SVCharm: #deanhearst

Sunday was a bit windy, but not bad.

We took the dink into town. It was pretty quiet, as Sunday afternoons tend to be. Walked around a bit, dropped off our trash, and then back to the dinghy dock. Talked to Sam the Conch salad man at the dock. Nice guy. Said there were normally around 1500 people that lived on the island, but closer to 4500 now with construction going on the cruise ship docks to the north on Coco Cay and Great Stirrup Cay. Both these islands are used by cruise ships for day stops for people to get off and play at a nice beach.

Nice old rock building in town

On the way back to the boat, we dinghied along the shore line to see the sights. Mostly just iron shore.

Typical iron shore - sharp rocks that are undercut by the water

Monday the winds were lighter, so we went and looked at the prop plane that wrecked in the water nearby back in the 1980s.

The water here is not as clear as elsewhere in the Bahamas, it is more green so we did not snorkel the wreck. The water is clearish- but not the crystal clear blue we have come to expect.

The wreck sticks out of the water except for very high tide

You can see the structure still underwater

Back at the boat, we got in the water and gave the underwater hulls a quick clean – some scum, but not bad. A 3’ barracuda came by to inspect our work, and was not hesitant at all about how close he was to us, but Kris was a bit hesitant and decided to go clean closer to Dean.

Kris noticed our solar did not seem to be preforming well, and we found that one of our panels had become disconnected, so we got that fixed.

Working on the solar panel connections

Tuesday we sailed around the island to the East side, and anchored near Shark Creek, as the winds were turning to the south. Passed the cruise ships at Coco Island in the north and then had to tack several times going into the wind, but we wanted to sail, as it has been too much motoring lately. We spent a pleasant night protected from the south winds.

Two large cruise ships docked at the island

Wednesday we got up early, and motor sailed for about an hour, and then ended up dropping sails, as they were just banging around. Motored the 61 miles to Spanish wells. Motoring was good, as the batteries needed to be charged up.

Thursday was Kris’s birthday. We met up with our friends Sojourn who were also in Spanish Wells and went out for a nice lunch. We had brought them a replacement windlass motor from the states with us, and they bought us lunch as a thank you, which was super nice of them. We went to the store, and then back to the boat for the evening. Tried to find some small ice cream for Kris’ birthday treat, but she had to settle for M&M’s back on the boat.

Our friends boat on left Sojourn with moon rising

Lunch out with Sojourn - thanks Karen for the photo

The anchorage in Spanish Wells gets a bit of commercial traffic that passes very close at times

Some Christmas decorations in Spanish Wells

Friday Sojourn left, as they need to renew their fishing license, and they are headed to the Ragged Islands. We headed over to Egg Island, as winds were forecast to be very light for the next two days.

We did a bit of explore at Egg Island in the dinghy, and walked the shallows during low tide.

Dean walking the exposed sand at low tide

This sand dollar was on "dry" land, left a track as it was moving along

Saturday, Kris went for a kayak in the morning, and we had a nice snorkel in the afternoon. Nothing outstanding, but sure nice to get into that clear water.