Spanish Wells - Bahamas

Stats on Thursday, March 19- 48 miles total 2985

We decided to move from Governors Harbor up to Spanish Wells on Thursday.  The French Leave Resort was nice, but not a whole lot of other stuff to do.  We also thought that Tony would like to take a cruise on the crystal clear blue water.  It was actually a pretty nice day to cruise.  The waves were still 1 to 3 footers, but for the 1st time it was a following sea, so we were not crashing into them.  We arrived at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven around lunch time and we knew right away that we made a good choice.  Nice marina with a pool, bar and restaurant.  We were all hungry, so we cooked up the left over fish from Wednesday's fish trip and made sandwiches.

After eating lunch, we decided to walk around the Island and check things out.  Found Bubba's restaurant, and a few shops.  We stopped at the south end and had a Kalik Light at the Shipyard bar and restaurant.  We walked back and had a good dinner at Wrecker's - the marina restaurant.

Bus at Bubba's 

 Fun signs at Bubba's

 Point at Shipyard

 I do like the pirates here.

On Thursday night, the Prime Minister shut down almost all businesses here, except for gas, grocery and carryout food.  We should have bought beer on Thursday, as the liquor stores are now closed.  Also all retail shops are closed so no tee shirts either - sorry everyone - Friday was the day I was going to buy for everyone.

On Friday, the marina was still open, so we rented a 6 person golf cart and decided to ride around and check out more of the Island anyway.  We drove over to Russell Island and found where we were going to go to get fuel on Saturday.  Fuel stations were still open.  After driving around both islands completely, we went back to the boat.  We dropped our dinghy in and went for a ride.  We went out to see the pier where we were going to go get fuel.  Choppy ride out with 2 foot waves in the dinghy, but a very rough ride back in against the waves.  Once back in the protected island, we rode down to a beach at the end of the island.  Hung out for a while and then went back to the pool.  Dinner was on the boat as everything was closed except for takeout.  After dinner, Tony and I took the golf cart out to see the sunset.

On Saturday, we got take out breakfast from Wreckers and then went over to get fuel.  It went pretty smooth other than the dock being very high.  It was the 1st time I walked off the fly bridge onto a dock.  It was worth the trip as fuel was $1.00 cheaper a gallon there.  Was still $3.98 a gallon, so not seeing the low fuel prices over here.  After fuel we took the dinghy out again to the beach and then went around the south part of the Island.  Was a great ride with a lot to see.  Shame everything is closed down.

Pictures from the dinghy ride.

After the dinghy ride, we went and hung out at the pool for a while.  On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we took the golf cart and went down to the Government Ferry to get Tony to the main island.  I rode with him to be sure the taxi showed up to take him to the airport.  As you probably already know, he made it out fine and back to Cincinnati.

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Back at the boat, I did some much needed cleaning, even though the water was not good.  After cleaning, I went down to do my engine room checks.  The port engine was low on oil, and I soon discovered a pool of oil under the engine.  I believe the source was an oil return line that pulled loose from the oil pan.  I pushed it back in and applied some silicone.  Hopefully this will hold.  The next step was to try and clean up 1/2 of gallon of oil that was in the bilge.  Messy job, but think I got most of it.  Off to the showers.

On Monday it was overcast, so we just took a walk to the store and did some chores around the boat.  Our plan was to go to Freeport on Tuesday and then to the West End and then back to Florida.  We found out late on Monday that the Prime Minister had issued a lockdown and that no travel was allowed and no one was permitted to leave their house.  This included boats.  With marinas closed, we decided go all the way from Spanish Wells to Jupiter FL.  Very long day of 233 miles, which would test the range of my boat.

Again, as you probably know, we made it.  We changed course and went to North Palm Beach as no marinas in Jupiter were open.   Very nice marina and we made it in just around 11 hours. Got cleared by customs "roam" app and got burgers from the restaurant carryout.  Back in the states now, and will try to figure out next steps from here.  Will post some pictures from the marina here in the next post.  Just FYI Tiger Woods boat is here just to give you a sense of the yachts here.  We are feeling small again.   Oh, catching up.  We arrived on Tuesday, and Today is Wednesday.

Until next post - still Corona Free