Our Travels

With seas predicted at 2 ft with a 9-second period, Sunday was a great day to do the 60nm+ ocean cross to Eleuthera. We weren’t the only ones with that thought. Just after daybreak, there was a parade of boats heading out into the North Atlantic Ocean south of Lynyard Cay (including Preston and his cruising friends). When we got far enough offshore, there was plenty of big boy traffic, too, with freighters travelling to and fro on the Nassau route (New Providence Island).

There were freighters everywhere.

Fish on!

Those of you who followed our travels last year know of the many comical attempts to fish whilst cruising. Let’s just say the fish are not afraid of the SaltyMare. In fact, we often believe we hear bubbly, fish giggles. But this fish tale ends with us happily sharing grilled mahi tacos with friends!

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After fileting our dinner and cleaning the decks, Captain Todd – with an extra spring in his step – decided not to be greedy nor tempt the “fish gods,” and put the rod away to focus on the beautiful day.

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It was a long cruising day, a little over eight hours from Lynyard Cay, Abaco to Meeks Patch, Eleuthera. (Well, we did slow down to catch the fish.) Everyone was excited to settle in at Meeks Patch, share a good meal, and begin looking at next steps.

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We hadn’t planned to spend a lot of time off Meeks Patch, so we rented a golf cart for some quick exploration of Spanish Wells.

We started with lunch at Budda’s Snack Shack, where last year we’d snarfed down “the best French fries ever”! Susie talked about them for months. Well, as with most moments in time, they’re but a blip and difficult to recreate. The fries were okay but nothing to write home about. Just fries. Budda’s is fun though, with the entertaining signs and the pretty African Grey Parrots.

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The crawfish (spiny lobster) fishing fleet that plies out of Spanish Wells has had a great couple of years, as catches have been big, coupled with very good prices, so the town and fleet reflect that fortune. We suspect it’s the most prosperous town outside of Nassau. Yards are trim, and it’s just a colorful and friendly town.

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After hitting the shops in search of new muumuus for the ladies, freshly baked bread, produce, and boat parts (Todd can’t seem to get his hands on enough shackles & Terry needs a new boat hook 😉 ), we did some general tooling about town in our zippy cart, then refueled the dinghies, and headed back to the boats.