25 February 2004

News No 6:

Great Abaco Is./Marsh town to Eleuthera:Royal, & Russel Ils. to New Providence Island/Nassau

Much has happened since we last corresponded and I'll attempt to update you with some of our highlights, Im using these correspondenses as sort or a journal, so I hope I don't bore you all too much.

After Suzie and Mike left we spent a couple of days in Marsh Harbour doing repairs and laundry etc. and then headed up to the beautifully >quaint little town called Hopetown, with its famous Candy Striped lighthouse and quant little Village surrounding a small picturesque harbour. The guides say booking a bouy or marina is essential, but Barry and Anne always do things on the spur of the moment, so needles
to say a booking was not procured beforehand, and as we approached the harbour, camera in one hand boat hook in the other, one of the Marina moored yachts called to us "Inspiration do you have a booking?" - No!, "well there all taken" - Okay! - so the empty 2 or 3 mooring bouys towards which we were heading had to be ignored. We continued on our circuit, still with camera in hand, but with the boathook now firmly
back in its place, and exited the harbour mouth to join a yacht anchored outside off Eagle Rock, in about 1,7m of water. We had a lovely dinner at Captn Jacks, and headed back to the boat in the beautiful flat calm sea, and a bright starlit night. Anyway were looking forward to a day of swimming and cleaning the stainless steele etc., but at 2am a howler of 25 gusting upto 35KNOTTS came through (two days earlier than forcast.) We woke at midnight to a gale force Norther with a lee shore some 100metres off. (The forecast predicted it would only arrive on Thursday!) We spent the night on anchor watch to find out that the CQR is the best anchor in the world. Winds got up to 35 knots so had our hearts in our mouths. Sunlight is so sweet, picked up anchor and made our way back to Marsh Harbour where we are sat the
hooligan out.

The new weather forcast said it wouldnt be good to go South until Tuesday, and we had to meet KEVIN at Nassau on Sunday, so it looked like he would have to fly to Marsh Harbour to join us. wednesday was bumpy, but a pleasure in the large protected harbour of Marsh Hb. Thursday was calmer, but still the forcasters said not good to go until Friday morning. By Thursday afternoon all seemed calm and we decided to go out and have a look at the North Man O War Channel through wich we would pass weather permitting on friday morning, our only dillema was that we would have too much sailing to make it to our next destination before nightfall and in the shallow waters of the Bahamas, this is not advisable, you need to see where youre going in shallower water, so the plan was to head south withing the protection of the islands, and anchor out overnight an then exit into the big blue through a more southerly cut, but as we approached the N Man O War Channel, all was calm and although there was a swell the cut looked good.

Of course this was too much like a good omen for this entrepid duo so we anchored of in a little bay, while we packed up the rubber duck, stowed the motor and then headed out into the big blue yonder, with a full night sailing before reaching landfall at Little Egg island at first light. The sea was kind and we had a lovely night sail only having to pull over once and allow a tug to cross our bows!! Fancy that Inspiration (under motor) had to give way to the far superior power of a tug. Barry reckons they just wanted to have a look at the blonde at the wheel, but when her burly husband surfaced from a litte ziz, to frantic calls from his wifey, Ba you'd better come up and see whats going on here this light is getting much to close for comfort, although I can only see his port light and he's not headed straight for us. They shon their light on us, decided Barry was too intimidating to take on, especially when Barry called them up on chanel 16 and asked if they wanted to cross our bow, and would they like us to give way? "Yes, we're headed into port !" So we tapped off the motors and off they sped into the night. Excitement over Barry went back to try and catch a little sleep only to be summoned back, there far to many lights now in all directions and I think you'll need to handle these - came the call from a now much less confident wifey.

Needless to say it was 6am with land in sight and time for the Captain to take charge of the Ship, we motored on to our waypoint and were pleased to see two gin palaces heading out of the cut through wich we would shortly have to enter, into the protected bay of the Eleuthera Islands, and into Royal harbour to take a nap sleep and recharge our human batteries, after a pleasant, if somewhat eventfull passages, with Cruise ships the size of Blocks of flats illuminating the horizons from time to time throughout the night.

Anna Bannana whipped up a scrumptuous, bacon cheese tomatoe double beef burger for the deserving, underrested skipper, which we ate like we hadn't seen food for years, and fell into bed for a well earned sleep until midafternoon, when we went ashore to explore the ruins of this now deserted island, which had once been developed by a private owner, whom must have had galleons of slaves and schooners full of cement at his disposal because what a couple of hurricaines had destroyed, was a beautiful private homestead built out of 'coral and cement, with metres of walls of packed coral rock hewn from an area which was obviously intended to form a private harbour and dock. We felt like Robinson and Crusoe, and his maid Marrion, exploring this incredible imprint of what man had attempted to tame, but which nature had steadfastly refused to allow to come to pass. The remnants of beautiful terazzo tiled floors hinted at the opulence of time gone buy, and gnarled trees with roots growing through ceilings and on solid rock and cement arched, and domed ceilings cracked and broken, but now being dominated by these giant old trees, asserting their superiority to withstand the forces of nature, but leaving the whisper of what had been there before, now the plants and ghekkos inhabitting the half interiors, it seemed ghostly, but awesome, and I was sorry I hadn't brought my camera ashore, as the guide books glibbly stated some remains of ruins to be found on the island.

We returned to Inspiration, after a brief chat with one of the two other yachts anchored in the bay, as night approached two other American yachts, sought the refuge of this protected spot, and we had an early stirfry dinner and returned to bed to catchup on some sleep, with the promise of revisiting the island in the morning to take some photos, before heading up to The Spanish Wells harbour and the prospect of getting a mooring bouy, and exploring the quaint town of Spanish Wells, and venturing by ferry and taxi and ferry to explore Harbour Island. the new plan was now to skip Nassau and get Kev to fly here and join us! (Because as all sailors know plans have to be flexible, as weather is always a factor).

Barry will take over the story from here as I am now thoroughly warm sitting at this computer, when I should be lying on deck cultivating a !

Needless to say we decided at the last minute to dash through in inspiration and fetch Kevin, instead of leaving him to fly on to us. Since then we've explored Nassau, the straw market, Sol's lost City of Atlanta - on Paradise Island, beautiful, on to Allan's Cay and the famous Bahama Iguanas, and today we're off to Highborne Cay and Cheap Charlies Pub.

So you'll have to wait for the next addition when mr barry gets his pen out, love you and miss you guys, I feel so far away on this side of the world, write soon! Its so nice to get mail back, Suzie Manners won't you please forward this to Ian and Rick. Hows the training going, Argus is almost upon you, have a good one all of you! Please forward their addresses to us - thanks suzie.


Much love

Anne and Barry