Throwback Thursday - Favorite Places Series - Spanish Wells

Spanish Wells

Posted by TJ

April 

Kintala is in the middle of the row

After some debate we decided to relocate to Spanish Wells for a few days. We need some food and some water, and some ice is good as well. The downside is the irritation of someone throwing a mooring ball down in water they don't own, and then charging for the privilege of tying up to it; particularly when the charge is $20 / night for nothing but a place to anchor. Still, Spanish Wells has limited storage for cruiser boats, six fill the place up. So I guess mooring balls help ... but they would help more at $10 / night instead of $20.

Two of our neighbors on a doggie run

We are staying for a few days because (you guessed it) weather is on the way once again. Twenty, maybe 25 knot winds with 5 foot seas on a 5 second period, and all clocking 360 degrees in the next 3 days. There was serious consideration given to spending just one night and then going back down to Royal Harbor for the weather wait, but we are still being conservative newbies. We are here, well protected, and settled in; why not enjoy it?


And the fact is I like this little town. Not nearly as "prettied up" as Hope Town or New Plymouth; Spanish Wells is a working class place. Home to a fishing fleet it also boasts the kind of hard working boatyard that warms this old mechanic's soul. Golf Carts buzz around along with a swarm of 50 and 75cc Japanese motorcycles. Little water taxis come and go and, twice a day, a huge Power Cat Taxi (looking more like a train) finds its way in and out. It is all very human and busy, yet Island friendly with the natives exhibiting a bewildering mix of accents. People born and raised within yards of each other sound like they came from different ends of the English speaking world. It is equal parts strange and delightful. This place just makes me smile, which is probably worth the $20 / day all by itself.

One of the many brightly colored buildings here

Exploring Bahamas Communication

Long Disclaimer: Communication and connectivity while cruising the Bahamas is a challenge at best. Before we left to come over here I spent a lot of time trying to collect information, and while I was able to get a good bit from the Women Who Sail Facebook group through various posts, there was some information not included so I decided to do this post on our own experience. Your communication and connectivity needs might be different so please understand that this is what works for us and while you might glean some useful information from it, it also largely depends on who your US carrier is. We have Verizon, and before you groan, we have been with Verizon since the very first cell phones came out and have never had a complaint. We have found their tech and customer service to be of the highest quality, although to be fair, we have attained VIP status on their customer list since we've been with them continuously for so long so we tend to get a little more prioritized service. While I have had varying degrees of satisfaction with certain physical equipment, that's a manufacturer issue. The Verizon network has been good for us with excellent coverage and speed. As a result, the information in this post is geared toward having a Verizon account and I have no idea how that differs with any other carrier. If you do have first hand information, please comment.

Being "off the grid" is a highly modified term in our cruising dictionary. If we didn't have 7-soon-to-be-8 grand kids back in the States it would be a non-issue, but since we do, we like our connectivity. What can I say? If I'm less of a cruiser for that, then so be it, but the expression on my grandson's face when we Skyped with him while going under a bridge on the ICW ("Dema you're going to hit the bridge!! No way are you going to fit!") was worth it all. So the communications challenges here in the Bahamas are a very personal thing to this grandma. After two months we've sort of made peace with it and here's what we found out.

If you're going to cruise the Bahamas with Verizon and you want internet, the first thing to find out is whether your phone is 1) global ready and 2) if it's unlocked and 3) if it has a sim card. My Droid Razr Maxx HD was all of those three, butTim's Droid X was not so we've been using only my phone. If you have a global ready phone that's not unlocked, you can get an unlock code from a lot of websites that are out there expressly for that purpose. Buyer beware though: a lot of times they'll sell you a code for a phone that can't be unlocked, and Verizon has very few unlocked phones. Needless to say, there's no refund. If you have a Verizon locked phone, the chance of getting it unlocked is pretty slim. If you don't have a global ready phone at all, you either have to get a new one via the internet or wait till you get to the Bahamas and buy one from them. Their prices are quite reasonable so I would recommend the latter. I saw a good selection of smart phones for under $100 outright in their display case.

Given that we had a global ready phone that was already unlocked, we were able to move onto the next choice in our journey toward connectivity which was the choice of 1) just continuing to pay our normal bill while we were gone even though we weren't using it 2) suspending the account for the two months and continuing to pay or 3) suspending the account for the two months and not receiving a bill to pay. We chose to just continue to pay our normal bill because I still have a contract on my phone and it would have extended two months if we had suspended the account without payment. We were also worried about Tim's phone if we suspended the account because he's grandfathered into the unlimited internet and we didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize that. Verizon assured us that it would not affect it, but I lost my grandfathered unlimited over a communication snafu and we didn't want to risk that.

We used my phone even 30 miles offshore sometimes for weather. Verizon's coverage is pretty amazing. We did have a dead zone between that offshore limit and acquiring a sim in the Bahamas but as soon as we got to a place that had a Batelco, we bought a Bahamian sim card. If you see a Batelco tower on an island, there is an office either directly beneath it or very near by. All of them have sims, but if your phone takes the micro sim (which mine does) it will have to be cut. The Bahamian cards are the SD size. Most but not all Batelco offices in the Bahamas have the sim card cutter which is like a hole punch, but the one we went to in Green Turtle Cay did not. You can get a template to cut the card online and it might be a good idea to print one out before you leave just in case. I had to cut mine, which I did with a good, sharp pair of scissors and then sanded the edges to fit with an emery board. It's not difficult but you do need to be precise and if you screw it up you're out the $15 for the sim. Be sure to keep your original Verizon sim in a safe place free of moisture so you can reinstall it when approaching the US. With your sim card you will be assigned a Bahamian phone number which will be yours as long as you have that sim. Once you get the sim installed, you're on to the next step.

This next step was the most confusing part of the whole Bahamian phone/internet thing for me because no one explained it to me and I had to figure it out by trial and error. If you want actual phone voice capabilities other than Skype, you have to buy a separate card for phone time. I bought just a $5.00 card so if I wanted to call a Bahamian business I could. We sometimes call ahead for mooring reservations. If you're calling in the Bahamas to another Bahama number the prices are reasonable, I believe it's $.27 per minute but don't be tempted to use this for calls to the US because it's expensive, I think somewhere around $.47 a minute. It's less than using Verizon ($2.00 per minute for calls originating from the Bahamas), but it's still better to use Skype for voice calls. I found that I can buy a monthly subscription on Skype for voice calls to land line phones and mobiles for $6.99 per month. Since my daughters are most easily reached on land line or mobile phones, I did that. One caveat: I did find that I can't call them on Skype when I'm using my phone as a USB internet tether. I have to do it on wifi. I can use Skype to do voice calls to other Skype users or video calls to other Skype users while tethered, just not voice to landlines or mobiles. As a point of information, we use the PdaNet Android app for tethering because it works with Tim's unlimited data plan. It works really well, well enough in fact to stream Netflix.

Another feature we recently discovered works well here in the Bahamas, once you get your internet card up and working, is the Facebook Messenger app. You can text through it as well as voice calls if the person on the other end is also on a smart phone with the app installed. Just look for the small phone icon in the window where you write the message. If it's there then you can call that person. The quality is good and it's free the same as Skype.

For internet access on your phone, you have to purchase separate internet datacards at a Batelco office or a designated outlet, of which there are many all over the islands. A lot of grocery store and gift shops and even some restaurants have them. Just look for the ever so visible “Top it Up” banners at your favorite retailer. During the season they cost $30 for 2 gigs, a price that is even lower than a lot of data in the US. In March we got them for $20 for 2 gigs, and now in April they're $15 for 2 gigs. As long as you don't activate them, they last till the expiration date printed on the cards. As an example, our cards purchased in April of 2014 had a July 2015 expiration date on them. Stock up at the end of the season, and bring them back the following year. If you register on their site for an account you can also top up online, although the two times I tried to do it the system was down and the outlets for the cards are so ubiquitous that it's really not difficult to buy another card.

Activating these cards is a two-fold process. You first must apply them to your account by dialing *202# and hitting send and following the menu. You will have to choose the Data option and then input your pin number which is under a scratch-off strip on the back of the data card you're activating. After you finish that portion, it will show you have $30 applied to your account and they will send you a text to let you know it was successful. OK here's the part no one seemed to find necessary to mention. After you have applied the $30 to your account, that total amount is good for 90 days, but you must put all or part of that into your “data wallet” to actually use it. You dial *205# and follow the menu to apply however much of the 2 gigs you want to use. Whatever you apply is only good for 30 days so if you're nearing the end of your time in the Bahamas but you're going to be back within the 90 days, you might only want to activate 1 gig or even less. Once it's in your data wallet it expires within 30 days. You can dial *201# to check your balance, but it will only show the balance on your account that you haven't applied to your data wallet, not the balance of what you've already put in your data wallet. They will send you a text to let you know when you have used 75% of your data in your data wallet, but they will not tell you when you've used it all so you have to keep track of it in your settings on your phone. If you run out of data but have phone time in your account, you'll see a strong phone signal in your status bar but no internet icon. That's one way you can know if you're out of data. Are you confused yet? Good because I was and I couldn't get a straight answer anywhere. If you have any trouble with your phone accepting the data balance (which I did), you may have to manually set your Mobile Network settings to Global and you may have to manually enter the Access Point Name which is internet.btcbahamas.com (which I did). You will also have to have the Mobile Data checked as on and roaming as off. If you need any help with this, find the nearest 8-year old or go to the nearest Batelco store and hope you get a good customer service rep.

In the beginning we were trying to find good wifi and were even paying mooring fees or going to restaurants and coffee shops and buying things just so we could be online. I generally find that the connectivity is at least as good and available on the Batelco card as it is on most wifi here, if not much faster. Most of the wifi in public places is slower than mud because there are so many people trying to use it at the same time. Here are a just a few of the wifi providers we used and our evaluation of them. Keep in mind that we don't have a wifi extender, but even without it we have rarely not been able to get online. There have been times we can't upoad a lot of pictures or video or Skype, but we were almost always able to get our emails and weather. The only main frustration was not being able to download new gribs on the iPads, but I understand if you can find someone to unlock your iPad you can get another Bahamian sim to put in there.
Marsh Harbour:

We found we had the fastest wifi at the Java Coffee Shop in Marsh Harbour, as well as the best quality, most reasonably priced coffee anywhere. The wifi there is fast enough that at one point we had 3 people on Skype at the same time with no problem. The owner, Kim, is very agreeable and supportive of cruisers.

We tried the internet at the Lofty Fig, at Snappa's Bar, at Mangoe's, all of which were too slow to be useful.

Batelco was good in the harbor as long as you were in the cockpit. With an extender and router it would have been fine inside the boat.
Treasure Cay:
We tried the internet at the resort at the main dinghy dock and it was only fair strength when it came in at all, and it was “down” more than it was up. It was extremely frustrating until we discovered that the internet at La Florance Cafe and Bakery in the strip right by the dock was exceedingly fast and you could eat a cinnamon roll that feeds a family of 4 for $5 and tastes much better than Cinnabon. Florence also makes a fantastic sandwich that was big enough for us to split. She has shaded seating outside the cafe and small tables inside. She also sells the best ice cream of anywhere in the islands and the socio-political discussions with her husband, the Captain, are not to be missed. Connectivity in the islands is often a social event like this because everywhere you go to get wifi there are people sitting around engaging in something that the US has lost – the ability to have long, intelligent, non-threatening discussions about issues with people who have differing opinions.
Green Turtle Cay:
Batelco was OK in the harbour, but not great. You had to be out in the cockpit to use it.

Royal Harbour:
I was really surprised with the remoteness of this harbour that we got such a strong Batelco signal. I think maybe they had installed the tower for the development that was supposed to go in there and left the tower even though the development failed.
Spanish Wells:

You can get free wifi with no password at the smoothie shop on the main drag. The speed varies with the time of day and how many customers but it's almost always fast enough to Skype.

Batelco is very strong on the mooring field.Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera:Wifi at the Spot bar is very good and free. The bartender will put the password on your device for you. The only difficulty is that it's usually too loud to Skype unless you get there very early in the day.

Batelco is very strong in the bay.

The Long and Short of It:

It's a lot to digest, but for us the Batelco data cards are our primary source of online connectivity along with whatever free wifi we can come across at bars and restaurants. I find that I use the Facebook Messenger app the most, but that's because I tended to text in the US more than talk, and the Messenger texting is exactly like texting on Verizon in the States. It has a good, loud chime to notify you that a message has arrived, so it's easy to hear pretty much anywhere on the boat. It also allows attached pictures. Probably the biggest issue for us has been the lack of video capabilities. Video just uses too much data to indulge, and Tim is suffering because he can't watch his Moto GP races. We do miss the occasional Netflix movie on rainy days as well, but it just means we read more on our Kindles. The Kindles require wifi to download, but we just tend to download a bunch of books when we're on strong signal so that we have them later.

Hope this has been helpful. If you have any specific questions or experiences that are relevant, don't hesitate to post them here.

Important stuff ...

Deb did such a good job on the equipment review that I should just keep my mouth shut. (Yeah, like that's going to happen.) But I am going to touch on just one item, and I will say right up front that Deb completely disagrees with me. (Happens all the time yet she loves me anyway.)

I am not a big fan of our windvane. If I had to do it over again I would spend the money on an auto-pilot. The windvane holds a point of sail which sounds all well and good since (so we were told) the wind on open water is nice and steady, same tack for weeks, yadda yadda yadda. Our experience sailing down the coast and in the islands is that the wind swings back and forth through 15 to 25 degrees while gusting and fading 10 to 20 knots. (We sail for hours, not weeks.) The apparent wind is anything but steady and that is what a windvane sails to. It is cool that it doesn't make any noise, doesn't use any power, and doesn't have anything that cares about getting wet with salt water. But at $5000+, a seriously miserable installation process, the fact that it doesn't seem to work that well under sail, and doesn't work at all as an auto-pilot under power ... I'm not sure it was the right way to go. If you hit the lottery get a boat big enough for windvane (1) and auto-pilots (2) and live happily ever after.

On a more important matter I have been debating: if Spanish Wells is better with its $20 / day mooring ball than is Hatchet Bay with its $0 / day mooring ball. Spanish Wells is a clean little working town with a couple of places to eat, WiFi at the snack shop, store, very limited laundry; it's a good place for cruisers. Hatchet Bay is poverty stricken, trashed out, one really great bar with okay WiFi, a store with good prices (and questionable shelf times), a couple of shacks for food (which have been pretty good) a resort restaurant (which we haven't tried yet) and no laundry at all. The Bay of Hatchet Bay is really pretty, has more marine life in it than anywhere else we have parked, hasn't been very crowded, and is perfectly protected. Mmmm ... if Spanish Wells was $10 / day it would win, but we are both growing very fond of Hatchet Bay.

And both of us still like Treasure Key the best.

We will be here a few more days which may give us a chance to finish up a couple of projects. Slackerville still reigns but when the water runs out one must abandon the cockpit and hump some H₂O onto the boat. That got me all hot and sweaty so jumping in the water seemed a good idea. Unfortunately, that gave me a good look at Kintala's increasingly fuzzy bottom, so scraping and cleaning was in order. Deb joined in the fun but we ran out of energy long before we ran out of fuzzies to scrape. I trust the water will be just as clear and warm tomorrow and we can work on it some more.

Early next week the winds are supposed to give us a good ride to Nassau; first stop on the trip States Bound. By this time next month I am going to be very far away from enjoying the Islands Mon. I'm starting to miss it already and I haven't even left yet.

Heros and trolls

The wind is gusting to near 30 and it poured rain all night. The dink is full but also still floating, so I'll take care of it when things settle a little. Sinking the family car by leaving it out in the rain is a worry most land dwellers don't have. We still plan on heading west tomorrow, getting near Nassau to stage for the final jump back to the States. Supposedly the wind will lay down to something more useful by morning.

Back in the States there are some goings on, family wise, that have me looking forward to the return. Over the next few months we will be spending time with family, Daughters, and Grand Kids. Just the thought makes me smile. On the other hand ...

The Rebel Heart saga and ugly response by scores of my fellow Americans underscore an ambivalence toward the society I grew up with, one I didn't expect to find by leaving it. Absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder, sometimes it clears the sight as to why getting away was a good idea. From even just slightly offshore the All-American hobby appears to be insulting as many people as one may, in as many ways as can be found, with as mean a spirit as possible. I call it "trollism".

Mind you, I like a bit of rough-n-tumble. Sometimes the stakes are high and mixing it up matters. But in America the insults are anonymous, or slung by a media looking only for the profit to be made by tossing red meat to the mongrels. If you want to insult someone, fine. But step up within arm's reach to do it. And if, in response, you get your ass handed back to you on a platter, no sniveling is allowed. (There is a line out of an old children's book that always made me smile, "Never insult a man lest he be bigger, stronger, or better armed. Then, as you will.")

Even though the media and multitudes of my fellow Americans lived down to the lowest common denominator that the world has come to expect from us, the fact is, four Americans jumped into the middle of the ocean to take care of a little girl they did not know. Then a whole ship full of other Americans headed out to pick them up and get them back to shore safely. Overhead American Air crews kept an eye out to ensure all was well. My bet is that every single person involved is proud that they were there, and that they don't think of themselves as "good Americans". Just people doing a job they love to do without expecting praise or media attention.

The story the kids will remember is one of hundreds of people coming when they needed help. It is story all of us should remember. The trolls yapped and whined and bitched, and in the end are still nothing but trolls. On the other hand a large number of people stepped up and did a good thing.

America has its problems, and I am glad to have some distance between me and much of society. But it isn't all bad all the time, and we need to remember that as well. So in a few weeks we will be heading home ...

Spanish Wells

Kintala is in the middle of the row

After some debate we decided to relocate to Spanish Wells for a few days. We need some food and some water, and some ice is good as well. The downside is the irritation of someone throwing a mooring ball down in water they don't own, and then charging for the privilege of tying up to it; particularly when the charge is $20 / night for nothing but a place to anchor. Still, Spanish Wells has limited storage for cruiser boats, six fill the place up. So I guess mooring balls help ... but they would help more at $10 / night instead of $20.

Two of our neighbors on a doggie run

We are staying for a few days because (you guessed it) weather is on the way once again. Twenty, maybe 25 knot winds with 5 foot seas on a 5 second period, and all clocking 360 degrees in the next 3 days. There was serious consideration given to spending just one night and then going back down to Royal Harbor for the weather wait, but we are still being conservative newbies. We are here, well protected, and settled in; why not enjoy it?


And the fact is I like this little town. Not nearly as "prettied up" as Hope Town or New Plymouth; Spanish Wells is a working class place. Home to a fishing fleet it also boasts the kind of hard working boatyard that warms this old mechanic's soul. Golf Carts buzz around along with a swarm of 50 and 75cc Japanese motorcycles. Little water taxis come and go and, twice a day, a huge Power Cat Taxi (looking more like a train) finds its way in and out. It is all very human and busy, yet Island friendly with the natives exhibiting a bewildering mix of accents. People born and raised within yards of each other sound like they came from different ends of the English speaking world. It is equal parts strange and delightful. This place just makes me smile, which is probably worth the $20 / day all by itself.

One of the many brightly colored buildings here

Bahamas and Eleuthras Picture Post

At long last, bandwidth sufficient to post some pictures! Sorry for the wait.

Our good friends Bill and Christy on Veranda

Our favorite coffee house in Marsh Harbour

One of the many boats we passed on our way from Hope Town to Egg Island

Entrance channel to Hope Town

Hope Town Light House

Hope Town Harbour from the Sugar Shack balcony

 

Golf carts are the preferred means of travel. The streets are really narrow in all of these towns.

One of the many Hope Town Hideaways places

Hope Town street

Beach north of Hope Town

Hope Town

All of the houses are painted with incredible colors

Hope Town Hideaways

Beach north of Hope Town

Methodist Church in Hope Town

All of my granddaughters would love this place. Pink and purple houses abound!

Hope Town store

Hope Town channel as seen from the shore

These monuments are everywhere

Hope Town Harbour from the dinghy

Hope Town is still our favorite place so far

The ubiquitous Donnie's ferries

Hope Town Light House as seen from our anchorage

Kintala at anchorage West of Hope Town

Two of the two dozen boats that passed us going north while we were headed south to Egg Island. We had to plot our course East of the courseline about a half mile just to steer clear of the parade.

Henry doing the steering

The water in the anchorage at Egg Island. This is the most beautiful water we have seen anywhere

Egg Island anchorage

Galley window view in the Royal Harbour anchorage

Royal Harbour anchorage

Mooring field at Spanish Wells

On our walkabout in Spanish Wells. Bananas growing in peoples' yards

Had to take this picture for my granddaughters. There are pink, purple, yellow, orange, blue houses everywhere, but a pink driveway?  All it needed was a pink golf cart in the garage...

Beach north of Spanish Wells

Ferry that goes between Spanish Wells and Eleuthra Island