Royal Island to Glass Window Bridge
We weighed
anchor at 0900 so as to arrive at Current Cut at slack tide. All but 5 boats had already left the
anchorage which was surprising. They all
must be heading someplace other than south or they’d have to pass through Current
Cut at other than slack tide. Water
flows through the cut at high speeds during tidal flows. At times, the currents have been reported to
have been as much as 6 knots which is about as fast as Foreign Affair can go under power.
One’s experience in passing through the cut is directly related to the
tidal state and weather. Timing passage through the cut is very important for a
smooth ride just as it is for New York City’s East River or Long Island Sound’s
“The Race” or “Plum Gut”. We went
through the cut without any difficulty as the weather was perfect and as was
our timing.
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| Queen's Bath |
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| Carla and Carol Above the Cave at the Queen's Bath |
We began to
sail toward the Glass Window Bridge once we were in deep water. We had to tack all the way which took us
several hours to cover less than 10 miles.
We didn’t really mind as it was such a beautiful day with the sun
shining bright over gin clear water. We
listened to music for a while and threw out a couple of fishing lines. Later, we shut down the music to read and
relax in peace and quiet. We were in no
hurry. We had plenty of time to arrive
and go ashore before sundown. “No
probl’m."
 |
| Glass Window Bridge with Atalantic Ocean Flowing Into the Bahama Banks |
Frank and
Carol followed us through the cut but arrived at our anchorage about an hour
ahead of us. They motored the last
couple of miles thinking we had already anchored and were anxious to go ashore
to visit the Queen’s Bath and hike up to the Glass Window Bridge. We surprised them when they radioed us to
find out where we were because they couldn’t find us in the anchorage. They took Molly to the beach and waited until
we arrived before heading off for our shore excursion. There were about 15 other boats at anchor
when we arrived. We were able to settle
in for the night a short distance from Hakuna
Matata.
The beach we
landed at with our dinghy was beautiful and very convenient for getting to the
Queen’s Baths which are on the Atlantic side of the island. The Baths are formed when the ocean waves
scour out rock creating pools which retain water at low tide thus forming
baths. The most amazing aspect is that
the cliffs being attacked by the ocean waves are well over a hundred feet in
height and the baths lay in a channel leading to a large cave carved out by the
pounding waves. It is a simply amazing
sight and speaks much about the power of water.
We spent about an hour moving to different vantage point on the bluffs
overlooking the baths. Pictures do it no
justice.
It was a
hike of about 2/3 mile to the Glass Window Bridge. The Glass Window was created when the ocean
waves created a natural stone bridge by breaking through the stone bluffs thus
creating a window between the Atlantic Ocean and the Bahama Banks on the other
side of the island. The contrast between
the deep blue waters of the Atlantic and the turquoise green Banks is sharp and
stunning. The natural stone arch was
destroyed by waves during several recent hurricanes and the highway bridge
which now spans the gap has been replaced more than once after being swept away
by ocean storm surges.
We closed
out the evening with a fine tuna dinner courtesy of Frank who, before leaving
Spanish Wells, purchased 4 pounds of tuna from a fisherman just returning with
his day’s catch. It was a wonderful
meal; however, we only cooked up 1 pound of the tuna. Looks like we will be eating tuna for the
next few days. It’s a tough life we lead
here in the islands.
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