Eleuthera

Rock Sound Harbor

On Easter Sunday, we pulled into Rock Sound Harbor exhilarated by our fast sail across Exuma Sound and happy to see the steel gray sky giving way to sunshine.  We walked through the well-kept town to Ocean Hole, about ½ mile from the harbor.  A more apt name would, perhaps, have been Island Hole as it is actually a hole in the island to the ocean.  It looks like an old quarry, a couple hundred yards across, with sheer limestone walls and deep – very deep – clear water.  Jack, snapper, and reef fish schooled in the dark green depths, while a half dozen local boys taunted and cast dares at each other as they dove and swam in the heat of the afternoon. 

Lovely Rock Sound Harbor

Ocean Hole

Governor's Harbor

After a provisioning stop at the market, we moved up coast to Governor’s Harbor on Wednesday.  The town here is substantial with grocery and hardware stores, clothing boutiques, a dive shop, and restaurants.  Provisions are still fairly slim, though better than what can be found in the Exumas outside of Georgetown.  We scouted around for some snorkeling spots but the water clarity was very poor and the coral that we did see was covered in algae.  Save for one very large eagle ray, we did not see anything of interest.

Something old...

Something new

Birthday Boy

April 24th was Ken’s birthday and we celebrated with a fine meal of grilled lamb and an apple cake.  His initial birthday cake request was for mud pie, but one must make do with what one can get around here, so apple cake it was – with caramel sauce on top.  As we watched a fiery red sun sink below the horizon, we decided that this was not a bad way to spend a birthday. 

Birthday sunset

Glass Window

The weather is fine and settled and we are feeling compelled to keep moving.  A brief overnight at Glass Window put us in good position to transit Current Cut the next morning.  We left early to catch slack tide and were through the cut by 8:30am.  The guidebooks make the cut sound quite perilous, with currents that can rip up to 10 kts.  Dive guides here specialize in drift dives that shoot divers through the cut at 6 kts or more.  After all the warnings, the reality seemed almost anticlimactic as we motored across smooth, calm water.  Once through the cut, we put out a trolling line, just for fun.  When the line actually started whizzing out, we were completely unprepared.  At first glance, the long, silvery shape on the hook looked like a Barracuda, but as I reeled it closer I could see a green band along its back.  Meanwhile, Ken was untangling the net from our various spears and, in the end, I landed the fish on the boat myself.  I threw a wet towel on it to keep it quiet and Ken placed it in the cooler so that we wouldn’t lose it over the side.  While not the sexiest fish to catch, I love my Spanish Mackerel and was already looking forward to dinner. 

Glass Window - where the cold Atlantic meets the warm Bahamas

A surprise catch!

Meek's Patch

An hour later, we were anchored off Meek’s Patch, a couple of miles from Spanish Wells.  It’s a quiet island in the middle of a shallow bank.  While I finished up laundry, Ken decided to scrub the hull.  What ensued next, is captured in his blog post “Podamonium.”  Definitely the highlight of our trip thus far! 

Dolphin mania

Spanish Wells

We knew it was going to be difficult topping our afternoon with the dolphins, but we’d heard that the snorkeling here was exceptional and wanted to check out the reefs.  We did a little exploring, but, unfortunately, the water was very murky and definitely not conducive to enjoying the coral heads that dot the area.  We decided to come into Spanish Wells proper and picked up a mooring from “Bandit” (yes, that’s his name).  For two days, we had a front row view of the fishing activities that sustain this community.  These are an industrious people and everyone we’ve spoken to professes their love for this little slice of paradise. 

Spanish Wells waterfront

Harbour Island

In lieu of negotiating the long trip across Devil’s Backbone on our own, we decided to take the fast ferry over to Harbour Island to see what all the fuss is about.  Just a 40-minute ride from Spanish Wells, Harbour Island is an upscale vacation destination.  With a compact town center, Dunmore Town, the island seems to have an extremely high density compared to anything we’ve seen so far.  Open space is saved for the beach – and what a gorgeous beach it is!  Three miles long, it stretches along the Atlantic, lined with reefs with teeth that reveal themselves now and then in the surf.  

It’s called the pink beach and, if you look at the sand in the right light, it does indeed have a pink hue.  The sand is exceptionally fine and feels like powder underfoot.  Hours later, I was still brushing off sand!  After walking for over an hour, we gave in to the unrelenting heat and rented a golf cart – the primary mode of transportation on the island.  With Ken at the wheel, we zipped around the rest of the island, enjoyed a brief respite at the Harbour Island marina restaurant, and picked up some fresh vegetables at the Piggy Wiggly (bearing no resemblance to its U.S. sister store) to supplement our meager stores.  

Pink Sand Beach

3 miles of beach

California driver + golf cart = ?

Abacos

An overnight at Egg Island where we met up with Makai, and we were off to the Abacos.  From Facebook postings and emails it seems that a group of us from Georgetown will be converging here for the “big leap” north.  While some may choose to go the way of the intracoastal waterway, we are planning for a Gulf Stream ride to Norfolk, VA.  With part of us itching to just go and part of us loathe to leave, we are savoring our last days in the Bahamas while keeping one eye on the weather.  Here's hoping for fair winds and following seas.