Trying out a new island chain…Eleuthera

We expected some larger seas as we left for Eleuthera on Friday morning.  The grip files (wind/wave/weather information files) were pretty accurate.  We experienced some very large (for us) swells, 4-5’s, from the south east.  The good part was that the interval (time between swells) was high, 8 seconds, so we were just rolling up and down the swells.

Once again, because we we were going at a slower rate of speed, we decided to drop a couple of lures in the water for our 5.5 hour trip.  About 3 hours in, one of lines started screaming (spooling)....fish on!!  Dan ran to the back, I ran to pull back the throttles of the boat, then ran back to bring in the other line, so it wouldn’t get tangled.  A very well orchestrated/disorganized/chaotic event.  Once I brought in the other line, I ran to straighten the boat out to make sure we were going bow into the waves.  At such a low speed, our stabilizers don’t work so well.   A couple of minutes in, I asked Dan if he saw it yet (meaning, had it jumped yet) and he said yes – it’s a Mahi!  Our boat is not designed to fish, driving the boat and catching fish are in 2 different areas.  The driver can't see or hear the person fishing (from the inside).

What’s hard to believe is that we were in 14,500 feet of water.  Usually they get caught in much, much shallower water.  Either way, Dan handed me the rod after a pretty good fight, he grabbed the net, I brought the Mahi close to the boat, it ran again, then I brought it back in again close enough for Dan to scoop it up into the net.

Dan was happy!  I was happy!  Sydney was hiding downstairs (because of our chaos)!  We finally caught a Mahi on the trip.

Eleuthera has beautiful waters with a bunch of coral heads.  Beautiful water means – many variations of water depth.  Add coral heads to that and you have navigation challenges.  

All of our guides and charts recommend hiring a local guide (pilot) to bring us through the waters over to where the marina in Harbour Island was located…so we did.  Woody – a local captain, met us outside of the narrow channel, boarded our boat, and drove the 5-6 miles of what is called the “devil’s backbone”.  We towed Woody’s boat during this passage.

When we were safely to our marina, Woody hopped back onto his boat, grabbed some homemade carrot cake, English muffins, and jam as a thanks for the business, and headed off.  This was a very interesting experience (and guy!).

We, by far, were the smallest live-a-board boat in the marina.  There were smaller boats than ours, but they were tenders (dingy’s) of the larger boats.  Not much smaller, I might add. 

This was the first time in a long time I was not embarrassed to go to the fishing table with my catch.  I was kinda proud (even though it was Dan’s catch). I even let some tourist kids take pictures of it as if it was their own...lol.

A local kid asked me if I wanted help cleaning it, which I promptly said yes.  I have only cleaned Mahi Mahi 3 times before and I didn’t want to waste any meat.  He did a good job!  4 dinners (8 servings) and a container of ceviche made with the loose ends.

By the time we arrived at the marina and cleaned the fish, it was time for dinner.  We ate at the Rock House and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The next day we wanted to take the dingy around the area to see the land from the waters perspective.  We tried to pass through to the Atlantic side, but the cuts were too shallow or WAY to rough for our dingy.  We ended up returning to the boat and renting a golf cart take us to the beach for lunch and to get familiar with the island.

We returned back to the boat and enjoyed a fresh Mahi Mahi dinner on the top of the boat.

Sunday we took the golf cart out again and went through most of the streets of the island.  The island is very populated in comparison to the other settlements we have visited.  What struck us as odd was the power plant that powered the entire island – a series of generators lined up in a large water front yard.  Most were on wheels.

Golf carts are the main form of transportation for the locals and the tourists.  Dan did well driving on the other side of the road and navigating the streets.  

He did get a tad frustrated at me with my less than stellar directions and navigation skills.  Not having live internet and adjusting google maps proved to a bit challenging for me.  He ended up doing both…LOL. (the above picture was before he realized my navigation skills)

We spent Sunday on the pink sand beach of Eleuthera.  I don’t think I have ever seen such perfect sand.  Soft, smooth, not sticky, and most important – cool to the touch. 

Sydney like the sand too…

We ended the night back at the resort and prepared for our Monday morning departure to Spanish Wells, Eleuthera (again to be escorted by Woody).  Spanish Wells is a small fishing village, much different that Harbour Island.  This island produces 75% of the lobster harvest each year for the Bahamas (60 of 80 million dollars).  We walked the streets and went to a local restaurant for lunch.  I have to say, I liked this settlement better than Harbour Island.  The locals were hard workers (fishermen), their houses/yards were very well taken care of, and everyone was extremely friendly and engaging.  Harbour Island was for tourists.  There was a big difference.  

We settled in for the night and prepared for our 65 mile trip to Chub Cay.