Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas

12/01/09 We anchored last night very close to Harbour Island last night, about a mile away, next to a small white sand beach on Man Island.

CAN YOU SEE THE MAN SLEEPING ON THE BEACH?

CAN YOU SEE GETLOST ON ANCHOR?

Two days ago I had to replace two lines on the main sail. Both lines allow us to “reef” the main sail. One line was too short and not connected and the other was almost chaffed through. We have two reef settings on our main sail, these reef lines allow us to reduce the size of the main sail if the winds get to strong, when used they secure the bottom of the sail to the boom.

 

ROMEO SETTING ANCHOR

Yesterday we pulled anchor from Meeks Patch and motored about 1 mile over to Spanish Wells. Our intent was to hire a local person to pilot our boat 10 miles through some intricate shallow seas littered with coral heads and reefs. All of our guide books highly recommended paying a pilot to help us go through what is called “The Devils Backbone”. Who wouldn’t hire the help after a name like that?

When we arrived in Spanish Wells Harbor, we got on the VHF radio and called out that we needed to hire a pilot. We got two responses immediately, the first responder was a man that sounded about 25-30 years old he said, “This is Pilot Joe switch to channel 12”, directly after him a lady that sounded about 60 years old said, “A-1 pilot, switch to channel 14”. After a split second decision, I switched to channel 14. If there is one thing I’ve figured out in my 45 years of life is that age = experience.

We were told by the lady to wait a minute, next a older man comes on the radio and says “when do you want to go?” I tell him right now. He said he had to pick up some goodies and to give him 15 minutes. All this time I am very slowly motoring through the harbor. The harbor has a front entrance were we came in and a back entrance were we are departing toward “The Devil.” It is a small harbor were I can easily figure out that the older guy in the golf cart is our guide, we wave to each other and I can see he is heading to the store along the water for his goodies. After about ten minutes our guide came along side us with his 16’ boat. We tied it off to the stern cleat and he introduced himself, handed us his goody bag, said “enjoy” and eat it while its still warm. A1  quickly hopped behind the steering wheel. A1 had  brought us fresh baked bread, it was very good. The fresh bread form, AUNT JO’S gets an  A+, we will stop and get more when we pass thru again.

A1  was a very pleasant man, he said his age was 69, during the trip over he joked around and gave us the local history highlights. Juliet wanted to troll for fish on the way over, but the pilot said “ No". I guess he didn’t want to get slowed down if we caught a fish.

NOTICE HIS HAND IS NOT TOUCHING, HE WAS A NICE FAMILY MAN. JULIETTE HAS ALWAYS BEEN  COMFORTABLE IN HER OWN SKIN. A1  TOLD HER SHE WILL HAVE TO PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, TO GO TO TOWN. WE LIVE IN SWIM SUITS.

The trip over seemed like a stroll in the park, no waves, no wind, not al all as scary as it was made out to be. He told me to just follow his trail back out (the gps plotter leaves a trail on the screen) and I’ll be fine when We decide to come back. The whole trip took about one and one half hour. His job was done and we paid him. He asked for 80 dollars and all we had was a 100 bill. He gladly took it and went on his way. On the trip over he told us how bleak his business was, he said we were his 8th client in 3 months. Also the guide books remind us that the local people are not rich and our patronize helps them out. Still a 25% tip still stings! AND AGAIN ROMEO IS GOING TO UNTANGLE TRIPLES A’S FISHING LINE FROM THE PROP.