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Spanish Wells Harbour has
14 feet at MLW all over it. Like
many popular harbors we will describe in this guide, there is no longer adequate
room for anchoring. Many rental
moorings are available just east of Charles Island and you’ll find dock space
at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven (formerly Sawyers Marina).
Entering the harbor by either channel, you need to give a wide berth to
the shoal in front of Spanish Wells Marine and Hardware.
This shoal is shown on our chart and marked with rather inconspicuous
spiles. As long as you know it is there, you should have no
difficulty avoiding it.
Spanish Wells is on the
east end of St. Georges Cay, less than a mile west of the northwest tip of
Eleuthera. The harbor lies between St. Georges Cay and Charles Island.
Assuming that you enter the harbor via the new channel between Charles
Island and Russell Island, if you turn west you will find the newly rebuilt
Spanish Wells Yacht Haven. Although
their facility suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Andrew, all of the
docks have been rebuilt. They sell
Esso marine fuels, accept Exxon credit cards and sell reverse osmosis water for
25¢ per gallon. Diesel was
$1.84 per gallon and gasoline was $2.30 last year.
Shore power is metered and sells for 35¢ per kilowatt-hour.
The air conditioned hotel rooms overlook a pool and the marina, some have
kitchens. Ice and showers are available. They
can arrange for a fishing guide or a pilot.
From the same new
entrance channel, east of the shoal, you will find Spanish Wells Marine and Hardware, where you’ll find parts and
service for most brands of outboards. Further
east at Pool’s Boat Yard there is a
marine railway, which remains in service for haulouts.
Spanish Wells is a
delightfully clean settlement, well worth a walking tour with your camera.
The relative affluence and pace of this community is apparent.
This observation is most striking if you have a chance to visit it after Abaco, as I did. In
particular, the young people of this island speed around their tiny island in
expensive cars, with no place to go. Others
ride motorcycles, also at very high speeds, going nowhere fast.
We found this very different from the slow pace of Abaco.
Construction
“hardhats” have become the helmet of choice here for motorcyclists.
At “quitting time”, all over town I was startled by the local
fashion. The young girls, who were
getting off work at the fish processing plants, were riding around town on
mopeds, wearing fashionable tight black leggings, knee-high white rubber boots,
and their construction hardhats. The
outfit seemed absurd at first, but yet attractive. Eventually, each component of
the uniform made sense when taken individually.
Perhaps one day we will see one of the models on the cover of
Cosmopolitan displaying this new
fashion trend, first described in this guide.
All over the settlement
you will see other evidence of the affluence which exudes from this island.
It is said that this is one of the few places in the world
where a young working man or
woman can honestly earn and keep enough money to pay cash for a $100,000 home by their
eighteenth birthday! If this seems
impossible, remember that young people can easily earn $500 a day diving for
lobster and pay no income tax. Even
if the best part of the season only lasts 10 weeks, that’s still a lot of
money if they are living at home with mom and dad!
At the northwest end of
the settlement is the community owned and operated Food Fair supermarket.
This elaborate supermarket was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane
Andrew (8/92). Pinder’s
Supermarket, facing the harbor, is a smaller store but offers a good selection
of most items.
The restaurant at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven was excellent.
We had the turtle and enjoyed it very much.
Carol’s Place is a simple local cafe on the waterfront east of Spanish
Wells Yacht Haven. We certainly
enjoyed their cracked conch and fish. The
construction workers seemed to be taking almost all of their meals there!
Further east along the waterfront is Walton’s Langosta which serves a
varied selection of seafood and chicken. They
also have an excellent selection of liquor.
Next door the Snack Bar offers “fast food”, island style.
Across town, the Generation Gap is a restaurant and bar with a video
arcade and pinball machines!
If
you shop around at Spanish Wells Marine and Hardware, Ronald’s Service Center,
and Pool’s Boatyard, you can find just about any marine part or service that
you may require.
On
the northeast end of town, near the beach, you will find the bank as well as the
post office and other government offices. Near
there, the Spanish Wells Museum has an excellent outside display consisting of
an Abaco dinghy, a rock oven, an old cistern, and a thatched hut depicting early
life in these islands. This museum
has also recently begun an archeological dig at Preacher’s Cave.
The cave which we will later pass near the Devil’s Backbone, enroute to
Harbour Island, provided temporary shelter to a group of 70 Eleutheran
Adventurers in 1648, which their ship wrecked on the Devil’s Backbone.
The museum hopes to have some of these artifacts on display after
thorough study.
Adjacent,
both directions are Lynette’s and the Islander Shop.
Collectively, they offer a wide variety of dry goods, clothing, and
souvenirs.
When
it’s time to leave Spanish Wells, you can either go back out the way you came
in via Great Egg Island and proceed on to Abaco or you can hire a local pilot,
who can guide you through the much shorter exit to the ocean via Ridley Head
Channel. A typical charge for this
service is $35, and is strongly recommended.
If you have the time, the trip on to Harbour Island via the Devil’s
Backbone is worthwhile, but again the services of a local pilot are strongly
recommended. The charge for this
service is approximately $60, but again is strongly recommended. Broadshad
Pinder showed me the way and provided the following instructions.
They are NOT intended to replace the services of a professional pilot,
but are intended to help you understand the landmarks, which your pilot may be
using. Using these notes for a
basic understanding, augmented by your own notes which will be more meaningful
to you after you’ve seen these landmarks with a local pilot a few times, you
may feel comfortable making this passage on your own in the future.
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