Yesterday when he looked, it was forecasting calm seas for crossing to Spanish Wells and Nassau for the next several days. Today it was looking like 2 ft for tomorrow, then 5 ft and 3-4 the next day, so we up and left around 8 am. Our crew swap is in Nassau on the 8th- Uncle Paul & Aunt Denise leave and the Grasshoppers arrive, so we didn’t have an option to chance it and wait it out to see if it would change again.
Ben said we would just head to Nassau today (for the next 4 nights), cutting out Elbow Cay, Spanish Wells, and Eleuthera from our plan, which made me sad. Reluctantly, I got ready for the long day of 3 ft following seas, 7 seconds apart. To make it sting a little more, we would be leaving right then, without more time on the beach and without Florence's cinnamon rolls. When I came up to the cockpit, they decided we could likely make it to Spanish Wells today and hang there a day or 2, so that cheered me up a bit.
Smooth ride to Great Guana Cay. There are lots of big houses on the beach there. We were wondering if they're residences or vacation homes.
Ben called the guy I had in my phone from last time we were in Spanish Wells to see if we could rent a golf cart from him. He said he didn’t do golf cart rentals anymore.
He called and got $1.50/foot at a dock Spanish Wells. We think it may be the same place we docked in 2022.
Had an uneventful crossing from Abacos to Spanish Wells. The 2-3 ft waves were 9 seconds apart, very tolerable. Just a long day- hanging out, napping, playing cards, watching DVDs, snacking, working on the blog and Instagram posts. Underway for 11 hours.
Docked in the same general area as last time, but I think it was a little further east than we were the time before.
As we were tying up, Ben, Uncle Paul, and I were getting eaten alive by noseeums. For the first time this summer, we were forced to eat inside.
Lots of middle-of-night wakings! The tide came in, so our boat was rubbing on the dock, ben went out to fix fenders. Around 3 am, it started raining. Ben got up to close up the cockpit, and saw Uncle Paul heading out to do the same. Much quieter for them due to being plugged in and the generator was not running. Aunt Denise said it was too quiet.
Uncle Paul and Ben walked to get a 6-seater golf cart rented for the day. The shop opened at 8. They got there before Jennifer, the lady who is retired and supposed to only work 2 days a week and now works everyday.
Ben had a meeting at 10, and it was 9:10, so we all loaded up for a quick trip to the grocery store. Got a few necessities and a few non-necessities. They don't use plastic bags, but green bags that are 100% compostable. We were thrilled to see and use those.
Drove to the far west side of the island and looped back to the dock. Ben got ready for his meeting and everyone else got ready for the beach.
Left Ben at the boat and I drove (on the left side of the road) to the beach. There were 2 wooden swings over the water with a Spanish Wells sign above them, so we took advantage of the photo opp. We walked out falling into almost every hole in the sandy bottom, until the water got to waist level and came back. Moose and Roo resumed their digging and castle making, Bear and I walked around to the south side of the beach and then to the north side, where the winds really picked up and we had to hold onto our hats!
Everyone started getting hungry for lunch. It was time to leave. Aunt Denise mentioned that she saw a sub place on the way to the beach, so we stopped there and brought it back to the boat.
While we were gone, Ben had his meeting, fixed the anchor roller, put the shower head on the hose at the outdoor stern shower, and replaced the light in our laundry room. He had a very productive morning.
Aunt Denise and I wanted to go shopping for some souvenirs. Everyone else decided to come with us. She got the shirt she wanted and a pretty bracelet she found. I got a sticker for my school computer, an ornament, a sign for my classroom, and some shark tooth necklaces for my prize box at school. Ben and Moose got some UPF shirts they wanted that say Spanish Wells. Bear got a Spanish Wells sweatshirt and a sticker for her computer. Roo got some postcards and bracelets for her and her besties.
We got in the golf cart and waited for Roo to write on her postcards so we could drop them off at the post office. Along the way to the post office, we saw a fire department, so Ben turned around to go back to see if anyone was there. Turns out we turned around in the post office parking lot! No one was at the fire station, so we went back to the post office to mail the postcards. When we walked in, no one was there either. It was just a wall full of PO Boxes. We knocked on the door that said staff only and no one answered. Next door was the administrator office. They were surprised no one was there and thought they were out for lunch. I asked what time it closes, they said 4 pm. It was 2 pm, we decided to drive around and explore the island and then come back and check again closer to closing time.
We drove to the east side of the island, looped around to the south side where all of the docks are in the narrow channel. There were pallets stacked high full of goods- we saw TVs, diapers, dry goods, toilet paper, etc. It was then that it clicked for the adults- it was delivery day for the stores. Imagine how long it takes to get anything delivered to the island before it even hits the shelves!
After we crossed over the bridge, we drove around Russell Island. We started off going to the east side and then headed back west. There was an awful noise and we kept thinking something happened with our golf cart. The kids (in their rear-facing seat) said it was coming from a truck behind us. Ben pulled over and a truck passed us. I still heard the noise and it wasn't coming from that truck. Then another truck passed us towing a boat on a trailer and we saw the back driver side tire of that trailer was not rotating, but instead being dragged because the brake was locked up, burning the rubber off the tire and leaving behind a long mark on the road. The smell? I bet you can smell it just from reading that!
We drove to the west, the furthest we could, and found a "Sign your name" sign, so we added a boat sticker to it.
In 2022, we went to a restaurant called Sandbar with Ben's mom, sister, and niece. We remembered liking it, so we were going to eat there again. It had a beautiful mosaic wall on the side of it that Roo wanted her picture in front of, so we had to recreate that photo. On Thursdays, they are only open for lunch, which means 11:30-5. It was 3. We weren't hungry quite yet and wanted to freshen up before dinner, so we left and went back to the boat.
Ben dropped us off and took Bear and Roo to check the post office- one more time (it was still closed)- then see what the availability was for another restaurant we liked, The Shipyard. He was told they only had one more table at 6:30, so he reserved that for us.
When he got back, we decided to eat at The Shipyard. There was some time to kill, so the kids did some fishing off the dock. The adults moved the boat back a few pilings because another boat was coming in on the dock tomorrow morning and we wanted to be able to get out if it arrived before we left. Then, Bear, Roo, and I played some Farkle with Aunt Denise. We tried cards, but it was too windy.
Shipyard was perfect! Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise wanted to get some appetizers for the table. We all decided on the sticky conch (cracked conch) and conch poppers (conch fritters). Everyone liked them both, which was exciting because last time we came, only Roo tried conch. Moose and Bear refused to even give it a shot.
Our main dishes:
Uncle Paul- Mahi 🐟
Aunt Denise- Coconut Chicken Strips 🥥 🐔
Ben- Lobster Mac & Cheese 🦞 🍜
Lisa- Grilled Pineapple Chicken Breast 🍍 🐔
Moose- Conch and Chips 🐚 (I wasn't sure he would like this and he ordered it before he tried the appetizers. Our backup plan was for me or Ben to swap him for ours if needed.)
Bear- Cheeseburger 🍔
Roo- Buttered Noodles 🧈 🍜
I chose a coconut calabaza grits for one of my sides. I wasn't sure what calabaza was, but the waitress described it as similar to squash, so I decided to give it a try. Boy, was it tasty!!!
As dinner was finishing up, we got to watch the sunset off the porch. It was the first actual sunset in a few days- as the others previously had been pretty cloudy and obstructed.
On the way home, we drove up to Papa Scoops for some ice cream. The line of golf carts was wrapped around the corner by the time it was our turn! We left our sticker among the other cruiser stickers before enjoying our scoops of ice cream on the way home.
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