Two weeks in Eleuthera

Eleuthera has always been on my “want to go” list of the Bahamas. I didn’t have any specifics about the big island, but I heard about its endless pink sand beaches and the glass window. Once we returned to Positive Waves, it was our next logical stop on our trip south. A planned rendezvous with our friends on Omana made it a mandatory stop.

Eastbound to the Bahamas, goodbye USA.

On the ferry from Marsh Harbour back to Hope Town and PW.

Before we left Hope Town, however, we had a few chores. Our first job was filling our water tanks. We contemplated taking the boat out of the harbor and running our water maker, but even at 40 gallons an hour of water making output, it would take us at least four hours to fill the tanks. Four hours of listening to the generator run. No thanks. We stopped at Hope Town Marina and filled up with their r/o water at .35 cents/gallon. It didn’t taste great, so we didn’t fill up all the way, but at least we got enough for showers and dishes. We then had to zip up to Man-o-War cay to get our sails back from the sail maker. We combined that trip with a trip to the grocery store and then sailed south to Little Harbor. We hoped for a meal at Pete’s Pub, but they were closed on Mondays. Instead it was dinner on the boat and an early bed to prepare for the sail to Spanish Wells. Our busy day was rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.


Filling up our water tanks.

We left bright and early (dawn) in hopes of an early afternoon arrival at Spanish Wells. There is a small cut at the north east end of the island, but it’s mostly unmarked and has big coral heads on both sides. On the charts it looked a little challenging, but it would save us over 10 nautical miles. We figured with the calm conditions, good overhead sunlight, and someone spotting from the bow, we’d be fine. We alternated between motorsailing and trying to sail for the entire trip. The wind was steady around 10 knots from behind. That’s enough for upwind sailing, but we need at least 15 knots from behind to get anywhere. We tried our light air gennaker a few times but our speed would quickly sputter out to 4 knots. Since we were aiming for as early an arrival as possible, we finally gave up sailing after a few tries and motorsailed the whole way. We had some big excitement at one point when both the fishing lines zinged. Fish on! We hooked two big yellowfin tuna. Hans pulled one on board and released the other one. The fish we landed was so big that we knew we’d have enough for us and Omana, and even some for the freezer.

Fish on!

Spanish Wells is an interesting little island just adjacent to Eleuthera. Its residents are descendants the Eleutheran Adventurers, a group of English puritans who left Bermuda in the 1600s. They shipwrecked near Spanish Wells and decided to stay. It doesn’t seem as if there has been much immigration to Spanish Wells, since the population seemed to be majority white and the accent is markedly unique too, almost like a mix between old Bostonian/British/and southern. The main industry is fishing and the fleet is comprised of big fishing boats with a team of small skiffs. The big boat goes to sea for a few weeks, towing the small skiffs. They use the big boat as their base and the crew goes in the skiffs to set and check the many many lobster traps. It seems to be a successful business for Spanish Wells since most of the structures on the island are concrete (as opposed to wood), the grocery store is big (good news for us!), and there is an abundance of cars on the small island (not so great from our perspective as there were no sidewalks so walking was a little treacherous).

The hammock has quickly become the most coveted spot on the entire boat.

But Spanish Wells wasn’t the big excitement…reuniting with our friends on Omana was the reason we were there. We met each other last year in the BVI and became fast friends. Their eldest is the same age as Matilda and their youngest is a few years younger. Freja assumes the role as the rational, sympathetic, and logical leader of the group and does a fantastic job corralling the three younger kids. Last year they all had fun creating short plays that they performed on the foredeck of Omana, much to our enjoyment. In anticipation of our meet-up, Freja had already written a play for their first performance and they started rehearsing immediately. We were fortunate enough to see a second play in the two weeks we were together and I had the privilege of guest starring as the evil teacher. (I refuse to draw connections to real life!)

Matilda paddling over to Omana. We bought the kids a paddleboard for Christmas so they have their own method of transportation. Priceless.

The flyer for the first play.

We looked over our chart books and the calendar and came up with a rough plan for the next two weeks. Generally south and east bound, hitting some top sites of Eleuthera. Harbour Island, the Glass Window, Governor’s Harbour, and various caves and blow holes. We didn’t get to all the sites, but we set an easy pace and generally saw as much as wanted without stressing.

Scenes from Governor's Harbour:

Governor's Harbour's waterfront.

Hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up from the grocery store to the dinghy dock.

Loading the groceries into the dinghy.

The Queen's Baths

Harbour Island

We had strange winter weather the entire time—no wind. We motored from north to south, gliding over glassy calm waters and literally being able to count the blades of sea grass on the ocean floor. The flat calm conditions gave us the freedom to anchor basically wherever we wanted and to plan our days based on what we wanted to do, with pretty much no regard to the weather (since there wasn’t any). We anchored by pristine white sand beaches, in a small man-made harbor, and off Governor’s Harbour, the original capitol of the Bahamas. We loved Egg Island on the far northeast corner of Eleuthera and particularly enjoyed being able to snorkel on any reef we wanted since there was no wind. We also dried out on a sandbank in order to clean the bottom and put on a new propellor zinc (ours had fallen off at some point since December).

Dried out on Egg Island

Two very curious stingrays circled PW the whole time we were dried out.

The sky added to the already dramatic scene.

David bringing the kids back to Omana at sunset.

Swings on sandbars seems to be the new thing in the Bahamas. We saw our first set at Green Turtle Cay and since then we've seen quite a few more. Always fun.

Looking down off the side of PW, about 3 meters of water.

It's easy to see if the anchor is set when there is zero wind and the water is crystal clear.

Hans looking for coral heads.

Our latest big purchase is Starlink. High speed, satellite internet, whenever we want! It’s amazing. When we were in Wisconsin I quickly realized how much easier it is to homeschool the kids when we have internet. Freja takes two piano lessons a week and a weekly debate class. Matilda takes a weekly science class. And they’ve both transitioned the bulk of their math work from Singapore Math paper text and work books to Khan Academy. We have the ability to homeschool without the internet, but it is so much easier and richer for them to draw from a variety of resources and learn from peers and other adults as opposed to just their parents. Starlink is expensive, both the start-up hardware costs and the monthly bill, but it’s completely worth it. It does draw a bit of power, however, so we generally turn it on in the morning for school and then it’s off for the rest of the day. Maybe back on again in the evening if needed/wanted, but in general it’s purpose-based internet. A big benefit of cruising is being off the grid and connecting with people and nature, so while we have the ability to be online all the time, we are quickly establishing healthy internet and screen time habits.

On our last day together with Omana, we motored to a spot just north of the southwest point and rafted together at the edge of the sandbanks. Again, there was zero wind and we were a few miles from any land so it was like being anchored in the middle of nowhere, just a glassy, mirrored surface. We swam, had lunch, and David towed the kids on a tube. It was a blissful afternoon. We had one last dinner together, and the premiere of the play I guest starred in, and then goodbyes all around. We sailed/motored to the Exumas the next day and Omana sailed north toward the airport.