Harbour Island Eleuthra ranks right up there as a challenging place for sailboats to reach. Unlike the Jumentos & Ragged Islands which took us an extra day coming and going to reach because we had to sail 20 miles east then right back 20 miles west, in order to reach Harbour Island by boat, one has to first cross the “Devil’s Backbone” a short by comparison 2.5 miles of shallow reefs with “numerous coral heads” lurking just below the water’s surface. The inexperienced sailor is advised to hire a local captain for the day to make this passage along the northern tip of Eleuthra from Spanish Wells eastward, and not to make a go of it alone, as there are numerous tales of boats running aground or worse. Additionally even experienced captains are advised only make this trip with the sun overhead (to better see the coral heads) and only in settled weather.
Well, Captain Harry was pretty confident that we could save the $100 plus dollars for a captain and make a go of crossing over the Devil’s Backbone alone, provided the weather was calm and sunny. We were ready to position Juno near Spanish Wells for this adventure. However, the weather forecasts were not cooperating as squalls were forecast for the next several days. Additionally, assuming we could cross the Devil’s Backbone and escape any major catastrophes, we’d have to cross back over the reef stricken backbone a second time on our return trip from Harbour Island else exit by way of a narrow shallow cut southeast of Harbour Island which presented unique challenges of its own. Faced with these realities, our enthusiasm for taking Juno to Harbour Island waned. We looked into buying tickets to take the mailboat that runs Fri-Sunday, weather permitting, but our inquiry suggested that they were cancelling this run on account of the weather.
Persisting in finding a workable methods of getting to Harbour Island by the land route, we found we would have to taxi or hitch hike about 15 miles past the airport to the site of a water taxi for a 10 minute, and only $5 ride to Harbour Island. This option sounded preferable best undertaken today when the squall chances were the lowest. Ironically, as the crow flies, Harbour Island is only about 3.5 miles north of our current anchorage at the Queen’s Baths.
So after breakfast, we laid down more chain on our anchor to absorb any high winds should a squall hit while we were gone for the day and started hitch hiking figuring we’d call a cab if we didn’t get a ride within 30 min. There wasn’t a lot of traffic but within 5 minutes, a pickup truck stopped to pick us up and off we went. Shortly thereafter, we stopped to pickup another hitchhiker going to the airport where our free ride ended. We tipped out driver then set out on foot to walk the 1.3 miles to the water taxi, getting another lift right to the water taxi that took off as soon as we got on board.
The water taxi sat about 12 passengers, many of whom were either employees of the resorts on clients of the resorts on the island. The island was originally the capital of the Bahamas and was settled by loyalists in the late 1700’s. It is described as having New England-like cottages, but it’s best asset, is a 3 mile long white sandy beach protected from the ocean swells by a reef. We visited the government office to mail three letters we’d been waiting to post for nearly a month, walked a portion of the beach, took a swim, enjoyed a tasty lunch outdoors at the Coral Sands Resort overlooking the beach, then walked back through the little town, and took the water taxi back to the mainland followed by a land taxi back to Juno.
We found Juno had escaped the rain showers we had seen earlier popping up on the radar, and as it was warm, sunny and calm, we each spent an hour in the water cleaning the scum off the bottom of Juno, getting out just before the rains arrived around 5:00 pm. Still full from our lunch, the cook got an easy night preparing a salad for dinner. Afterward, it was time for baking a loaf of bread which rose in the oven so much that the loaf sealed the lid closed and requiring the two of us to pry the lid loose.
In the end, we were glad we had visited Harbour Island as it was a pretty place. A fair number of American tourists were there like Nassau, but it didn’t exude wealth and extravagance or Vegas the way Paradise Island does. It was also nice because the locals were around. We saw school kids in the streets, fishermen cleaning their catch of barracuda, and men native men hanging out in the shade of trees by the docks.
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