Spanish Wells is made up of two islands – St. George’s Cay and Russell Island. St. George’s Cay is where most of the infrastructure is, while Russell Island is almost entirely residential. Although Spanish Wells is set up well to support cruisers, it’s primarily a fishing town – tourism isn’t their main industry. There’s a good sized fishing fleet, and during lobster season (which runs from August to March 31), the “smacks” (the local name for the big boats) and their pangas are always coming and going. We stopped in at Ronald’s Seafood, where the catch is offloaded, to get some lobster tails.
There are a couple hardware/marine supply stores where you can get things like gas cans, fiberglass supplies, and various relatively common boat parts; a few fuel docks; and R&B Boat Yard if you find yourself in need of repairs. You can also find propane on 14th Street after 5pm at one of the locals’ homes.
Food Fair is one of the best grocery stores we’ve found down here – relatively large and well-stocked. And every other Saturday, there’s a farmers’ market by the Methodist church. While it’s more focused on arts and crafts and prepared food, some of the farmers from Eleuthera come over to sell fresh produce. We picked up some nice tomatoes and a big bag of batata (also known as a Cuban sweet potato), which is a white sweet potato, slightly more mild and sweet than the orange-fleshed version we’re all used to.
After a sporty crossing from Soldier Cay, we dropped the hook on the east side of Meeks Patch, a pair of small uninhabited islands just south of Spanish Wells. Neither of us was feeling great and it was later in the day, so anchoring out seemed much easier than racing against the setting sun to try to get a mooring. It was a nice spot with decent protection and our friends on V Twin turned out to be in the same anchorage. We’d end up returning to this spot throughout our time in the area.
Both of us came down with something while we were on passage, so we spent the first few days isolating on the boat. I really wanted to get ashore and start exploring, but I also didn’t want to get anyone sick. We’re not sure if it was a flu, COVID, or something else, but whatever it was, we were both down for the count.
The Spanish Wells mooring field is tight, but we picked up a mooring between Rosa dos Ventos (who we’d seen in Deltaville last year) and V Twin, who had come in ahead of us. Later in the day, Island Dancer, who had been at anchor in West Palm with us and also at the docks in Great Harbour, picked up the mooring RIGHT next to us. They’re at least 60′, and we were concerned that we wouldn’t have enough room if the boats didn’t swing just perfectly. Fortunately, the stars (and winds/currents) aligned, and we never bumped. They only stayed a couple days, and we rested easier once we didn’t have them so close.
After about a week on the moorings, we went back out on anchor for a while and then moved into the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven ahead of some stormy weather. The marina is nice, the fairway is huge, they have a pretty pool and we enjoyed their restaurant, Wreckers, which has a perfect sunset view.
We also had a few nice dinners at The Shipyard on the east end of the island, and their upstairs bar is a great spot to shoot some pool, catch a game or take in the views in a more casual setting. Budda’s Snack Shack (which also has a good liquor store) is great for casual dining – think burgers/fried chicken – in a semi open-air setting. They have a couple of parrots, one of which cracked us up when it started meowing at the big black cat that hangs around.
We walked from the marina all the way to the Sandbar on Russell Island for brunch (a 6 mile round trip!), but it was totally worth it, although I do wish we’d rented a cart or gone in by dinghy on a calmer day. I had their breakfast poutine, which was to die for. Also on Russell Island is J’s Conch Shack – their tropical conch salad may be the best we’ve had in The Bahamas (we got ours with goat pepper, a Bahamian pepper similar to a habanero).
Aside from the restaurants, lots of locals serve food out of their homes. If you keep an eye out, you can find pizza, Bahamian dinners, ice cream (Papa’s Scoops is open every evening serving two continually-changing flavors of soft serve), sweets and more. We also discovered a cute little coffee cart, Savy Styles & Treats. She sells cappuccino, lattes, coffee, muffins & treats, and handmade jewelry & bikinis from a cart down across from the entrance channel three days a week.
Our morning walks lead us to the north side beach, where there’s a protected lagoon and beautiful sandbar, and if you catch the light just right, there’s a hint of pink.
As we often do, we explored a bit by dinghy, taking Squall up through the mangroves and into some of the little coves and creeks on the Russell Island side of the channel.
We saw a sign for a Sunday farmers market, which turned out to be more of an artisan’s market with a few things like honey, pickled veggies, and homemade banana bread, at the home of Virginia Parks. We intended to make a quick stop, but ended up staying at least three hours for coffee and some wonderful conversation, and met a couple who had retired to the island and two other cruising couples. Virginia also cooks semi-private dinners that look absolutely amazing – you need to arrange with her well in advance (she was booked the whole time we were there), and we definitely plan to reach out when we visit next year.
There are several fishing and excursion companies on the island, and we ended up hiring Black in Blue Charters to take us to Nassau to get some paperwork for the sale of our apartment notarized. We had planned to fly, but the way flights and hotels worked out, the charter was cheaper, and we had a beautiful day for the crossing. Joshua was great – he picked us up and dropped us off at the marina, was on time, friendly and professional, and if we end going fishing or planning an excursion in the area, I’d go with them again.
We’re constantly being reminded that the cruising world is a funny, and very small, one. The boat that was across the dock from us in the marina is named Lillian Gray, the same name as the boat a couple of our friends at Huguenot bought last year. Since it’s not a particularly common name, I introduced myself and asked about their previous boat. Turns out they are, in fact, the previous owners of our friends’ boat and were happy to hear she’s gone to a good home (and our friends were happy to hear the story of the name, as they were curious who she was – Lillian was the wife’s grandmother). We’ve also run into two other couples who know Windara‘s previous owners. Definitely a small world out here!
Speaking of which, nautical photographer Onne van der Wal ended up down the dock from us on his trawler, Snow Goose. I had hoped to (re)introduce myself (I did one of his on the water photography workshops a few years back), but I never got a chance. Still, it was pretty neat to end up in the same marina with one of my photographic idols.
We really love Spanish Well, and I could see us getting property here someday (assuming we could afford it!), and I’m sure this will become one of our regular destinations. We enjoyed getting to know the community, and it was nice to mix up being on a mooring or a slip, or go out on anchor, and I’ll share our time on anchor at Meeks Patch in a separate post.
