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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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Eleuthera, (Part 2) Bahamas. February 1999 Written at Little Bell Cay, Exu  ma
Land Sea ParkWe had heard highly about Dunmore Town on Harbour Island, a lovely 8 mile long island lying off the north east coast of Eleuthera, and wanted to go over. However to do so requires a perilous passage across the northern tip of Eleuthera, through an area so heavily dotted with shoals that the winding passage through them has the name of "Devil’s Backbone". Professional pilots are considered a must for the transit of this area. "Dolphin", the name of a local pilot service who also owned the mooring buoys where we were secured, offered to lead a few boats out together the next day, sharing the expense so each boat would only pay $ 35.00 one way. It seemed worth it if we wanted to stay there for a day or so instead of just taking a water taxi across to the northwest end of Eleuthera and a taxi down to Dunmore Town. The next day, we left our mooring buoy and motored a couple of hundred yards across the channel to Pinder’s grocery store. There we got some dinghy gas, groceries, and were allowed to fill up with drinkable town water at no charge. The water was good Linda had an interesting time going to a Bank of Nova Scotia to access her bank account in Oakville, Ontario. After a half hour and a long distance call from Spanish Wells to Oakville, the transaction was finally approved. We had obtained money from the Bank of Nova Scotia instant teller in Nassau O.K., but our CIBC Visa cards were not accepted at CIBC instant tellers. There are many Canadian banks in the Bahamas. Similarly, there are many Canadian boats in these waters as well. In most anchorages at least half the boats are Canadian and the other half U.S., British, and other European countries. Right now where I am writing this log inside Little Bell Island, there are three Canadian sailboats, one U.S. power boat, and an Austrian sailboat we met a few days ago At 1030 we slipped to follow "Tranquility", a centre cockpit ketch from which the pilot guided our small fleet, towing his outboard so he could return to Spanish Wells. We in turn were followed by "Pyelaquat", a catamaran. I followed "Tranquility" within 50 feet most of the way around the 10.5 mile passage, while Judy made notes of the various course changes and entered each course change in our GPS for the return trip. We wound through a series of coral heads, at times coming to within 75 feet of the northern lee shoreline beaches. The depths ranged from 7 to 20 feet. The passage was complicated by 10 to 15 knots of an onshore wind, causing some wave action and reducing the water clarity necessary to properly read the bottom. We made it O.K., and anchored in 15 feet of water off a marina "Dolphin" has contacts with that allowed us to secure our dinghy at their dock, which was in the middle of the town shoreline area. Dunmore Town is a pleasant Bahamian tourist town with narrow streets, no sidewalks, brightly painted houses with a wide variety of colourful foliage, picket fences and interesting verandahs and porches. There was a street party down at the large old fig tree near the town dock in the evening. There was Bahamian food (pork, chicken, brown rice and black beans, fried plantain and mixed vegetables), a picnic bar that made generous drinks for only $3.00 each, and a disc jockey with lively Bahamian music. It was enjoyable to watch the black young people dancing, and then even the tourists got up too. Linda said it reminded her of the high school dances where she taught in a school with many black students in Mississauga, just outside of Toronto. They have such an enjoyment of life. It was a good party! There were a good variety of stores in town, including a business center where I was able to send off some E-mail. All the people were friendly. The locals would smile and say hello as they passed on the streets. It was a pleasant and picturesque town with lovely emerald waters, sandy beaches, and colourful subtropical foliage all around. The people call themselves "Brilanders", a contraction of "Harbour Islanders". We left the next day, as we heard that a front was coming through in two days time, and we would have either to leave then or to stay around for three more days until the front had passed. We also decided to try it without a pilot! The Garmin GPS proved indispensable. We have a map page on which our previous track is saved and on which we indicated all the course change points as we came across the day before. We noted these points in our navigator’s notebook and calculated the reciprocal courses we would have to follow. This return voyage was two very long tension filled hours in which Judy was lookout and navigator, Linda was relaying Judy’s information, while I had the helm and steered using a combination of the GPS reciprocal track, Judy’s notebook course changes, her lookout directions, and my Mark 1 eyeball observations and intuitions from reading the water, wind, waves, and tidal currents Whew! We couldn’t relax until we were actually inside Spanish Wells town channel. Rather than staying at Spanish Wells, we continued on to Royal Island Harbour where we had been a few nights earlier. We were able to sail that last leg to Royal Island and relax a bit more enroute. This was the first time we retraced our track, and it was comfortable to know the way into Royal Island Harbour and its sheltered anchorage. Next Log Aubrey and Judy |
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