Harbor Island, Eleuthera

June 20,2009

June 17, 2009:

   We met Little Woody, our pilot on the seast end of Spanish Wells at 0945.  He led us through the Devil's Backbone, a collection of reefs off the north side of Eleuthera IS.  It was a beautiful and peaceful journey since we let him worry about not hitting the reefs. He pointed numerous landmarks such as the caves the first Loyalists lived in after their boat crashed up on the reefs. The Loyalists were the first settlers of Eleuthera.  Woody left us in the northern part of water off Harbor Is as he had to pilot the delivery barge back to Spanish Wells.  He had met this boat at 6a.m. to pilot it into Harbor IS.    We anchored between Ramora Bay Marina and Valentine's marina.  A cat, "Reverie" which had been in the Spanish Wells Marina was also there. Rick and Cindy Drum are from Singer IS, FL.  We all went ashore where we rented a golf cart and went exploring the island.  We tried to eat lunch at Sip Sip but it was closed.  They recommended we go down a bit to Pink Sands Hotel's Blue Bar.  We got lost trying to find it but saw many nice houses and bungalows which Pink Sands rents.   The bar had a lovely view of the Pink Sands Beach.  We even saw a young man riding a horse in the surf!  After lunch we continued to explore the island.  Everyone seems to have a golf cart so they 

buzzing around everywhere. Some are somewhat personalized as some of my pictures show.   It was terribly hot so we went back to the boat to rest.  Little Woody had brought the stone crabs with him that morning so we invited the Drums for cocktails and stone crab.  Little Woody dropped by the boat about that time so we invited him aboard.  He had just guided another boat over to harbor IS and saw us anchored. He felt badly that he had not been able to visit with us during his piloting.  He had also given us a little homemade carrot cake and english muffins for which we thanked him.  He was born and grew up in Spanish Wells.  He has been a pilot for about 14 years, but has been a captain for much longer although he looks about late 40's.  He was a delight to have on board. We even talked politics a bit.

June 18, 2009

      We took the cart this morning so I could do laundry.  The laundramat had only 2 washers and dryers functional.  It rained quite had this morning.  We picked up the Drums at noon and went to Arthur's Bakery ( it closes at 2) and then to Sip Sip restaurant which was worth the wait.  I had lobster quesedia (sp) and Charlie had snapper.  This place also overlooks the beach.We walked down to the pink sand beach after lunch.  The beach is wide long and beautiful. We did some more errands and explored the ruins behind the Harbor IS Marina.  The ruins are of a huge house which must have been qute grand.  It was never rebuilt.  They call it

"the haunted house".  There is a nice restaurant in from of it on the waterfront named "Aquapazzo" with a beautiful view of the sunset.  Harbor IS has many old well kept homes along the waterfront.  Many of them have names attached.  the one pictured is called "Blue Dolphin"and is decorated with blue dolphins.

Along the Ocean side are many newer homes up in the trees above the beach. The economy in Harbor IS seems to be thriving.  It is a very busy place with many tourists as well as locals.   The Drums invited us over for salad and pizza on their boat that night.   

June 19, 2009 (Fri)

     Charlie and I visited with the Drums trying coordinate traveling to The Abacos on Sunday. They were going back to Spanish Wells and we were staying at Harbor IS and exiting on the south end instead of getting another pilot to guide us back through the Backbone.   We went ashore to do some grocery shopping and to try to get online.  It was pouring rain again most of the morning.  We had lunch at Valentines which has a dinghy dock: good cracked conch and good conch chowder.  The Drums left for Spanish Wells in the afternoon.  We finally got online at Arthur's Bakery but they closed a 2 so we went back to the boat.  We ate dinner at the Aquapazzo and used the dinghy to get there.   The food was great, the view of the sunset was spectacular.

         

June 20, 2009

    Via e-mail we discovered that the Drums had had engine problems on Friday and were waiting for a mechanic in Spanish Wells on Monday so they would not be sailing with us to The Little Harbor.  We hope to meet up with them later in The Abacos.  We did some more errands, bought beer, ice, etc before returning the cart and returning to the boat.  We ate lunch at Angela's Starfish restaurant.  We hope to go fill the water tanks at Valentine's Marina.  They are the only marina with RO (reverse osmosis) water in Harbor IS.  Then we will move the boat to the south end of the island so we will be closer to the South Cut that we will exit from tomorrow morning at high tide.   We may use the dinghy to explore a bit later this afternoon.