y osh, ook a a ish!!". It's really pretty straightforward. Scott and the girls continue to put fish on
the table. He's discovered the Bahamian
Sling, which is essentially a sling shot with a steel arrow attached. We've had several fish speared in this
manner, as well as a spiny lobster, which he snared. Spiny lobsters make the Maine lobster seem
quite relaxing to handle. What they lack
in power, they make up for in points. Still
no conch for me, but I'm not giving up.
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| Giant bat moth caterpillar? |
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| Spiny lobstah |
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| MASUPS in action |
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| Blue striped grunt |
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| Schoolmaster snapper |
After a few days in Royal Harbor, we sailed on to Spanish
Wells to explore and provision. We loved
this ambitious little fishing/boat building town and found it to be quite a
contrast to Hope Town (perhaps the equivalent of comparing Camden and Eastport).
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| The welcoming committee at Spanish Wells harbor |
That afternoon, as we dinghyed by the public
dock back to Kiawah, we noticed a woman cleaning a huge fish. We had to know what it was. Wren pulled the dinghy over (the girls motor
us everywhere, and can even start the outboard by themselves now) and I
clambered up the ladder to investigate. "Wow, that's a huge fish you have there,
we couldn't help but stop to see what it was". The proud angler turned to me holding out a
bloody fillet knife from which dangled a large piece of raw flesh. "Try it", she said, "It's
yellow fin tuna. Doesn't get any better
than this!” Now, I've never been a picky
eater. Actually, I'm quite the
opposite. And I absolutely
love sushi. But there was no wasabi... no ginger... no soy
sauce... no rice here. Just warm raw
fish. I was skeptical, but not wanting
to be rude, I bit off a chunk and chewed.
Not bad. In fact, I liked it! I popped the rest in my mouth. By this time, Scott and the girls had joined
me on the pier. She offered them all a chunk
of raw tuna. The girls responded with an
enthusiastic, "Thank you!" (as if she had just given them a lollipop)
and politely hid the meat in their hand.
Scott, who is
not a fan of
sushi, hesitated for a moment, took a breath (I loved watching this by the
way), and popped his portion in his mouth and chewed. "Mmmm... (long pause).. very
mild!" he said. Good thing.
The gracious woman then packed a zip-lock bag full of meat for us to
take. We had a wonderful meal of fresh
tuna that night. We all voted to cook
it.
The next morning, we pulled anchor and let the north wind push
us south to Current cut. Current cut is
a narrow (very) passage between
Current Island and the westernmost tip of Eleuthera. We had to make sure to hit it right at slack
tide or it would be like running a short stretch of whitewater. This might not be so bad if the channel
didn't make a sharp right turn just after the cut. Many boats have ended up beached on the sand
bar just below. We watched the two boats
in front of us make it through unscathed and followed suit. We made it without a hitch.
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| This kid loves to sail |
Eleuthera is a long, thin wisp of an island that looks
somewhat like an emaciated seahorse with a whale tail. The western
shore, the one we are traveling, is lined with dramatic limestone cliffs unlike
any landscape we've seen yet in the Bahamas.
The Eastern shore is laced with pink sand beaches which give way to the
turquoise waters of the Atlantic. Our
first couple of nights in Eleuthera were spent tucked away in Hatchet Bay to
weather out a pretty good blow. Hatchet
Bay is a popular hurricane hole due to its narrow 30' entrance which protects
it almost entirely regardless of wind direction. However, the many boats brought there during
Hurricane Andrew in 1992 didn't fare so
well. Hatchet Bay was right in Andrew's
path and their skeletal remains still litter
the shoreline of the harbor.
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| Entrance to Hatchet Bay |
From Hatchet Bay we headed south to Governor's Harbor, the
capital of Eleuthera. We were told by
several people not to miss this town. It
was here that we finally felt immersed in Bahamian culture. There was a Jr. Junkanoo competition going on
one night. All the grade schools and
high schools on Eleuthera gathered to compete in this celebratory parade of
culture, dance, and music. Riley is
working on a blog about this event, so you'll have to check her post soon for
more details. We also visited the Levy
Preserve while there, which is a native plant nature preserve. Ri has also chosen to write about that, so
check her upcoming blogs.
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| Would you believe I met a friend from college at the corner store in Governor's Harbor?! |
From Governor's Harbor we moved on to Rock Sound, taking
advantage of the prevalent north winds to sail south before the prevailing east
winds inevitably return.
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| Unfurling the spinnaker... |
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| ROYGBIV! |
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| Cero mackerel... |
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| curried |
The further
south we go, the less Americanized things become. We are really enjoying this aspect of our
trip. The Bahamian people never cease to
amaze us with their generosity and friendly spirit. We met a local fellow on the dock the other morning
working on his broken outboard motor. He
struck up a conversation with us immediately and offered to take us out to a
few of his favorite fishing spots to catch some fish and lobster. Scott was
very excited by this offer (his name turned out to be Scott as well) and asked
how much he would charge for such a guided trip. He replied, "Friendship is better than
money". That's the way it is here. Bahamians have a lot of friends. That
afternoon we went fishing with Scott and came back to the boat with some crab, several
lobsters, and a few fish. He was content
to let us take home the entire haul, but we insisted he take what he caught,
plus some cash for his guiding service.
He hesitated but finally accepted.
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| Scott and Scott |
We plan to go as far
south as Georgetown on the southern tip of Great Exuma before heading north
again. "Heading north" sounds
a lot like "heading home". Perhaps
when that time comes, I'll be ready. Until
then, I'm falling more and more in love with this place and its people.
