Andros Island, Bahamas

When we arrived at Morgans Bluff on the north end of Andros, it was after a hard day of sailing and a night spent partly hove-to as we faced high wind and waves. Our plan had been to sail to Fraser’s Hog Cay to shelter from south-west winds, and then on to Morgans Bluff the next day. The winds remained south-east instead, and we learned another valuable lesson which took us straight to Andros - there are times when it is much better to stay on the banks and out of deeper water. Sailing down the bank as the sun rose brought us into the harbour at the start of the working day, as the grapefruit for export were being assembled close to the dock. We were welcomed, our lines taken, and found ourselves snuggled up alongside a concrete dock in the calm of the inner harbour.

It took a few days to realise what it means when the guidebook says that this is a commercial harbour. We spent about a week there, and during that week we saw small freighters come and go. There were the grapefruit exported to the United States; that ship came and went twice a week, and each time the forklifts raced around removing empty containers and replacing them with full ones. Then there were other small container ships, which came from time to time. The catamaran which carries people, cars and some freight to and from Nassau came and went twice a week. The mailboat, as it does everywhere else, came once a week. We met the harbour master, born in Jamaica, who came there after schooling in England via the Merchant Marine and Miami, and spoke several languages. We met some of the seamen off the ships which came in, who were curious about who we are and where we are going. We met one of the local fishermen, captain of a fishing boat, and learned from him that the small fishing boats use teams of dinghies which put out nets when they find fish, as opposed to trolling. We met other cruisers, pausing or passing through, and enjoyed swapping tales.

While we were there we walked the five miles into the nearest town, where we found very good food at a small take-out and loaves of home made bread. People talked to us while we waited for the food to be prepared, and one man pointed out the bus stop they were building for the school children, so they would not have to wait in the rain for the bus. School buses were the only buses we saw; if you did not walk or drive, you could take the local taxi for twenty dollars or so, or they would be happy to rent you a car.

Walking has this advantage - you see the countryside in a lot more detail than you would otherwise. Andros, at least the parts of it we visited, was very different from Great Harbour Cay - it had lots of fresh water. The trees grew higher there, there was fresh produce grown there, and for the first time in a while we heard the sound of the breeze sighing through the trees. Water is in fact one of the exports - huge tankers go from the outer harbour at Morgans Bluff carrying fresh water to Nassau twice a day. We saw ducks on a creek. Unfortunately, we also became acquainted with the no-see-ums, which came out to torment everyone just before we sat through the next weather front moving through the region.

The winds that accompanied that front had us bouncing a bit by the concrete dock, and we used some of our spare hose for chafe protection after one line parted. Nothing like leaping out of your berth at two in the morning to stop your boat crashing into an unyielding object - gets the adrenaline going! So once the winds and waves had died down it was not as hard to say goodbye to that dock, and set sail for Fresh Creek, further south.

Light winds made for a long but pleasant sail, until they died down to the point where we started the engine to make sure we finished the journey with enough time to anchor. At least we thought we were going to anchor - but we rapidly learned that the bottom was too hard for our anchor to hold, or even dig in. It is a little disconcerting when that piece of strangely shaped metal which has held you through winds up to thirty-five knots will only skip across the bottom and refuses to dig in at all. We went to the marina there instead.

Fresh Creek is notable for a number of things, including fishing for bonefish, the Androsia Batik Factory and a couple of good, inexpensive restaurants. We were interested in the latter two, and during the two days we spent there we walked, visited the Androsia factory, enjoyed a good meal at Hank’s Place and enjoyed the luxury of shore side showers. The Androsia factory hand produces batik fabrics and clothing, and visitors are welcome to tour the factory and see how the patterns are created. Everything is human-driven, the patterns hand stamped on to the fabrics before they are dyed by teams working over long baths. Some of the patterns are striking, and the colours used are rich and appealing. And, in the way things happen, that was where we found out where to get home-made bread in Fresh Creek.

There was a lot here we were curious about, like the lighthouse which looked more like a lookout tower with its cannons in front of it, and more trails that we could have explored. Not being able to anchor meant that the time here was shorter than we liked, but after Fresh Creek we decided that it was time to move further south and east, and visit the Exumas. We’ll talk about some of that in our next instalment of our blog