…is thought to be one of the oldest “towns” in the Bahamas, an offshoot to the very early establishment over on Spanish Wells. Yep, those same shipwrecked British puritans that bailed from Bermuda in 1648. Well, after their leader returned from Massachusetts with supplies, he found that some of the survivors had moved over to Briland, hiding from the Spanish. Remember, the Spanish had stripped the Bahamas of people for slaves. So, these guys had the run of the place, and everything was “fine” until 1787.

Oh boy, some history, but wait, you’ll see why!

Enter Lord Dunmore, born John Murray, who happened to be the last Royal Governor of Virginia. Dunmore was a bit of a paradox of the time, with a major historical connection to Susie’s part of Virginia. On one hand, he’s the guy that “freed slaves” to fight for the British, which briefly worked. On the other hand, he got cocky – and subsequently smacked down – at the famous Battle of Great Bridge (Susie’s dad lives very near there) in 1776. Notice the year.

Well, Dunmore slinks back to England and is still paid as Governor of Virgina until 1783, when England finally acknowledged they lost America. He then gets sent to be the new Govenor of the British West Indies (Bahamas). The first thing he does is bring in a bunch of slaves and starts giving land to British loyalists from America, and thus the Bahamas gets populated and driven by slave labor.

All this to explain why the main town is called Dunmore Town and was, at one point, the capitol of the Bahamas…

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Along the way, we passed why Harbour Island is a tourist destination! Beautiful houses, right on the water, a couple on their own island!

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We were headed to the opposite side of the large bay, and once we got settled, we first spent a day or so doing what we enjoy most, exploring the more natural side of things.

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There were lots of turtles swimming around us in Cistern Bay. Fun! Let’s get a picture for the folks back home!

Terry had a very long stick he found on shore. We think he liked the look, kinda Moses like. Ha! Amazingly, the turtles swam right over to “Terry the Turtle Whisperer.” Of course, upon approach by anyone with a camera, the spell was broken, and the rascals scattered!

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We’ve read that some people eat chitons, but since there were only two of them, we settled for taking a group shot and returning to the boats for a more fitting meal.

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Time to visit Harbour Island proper and Dunmore Town: a short dinghy ride across the “bay.”

After tooling about the island in our very expensive rental cart, we headed for the famous Pink Sand Beach, which has a resort and restaurant and, of course, rentable chairs and umbrellas. Hmm. I guess, we’ll get one after lunch so the guys can stay out of the sun while the ladies set out for some beach combing…? On a resort beach? Oh well, it’s a beach and thus needs combing.

But about those shells? Alas, only two tiny ones.

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Okay, so hey, you might have noticed a tone to this post. Given our desire for nature and as unspoiled as we can get it, a resort town ended up just not being our cup of tea. They have their place, and we have friends that would most likely love a place like this. For this group of vagabonds, we’ll keep moving on.

To wrap this post up on a positive note though, those who know Susie know she loves trees. So, that’ll be our exit. Trees!

We gotta check that out. Lord knows where the name came from, but its uninhabited so that’s for us! We’d been joined in the anchorage by a couple of large charter boats and a sailboat that enjoyed the beach and left in the morning, leaving us alone for our explorations. After loading up, we discovered the motor on our dinghy would not go down. So, we transferred our stuff and piled in with Terry and Lynn for our exploration in one (loaded down) dinghy.

Once we secured the dinghy on the island, Todd and Terry walked along in the water searching whilst the girls handled the shoreline. The guys kept going right on up to the north side and the edge of the inlet itself.

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Again, the guys handled the more rugged exploring while the ladies turned the opposite way and took the beachy part and wandered and wandered…

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We did eventually all meet up to compare treasures. We’d ventured a fair piece around to the other side of the island and then roamed a fair piece of coastline. Lynn thought she’d found a path back across, but we took the long scenic route back instead.

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Along the way, Todd offered to pick this up for our future home. Would certainly make an interesting piece of yard art.

As we wandered the long path back, the guys headed for the dinghy, but the ladies were distracted by another sandbar that needed to be explored. They were rewarded by a special find in the shallows.

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Alas, the time came when the ladies definitely needed to catch up to the guys…and,

The dinghy and motor combo weighs in at approximately 100 million lbs. (or so it seems). While waiting for the gals to show up, the guys managed to turn the dinghy around, so the nose was pointed in the right direction. Now we just had to get it TO the water, which would take all four of us. (Good thing we eat our spinach. Ha!) Terry rummaged through the woods and found a perfect lever, about an 8-foot 2×6. Lucky! So, with mighty Terry (did we mention he is like 6’5+) in the back lifting the shoved board under the keel and Todd and Lynn on the side lifting and pulling, all the while Susie was in front pulling and attempting to “steer,” we actually made progress. Slow. But progress, nonetheless.

First a foot or so, but with each coordinated “One. Two. Three. Go.,” we got better. Synchronized heave-ho’s – works every time.

No pictures were taken during this yeoman work simply because ALL HANDS were ON DECK!

We finally got the dinghy to enough water to float her and started loading our things, then us…

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Time to snorkel and put Todd’s new underwater camera to good use.

And our favorite shot?

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We’d been told of a path to a beach directly across the island that we just had to explore before heading south in the bay the next morning.

So we took the dinghies – both running flawlessly (Todd’s scientific whatever worked) – to shore and headed for the little path, marked by nothing… we just found it… but had to pause to try out a makeshift swing.

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Then it was over the hill to the other side.

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Now, let’s get outta here before the tide goes out! 😉

We decided to mosey over to an area to which we had not yet ventured, Harbour Island. To get there from our wonderful anchorage beside Meeks Patch (gosh, we like that place!), the shortest route is across the infamous “Devil’s Backbone,” a shallow reef that runs across the northern end of Eleuthera. The number of vessels that have been wrecked is countless and thought to be more than anywhere else in all of the Bahamas. Heck, this is where the first British colonists sailing on The William wrecked in 1648, thus “founding” the area. Scary, right?

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Oh, and regarding the chart above, kinda makes sense that the backbone is above the Mans Bottom!

Okay, back to the task at hand. Yeah, we were all a bit hesitant, so we hired a Pilot from Woody’s Eleuthera Pilot service (actually Woody’s son, Benson) to take us both through during high tide.

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As a crawfish fishing crew headed south from Spanish Wells, we cruised to the north, going around Charles Island and the edge of Spanish Wells proper.

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Now, about those rocks – no, not these:

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We took our starboard turn to enter the Devil’s Backbone just north of Ridley Head. No problem so far. How about Terry and Lynn. Still snuggled up close?

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The other side of Ridley Head is ruggedly scenic.

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Enough of that sightseeing stuff. Keep your eyes open for the tricky part. It is difficult to capture in photos because the coral heads are beneath the water, which is obviously the problem. You have to read the route by colors. Polarized sunglasses help a great deal. (Bet the colonists would have appreciated having some onboard.)

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The reef was to our port side. The starboard side was, again, quite scenic.

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And checking on Terry & Lynn. Everything okay back there?

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The guy was hours early for his appointment for transit through the Devil’s Backbone. Our pilot told him tough luck. He asked if he could follow. Sure. Then he asked if we could do better than 10 knots, and the answer was NO. And unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough room for a pass due to the reef. (Could most likely have passed the Grey Poupon, though.) Instead, he stayed tucked right up there, and then actually hailed on the VHF to “let them know he was there.”

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We passed by a few more reefs. (No helpful arrows this time. By now you know what to look for, right?)

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Once we made another starboard turn at the eastern tip of Eleuthera to enter the harbor, the water got really pretty. Shallow for a stretch but pretty. Aaah.

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Oh, and our follower? No worries.

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And then, finally! We were through the Devil’s Backbone! Yeah! Hey, we should get t-shirts made! 😉

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.

Thursday, March 2, we left Marsh Harbour and cruised to Tilloo Cay.

Pause for background… Whilst studying the various review sources regarding our proposed anchorage, Lynn (Finish Grade) noted there might be a cable of some sort running through the area. We all laughed and called it “CableLand.” We are going to “Cable Land;” no one on the radio will know what we are talking about! Hardy har har!

Well, we cruised in and dropped anchor to ride out a couple of mildly windy days. Day two came with a bit stronger wind, and it appeared Finish Grade might be dragging their anchor. They confirmed and started the process to raise the anchor and re-drop. Yeah, well… Upon bringing the anchor up, you guessed it, it was snagged on THE CABLE! Terry loses part of a boat hook while unsnagging, and they repositioned for the re-drop. Something didn’t seem right and again they had caught THE CABLE! And lost another boat hook. They move to yet another spot, and Terry eyes the cable in the water this time! So, they moved to a whole different spot and got anchored with no problem. Through it all, Lynn remained calm, cool and collected driving the boat (well, it looked that way from SaltyMare :-). The good news? The wind took the lost boat hook parts right past our boat, and we grabbed them as they went by!

“Aquaman” Terry checked the anchor and then swam over to retrieve his lost boat hooks. We like to believe all parties on Finish Grade slept well that night.

PS – If anyone’s wanting to stop at “CableLand” but avoid the cable, Lynn has the confirmed coordinates. 🙂

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Saturday morning, the winds calmed, and we headed south to Lynyard Cay to position for Sunday’s crossing to Eleuthera.

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Another side story:

Way back in the beginning of December while we were in Fernandina Beach, Florida, we met a young man (think 18-22’ish, or at least he looks that young), who was sailing a small boat by himself. His mom was there bidding him farewell. Well, imagine our surprise when he walked into Island Boy Tackle & Marine in Marsh Harbour, Abaco. And then, we passed him days later as we were heading south. As we anchored at Lynyard Cay, guess who pulled in. Yep, Preston. He stopped by and still has the engaging smile and intrepid spirit. The parent in us was pleased to learn he is cruising with a couple of other sailboats.

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The winds were from an odd direction, so we tried three different anchoring spots before ending up right back at our first choice off north Lynyard Cay. Then, because no stop at Lynyard is complete without some beachcombing, the SaltyMare crew headed for the small strip of beach.

The Sea Heart Bean, – Entada gigas – said to be a talisman of good luck, is a legume (pea) that has the biggest seed pod in the world. Its seed has an air pocket and hard shell that allows it to travel thousands of miles in the ocean. They only grow in the tropics, so this one probably came from Central America.

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Really neat conditions had the sun as just a ball against the sky Saturday evening.

We timed Sunday morning’s departure for first light and were delighted by a “ball” of sunrise. Wow!

Now that’s a great way to bid the Abacos adieu. Until next time! We’re off to Eleuthera!