We just got back from our spring break trip to the Bahamas. We went to Spanish Wells on the island of Eleuthera, and we had a grand time, minus the trip home.
We flew out of Charlotte and had a direct flight to Governor’s Harbour. We should have flown to North Eleuthera, but by the time I bought the flights, it was wayyyy cheaper to go there and drive and hour. That added some logistics, and cost us on the way home, but I’d do it over again. The kids are great on flights. They help with the bags in the airport, and then as soon as they get their screens on the plane, which all have wifi for free now, they just watch the whole way. They won’t even let me put up the window shade to look out the window because they are just watching their screens.
On our drive up to Spanish Wells, we stopped for lunch in Gregory Town, aka the home of the Pineapple. Probably the worst meal of the trip honestly, but they had a cool playground and the kids played with some local kids while we ate. The kids did not eat though, even though Izzy got a cheeseburger. Our guide/captain Shamar met us and drove us from the airport to the restaurant and then to the ferry.
Once we got to the ferry and then our house, we settled in and went to the beach. We weren’t on the beach per say, but had a golf cart and it was a ten second ride or a 3 min walk. Honestly it was less of a walk then the beach at Holden Beach. Izzy and I snorkeled in the shallow water and they swang on the swings that were in the water. We actually had a good time as Izzy preferred snorkeling in the shallows (2-5 ft of water), and we saw crabs mating, lots of starfish, and some other cool things.
Day 1 of the trip was the best day, as our captain Shamar and his first mate Sean joined us on the 24 ft key west that I rented, and we went around the islands. The first stop was the pigs at Meeks Patch Island, and everyone had a really good time. Anna was in heaven, and the kids really enjoyed feeding the pigs hot dogs. It’s funny, because Anna wouldn’t let me feed Mac Mac hot dogs….We then went to what I think was my favorite spot, a mile around sand bar with the whitest sand. Anna did her exercise there while the kids just hung out. It was beautiful. From there we went to another sandbar with swings where we fed the stingrays. I really enjoyed feeding the stingrays, that was a cool experience, and also another beautiful sandbar. After that we went spearfishing, which, I sucked at. Shamar told me to shoot the sling like a bow and arrow, and I just kept missing. Ultimately, I did get one nice grouper, but I missed my trophy Hogfish, the main reason we went. Shamar hit the hog in the tail, but it got off and I missed the kill shot before it got into a hole. We probably spent 15 min trying to get it out, and I forgot we had a gaff that we should have tried to use. The hole did produce an 8 pound lobster that Shamar got when he went to look at the other side of the hole. But who knows if the hogfish ended up surviving or not. I still have to try to get one! We wrapped up the day conching at what I think was Izzy’s favorite spot, and we found 4 conchs that we kept. That evening, we ate conch and grouper. It was a nice meal.
Day 2 of the trip we ran a lot more in the boat. We went down to Harbour Island, where on the way we saw Ridley’s Head and the Woman in the Cave. I thought I wanted to jump off of Ridley’s Head, but it looked a little sketchy and without anyone to do it with, we passed. Once we got to Harbour Island, you could tell where the money was. There were nice boats in Spanish Wells, but Harbour Island had the yachts that you see on TV, where the tenders are $200K+ boats, and they were also in use with the water slides and everything. Harbour Island has the spot where you can feed the turtles, and we did that. There were a lot of turtles. The coolest part about that part was the aquarium. From there we ran to Current, which is where Shamar’s conch spot was. And it was easy pickings. Izzy really wanted to conch, but it was a little deep for her to be comfortable, so that turned sour. We found plenty of conch though, and then we dropped Izzy, Anna, and Benni on a beach while Shamar, Sean, Joseph and I went bottom fishing which was a Joseph request. We caught some nice strawberry grouper, but the highlight was that when we got back to the dock, Joseph caught a big Jack. Sean was very happy to have that to take home.
Day 3 of the trip unfortunately Shamar bailed on us, as he got called in to work. I don’t know if he was tired of us or really had to work, but it was a bit of a let down. I was able to captain us back to the swings, I wanted to try to go to the sandbar but wasn’t confident. We also wanted to try a spot in egg island, but it was a bit rough so we ended up not anchoring there. We hung in there and tried some fishing, which would have been much better if the old grumpy man who gave us no advice in the morning and turned into our friend and told me where to go once we were docked had done that from the beginning.
Day 4 was always going to be our land day. I ended up snorkeling out to the Island we could see from our beach, and it ended up being the best snorkeling. I was looking for lobster, but ultimately saw a ton of grouper on my first pass. Once I decided to try and shoot the grouper though, well that’s when the grouper disappeared and got skittish of course. I met some nice folks doing the same, and the snorkeling was beautiful. I also need to continue to work on my fish identification.
Day 5 ended up being an adventure. Shamar came, only about 30 min late, and picked us up and drove us to the airport. We stopped by the Sapphire Blue Hole, which was underwhelming, and crossed back over the Glass Window Bridge, which is pretty impressive. At the airport, we were hit with a delay, and another, and another, because there was no radio tower and the plane that we were catching couldn’t land. The airport also had no food/drinks for sale post security, but the kids had their tablets and I had basketball on my phone. Eventually the plane landed, and we were getting ready to board, when a private plane landed and broke down right smack dab in the middle of the runway. It’s landing gear just went out. They then proceeded to tell everyone the flight was cancelled, no other info, it’s about 4 pm at this point. Most people had left the airport, and we were trying to figure out what to do, when they said the flight was back on. The people there, we were with a family of 17 canadians who got us food and wouldn’t let us pay for it (pizza, salad, wings) and another couple who brought us sodas, waters, cookies, and banana bread, and also wouldn’t let us pay for it. We also befriended another grumpy guy named Jason, who we shared our beef sticks with and his snickers commercial could have been a beef stick commercial. All told, I think 80% of the people made it back, we caught the flight to Miami, and then we sprinted through customs. Because I had a big bag they made us go back through regular security, where the TSA line problem was happening. I asked a guy if we could cut the line, he said yes, and we made our flight, rescheduled flight, to CLT by 3 min.
All told, it was a great family trip that I hope we can have many more of.