On Monday, April 21, the crescent moon was still glowing brightly even after the sun had fully risen.
Saturday and Sunday were quiet days. Farther south on Meeks Island was a farm that had pigs. Many of the tour boats that had been speeding by us were on their way to/from the pig farm. On Saturday, our big outing was a dinghy ride to see the pigs. We followed the island south.
We’d anchored near the area that we’d explored a few days prior. We noticed that there was a staircase carved into the rocks at the area that looked like it had once had a structure, so even though there wasn’t a beach on the west side, it was possible to anchor a dinghy and walk over to the beach on the east side.
This morning, we loaded into the dinghy at 0750 and headed to town. At the mouth of the channel, we watched for turtles, and we saw some. We even briefly caught one on video. Those turtles dive deep fast!
We arrived at the dinghy dock at about 0820. We loaded into the golf cart and arrived at the only restaurant that appeared to be open for breakfast, Eagle’s Landing, just as it was opening at 0830. It was in a commercial building next to the grocery store.
Continued... We crossed the bridge to Russell Island. Like Spanish Wells, Russell Island was also narrow and the main road ran through the center of the island. The road was at the top of the hill, and we caught glimpses of the stunning water on both sides as we drove along.
We drove to the end of the road. Later, we found out that there was a trail we could have taken down to a beach on the tip of the island. From what we saw, Russell Island appeared to be mostly residential, and the homes on Russell generally looked newer and bigger than most of the homes on St. George’s Cay. There was a lot of construction in progress. St. George’s Cay also had several homes under construction, too, but those looked to be renovations, whereas on Russell Island, they looked more like new builds.
The moon was again shining brightly as dawn broke on Thursday, April 17, 2025
Sunrise
After doing a little research, we discovered that the island that we’d thought was called Spanish Wells was actually named St. George’s Cay. Originally “discovered” by Christopher Columbus, the trio of islands was given the name Spanish Wells because the Spanish sailing ships would stop there to resupply their water tanks on their way to Central/South America. While the Spaniards had claimed the Bahamian islands as their colony, they didn’t really utilize the land. However, the Spaniards enslaved the indigenous people and shipped them off to their other colonies, leaving the Bahamas uninhabited.
St. George’s Cay was only about 3.5 kilometers long and 800 meters wide, Russell Island was a little over 3 miles long, and together they had a population of about 1,600. As you may have noticed in yesterday’s photos, golf carts were more common than cars.
After we finished our morning school and chores, we dinghied back into town to rent a golf cart. This time, we went east in the channel. The east side was a lot more industrial/commercial than the west side. On the west side, it was mostly pleasure crafts; on the east side, there were more industrial fishing boats. We later found out that Spanish Wells was the fishing capital of the Bahamas, the largest supplier of lobster in the Caribbean, and the only location in warm water to have a certification for sustainable lobstering practices. The fishing industry was the primary source of revenue for this island.
The 2/3 full moon was shining brightly pre-dawn on Wednesday, April 16
Sunrise
The wind would be shifting later today, so we’d need to move north to Russell Island when it did. But since it was only a 20-minute ride, we decided to stay put for as long as was comfortable.
One of the boats that we’d visited with yesterday had kids close in age to Keith. Their boy had come to one of the D & D sessions in George Town. Yesterday, they’d offered to have the kids over to swim by their boat. Eric had also offered to host a D & D session at Kosmos. So this morning, all the kids that play D & D came over and played. Afterwards, they all went over to the other boat to play on the swim toys.
Much to our surprise, two other boats with kids that they were friendly with had anchored near them, with their sterns forming a triangle. The water toys had been deployed in the triangle. They had also run a zip line between two of the boats. The other families that we were friends with had also been invited. Between the seven boats, there were a lot of kids. And they all had a blast playing together.
