Eluthera

 Our next guests are Karen and John, whom we know through dancing and friends in New Hampshire. They recently got married and this is their first time away from teenage kids at home. 

Karen does family law. John is a machinist. He made some stainless steel parts for Athena last year. They flew in to Nassau and joined us on Friday while we were tied up at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina. 

Nassau is the largest city in the Bahamas, with capabilities for massive numbers of tourists from cruise ships and airplanes. We visited some of the popular spots, like Junkanoo beach, where we walked the malecon amidst throngs of tourists off the six cruise ships in port. Each one can carry 5,000 passengers. Just as night fell the wind shifted and we all spent a very rough night at anchor as the swells swept in between the breakwaters and reflected off the malecon wall. Dawn couldn't come early enough. 

Daybreak and four new cruise ships steam into port. Finally Harbor Control gives us permission to leave. Heading northeast with 8-12 knots of wind from the southeast, Athena is making up to seven knots over cobalt blue seas. 

Our port of call is Meeks island, one of many uninhibited ones, but they have recently brought in a family of pigs, which are a tourist attraction. We anchored amidst twenty or so other cruisers off a sandy beach complete with coconut palms, the first we've seen growing wild. After dinner we get ourselves to shore and see the pigs! They're mostly dozing, and there's chickens and ducks too. 

After two days a cold front comes through with lightning and a bit of rain, but most importantly a change of wind direction. Nearly everyone clears out of the anchorage to find another nearby. 

So we drop anchor off Russell island, close enough to dinghy to shore and snag a rental golf cart. It doesn't take long to get from one end of Spanish Wells to the other. It's a quiet town, with wide pink beaches to the north, a ferry to the big island of Eluthera, a narrow channel choked with boats and docks, lots of ex-pat homes, and a rough limestone shore on the west end. 

Our guests try to arrange a flight back to Nassau, but the logistics are daunting. It would be an early morning row to shore in the dinghy, find a taxi, maybe the ferry is running that early, then either a long haul taxi to the airport at the far end of the island, two hours, or a rental, and it's all on island time. But the winds are good so instead we enjoy a nice sail back to Nassau for their flight home. 

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