Bahamas: Spanish Wells Biking

Day 283

April 19, 2016

NM Today: 7

NM Total: 4322

Since our trip today required we travel a very short distance and we did not have to check out from the marina until 2:00, we had plenty of time to explore Russell Island where Clark had hoped to go the day before when weather stood in the way.  We left on our bikes to go exploring at 9:30 to enjoy the trip in the cool of the morning.

Russell Island is over a one-lane bridge from Spanish Wells.

Roderick Newton Higgs Bridge to Russell Island

One-lane Bridge to Russell Island

On the left-hand side of the road just before the bridge we found a pink motel complete with pink pilings for their docks.

Pretty Pink Pilings at Motel

Before crossing the bridge to Russell Island we explored the park just past the bridge.

After checking out the park grounds we continued down the road to see what else Spanish Wells had to offer before heading back to the bridge. We found a dirt path that looked interesting. We saw no signs saying private property so we ventured forth. The trail was short but rather rough and ended as a “T” at the water’s edge.

Dirt Path to Beach

Beach at the End of the Short Trail

Clark stopped to take the picture of the beach as I walked my bike over for a closer look. When I turned around I swear a very short time later, he had vanished into thin air. I am currently reading a novel set in Wales with a tale based on their belief in fairies, so of course I said to myself when I could not see Clark in any direction, “The fairies took him”. 

I biked down the trail to the left and then the trail to the right of the beach – still no Clark. I decided to head back out to the main road and found him waiting for me. We could see that there was not much of interest further down the road, so we found a turnaround spot by a nice home with an interesting garbage can to head back to the bridge.

Spanish Wells Home

Spanish Wells Garbage Can

(CAT – Caterpillar Inc.)

We made our way back to and across the metal one-lane bridge and onto Russell Island. My first thought upon entering Russell Island was that this was farm land as we passed fields of crops.

Crops on Russell Island (Plantain??)

I had no idea how far Clark intended to travel on Russell Island as there did not appear to be much to see in particular. At one point he stopped to take a picture, and I sailed by him and kept going. The road went up and down rolling hills such that little to no effort was required to just keep going and going and going. I hoped, but doubted, that the ride back to Spanish Wells would prove to be just as much fun.

As I pedaled along I came across “Haiti” complete with the “Haiti Peoples Baptist Church”, island music, roosters crowing, and sheep munching.

Haiti Peoples Church in the Bahamas

Sheep Peaking at us through Fence
(in Haitian Community)

 Several houses sat clustered together next to the church. It appeared to be a small community of Haitians. Since we were in the middle of nowhere and Clark was a ways behind me still taking pictures, I kept on pedaling to see what else was down the road.  I figured Clark could catch up easily.

From that point and onwards the scenery was contradictory, we passed nice resort areas and then we passed the town dump.  As we tootled along, we passed a community named Pelican Bay which I believe is a complete misnomer since I have not seen a single pelican the entire time I have been in the Bahamas. In fact I am very disappointed with the poor showing of birds in the Bahamas in general. I expected more variety than sea gulls!

Pelican Bay Community

Road Down the Hill to Pelican Bay

We continued our very fun bike ride with Clark now in the lead. Again I wondered where he thought we were going and how far he planned to take us, but the bike ride was like a natural roller coaster – Wheee! Down a hill and then up the next with the trick being to see if you could make the uphill without pedaling at all! Several times I managed it to have the momentum from the downhill to carry me up the next.

Just as I was thinking we probably should be turning back, all of a sudden the road ended abruptly as a dead end. I looked at Clark in amazement as I just did not expect that and said so. Clark said he didn’t expect it either – he said he was expecting a view of water! All we could see were trees.

Abrupt End of the Road

Evelyn Sitting at the End of the Road

I noticed that there appeared to be a path through the woods and suggested that perhaps Clark could find his water view if he followed the path. He left his bike with me and went to check it out. He found his pretty view on the other side of the trees.

View after 'End of the Road'

Looking back towards the trees neither the road nor Evelyn could be seen.

Having literally found the end of the line, we started back towards Spanish Wells. I knew the fun roller coaster ride was over when I figured out that the strong wind had been pushing me out and now had to be battled to get back to the boat.

Along the way on our bike ride we noticed several properties for sale – many with existing houses and some without like the one shown below. Interesting that this property with a fabulous view of the ocean sat a short distance from the Haitian community and the town dump.

Ocean-view Property for Sale

As we passed the town dump on the return trip, I noticed that it had a very prominent sign saying “no dumping”. How clever!

For a road to nowhere there seemed to be a considerable amount of traffic. We were passed by cars, garbage trucks, scooters, bikes, and “Crazy Frank” in his golf cart. It seems to me that Crazy Frank spends all day every day riding around in his golf cart. Every time I have gone out in Spanish Wells, I have seen his golf cart usually with him in it, and today here he was on Russell Island. His golf cart includes his name and that of his wife in bold print across the windshield --

     Margaret Rose

       Crazy Frank

I have never seen Margaret Rose with Crazy Frank, but I started to feel like I knew him as we smiled and waved each time we passed each other over the last three days. I wonder what she does for entertainment while he cruises the islands.

Clark did not stop as often to take pictures on the way back as he had on the way out to the end of Russell Island, so we made it back to the boat by 10:30  with plenty of time to prepare for today’s departure. When I got back on the boat, I went on Google to get the number of miles we traveled. Google’s response to my query was “No route found!”

It seems that the piece of road and the bridge that connect the “No Name Road” on Russell Island to Spanish Wells is not in Google’s database. To figure the distance I had to extrapolate, i.e. guess, but it would seem that the bike ride was just about 7 miles long. I loved it!

 We paid our bill at the marina and prepared to leave Spanish Wells Yacht Haven at noon. Clark called ahead to the place where he wished to purchase fuel to let them know he would be there at one o’clock. However, when Clark went to start the starboard engine, nothing happened. Instead of being on our way, Clark was pulling out tool boxes and Yanmar specification documents. He tried several things to trouble shoot the problem to no avail.

I wondered if we would be leaving after all. As I had no idea how long it would take to decide if we were going or staying, I pulled out my novel and read while I waited. Every once in a while I would get an instruction to put the gear shift in forward or reverse. I would comply and go back to reading. Finally Clark threw the Yanmar book to one side disgusted and said it was worthless as it was generic and not specific to his configuration.

In an act of desperation Clark took two screwdrivers and touched them to a magic place on the engine. Sparks flew and the engine started up ready to go! I saw Clark jump back when the engine started. We pulled away from the dock at 1:00 only a half hour later than expected. It is so cool that Clark is so handy!

I asked Clark if we would be able to get the engine started again after we got fuel. He said that he would have to do the screwdriver trick again. We got fuel at an unlikely place – the Spanish Wells power plant. Through Dennis on XYZZY, who inquired at the marina concerning places to go for fuel, Clark found out the cheapest and also most frequently used (i.e. most turn over to assure freshness) fuel could be found at the power plant. We paid $2.82 per gallon of diesel fuel where most places charge well over $3.00 per gallon.

Fuel Dock at Power Plant (white building with blue trim)
(note smoke stacks in picture)

True to his word, after fueling Clark stuck the two screwdrivers into the side of the starboard engine to get her up and running. I saw the sparks fly and we were ready to go.

The anchorage for tonight at Royal Island was only another five miles from the fuel dock, so we were there in no time at all. This particular anchorage is very well protected from all side but south and is a good jumping off point for several destinations. Consequently it is very popular. We have lots of sailboat neighbors for the night.

Royal Island Anchorage

When Clark tried to set the anchor alarm on the lower helm that warns us if the anchor is not holding, he found no connection between the GPS display unit and the antenna.  Now we had two broken items on the boat. At that point we both wondered what else could possibly go wrong.

Clark said he wanted to wait for the engine compartment to cool down before working down there to investigate the starboard engine start problem as his first priority since we have a second GPS for the anchor alarm. Even so, he got down there looking around as soon as we got settled. He had me do the shift forward / reverse thing a few times and had an “ah-ha” moment when he found that the screws were “bottoming out” and not making contact to engage the solenoid to start the engine. He added a washer to the starboard side and found that corrected the start problem. Since the port side had the same screw issue, he added a washer there to prevent the same problem from occurring there in the future.

 After his success story with the engine, he moved on to the GPS problem. Even though the problem appeared on the lower-helm GPS, we had to open up the upper-helm console to get to the wire connections. He traced the GPS problem to a screw that needed to be tightened down, and once that was done the anchor alarm could be set.

The bottom line on today’s problems all comes down to the fact that Clark had a few screws loose! Now all is well with Sea Moss.

Sunset in Royal Island Anchorage

Tomorrow morning’s Chris Parker report will help us decide if we stay here for additional night(s) or move on.