Royal Island to Spanish Wells

In the morning light, nothing appears to have changed at Royal Island. The construction is still how it was 2 years ago, just waiting to begin. Georgia E dinghied over to our boat this morning and it was so nice to meet Stu & Tony and to chat with them about other Bayfield boats that we’ve met and followed through the years via their blogs! Georgia E is also making their way down the island chain so we may paths with them along the way. After chatting with them we found out that there were mooring balls available at Spanish Wells so they, we, Azaya and Aurora all headed over to pick up mooring balls from Bandit. The timing was perfect, because we were approaching if not at high tide. The entrance to get into Spanish Wells is a little skinny at low tide and we’d been discussing our options, so this was perfect timing. Wayne’s wanted to visit Dunmore Town and we’d been discussing the best way to do it. So we hoisted our anchors a little after 12:00pm and were at a mooring ball by 1:30pm.

We walked around town for a bit, then all met over on Azaya for sundowners. It was interesting to find out that Spanish Wells is a “dry” town. You can’t buy any alcohol here, not even beer. There is a little liquor store on the next island where you can buy it. Go figure. A shuttle runs there, I believe every hour and at $8 a trip, there must be money to be had. It is a lovely little fishing town. I’ve been told that 50-75% of all lobster, conch and fish that are sold in the Bahamas come from Spanish Wells and I believe it. The fishing boats are very well maintained and quite abundant. The cockroaches are also in abundance. Mary-Clare said they all went scurrying for cover as we tied up to the dock – Oh no!

On our dock walk we found a manatee and her baby resting off one of the docks. I was surprised at that. I didn’t know that manatees were here and we speculated on whether she came over during one of the storms. There’s not much here for her to eat and I guess nobody knew she was pregnant until the baby showed up. One of the local boaters here mentioned that they were feeding her. I knew we shouldn’t but had to turn on the hose for her so she could have some sweet water. The baby is still at the nursing stage and didn’t drink water, but I saw her burp up some milk. Hence indicating the little pup was still suckling. It was sooo tiny!  (there is a pic on my facebook site)

Happy hour was on Azaya. It was a lovely evening and so nice to chat with everyone there. Georgia E was a little bummed to find out this was a dry town because they usually have a beer in the various places they go to – so we brought them a beer over for happy hour. Now they can say that they had one in Spanish Wells It was so interesting listening to Harry and Maraka talk about their travels from Holland and their travels across the Atlantic, and I’m always amazed at the amount of room on Azaya. What a great boat! It’s nice and quiet in this anchorage. I hope it stays that way when the front comes through on Wednesday night/Thursday.