Leaving Marsh Harbour

We left Marsh Harbour May 14, saying goodbye to our new friends, Ken & Cathy, sorry I didn't get a picture of Teri & John. We plan on seeing then on our return trip. While cruising, we stopped at Fowl Cay to do some snorkeling. The fish were plentiful and very friendly. We anchored out in Little Harbour to get a good nights rest before crossing over the North East Providence Channel (Atlantic) to Spanish Wells. It was "alittle" bumpy and rough just going out the cut with 6-8 ft. waves. As we got further out the seas flattened out and made for a nice cruise. Shadow will tell you a different story, but she's a cruiser and made it okay. Once we got to Spanish Wells, we called for a pilot to take us thru the Devil's Backbone to Harbour Island on the town of Dunmore famous for their pink sands. His name is Jock and his pilot service is called the Bandit. He gave us quite abit of history on our way over. The reason it is best to have a pilot is the waters are tricky and the reefs are plentiful and not always marked on the charts. He says he makes the trip 5-8 times a day and never gets bored. His history is quite interesting. His ancestors came over from England in 1638. Their ship wrecked just outside Devil's Backbone (which is how it got it's name) and all but 1 survived. They swam ashore and lived in a cave for a year (Preachers Cave) before really getting settled. Life was really rough hard for them in many ways, as you can imagine! The ships name was William. The way his service works is like this, he comes out to your boat, ties up his boat to ours and drives us over. Once we get there he gets back into his little boat and goes back over to his home on Spanish Wells. The trip only takes close to 45 min. And yes, he does charge you for his services, but besides his service we get a history lesson and homemade bread!!! (Tell me one taxi service stateside that gives you homemade bread!!!!) Dunmore is famous for their pink sand beaches. The island itself is really to spread out to site see by foot, so we had to take a taxi to get to the beach. It really is lovely. We only stayed the night due to some problem with the generator that we need to get looked at. Back at Spanish Wells we had some guys come on board and check out the generator. After all the horrible scenarios that could be wrong with it, we were very relieved to find out a wire had broken!!! That was fixed and we will be heading towards Nassau. My niece and her family will be vacationing at the Atlantis. Can't wait to see them all!!!!
Hope ya'll are enjoying the blogspot as much as I enjoying sharing our trip with pictures. Let me hear from ya, as this is our general email to all our friends!!
Life is Good, cruising is better! Until later...
Rita-Kay, Clay and Shadow