March 31, 2019 Sunday Hope Town, Elbow Cay to Lynyard Cay 23.1 nautical miles.
26°21’30.8″N 76°59’03.7″W 26.358555, -76.984368 Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Elbow Cay Lighthouse sunrise
Today was a blast. We connected up with
other Looper boats THE BLESSING (Jay and Barbara), LETS GO (Marshall and Judy)
and KNOT JUST DREAMING (Shawn and Cindy). The flotilla was off with THE
BLESSING Jay as the Commodore heading out to snorkel a blue hole.
Island house
Getting to the blue hole area was the start of the adventure. We needed to take our dingys about 1.5 miles towards shore, past rocks and through skinny water. It was not a straight shot in.
Gathering of the dingys
Blue Hole: 26°20’42.3″N 77°01’48.4″W 26.345081, -77.030100
Memorial marker for people who drowned in the blue hole
There were a lot of fish and a big old turtle in the blue hole. Mary also saw a big eel. The water in the hole was chilly but the water all around it was warm.
Dang I miss my underwater camera. Too
bad I fried it ☹ The blue hole pictures would have been awesome. I
tried talking pictures with my regular camera but they just didn’t turn out.
We flotilla-ed on to Pete’s Pub and Gallery in Little Harbour. This was not a straight shot either. After securely anchoring the big boats we took the dingys around Tom Curry’s Point and into the harbor. Swells from the Atlantic were crashing into the point. We needed to circumnavigate the Tom Curry’s Point with great care … in our little dingys.
Around Tom Curry’s Point and headed to the harbor
Pete’s Pub in Little Harbour. THE BLESSING (Jay and Barbara), LETS GO (Marshall and Judy), KNOT JUST DREAMING (Shawn and Cindy) and YES DEAR (Dale and Mary)
Atlantic side. Do you see the boat on the right? Wonder how it got there.
Last, we relocated to Lynyard Cay for an overnight sleep over. The anchorage was full (boating barometer 20 boats) but we nestled right in there with them.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Sterno keep flies away. We didn’t have problems with flies in the Bahamas until we hit the northern end of Eleuthera. The Abacos has flies to. Restaurants and bars set lighted sterno cans on your table when you sit down. At first Mary thought it was to keep you warm. But why would they do that when it was 80 degrees?
Drolleries and Yuks
The best channel 16 radio calls we heard today were: — Fish Camp calling Home Fries — Tenacity calling Stubborn
March 30, 2019 Saturday Marsh
Harbour Marina, Jib Room, Marsh Harbor, Abacos
to Hope Town, Elbow Cay 8.2 nautical miles.
26°32’30.6″N 76°58’02.2″W
26.541827, -76.967275
Elevation: 0 ft
Crossing to Hope Town on Elbow Cay.
It’s endlessly fascinating to watch the wave break over the barrier reef not matter how far or how close it.
Along the Way
We are anchored just west of the Elbow Cay Lighhouse.
First stop was the iconic red and white candy stripped lighthouse on Elbow Cay.
Up you go!
Hope Town 360 from the top of the lighthouse.
West – Yes Dear is in the middle of the picture
North
East
East South East
After Mary took way too many lighthouse pictures we were off and wandering. Definitely looking like tourists when a gentle man stopped his golf cart and offered us a ride. Never to turn down an opportunity we said yes and were on our way. Sherman, the golf car owner, had just finished cleaning out his friends rental house and had the left over beer on the car. Never to turn down an opportunity we said yes to the beer too. A little ways down the road Sherman let us off at near the Da Beach Bar and Restaurant where there was a great beach for us to walk. Sherman owns the Elbow Cay Cart Rentals http://www.elbowcaycartrentals.com/ If you are ever in Hope Town and need a cart get it from Sherman!!!!!!
Thanks Sherman for the ride and the beer! You made our trip to Hope Town memorable.
Beached
I’m fascinated at the location the wave and the sand boil.
About town
Multi purpose building (police, commissioner, post office)
Matching light poles and lighthouse!
Monument
just pretty
Cholera Cemetery
Emily, I’m going to do this to your yard.
walk way
just pretty
Loyalist Memorial (near the dingy dock)
Love the shutters. Real Shutters with the bar across.
Just in case your forgot your junior high American High history class….. Loyalists were American colonists who stayed loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. When Great Britain lost the Revolutionary War the Loyalist took off. Many people moved back to England, Canada, or south to the British Caribbean.
Today Dale Fixed
Da dingy motor. After pondering over
the Suzuki manual and a brief discussion with the Marsh Harbor Suzuki dealer Dale
fixed the dingy motor. The manual lead him to a fuel value that had been bumped
probably while lifting/lowering the dingy and was partially shut. Opening the
valve put the dingy full into speed ahead.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The 89 foot Elbow Cay Lighthouse was built between 1862 and 1864 to warn mariners about the Elbow Cay reef. The light was renovated in the 1930s. To keep the light on, lighthouse keepers must wind the turn mechanism (426 turns) every two hours. This turns the enormous 7,000 pound Fresnel Lens assembly, which floats in liquid mercury around a fixed kerosene burner. The lighthouse is still operational! The Coleman Company has been helping keep the lights on since 2012 building custom mantles.
26°32’49.0″N 77°03’13.8″W
26.546930, -77.053841
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Yesterday we bought two loaves of bread, a wheat bread at the Island Bakery and a coconut loaf at the Da Bes Yet Bakery. Today we took Looper boat LETS GO neighbors Marshal and Judy in the rental car bread shopping.
Of course we bought a loaf of coconut bread from the Island Bakery so we could taste compare it to the coconut bread we bought yesterday at Da Bes Yet Bakery. We really needed to try the white bread from the Haitian Bakery too.
Haitian Bakery
The Haitian bread was baked as long loaves placed next to each other on a sheet pan instead of individual bread pans. The loaves looked like GIANT hot dog buns.
Haitian white loaf is in front. Coconut in back.
Besides the 4 loaves we’ve bought in the past two days we are still working on the jalapeno cheddar bread we bought at Authur’s Bakery at Dunmore Town.
The coconut bread from both bakeries is first rate. We are bread rich!
We said good bye to the Buick at noon…..
Dale did a great job driving on the left side the road. The many roundabouts
were the most challenging. It was fun.
The evening ended with delicious home made chocolate walnut pie at neighbors Marshal and Judy on Looper boat LETS GO.
Today Dale Fixed
We’ve had this gosh awful smell in
our aft cabin for the past couple of days. So awful we’d taken to sleeping in
the forward v-birth. Yesterday Dale isolated the smell to the bilge and dumped bilge
cleaner in it. Today he pumped it out into our blackwater tank. Yuck.
Source of water into the bilge was an issue with the shower sub-pump. Problem solved. Tonight we are headed back to the master stateroom.
A first rate job Dale!
Nauti Words
First rate – From the 16th century on until steam powered ships took over, British naval ships were rated as to the number of heavy cannons they carried. A ship of 100 or more guns was a First Rate line-of-battle ship. Second rates carried 90 to 98 guns; Third Rates, 64 to 89 guns; Fourth Rates, 50 to 60 guns. Frigates carrying 20 to 48 guns were fifth and sixth rated.
26°32’49.0″N 77°03’13.8″W
26.546930, -77.053841
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Mary was on a mission today. She wanted to see the brass sculpture foundry in Little Harbour and the Abaco parrots found in the southern Great Abaco Island pine forests. The Abaco parrot is a subspecies of the Cuban Parrot.
First stop breakfast.
Mary had the traditional Bahamian breakfast or yellow grits and steamed corned beef. The steam corned beef was kinda like sloppy joe meat. Dale had the traditional american breakfast.
Road to Little Harbour
Little Harbour
Little Harbour is an artist community centered around the Johnston family brass foundry and sculptures.
Abaco National Park and Abaco Parrot Preserve is on the south east side of the island. The park has parrots, wild horses and wild pigs. (of which we saw none). 25°59’36.5″N 77°17’23.7″W 25.993476, -77.289908 The road we wanted to take said 4 wheel drive only. No rental cars. Below is the good road, the road we took. I really wonder what the other one looked like.
Sandy Point on the south west side the island. 26°01’50.4″N 77°24’05.6″W 26.030659, -77.401558
We toured (were chauffeured in a golf cart) Schooner Bay to see the man-made island and marina. http://schoonerbaybahamas.com/ The community thinks itself so exclusive you cannot take picture of it. The prime minister of the Bahamas owns a cottage on the little island. It sleeps 4-6 and rents for $350 a night. The marina has transient slips and would be a good Looper stop if a waypoint is needed between Marsh Harbour and Eleuthera. Schooner Bay’s visions is to be a self sustaining community some day. Eleven years into the project and they are still a LONG ways off. The community looks a bit like the gulf coast of Florida. If you are shopping for unaffordable housing, go with Florida. You get more bang for you buck.
We never saw a darn parrot the entire trip 🙁 The locals said it was a little too windy for them to be moving around. The closest we saw ….
Consolation prize was spotting this wild pig (He was not inside the park).
One amazing thing about driving around the island is that there is NO road kill along the sides of the road. I haven’t seen any deer, rabbits, squirrels or other rodents. I’m not sure what there is to hit other than chickens.
Speed bumps. Great Abaco Island is speed bump crazy! In some areas you can hardly drive more than 1,000 feet to .2 miles with out hitting a speed bump. Little Harbour had the best speed bumps. Large, 4 inch diameter sections of rope.
A rope speed bump (and a dog) will slow you down.
Nauti Words
Cup of Joe – This was named
after Josephus Daniels who was secretary of the Navy under Woodrow
Wilson. One of the changes that he made was the abolishment of the
officer’s wine mess aboard Navy Ships. From that point on, the
strongest drink aboard a Navy ship was coffee. Sailors eventually
started referring to the caffeine laced drink as “Cup of Joe”.
26°32’49.0″N 77°03’13.8″W
26.546930, -77.053841
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
We rented a car and headed west (and north).
At first there was a lot of tall pine slowly switching over to the othern kinds of trees and foliage. All the pine trees did surprise us. None of the other Bahamas Islands had pines. It was still all pretty much scruffy and rocky.
Little Abacos
Bridge to Little Abacos – speed bump as you approach
looking west
looking east
west
east
Picture Break
A man and his Buick
Our Buick rental car came with unlimited mileage. Not sure if that is because the odometer is not working or Great Abacos is not big enough to have a concern about excessive miles on rental cars. All the safety warning lights were on in the car but the air condition worked and it drove well.
The hardware store in the picture below is about the size of my living room in Lake Elmo.
Westward Ho! Crown Haven, the western tip of Little Abaco. You can’t drive any further west than this. 26°54’40.9″N 77°49’12.6″W 26.911371, -77.820153
Return trip
The Bahamian government built a new port north of Cooper’s Town, Great Abaco. It was completed several years ago but never opened.
(the car is missing a wheel .. or two)
Construction housing and offices
Harbor facilities
harbor
volunteer trees around edge
bouys waiting to be placed
entrance
Cooper’s Town had sidewalks! A rarity for small towns (most towns) in the Bahamas. New side walks running the entire length of the main road. We are guessing they were put in about the time the new port was built………
Treasure Cay is an exclusive community and probably all white. Million dollar homes and a golf course. I have to wonder, if you had that much money why did you get a house here? All the Bahamas have to offer is crappy land and beautiful water. It’s a better deal to get a house on the gulf side of Florida.
Treasure Cay
I skipped the pictures of unaffordable housing at Treasure Cay. I did like the below.
No sides and containers falling
Is Palm Sunday coming up?
Affordable housing. The homes either look like the the ones below or they are well over $1,000,000. There is not a lot of middle ground. We read a local free paper and it had about 8 pages at the end with $1 million plus homes for sale. None of them looked like the ones below. I found the boards over the window interesting. At least half of the houses had them. I’m guessing it is protection from the wind. When people are home the front doors are wide open to let the air in. As we drove by we could see people through the doorways doing things inside. For the most part no lights were on inside. Probably too expensive. There were people walking to the local R/O water faucets to fill containers to talk home.
Unfinished
unfinished addition
unfinished church
unfinished house
unfinished house
unfinished house
personal favorite – unfinished garage and junked car
The Exhumas had an abundance of junk boat trailers. I can understand that. Someone gets a new boat and it gets shipped in on a trailer. Then what do you do with the trailer one you put the boat in the water? The islands are so small you aren’t going to pull it around. Here in the Abacos there is an abundance or junked cars kinda like in the poorer areas in the southern USA, like Arkansas.
We stopped at a little restaurant The Bae on the west side of Great Abaco. The view was pretty. (We don’t know the people in the picture.) 26°33’45.2″N 77°08’15.8″W 26.562546, -77.137708 The view was pretty. (We don’t know the people in the picture.)
March 26, 2019 Tuesday Egg Island,
Eleuthera to Marsh Harbour Marina, Jib Room, Marsh Harbor, Abacos 71.3 nautical miles.
26°32’49.0″N 77°03’13.8″W 26.546930, -77.053841 Elevation: 0 ft
We wanted an early start. Mary the
optimist set alarm for 5:30am not 6:30am. We had a nice leisurely cup of coffee.
To the Abs
A final check of the weather and
waves in Windy https://www.windy.com/ and
we were off to the Abacos crossing the Providence North East Channel with the
Atlantic on our starboard beam.
Wind and Wave predictions. The light the blue the better.
The prediction was for wind under
10 knots and 3 feet 7 second swells. Not bad for this water and this time of
the year. Indubitably do-able. Neptune was looking out for us.
Sunrise good bye Eleuthera
Along the Way
Our Providence North East Channel passage was across massive undulating mounds of water. Giant rolls of 3 to 5 foot swells. Some of the swell tops were 15+ feet across. Then we were sweeping down into equally massive gullies. It felt like riding on giant a merry-go-round.
With the weather in our favor we cut straight across the open water to Marsh Harbor rather than hitting the south east tip of Great Abaco and bouncing along the shoreline to anchor at Little Harbor as planned. Not having a functioning dingy motor also played into the decision. It’s boring to anchor and not have a dingy.
“I got one!!!!!! I got one!!!!!!” it
was game on for Dale. Mary slammed the engines into neutral. The fish was jumping. The fish was running. The
fish was beautiful.
47 inch dolphin fish (mahi mahi) It was a noble fish and fought hard.
Guess what we had for supper.
Blue and Orange, Atlantic Ocean and Sargasso seaweed. This is a tiny raft. There were LARGE rafts of sea weed (They did not photograph well). Dale caught the mahi mahi in an area where there was a lot of seaweed. We need to check our strainers tomorrow.
Hello Abacos!!
Coming into Little Harbour Cut. They all look the same. The differentiating factor is how populated they are.It did.
Working our way to Marsh Harbour
Tilloo Cay
Tahiti Beach Elbow Cay (looks like White Bear Lake)
Barceloana Explorer Charters (love the gang plank)
Marsh Harbour
Portside. Coming into Marsh Harbor. Bumps along the wayMarsh Harbour. It is unbelievable how many sailboats are anchored here. Some were anchored over the magenta line path into the harbor making it challenging to get to our marina. We had to meander in and out between them.
Quotes
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain
March 25, 2019 Monday Papa Docks, Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera to Egg Island, Eleuthera 9.8 nautical miles.
25°29’44.2″N 76°53’07.7″W 25.495611, -76.885461 Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Ready, set and tomorrow Go to the Abacos. Au revoir, sayōnara, auf wiedersehen, adieu, adios to Spanish Wells and relocated to Egg Island for our ~60 mile jump to the Abacos tomorrow.
Egg Island cut. Very NW tip of Eleuthera
Little Egg Island
Egg Island
Today we are anchored just off a small sand beach on the west side of Egg Island that is at the tip of Eleutheras north west archipelago. According to Walter (see Full Worm Moon March 20, 2019) and some other historians, the is where Columbus first landed in the New World. Not San Salvador. I am certain our anchor is dropped in the same place the Santa María’s anchor was dropped (but we have better anchor, a Rocna Vulcan anchor). I can also see places where the La Niña and the La Pinta must also have dropped anchor.
Egg Island beach
The Santa María was probably a medium-sized, about 49 to 59 ft (15 to 18 meters) long on deck. Not much larger than Yes Dear.
Quite likely after anchoring Columbus called his coxswain and asked him make him a Bahama Mama drink and to drop his cock. (Well, maybe the Bahama Mama drink isn’t true. It could have been a Goombay Smash.)
Egg Island is the quintessential Bahama cay with a small beach, ragged rocks and mangrove lake center. Mary summoned her coxswain to go ashore.
Entrance to creek. Looking west.
Northern lake.
Creek to southern lake
Mangove creek stuff.
conch
HA. banana slug
spiny sea urchin
The spiny sea urchin reminded me of sputnik ornaments Dale’s mom had on her Christmas tree. Anita’s sputniks were white and glistened. They were beautiful.
And then there was the dingy ride back to Yes Dear. I neglected to mention the dingy motor died on the way to Egg Island’s beach. Mary waded it in through chest deep water while Dale tried to get the motor started. It’s probably a fuel filter issue. We weren’t over concerned because we had oars.
The water held other amazing creatures. Reef sharks. Dale got to push the dingy out this time. (Mary at least let him wait until it looked like the shark had moved on.
The evening ended with 2 for 1 fishing. Dale caught about a 2.5 to 3 foot barracuda. A second barracuda followed the caught barracuda up to the boat just to see what was going on.
2 for 1 barracuda
Neither Mary or Dale were interested in actually measuring its length
Bahama Blues
I thought I’d seen all the the shades of blue the Bahamas waters could offer. Wrong. New shades of blue.
Goodnight
PS. We saw the best green flash yet tonight.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
By tradition Spanish ships were named after saints and usually given nicknames. The Santa María’s original name was La Gallega. La Niña’s actual name was the Santa Clara and the Pinta’s real name has been lost to posterity.
Nauti Words
Coxswain: a boy servant (swain) in
charge of a small cock. This cock was for the captain’s use only. The cock was
a small boat used to transport the captain to and from the ship. Thus, the cock was a vessel used to deliver
seamen to fertile shores. (I didn’t make this stuff up).
This term has its origins all the way back in
the 15th century. It has since been replaced with “helmsman”; “helmsman” can
also refer to the person currently in charge of controlling the actual ship
itself and not just the small cock.
March 24, 2019 Sunday Papa Docks,
Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera
0 nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W
25.542958, -76.760596
Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
Mary’s camera took a break and was on vacation today.
Dale took the drone out for some flight practice. It has been several months since he last flew it.
We spent the afternoon walking the shallow waters off the western side of Spanish Wells.
Evening was topped off with Docktails with POLAR BEAR and MOUSKA MOON.
Mary loves it here.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Model airplanes are not drones. Pilots fly model airplanes within their line of sight. A model airplane cannot move out of a pilot’s periphery of vision, which disqualifies it as a drone.
March 23, 2019 Saturday Papa Docks,
Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera
0 nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W
25.542958, -76.760596
Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
Waiting for the Dunmore Town, Harbour Island ferry
not the ferry
not the ferry
The ferry. It round trips daily to Dunmore Town from Nassau.
North Eleuthera shore off the Devils Backbone.
Thru the Backbone around the eastern tip from the north
At the tip looking west.
18th-century houses painted in
watercolor pastels line the narrow lanes ringing the Dunmore Town harbor.
Heading into Dunmore Town from the Government Dock
Mary’s first stop was the famous Authurs Bakery in the old town area for a turnover and to get the jalapeno cheese bread. Wessely Methodist Church built in 1843.
The right hand notch in the horizon is the Glass Bridge
What ?
Making a jacuzzi. Waiting for high tide.
The pink sand is crushed pink and red shells of microscopic insects called foraminifera, which live on the underside of reefs
paddle board yoga
Public beach access – exiting
About town. There must be over 1000 golf carts in this town.
Tourist street
Post Office
They ALL look like this….
Valentines Marina. This is the big fancy marina on Harbour Island.
Return trip to Spanish Wells
Look at all the people on the water taxi
Government Dock
Government Dock. Waiting to board ferry. Life in the Bahamas is so relaxed.
Harbour Island is Bahamas prettiest island we’ve visited, hands down. Dunmore Town is lush and green due to imported plants and trees I’m sure. …. Pallet of sod delivered and waiting to be picked up.
Free ferry foot wash for sandy patrons.
Show a little back bone … The Devils Backbone
Spanish Wells low tide
Spanish Wells low tide
Low tide prop scars
Mary still love Spanish Harbor the best!
Chinese Tourists
Neighbors
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Canadian blow boats POLAR BEAR and MUSKOKA MOON. POLAR BEAR is in this picture. We’ve been bumping into them off and on since we arrived in the Bahamas Feb 3.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Grocery Shopping. A liter bottle of
vodka is $10.10. A half gallon of orange juice is $12.88. We bought the vodka.
Billionaire Bill Gates has the only house on Harbour Island with gates.
March 22, 2019 Friday Papa Docks, Spanish
Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera 0
nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W 25.542958, -76.760596 Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
We were at the Government Dock at 9:30am with bikes for today’s adventure on Eleuthera Island. For $20 ($10 each) we both had round trip tickets.
Yes Dear is located where the red arrow head is. We ferried across to north Eleuthera Island the biked the 3 miles across. This area looks like it has the chicken pox with all the rocks and corral heads.
There must have been 20+ cars parked at Gene’s Bay dock landing. The only car rental on north Eleuthera Island is several miles a way at the airport. If you want to rent a car you can arrange it by credit card and they will leave a car for you at the Gene’s Bay dock with the keys in it. Likewise when you return it, just park it and leave the keys in it. There is virtually no car theft in Eleuthera. If you steal one, where are you going to go?
Taking our lives in our hands we were off on our bikes to look for the Sapphire Blue Hole and Preachers Cave.
Termite mound about 3.5 ft tall.
Then on to Preachers Cave. In 1648 William Sayle and, a group of Christians seeking religious freedom from Bermuda, were shipwrecked off the Devil’s Back Bone reef and took refuge at Preacher’s Cave after coming ashore. The island’s first religious services were held here and for about 100 years afterwards, earning the cave its name. A rock in the back of the cave was used as the alter.
The Atlantic and Devils Back Bone was a short walk.
To the west a boat was crabbing through Devils Backbone cut to the Atlantic. Glad it wasn’t us with 5+ feet waves hitting on the beam. We will not be doing this. We will be leaving Spanish Harbour from a different route.
Then around Long Point in the east came a pilot boat its customer through Devils Backbone. The safe passage line is surprisingly close to shore through this section. The charts minimally recommend you hire a local pilot the first time you navigate these waters. The sand shoals are rearranged every time there is a storm. Dangerous waters and they too are taking it on the beam. Yes Dear will not be doing this either.
The morning was still young
so we ventured on to Long Point.
HA. All we saw at then end of the road was a no trespassing sign so we turned around and went back.
Returning to Spanish Wells
The car ferry service is provided by a Mennonite large family that lives on North Eleuthera. They are fairly well known in the Mennonite faith community so it is not unusual for Mennonites to visit this area.
Pretty rental cottages
Log cabin? Yes!
Ferry passing freighter being unloaded.
And then there was laundry to do. There are no public laundromats in Spanish Wells. The woman who live is the house in front of the dock will let people use her washing machine for $4 a load. No dryer. So we hung things out to dry. With beautiful weather like this clothes and towels were dry in under 2 hours.
Mary loves it here!
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The conversion rate for Bahamian money to USD money is 1:1. The Bahamian and the USD money can be used interchangeably as legal tender. One thing we have noticed is that if you pay in USD the merchants try to provide your change in USD.
March 21, 2019 Thursday Papa Docks,
Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera
0 nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W
25.542958, -76.760596
Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
Living large. The owner of the Papa Docks marina where we are staying let us borrow her buggy (golf cart) for the day. Road Trip!!!!!! St. George’s Cay (a.k.a. Spanish Wells) is ~1.5 miles long and Russell Island is ~3.5 miles long.
First we wanted to re-trace many of the places in Spanish Wells that we bicycled yesterday.
Morning rush 10am buggies, ferries, freighters and cars
Check out what’s new in the harbor. Pinder’s Taxi is being brought back on a car ferry from Eleuthera mainland.
Next stop Kathy’s Bakery
Kathy’s Bakery. Fresh loaves set out rise. Johnny Cake rising under the pastry cloth.
We bought Johnny Cake from Kathy. Johnny Cake on Spanish Wells is not like Johnny Cake in the USA as there is no corn meal in it. Johnny Cake is sold in two sizes, the traditional frying pan size and the smaller 5-6 inch size. In the USA we call the smaller size Johnny cakes English muffins!
And then off to Russell Island.
Russell Island Bridge
Russell Island Harbor
Property lines along the harbour were delineated by low rock fences and with a row of trees. There were no buildings on any of the plots.
Russell Island Harbor Entrance
Houses. The houses were neighbors. Both coral and blue.
Orchards and Agriculture
Don’t know what this is
Pineapples
Banana grove
Banana grove
There were several men clearing land with machetes. At another location we saw a man manually digging holes in the very rocky landscape to plant banana trees. Hard hot work!
Easier way to clear underbrush
Russell Island north – the waves are crasshing about a mile out. The water depth out to the waves is 3 feet or less (most of it less and dry in low tide).Russell Island south
People were jumping off the Russell Island bridge when we returned to Spanish Wells.
Bridge jump. One mid air. Two on deck.
Living large. Our last adventure of the day was to find fresh lobster for supper.
Our new friend Tim from Budda’s told us to check out Deek at his dock around 2:30pm. Score!!!! Two 3# spiny lobsters for Mary and Dale. Deek dressed them out for us.
The selection
The catch
The kill.
The weigh in
The tail removal
The Lobster fat (Deek says it’s good. He eats it on toast.)
The butterflied for the grill
Supper was heads and tails prepared two different ways. First course boiled heads and legs. We were surprised at how much sweet meat was in the antenna bases and the legs.
before
after (check out our lobster cracking tools)
Second course barbecued tails marinated in a little olive oil, Worcestershire sauce and garlic, as Deek recommended.
Flipped. They’ll be done in 5 minutes.
Feast paused for picture.
The lobster was as good as it looks! They were so large we could only eat a 1/2 tail each. Left overs tomorrow!
Mary loves it here!
Spring. It also comes in yellow and white.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Spanish Wells is the spiny lobster (langouste) capital of the Bahamas. Bahamas’ lobsters, called crawfish by the locals, are prepared and boxed for export by Ronald Seafood processing at the Spanish Wells dock. Ronald Seafood supplies the Red Lobster restaurant chain, as well as many high-end European eateries.
Crawfishing started in Spanish
Wells about 20 years ago and quickly transformed the community from a hard-luck
fishing village into one of the wealthiest settlements in the Caribbean.
March 20, 2019 Wednesday Papa
Docks, Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera 0 nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W
25.542958, -76.760596
Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
We took the bikes off the boat and were out and about.
North West side of Spanish Well looking towards Russell Island and the Atlantic. There is a vast area of very shallow water between the island and the reef. The dot in the middle of the picture is a man out walking around in the shallow water. Much of this is dry at low tide.
Grocery Store. As you enter there is a section where local vendors sell their wares. PostIts on the shelves identify the names of the vendors. Local breads are made by Tony, Bonnie and Marilyn. Local preserves and spices are by A&K, Lizzy and Katie .
The local cemetery was really colorful with all the plastic flowers on loved ones graves.
The anchor on this sailboat dragged last night in the big blow. Hopefully, but doubtful, with the super moon tide they will be able to get it into deeper water.
Budda’s
Budda and his African Greys
Budda, birds and May
The lovely bartender Paige and charming patron Tim. Budda’s is a great place!
Houses and Yards
It even has plastic flamingos in the yard
Mary loves it here!
Neighbors
Men at work. The pig guy, Walter, Dale and the kid. The guy in the green shirt owns the pigs on the local pig island. He has two boats on the dock next to ours. Dale and Walter were giving him advice on how to put in a fresh water pump for the pigs.
Walter and his wife have a huge catamaran on the other side the dock we are on. Walter has dual citizenship with USA and Portugal. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and French. Last year he was invited to present a paper in Lisbon, Portugal disputing San Salvador Island as the first island Columbus landed on. Walter believes Columbus first landed on Egg Island which is about ~5 miles west of Spanish Wells. (San Salvador Island is ~150 miles south east of Spanish Wells ) He has read/studied all of Columbus’s manuscript accounts in the original language and sailed around both Egg Island/Spanish Wells/North Eleuthera and San Salvador Island.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The term equinox has been derived
from the Latin word Equinoxium. It means ‘equality between day and night’. When Julius Caesar established the Julian
calendar in 45 BC, he set 25 March as the date of the spring equinox. (you probably knew this)
Now ponder this. Equinox is a
phenomenon that can occur on any planet with a significant tilt to its
rotational axis. Saturn gets in on the equinox action too and like Earth has an
equinox every spring and autumn! The equinox places its ring system edge-on
facing the Sun. With a trip around the sun taking Earth 30 years, Saturn’s
equinoxes occur about every 15 years. The most recent exact equinox for Saturn
was on 11 August 2009. Its next equinox will take place on 6 May 2025.
Bonus points – Tonight is the last
super moon of 2019.
Traditionally , according to the The Old Famer’s Almanac, the full moon
we see in March is called the Full Worm
Moon. At this time of the year, the ground begins to soften enough for
earthworm casts to reappear, inviting robins and birds to feed—a true sign of
spring. Roots start to push their way up through the soil, and the Earth
experiences a re-birth as it awakens from its winter slumber.
March 19, 2019 Tuesday Papa Docks, Spanish
Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera 0
nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W
25.542958, -76.760596
Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
At the boat wash. Today was a clean
the boat day. Yes Dear hadn’t had a good bath since Cape Coral, Florida. We scrubbed
her down using the brackish water from the hose on the dock.
Weak minded doing brite work. It isn’t so much as Mary is working but to show you Papa Docks, the dockage we are at. It’s 3 docks behind a house on the creek. (The creek is really a narrow saltwater channel between Isle St George and Russell Island.)
Big event for the day was walking
to the grocery store for milk and lunch meat.
Tire Guy
Harbor side hotel. Jim and Suzie you
would love it here.
Fresh catch corral
Happy hour. We didn’t stop.
Traffic jam.
House with flowering fruit tree! and
shell garden.
The reason we are in this dockage
for the week arrived at 5:00 PM. Wind changed 180 degrees and picked up 30+
knots. The skys darkened. Mary reworked the spring lines while Dale battened
hatches. Then it rained. And rained. Driving rain. Water surged down creek. Yes
Dear rocked and the spring lines did their job.
OMG when a gust hits! Yes Dear got her fresh water rinse down from this
mornings wash.
The wind is supposed to drop around
4:00 am tomorrow morning.
Mary loves it here!
Neighbors
The sailboat had a fouled mast line. I wonder how they were able to get the power company utility truck out to help.Neighbors behind. Low tide and high tide. Approx 2.5-3 feet tide.
BTW. We here at Papa Docks for a week. $125 plus electricity. One heck of a deal. No potable water though.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
“Confronting a storm is like
fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary
way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting.” ~ Francis LeGrande
March 18, 2019 Monday The Bluff Settlement, Eleuthera to Papa Docks, Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay, Eleuthera 3.5 nautical miles.
25°32’34.7″N 76°45’38.2″W 25.542958, -76.760596 Elevation: 0 ft
Mary loves it here!
Along the Way
The Tobin’s snuck into Spanish
Wells from the back door entrance.
Welcome sign
Manatees?!??
Back door entrance where catamaran is coming out
Once through we hung a port and continued down the ‘creek’ to look for our dock.
Walk about.
Marina shipyard. Boats are pulled out on the rails and stacked on the blocks to work on them.
For real
Shipyard Point looking across to Gun Point. Gun Point to Harbour Island is the most dangerous water in the Bahamas. Doesn’t really look that ways does it? There is a huge coral reef called “The Devil’s Backbone” that has brought down many boats. Many insurance companies require you to follow a pilot boat (~$100) the first time you navigate these waters. We are skipping this and going out another way.
Shipyard Point looking across to Gun Point.
Mary loves it here! It’s quaint. Almost every house is immaculate and freshly painted.
Transportation on the cay is primarily golf carts. Lots of them! And crazy drivers! I never new golf carts could go that fast. There are cars and other vehicles too.
Spanish Wells front door entrance.
Spanish Wells front door entrance. Notice the garbage/recycle boat tied to the portside wall. Not sure where it is headed. We saw another one when we were in Governors Harbour.
Of course we needed to stop where the welcome sign suggested. Budda’s Snack Shack.
Dale’s Kalick beer, the free Miami Vice rum drink the bartender gave us when she made too much and Mary’s Dizzy Budda. The color is a little scary on the Dizzy Budda. Miami Vice drink??? I’ve never heard of it before I was in Eleuthera. I’ve now heard of it the second time in less than a week. Am I behind times?
Spanish Wells does have a swimming pig island. We’re not going to visit it.
Neighbors
Steve on boat FREE PRAYER is a real pirate! Traveling solo, he was a neighbor for all of 2 hours then left for the Current Cut headings towards Government Harbour. Loved the earring.
Pulling out
Underway
Under our boat
A large puffer fish unpuffed
Spotted eagle ray
Unlike The Exumas and further down Eleuthera, we don’t hear or see chickens 24×7. A barking dog is a rarity. I kinda miss the chickens.
The flies, mosquitoes and no-see-ums are terrible.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Spanish Wells originated from a
ship wreck off “Devil’s Backbone” in 1647. Among
other, later, groups of settlers were Crown loyalists, who left the United
States after the American Revolutionary War. It is noticeably more caucasian
and more affluent than any town we’ve visted in the Bahamas so far, except for
Nassaua.
March 17, 2019 Sunday Glass Bridge,
Eleuthera , Eleuthera to The Bluff Settlement, Eleuthera 24.6 nautical miles.
25°29’39.1″N 76°44’47.3″W
25.494199, -76.746484
Elevation: 0 ft
Happy St Patricks Day. No corned
beef for us today.
Along the Way
Glass Bridge – Last Look
Current Cut is a very fast and strong current in a narrow 100 yard wide cut, reaching depths up to 60 feet, between Eleuthera at Current Settlement and Current Island. The water moves at speeds up to 10 knots.
We planned out all the contingencies, studied the chart, tides, and depths, and talked it through a million ways from Sunday before deciding to go ahead. As you pass through, there’s no room for error as the water churns even on calm days and slack tide.
The infamous Current Cut
Old ferry location
New ferry location
The Current Cut considered by some
to be one of the top “drift dive sites in the world. Definitely one of the top
in The Bahamas
Tonight’s anchorage.
The Bluff Settlement. Yet another area of Eleuthera that could benefit from Parrot fish (the sand pooping fish).
March 16, 2019 Saturday Government
Harbour, Eleuthera to Glass Bridge, Eleuthera 24.6 nautical miles.
25°25’57.0″N 76°36’08.0″W
25.432502, -76.602232
Elevation: 0 ft
Governor Harbor pulling anchor. As close as this blow boat anchored to us they should have invited us for breakfast.
Along the Way
Alice Town Hatch Bay Harbour was our original destination for today. It has a narrow cut and a huge inside natural bay. The day was young and the weather cooperative so we wandered on, preferring not to be in a settlement (town) with other boats.Gregory Town Pitmans Cove – The chart book says there is room for one boat to anchor. Looks like they all ready have their one.Stalagtite Wall just north of Pitman Cove
Stairs – If there is a will there is a way. Imagine all that work! All that labor moving rock, laying cement, building stairs. $$$$$ Further more, what are you going to do when you get down to the water? No beach, no dock. Nothing but Swiss cheese rocks.
Watch the last step
Glass Bridge – The Glass Bridge high is the narrowest point on Eleuthera. Only 30 feet of rock separate rich blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the calm Bight of Eleuthera. The weather was cooperating with us. The spectacular beauty of waves were not. When winds are from the east waves surge through under the bridge. Not today.
The original Glass Bridge was
destroyed in March 2018 by high waves from Winter Storm Riley and replace later
that year. Pretty ugly bridge, huh? Next
time it is replaced hopefully it will benefit from some civil engineering
design.
Glass Bridge
Atlantic side
Eleuthera Bight side
Glass Bridge Bar.
Have bar. Will find.
Rain garden??
Yes Dear is in the back
Yard work
There is a lot of communication and
electrical cable on the bottom of the water through out The Bahamas. Many
anchorages have cautions and instruct you to watch where you anchor. This area
was heavily laden with cable.
Swiss Cheese rocks
Atlantic Baby Swiss
Glass Bridge Loraine Swiss
Eleuthera Bite Swiss
Queens Bath Bahamas Heritage Site (Queens Swiss cheese) – Cooperative Weather != Spectacular beauty of Waves.
So long old friends. I doubt you will be able to last through another walk with the bottoms falling off and Swiss cheese holes through the soles.
Neighbors
Lenny Kravitz has a place just south of where we are anchored. You’d have gotten a picture had I known it when we when by. The beach on his property is the local nude beach.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
A conch shell is 95% calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is not broken down by biological processes. This explains why there are so many mounds of old conch shells.
March 15, 2019 Friday Rock Sound, Eleuthera
to Government Harbour, Eleuthera 0 nautical miles.
25°11’36.5″N 76°14’55.0″W
25.193475, -76.248615
Elevation: 0 ft
Getting ready to pull anchor. Anchor chain and drag pattern in 8 feet of water. We moved around a lot before the wind settled down.
Along the Way
Mary’s bummed that has to wear more clothes in the Eleuthera than she did in the Exumas. In the Exumas she was overdressed when she wore her swimsuit and beach cover-up, primarily because her beach cover-up really did cover her up. Here in Eleuthera she needs to put on shorts and shirt. Civilization!
Government Harbor Bay
Cupids Cay
Cupids Cay Government Dock
Governors Harbor
Governors Harbor harbor looking north from Cupids Cay. Governors Harbor town is on the right. Yes Dear is on the left.
Cupids Cay – Home of the first Parliament
Site of the First Consulate General of the United States of America. Established in July 1789
Government Harbor town
Police station
Movie Theater. Sign in window ways ‘No Movie having technical problems.’ There probably hasn’t been movies here in years! I heard you can get a good hamburger here.
St. Patrick’s Anglican Church
Haynes Library. Built by Governor William Frederick Haynes Smith in 1897. It is the oldest Government Complex on the EleutheraProvincial Governor’s Mansion. Currently and administration building. Why are government buildings always pink?
The Conch Ninja himself
They were still alive and moving. Ick.
Today is Friday! We’re coming back tonight.
The conchs are from The Exhumas. Per the Conch Ninja, it is illegal to harvest conch on the Caribbean side of Eleuthera.
There are more chickens here than on a poultry farm!
The three ladies were shy and ran between the graves
Neighbors
Fish Fry and Conch Ninja – The part was here on the beach tonight (and every Friday night from 6pm to 1am). There were several hundred people here.
Conch Ninja salad
Conch Ninja fritters
Fish Fry grill
Fish Fry order counter
Sam the limbo king. He took it down about 3 more inches after this!
Living large tonight
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The word
yacht is of Dutch origin, meaning hunter, and referred to the type of vessel
that was preferred for local pirates and brigands—handy for quickly seizing
goods and making an escape.
March 13/14, 2019 Wednesday/Thursday
Rock Sound, Eleuthera to Tarpum Head 7.9
nautical miles.
24°54’58.9″N 76°12’28.4″W
24.916366, -76.207880
Elevation: 0 ft
I’ll take Thursday. Wednesday was a
bust. It was so windy we didn’t leave the boat even for a short dingy ride to
the dingy dock. Thursday was windy too
but not as bad as Wednesday. Mary MADE Dale take her into shore Thursday. Dale
had a severe case of boat fever (like cabin fever) and Mary needed to get him off
the boat!
Dale was back to his wonderful self
by the end of the day.
Along the Way
Top o’ the Morning in search of the Boiling Hole and Catherdral Cave Bahamas National Trust eco park about .6 mile south of town.The Boiling Hole is a blue hole that connects to Rock Sound Harbor near sea level. It wasn’t boiling today because the wind was from dead east, the wrong direction.The Signing Tree
Cathedral Cave Entrance
New Entrance
Old Entrance
We were amazed to see the wooden rails and stair cases. This ‘park’ is part of the Bahamas National Trust. Explains why…
Boiling Hole and Cathedral Cave are part of the Bahamas National Trust.Next stop Groceries at the north end of town! OMG. Dale thumbed a ride.
Around town
under construction
cat in door way
liquor store
Frigate’s restaurant
$20 car wash
notice the ramp on the right side
Toyota WiLL vi
Freight pick up at Government Dock
Dale again succumbed to Mary’s nagging
moved Yes Dear to a different anchorage out side the harbour where we could
dingy to a beach Mary could walk.
Mary was in her glory
walking the beach looking for shells and anything else she could find in the
water. Dale obligingly yes dear followed here with his fishing pole. The
afternoon was spent fishing and shelling, sadly not catching and finding.
Top and bottom. There were colonies of palm sized starfish. Most of the were red with a few of this type mixed in. Red ones didn’t have the highly defined feet.
Mary’ had some great pictures but she managed to fry the underwater camera so that’s over and done with ☹
HA. When we got back to the boat
Dale said he had a great day.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Eleuthera has
a lot of caves. It also has a lot of cenotes (“ocean holes”)
and thousands of sinkholes. Eleuthera is kinda like the land of swiss cheese.
Very sharp swiss cheese.
The Lucayan people (early Bahamians) believed that caves were the
gateway to the afterlife, and thus buried their dead in caves.
Centuries-old Indian remains are still occasionally discovered in remote caves.
March 12, 2019 Tuesday Highbourne Cay, Exhumas to Rock Sound, Eleuthera 41.1 nautical miles.
24°51’42.7″N 76°09’36.6″W
24.861869, -76.160160
Elevation: 0 ft
Shall we stay or shall we go? We shall stay in the Bahamas and not go back to the US, yet. The transmission and the generator are purring. Good bye to the Tongue of the Ocean and The Exhumas. Hello Exuma Sound, Eleuthera Bight and Rock Sound Eleuthera.
Along the Way
Fate was with us. We has a smooth passage all the way to Eleuthera.
Exhuma Sound – Unbelievably blue water at over 1000 feet deepDavis Channel is the only safe route from Exuma Sound to the Bight of Eleuthera. The water through this passages is 9-14 feet. We could see fish and nurse sharks as we traveled through.Duecy Rocks Welcoming Committee. The only other time we saw dolphins in The Bahamas was when we were in the Berries. Rock Sound looks more like a town from the harbor than what it is really is.
Fresh fish sale at the dingy dock. Lots of people were diving their cars down to buy fresh grouper. When we walked by the first time the table was mounded with grouper. They cleaned and sold fish the entire time we walked around town.
Ocean Hole (Blue Hole) 600 feet deep and at some level connects to the ocean.
Watching the fish slowly appear and fade into the abyss was mesmerizing
Goodnight
No green flash tonight as we are looking across land on the west side of the bay.OMG. Rock Sound has street lights!
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Captain William Sayles and
a group of Puritans, known as the Eleutheran Adventurers, sailed from Bermuda
in search of religious freedom. Along the way, they found this beautiful gem of
an island and named it Eleuthera. From the Greek word “eleuthero” or “eleuther”,
Eleuthera means “free” or “freedom.”
Disambiguation
Just about anything bigger than a rubber raft or a surf board
can be called a boat. Submarines are always called boats.
Any yacht can be called a boat (but you might offend the
owner). There are plenty of boats that can not be called yachts.
A boat becomes a yacht when it is capable of sustaining one or more people, for several days and nights in “relative” comfort. IE. The boat has an enclosed cabin or interior space (safe from the weather) that has accommodations for: – space and at least minimum necessary equipment for sleeping for one or more people; – space and at least minimum necessary equipment for cooking and preparing meals and storage for food and water; – space and at least minimum necessary equipment/facilities for taking care of bathroom needs and storage thereof.
Yes Dear is a yacht. (Mary thinks it sounds pretentious)
A yacht is a mega-yacht at the point where the skipper, deck
officers and the engineer need a proper qualification.
There are no mega-yachts in here in Rock Point Harbour. There are twenty-one sailing vessels and one other motor vessel.
March 11, 2019 Monday Normans Cay ,
Exhumas to Highbourne Cay, Exhumas 11.3
nautical miles.
24°42’50.2″N 76°49’48.0″W
24.713933, -76.830007
Elevation: 0 ft
Wow. We completely missed daylight
savings yesterday. No wonder Mary was confused between the tide charts and the
seman’s eye.
Along the Way
Iguanas at Allan’s Cay.
Shelling. Dang they were alive so I couldn’t keep them ☹
Tulip Shell
Helmet Shell – I hope it makes it. The tide was out and it was frying on the beach. Mary carried it out to deeper water.
Snorking around the anchorage. It’s really hard to take good pictures of fish.
Mr Grumpy
Neighbors
Electric Hydrofoil Surfboard
So what’s it really like being in Bahamas?
Love the days and hate the nights.
I’ve mentioned this before and have to do it again. It is
windy here! There is either too much or too little. Rarely is there a happy
medium.
The water is beautiful and there is always a place to
explore. The wind may be annoying sometimes but never a kill joy.
Now for the nights, it’s a different story. When it’s windy Dale doesn’t like the rollies when we sleep in the aft cabin. Mary doesn’t like the thumpwacking wave noise of the fore cabin when we sleep up there.
It is plain old Minnesota hot and sticky when there is no wind so hard to sleep. There is no crispness to the sheets. The humidity makes them stick to you. The hatch in the fore cabin does make it a bit cooler.
Water and batteries are ongoing challenges. Yes Dear is currently
not set-up to be a long term Bahamas boat. It would be nice to have solar
panels to keep the batteries topped off when anchoring in the same location for
more than a night. The house battery completely depletes if we sit and the
generator can’t run all the time. Essentials like the refrigerator, head
(toilet) motors and water heater are battery draining. We use the solar lights at
night and apply the rule “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it
down”. Mary uses one head and the Dale the other.
We try to limit the generator under 3 hours a day when we
need to sit in one location for more than a day. Running the boat engines about 2+ hours everyday
keeps the batteries near the sweet spot.
Then there is the water thing. Great showers, drain the water
heater showers, are not an option if you’d like potable water for cooking, doing
dishes, washing hands and brushing teeth. The best we get is a spong bath or a wash
in the the salt water then a rinse from the outdoor shower. Just like planning
for fuel we need to plan for where we can get water.
From what I can see it’s
about the same for many of the other ‘normal people’ boats too. The $$$ boats I’m
sure don’t have these ‘normal people’ issues.
Are we still having Fun? Absolutely.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Mary’s Boat Demographics SWAGs
(Single Wild Ass Guesses)
**** Boat Length **** ( MV = motor vessel )
MV Yacht >200
0.5%
MV Yacht 100-200
4.5%
MV Yacht 50-100
4.0%
MV Yacht <50
2.0%
Sailing Vessels
89.0%
Total
100.0%
**** Sailing Vessels ****
Catamaranas
30%
Other sailboats
70%
Total
100%
**** Port of Origin ****
Canada
60%
US
35%
Other
5%
Total
100%
Disambiguation
Vessel vs Boat vs Yacht vs Ship???? It’s confusing. Definitions
for Vessels, Boats, Yachts and Ships vary from source to source.
On occasion, State law enforcement agencies, manufacturers
or other interested parties will ask the Coast Guard what laws and regulations
apply to a particular device being used, or considered for use, on the water.
The Coast Guard’s first step is to determine whether or not the particular
device in question is a “vessel”. The process begins with the
definition of the word vessel found in 1 USC 3, which is: “The word
“vessel” includes every description of watercraft or other artificial
contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on
water.”
The following have been determined to be vessels by the Coast Guard.
Paddleboard
Argo-Amphibious ATV
Kiteboard
Float Tubes
Gold Dredges
Interestingly, this determination is limited to the
application of regulations administered by the U.S. Coast Guard and does not
reflect the opinion of any other department or agency of the federal government.
One
dictionary source I looked at simply defines vessel as a ship or large boat.
U.S. Coast Guard §174.3 provides definitions for Vessel
Types. (You can look that up). Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard defines a
yacht as a vessel over 26 feet in length.
In another other definition I found,
yacht lengths range from 10 metres (33 ft) up to dozens of meters (hundreds of
feet). A luxury craft smaller than 12 metres (39 ft) is more commonly called a
cabin cruiser or simply a cruiser.
