water they 'swim' & help keep the boat from rolling. This is what they look like in the upright position when not in use.
Even though there were ominous storm clouds to our north & west, we decided to pull anchor about 9:00 am & leave for Royal Harbor. And storm it did as we passed to the north of Harbor Island & Spanish Wells. I trolled again and got skunked again! What is it with these Bahamian fish anyway? Anchor down @ 2:30 pm. Royal Harbor is just that, a cozy, quiet & calm harbor that protects from the north, east & south. There is nothing here except crickets & birds chirping - not even internet. We saw what looked like remnants of someone’s dream to build a resort here...Several trailers, machinery & a dock. Veggin is what we do best & that’s just what we did. Having no internet, we can’t check our financials after knowing the market was down 500-600 points! (yikes…that hurts us big time) By the time I got up the next morning, Wayne was already into his electrical schematics & pondering something. There were several fuses he added but never labeled them…my job, if I chose to accept it…was to help him figure this out. Are you serious? I haven’t even had my coffee yet! But, later, I did help him although I doubt I was much help after I dropped one of the fuses into the bilge never to be seen again. We went for a swim with Scupper…nuff for one day I’d say. It rained a bunch during the night & topped off the water tanks. 8/13 Same hot weather with storm clouds all around us.
Entering Spanish Well's Harbor
Moving on to Spanish Wells, Eleuthera-just a hop, skip & jump away. We cruised the whole harbor Russell Island on one side, Spanish Wells 
on the other - you can see the little bridge that connects the two islands. We weren’t going to stay but then decided to take a mooring so we could get a Wifi. Our ‘neighbor’, Robert, living on KOOL 
BREEZE, (yellow hull sailboat seen in the picture) came to say ‘Hi‘. We knew he had a small dog aboard but didn’t know 
he was a miniature Doxie. While we were chatting, Fritz (the dog) jumped off his boat & swam over to find his ‘daddy‘!
A bit about Spanish Wells from 1996 Yachtsman‘s Guide to the Bahamas: …is a remarkably orderly community set along the eastern end of St. George’s Cay. It’s name is said to have originated three centuries ago, when Spanish explorers declared the local well water the sweetest in the Bahamas. Nowadays water is piped in from the community wells on Eleuthera, 2 miles away. Some Spanish Wellsians claim direct descent from the original Eleutherian Adventurers who shipwrecked on the treacherous nearby reefs in 1648. Others are descendants of Loyalists who sought refuge here at the end of the U.S. War of Independence. The town has a history of self-sufficiency; even the power system is locally owned & run. Most residents grow up, marry, & remain here. Among them are some of the best fishermen, divers & seafarers in the Bahamas. Prosperity is reflected in large, well-maintained cement-block homes…”
We got talking & seems Robert & Wayne have much in common. Scupper & Molly met Fritz but didn’t seem like they were impressed - Fritz, on the other hand, wanted to play. He’s 4 ½. Scupper didn’t like that he was playing with her toys. Molly was still the princess & was beneath her to give poor Fritz the time of day.
It was 4ish & the grocery store closes at 5pm - I need salad fixins’ so off we went. Very nice store & not that expensive. Also got OJ, Pineapple juice & coconut water now all we need is the booze. Spanish Wells is a dry town - you cannot buy liquor here. Must take the dinghy across the channel to the mainland - it’s not far…however, they’re closed till Monday. 8/14 We thought about snorkeling the Devil’s Backbone (Google it) but was too overcast. Robert came over & he & Wayne talked for hours about boats. Robert accepted my invitation for dinner - “We’ll blow the horn when it’s ready…bless him, he bought a bottle of wine with him. Nice evening until we talked about politics! Wayne was on the loosing side of this conversation. Robert & I are not Obama fans! Hot with sun showers but nice breeze. 8/15 We took the dinghy to 
the mainland to get liquor. Robert was already there with a box-full of stuff. There are several ‘ferries’ available. The biggest one, Bo Hengey II goes from Nassau to Spanish Wells to Harbor Island & reverses the route. Then smaller ferries go from Spanish 
Wells to the Liquor Store location & back. It’s a very busy port - tankers filled with fuel come from 
Freeport. On 8/16 we broke down & rented a golf cart for a day ($10/hr or $30/24hrs). We covered
most of Spanish Wells & Russell Island. Banana trees were growing everywhere on Russell so I stopped & picked a few, also 2 Papayas (from the web: called “fruit of the angels by Christopher Columbus and for good reason. One of nature's wonders, fresh papaya improves digestion and prevents heart disease, arthritis, lung disease, and eye disorders. And with it's antioxidants, flavoniods, plus loads of vitamins and minerals, papaya will help you fight off cold and flu viruses and help keep you healthy through the winter. Papaya is high in: vitamins C, A, K, E, plus magnesium, folate, beta carotene, and lutein, and more". (Didn’t know you were gonna actually learn stuff from my blog did ya?) It seems that most properties are for sale..?? Beautiful islands and can see water from almost
everywhere. Of course, we must remember that our home has water views all the time & we have to resist the temptation of pondering property to purchase. We stopped to see the goats, beautiful 
trees, the cemetery (I always visit the cemeteries-some say I’m morbid?) & a development trying to happen with direct access to the ocean. It's hard to see, but they
It was 4ish & the grocery store closes at 5pm - I need salad fixins’ so off we went. Very nice store & not that expensive. Also got OJ, Pineapple juice & coconut water now all we need is the booze. Spanish Wells is a dry town - you cannot buy liquor here. Must take the dinghy across the channel to the mainland - it’s not far…however, they’re closed till Monday. 8/14 We thought about snorkeling the Devil’s Backbone (Google it) but was too overcast. Robert came over & he & Wayne talked for hours about boats. Robert accepted my invitation for dinner - “We’ll blow the horn when it’s ready…bless him, he bought a bottle of wine with him. Nice evening until we talked about politics! Wayne was on the loosing side of this conversation. Robert & I are not Obama fans! Hot with sun showers but nice breeze. 8/15 We took the dinghy to 
the mainland to get liquor. Robert was already there with a box-full of stuff. There are several ‘ferries’ available. The biggest one, Bo Hengey II goes from Nassau to Spanish Wells to Harbor Island & reverses the route. Then smaller ferries go from Spanish 
Wells to the Liquor Store location & back. It’s a very busy port - tankers filled with fuel come from 
Freeport. On 8/16 we broke down & rented a golf cart for a day ($10/hr or $30/24hrs). We covered
most of Spanish Wells & Russell Island. Banana trees were growing everywhere on Russell so I stopped & picked a few, also 2 Papayas (from the web: called “fruit of the angels by Christopher Columbus and for good reason. One of nature's wonders, fresh papaya improves digestion and prevents heart disease, arthritis, lung disease, and eye disorders. And with it's antioxidants, flavoniods, plus loads of vitamins and minerals, papaya will help you fight off cold and flu viruses and help keep you healthy through the winter. Papaya is high in: vitamins C, A, K, E, plus magnesium, folate, beta carotene, and lutein, and more". (Didn’t know you were gonna actually learn stuff from my blog did ya?) It seems that most properties are for sale..?? Beautiful islands and can see water from almost
everywhere. Of course, we must remember that our home has water views all the time & we have to resist the temptation of pondering property to purchase. We stopped to see the goats, beautiful 
trees, the cemetery (I always visit the cemeteries-some say I’m morbid?) & a development trying to happen with direct access to the ocean. It's hard to see, but they 
cutright thru the rock right next to the house at the top of the picture to access the ocean-then created a large basin. Lots are lined up around the basin. Someone has big bucks $$. We've been listening to a unique radio station located in Spanish Wells called SPLASH-they play sets of country(They love country music here), island tunes, real old oldies (Tom Jones Engelbert Humperdink etc.) & music I've never heard before. 
There are only 2 advertisers-such a pleasure to not have a commercial break after every song. They have a rather large All Age School which is well kept-actually, everything on the island is well kept & no litter. It's obvious they are very proud of their homes.
What really makes Spanish Wells unique is the people. According to a 10 year old guide, there are about 1500 people who live here and 1480 of them are white. They speak English with an accent that reminds me of heavy Maine with a touch of Scottish thrown in. The houses on the island look nothing like most of the rest of the Bahamas. Spanish Wells has 2 main streets which run the length of the island and 32 cross streets lined with immaculately maintained and landscaped houses which are generally closely spaced. After looking at a phone listing, I'd say that most of these people are related. If your name is "Pinder", you probably share your last name with 20% of the people here. There appears to be about 5 names that make up the majority of the population
8/17 Before we returned the cart we shopped at the big grocery store. They even had International delight creamer we like. We took Scupper & Molly to the public beach via dinghy which is on the other side of the little bridge that goes over to Russell Island. The sand was like silk & the water, perfect temperature. We all had a good time. You can barely see him, but that’s Wayne on the other side of the channel & Molly swam all the way across to him.
There were about 8 locals enjoying the park as well.
They even had their food while floating around. We saw huge rain clouds coming in the from south & got back to the boat just in time before the next storm blew over. 8/18 Thunder storms on & off all day. So much for snorkeling the Devil. Wayne still tweaking the inverters, I'm doing laundry & the blog. I should be cleaning something…I took a nap instead.
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