Days 8, 9 & 10: Spanish Wells

Well!  I spent a day putting together a detailed post of our three days in Spanish Wells, complete with lots of photos.  In one of those awesomely frustrating unexplained phenomena, that whole post has disappeared!  So discouraging!  In fact, so discouraging, I quit trying to keep/catch up with the posts as we traveled.  I know it's my own fault.  I put too much in.  So here goes a shot at a more abbreviated version.

On the 8th day of our voyage aboard Quantum Leap, she was hauled out at R&B boatyard, a tiny facility on the Spanish Wells waterfront that featured a Synchro-Lift.  This is a type of drydock that lowers down into the water deep enough for the boat to float aboard, and then elevates the vessel up to dock level, as Robert, the owner, working on a hookah rig, scrambles around in the water placing blocks and jackstands.

Meanwhile we gals were getting ourselves set up in the two apartments we rented for Friday and Saturday nights.  the apartments were upstairs above Harborside Golf Cart rentals, and, in fact, came with their own golf cart. 

 It is amazing to me how fast Don and I reverted to the cruiser mentality of wonder and awe over the trappings of civilization.  We were expecting something rough, but our apartment had a kitchen, a bedroom with a king-sized bed, modern bathroom, two TVs, air-con, Internet and the piece de resistance, a stacked washer and drier. 

 This last saved us big $ at a laundramat because we had sheets and towels to wash as well as clothes.  Have I mentioned that the cool temps of our arrival week were giving way to a general warm-up?

Although the main out-of-water work -- sanding and repainting the bottom -- would be done by R&B workers, Tom and Don were kept busy with other chores. They checked oil in the outdrives, changed both zincs, serviced both engines including changing fuel and oil filters, and finally, Sunday morning before we left, washed off the accumulated blue dust from all the nooks and crannies of the boat.  Bette and I observed the Don and Tom play well together.

Meanwhile, Bette and I did laundry and provisioned at Spanish Wells' nice supermarket Food Fair.  We did this by golf cart.  

We bought so much, we wondered how we would ever keep it aboard the cart.  Who knew that a golf cart could be converted to a staionwagon.  It took our cashier to show us!

It was not all work and no play.  I believe we ate at every restaurant on the island at least once.  Our favorite was Buddah's, an eatery created in Buddah's back yard with a kitchen in an old school bus, a bar, at the back, a tented eating area, and a liquor store in the back room.  The food was great and affordable, and we are grateful tot the cruisers who steered us here.

On our last evening we ate at the Sand Bar, a beach shack way out over the bridge to the tip of Russell islands, a major drive by golf cart.  

Here we met one of the local lobstermen for which Spanish Wells is famous, out for dinner with his wife.  He told us the Spanish Wells fleet brings in half the lobster catch of the whole Bahamas! The lobster boats here are big vessels reminiscent of shrimpers, but they mostly serve as a residences when the fisherman are out. 

 Catching the lobsters is still done by hand by divers working off a hookah.  The current strategy is to place down habitats for lobsters to provide them safe places to gather, procreate and grow.  These are down all summer during the off season.  when season starts again in the fall, the lobsters are ready and waiting for them. 

Quantum Leap was launched Sunday.  Sunday is not usually a work day, but R&B knew they had delayed us a day already.  Also, however, they needed to free up the lift of a catamaran they had gone out to salvage the day before.  Seems a cruising couple had failed to reach Current Cut before nightfall and they made the seemingly prudent decision not to try to go through.  Unfortunately, this left them on the windward side with a huge fetch and some very shallow reefs all around.  Something went awry with their anchoring, and during the night the boat went up on a reef, was holed and sank.  The couple had to be rescued off the boat in the dark.

Just as I was climbing aboard for departure, Don hurried up to say that the stranded couple were people I knew.  She had been one of my contributing Admirals for all the years I was writing the Admirals Angle column.  It turned out to be Suzanne Longacre and her husband of the catamaran Zeelander!  They are not typical senior Bahamas cruisers, but sailors who have been around the world. I had just enough time to hurry over to deliver a heartfelt hug.

On our way out to Current Cut ourselves, we passed Zeelander buoyed up but awash. It is a sad sight. We heard from R&B that the damage was significant, but Suzanne and husband were talking strong about rebuilding her.  We can only hope for a fair outcome from an unfair mishap.  

But it sure reminds all skippers that bad things can happen from a moments miscalculation! WE, ourselves, went back through Current Cut with extra attention.