In case you didn’t know, Nassau is the capitol of the Bahamas and it is on the island of New Providence. Some of you may be more familiar with Paradise Island, location of the Atlantis resort. That island is connected to New Providence by a bridge, though in the past it was not and therefore accessible only by boat. Okay, that’s enough of a geography/history lesson.
I’ve already written about our stay at New Providence (January 28th post), but I promised some pictures of our dives. So here’s some diving eye candy for you, and I just bought myself another week without having to think too deeply about what to write in this blog of mine. I will, however, tell you that we’ve covered a lot of water since New Providence. As this posts, we are in George Town, Exumas, waiting on a weather window to continue our trek southeast.
Enjoy the slide show, and until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!
How do we handle issues back home while we’re out cruising. The answer is that sometimes we have to ask others to do it for us. Case in point…
A snow and ice storm hit NH January 22-23. It took down trees and power all over our area. A neighbor walking their dog on the 23rd noticed that a limb from the neighbor’s tree behind us had fallen onto our laundry lines. They told another neighbor with whom I’m friends, Cyndie, who texted a picture to me and my sister (who also texted me, just in case). We got our neighbors, the Bracketts, to check to see if it also took down the power line to our house. It had. No power. Troy alerted Eversourse and started a ticket for us.
Our neighbors the Bracketts and the Berry/Arcouettes are kind enough to keep tabs on our house while we’re cruising. They drive our cars occasionally, walk through the house, plow our driveway, mow our lawn, tend our plants, make sure our heating system is working (we have sensors, but when the power goes out, so do the sensors). In this instance, my cousin Bob also helped out. He and Troy coordinated their efforts, keeping tabs on Eversource’s progress, preparing to rescue some of our venison from the deep freezer, and my cousin plugged our heating system into his truck to keep the temperature up enough to prevent the pipes from freezing. Both kept us informed along the way. My sister stopped by to check on things too and to send additional pictures of the downed tree limb and line, and she was on standby with an additional house key should it have been necessary.
Eversource did reach us by phone on the 24th to ask for details about the downed limb. Thanks to the pictures various people had sent us, and the information we got from Troy and Bob, we were able to give them a pretty specific description of the issue. Thank goodness we are able to keep our phone number while traveling (and we don’t even pay exorbitant fees to use it, which I may explain in another post someday).
The power was back on just after noon on the 25th. The deep freezer stayed frozen, so nobody had to rescue our venison. The driveway was plowed. The pipes didn’t freeze. Many part-time cruisers like us hire property managers in their absence. We are very fortunate to live in the neighborhood we do where neighbors watch out for each other, and we are fortunate to have family who do the same. I know some of them will read this, so thank you, thank you, thank you! We owe you all a debt of gratitude and we will find a way to repay you in kind!
Sorry for the delay, but last weekend was very busy with no time for blogging. Let me catch you up. It’s a good thing I keep a journal while onboard, because I’d never be able to catch you up otherwise.
We set out for Nassau about 8am on the Sunday, the 15th. Seas were bigger than predicted at the start, but mostly following, so it was only a little bumpy but nice and sunny. About 1/3 of the way through the trip we lost at least one wave direction and the ride smoothed out. Both generators worked as programmed, which was nice. We arrived in Nassau Harbor, New Providence around 2pm and were anchored in the East Channel (technically not the harbor) by 2:30pm. Got some additional provisions ashore, secured a marina slip for the following weekend, then had dinner at the Poop Deck. I was craving a burger, which is rare for me and usually only when we’re onboard, go figure. The Poop Deck’s burger did not disappoint.
Monday we exited the harbor’s west end and headed further south along New Providence to anchor in West Bay and later Old Fort Bay (between West Bay and the harbor). We dinghied to the beach at Clifton Heritage National Park for a walk and chatted with some other cruisers who gave us some intel about George Town, Exuma and a lead on a marina in Puerto Rico where we might leave Lady for this hurricane season. Score!
We spent the next few days diving. We dove the “sculpture garden,” such as it was. There were several half domes with holes in them seemingly marking the way to a 5-foot sculpture of what appeared to be a merman, then more of those half domes leading to the largest underwater sculpture in the Bahamas, Ocean Atlantis, at about 20-feet or so. Sadly, the reef near the dive mooring had fish, but the coral was mostly dead. We also dove two wrecks. The Anthony Bell was a 90’ Bahamian tugboat that was intentionally scuttled to create a reef dive site. A few hundred feet away lay the Willaurie, a 140’ Danish-built barge (1907) that sank naturally not long after the Anthony Bell was scuttled, sometime in the late 1980’s. Their bottoms rested in about 50’ of water but they extended upward to about 35’. I stayed up near their tops while the boys explored them more closely. We were able to anchor Indigo Lady in sand on the north side of Goulding Cay to dive the reef there. Again, mostly dead coral, which is depressing to see, but lots of fish. At one point I was swarmed by a school of tangs that were so close I couldn’t even get pictures. That made me giggle.
Friday morning we set out to find the purported shallow reef near the beach in Old Fort Bay, but all we saw from the surface was more dead coral. So we returned to Lady, hauled anchor and headed back to Nassau’s East Channel to anchor for Ian’s last night aboard. Saturday after breakfast we hauled anchor and pulled into a slip at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina. I spent the morning cleaning the cabin and remaking the bed for my folks’ arrival that evening while Dave saw Ian off for his taxi to the airport.
Then the provisioning began. Dave and I made three separate trips to the nearby market and were just starting to stow the final load when we heard my folks calling out their arrival, around 5:30pm. And who was escorting them? Our friend Paul whom we’d met back in August 2020 at Fort Pierce City Marina. He noticed my folks looking around and offered to help. They told him they were looking for Indigo Lady, which surprised the heck out of him! It was nice to catch up with him a little over the next day as we continued our provisioning tasks. Earlier that same day, Dave ran into the husband of a former colleague of ours, just a couple of slips down from, who had just arrived from the Chesapeake Bay, single handing. Small world! Sunday was even busier than Saturday. I did two loads of laundry at the marina plus we made two more provisioning trips, the last of which was to the market about a mile away. That one required a cab ride back- too heavy a load to haul! Once it was all stowed it was definitely time for fruity rum drinks, then back to the Poop Deck for dinner.
Monday the 23rd we dropped the dock lines and had a lovely passage to Allan’s Cay in the northern Exumas. Unfortunately, it was too bumpy to dive at the dive moorings, so we just anchored and went for a swim. Tuesday we dinghied to the little beach inside SW Allan’s Cay to show my folks the iguanas, then later moved Lady to the north Highbourne Cay anchorage for a less rolly night. Wednesday brought us further south to Long Cay with the hope of diving from Lady on those dive moorings, but again it was too bumpy. Instead, we anchored and did a little dinghy excursion stopping at a little beach for my folks to practice snorkeling because it has been three years since they’ve done it. Thursday we moved down to Shroud Cay, the first big island in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park and picked up a mooring. We did a dinghy excursion partway across one of the mangrove creeks. There was a surprising lack of sea life; we saw only three sea turtles and a couple of needlefish, but it was lovely scenery on a lovely day. On the way back we pulled dinghy up onto a little beach and played in the current and relaxed in the water before returning to Lady. Yesterday we arrived at Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the Land & Sea Park. We picked up the mooring and went ashore to pay and to get maps of the snorkeling sites and hiking trails, then dinghied around a bit to get the lay of the land.
I’m typing this Saturday morning as we wait for the rain to stop so we can go ashore for a walk. Hopefully the water will be calm enough this afternoon for Dave & I to snorkel one of the reefs.
I haven’t had time to sort through my photos, so enjoy the one of Ocean Atlantis at the top of this post, and when I get to it, I’ll put together a little slide show and post that .
Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
We arrived in Nassau last Saturday afternoon. This time around, “we” is me, Dave and our friend Ian, who is with us for a couple of weeks. We checked into our one-night hotel, then took the public bus to the ALIV store to get a data SIM card for our MiFi device. Then back to the hotel for very strong, fruity rum drinks, followed by dinner in their restaurant. We crashed early.
Sunday morning we met our taxi at 5:45am for the short trip back to the airport for our 7:30am flight to Great Harbor Cay. The short, 20-minute flight landed us just after 8am, where we were met by our pre-scheduled taxi. We were at the marina and on Indigo Lady by 8:30am. Back on our second home at last!
She was in good shape (relief!). We quickly set about opening her up, cleaning, sorting, unpacking, etc. We spent three days getting ready to head out of the marina. Lots of boat and tech chores were interspersed with bike rides to town for lunch (the first day when we were too tired to make food) as well as provisions and alcohol. Wednesday morning we settled up with the marina, bid them farewell, topped off our diesel and gas and started our multi-step trek toward Nassau.
As always, we are dependent on the weather and sea conditions. A big blow (wind only, no storms) was forecast for Friday-Saturday/Sunday, so we planned two stops along the Berry Islands chain. Wednesday night we stopped at Soldier Cay. Thursday we headed down to Frasers Hog Cay at the southern end of the chain. This is one of the few anchorages in the Berries with westerly protection and that’s the direction the winds are coming from. They started to kick up Friday afternoon and were very robust overnight, holding around 20-25 knots with gusts into the low 30’s. On a small boat like ours, this is very noisy, so I did not really sleep last night (sigh). Yesterday after breakfast we dinghied ashore, before the winds kicked up, for a walk on the beach and on part of what appeared to be an old trail, probably associated with the Berry Island Club Marina that closed down around 2017 or so. Today is too windy to do anything but stay inside. We’ll probably watch movies and play games. It’s a bit chilly to be outside. The air temp is only 60-degrees but there’s on heck of a wind chill. (Ya, I know, you in the north are thinking “poor babies, so cold for you.”)
We may be in warmer climes with beautiful scenery, but it hasn’t been all fun and games. Thus far Dave and Ian have had to trouble shoot a through-hull shut off for the port generator’s cooling system that had failed in the closed position, thus preventing cooling. Thankfully They got it into the permanently open position which should be fine until we get a replacement; my folks are bringing two with them when they come to join us next weekend. Dave and Ian have patched and re-patched a leak in our dingy. Our starboard generator, the one we finally got running last June after it being asleep for a year, conked out on us again while we were en route to Soldier Cay. We had stopped to reel in a fish and it wouldn’t restart after that. The helm display was reporting low voltage on the starting battery. So Dave engaged the cross ship cable and the port generator ran both motors, which is what we’d been doing this for a year, so it’s familiar territory. The boys tried to troubleshoot the source of the low voltage notification, because it turned out the battery was fine, but they found nothing. So of course once they put everything back together the generator started. That may sound like a good thing, but since root cause has not been ascertained and therefore cannot be permanently fixed, we have to expect that starboard generator may not start on any given day. It ran for a while on Thursday but then started acting like it wasn’t getting fuel, so again the port generator ran both motors. When we got to our current anchorage that afternoon they worked on that issue and tested both generators and starboard seemed happy. We’ll see once we head for Nassau tomorrow or Monday.
Once we get to Nassau, we hope to be able to anchor in West End Bay and do some diving and snorkeling before returning to the very busy Nassau Harbor Friday or Saturday. Ian flies home early Saturday afternoon and my folks fly in early that evening. We’ll spend a night or two in a marina slip to facilitate a big provisioning run and getting my folks onboard more easily. Then we plan to take the next weather window to continue to the Exumas.
I plan to post something to my blog once a week. We’ll see how that goes 😉
We returned from closing up Lady in the Bahamas and set about getting Dumbledore ready to launch before Dave headed to Nashville in late July (conference). Once he was back we took a couple of weeks to prepare ourselves and Dumbledore for his first shakedown cruise. So here we are on day one, en route up into Casco Bay, going as far as The Basin up the New Meadow River.
As promised, my post about our time in the northern Exumas.
We left Rock Sound Harbor at 6:30 am on May 27th and headed for the northern Exumas where we would stay until June 18th. We enjoyed our explorations of Eleuthera, but it was time to switch gears from town-based anchorages and shore excursions to lesser inhabited islands with more snorkeling and diving.
We spent the first 12 days in the north anchorage at Highborne Cay. This is a private island with a marina and private rentals. If you’re not a guest of either of those, you are not allowed to be ashore, other than to visit the marina’s store or restaurant. The store we visited twice for a few minor food items. The rest of the time we spent on boats or in the water.
During this first stint at Highborne Cay we did a lot of diving and snorkeling the area corals, either timing them around slack tide to avoid the strong current, or tethering hookah to dingy and drifting along the corals together. We rode out the outer wind fields and rains of Tropical Storm Alex. We did boat chores, read, played games, swung in the hammocks, listened to music, watched movies, did some baking. We met Dustin and Laura on SV Elpis. More kindred spirits. We shared conversation, food, drinks, and Tropical Storm Alex with them before we had to bid them farewell as they started their return to the US. (If you’re reading this, Laura & Dustin, thanks for the company and the flour!)
Eventually we moved 7 nm south to Long Cay to explore the corals there. The first night, a couple of liveaboard diving catamarans showed up but were gone in the morning. Dave noticed that they had not anchored, but had instead picked up moorings. So we used these to tether dingy while we dove- very convenient. There was great coral with a variety of structure and lots of fish, thoroughly enjoyable! One day it rained during slack high tide, so instead we did a low tide drift snorkel with dingy along some small coral heads between Long and Oyster Cays, then we did the same thing almost the entire length of Long Cay. There was no current along Long Cay, so we ended up pulling dingy along with us. It was a fabulous mile-long snorkel with pretty coral and fish.
The Bahamas Land and Sea Facebook group has been invaluable to us over the past three seasons cruising here. So when I learned that the creator and lead administrator of the group, Addison Chan, was also in the northern Exumas, I messaged him to see if we could meet up. He and his wife Pat were in Norman’s Cay, so the following day we traveled the 4.2 nm south to Norman’s Cay. He’s working on a digital cruising guide and spends time each cruising season taking soundings of anchorages and shallow passages for the book. We met up on the west side of Norman’s, but they were heading over to the east side anchorage, so we followed them over. They had sounded it the day before, so we were relieved to know that our charts showing we were in 2 feet of water were not accurate! (The lowest we saw was 5.8’.) They invited us over for sundowners and snacks, so we got to enjoy a couple of hours with them onboard Three Penny Opera (their boat). What a great, welcoming couple! We had a wonderful visit.
The next morning we checked out the coral by dingy and determined conditions weren’t worth snorkeling. We knew we would not stay another night in this busy anchorage, so we headed back to Lady to decide where to go next. On our way, we stopped by our neighbor, SV Mako, to say hello. Corbin and Andrea welcomed us aboard to chat. Turns out their boat was partially disabled during a wicked squall following TS Alex. They had to put out a mayday call and were rescued by a power boat from Norman’s who heard their call. The damage included the loss of one of three blades from their feather prop (which means they can replace just the blade and not the whole propellor). They had already been having trouble with their steering and needed a new chain for that. This rendered them incapable of motoring or sailing well unless conditions were just right. We offered to accompany them back to Highborne Cay, prepared to tow them if they got into trouble, which, fortunately, they did not. Once we saw them safely anchored, we invited them for dinner and had a lovely evening together. They returned the favor the next night, and the day before we left the area, we got to have drinks with them one last time. They are in the process of sorting out getting parts ordered and shipped to Nassau. They will find the right day to sail to Nassau to meet the parts and make their repairs. It’s only about 35 nm to Nassau from Highborne area, across shallows, so in a pinch they could easily drop anchor and call for assistance. It’s a very busy area for boats, so help would arrive quickly. We wish them well!
Back at Highborne we met up again with Sea Dragon! That’s the family we had met and spent some time with in Rock Sound. It was great to catch up with them again! Dean and Cohen came over for a visit a couple of days later (the girls couldn’t make it). We chatted it up for a couple of hours and Dave had Cohen set up a daisy chain of sluggos for hand trolling in the deep water on their way back to the US. He really, really wants to catch a big fish! They set off for Bimini a couple of days later, and we were up to hail them on the radio and wish them a good trip. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon.
We spent our last couple of days in this area anchored on the west side of Allens Cay to check out a couple of reefs that Dave’s friend Ian had given us the lat/long for. These sites have mooring buoys, which always makes it easier to dive. We found the first mooring ball, launched hookah, got in and found an amazing reef full of fish. About 10-15 minutes into the dive, the hookah quit. The bearing in the compressor piston rod seized up, again. Dave had done his best to lubricate it twice before (it’s sealed), but it really needs replacing. No more diving this trip. So we put hookah back in dingy and went up to the north end of Long Rock Cay and did a half mile drift snorkel with dingy. It wasn’t spectacular coral, but we were impressed with the number and variety of fish we saw. There were tons of parrotfish, triggerfish, queen and French angelfish, small grouper, etc. I also practiced my free diving. At least I can get down and stay down for about a minute, but I have a long way to go. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We did something similar the next day on the west side of Allens Cay, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting.
We could no longer dive, we had snorkeled the interesting coral, and the weekend promised to be good cruising conditions. So we decided to head for Nassau (on New Providence) the next day, Saturday the 18th, and on to the Berries Sunday. We had two excellent cruising days. Nassau Harbor was a bit jolting after three weeks in the quiet of the northern Exumas, and we anchored off Junkanoo Beach- party central. Fortunately, the beach party wound down before we went to bed. We had planned to do some reconnaissance in Nassau for provisioning next year, but it was too darned hot with too little breeze, and there was a really big, dark storm cloud looming over the island. So we took a quick dip to cool down, swung in the hammocks and listened to the storm rage on land (never got to us), then dingied to Señor Frogs for dinner. We were off for the Berries at 6:15 the next morning.
So that wraps up our trip, aside of the final week of closing up the boat. Normally I’d include a diving slide show from all the underwater photos I took, but those take a long time to create, so I’ll post that sometime in July. For now, you get a collage of pictures at the top of the post. I’m taking off from blogging the next couple of weeks as we work to close up Lady and transition back to life in New England. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
I’m actually writing this today. I’m skipping the northern Exumas post for now, to bring you up to our present. We are back in the Berry Islands, enjoying our final few days before we start the process of closing up Indigo Lady for the season.
We arrived at Alders Cay on Sunday the 19th. Alders Cay and nearby (almost attached) High Cay are one island group further south in the island chain than we got last year. We spent the night and the following morning walked the beaches on Alders Cay and Bonds Cay (one island south of Alders). Funny story from our one morning at Alders Cay. Dave enjoyed his morning coffee in the water sitting on one of our floaty seats. As always, he rinsed it and laid it out after he was done with it. Shortly after breakfast, a rain shower popped up with a gust of wind that blew the floaty overboard. It would have landed on the beach we were going to explore, but instead of waiting, Dave donned fins, mask and snorkel (and nothing else!) and swam out to rescue it. With floaty safely stowed, we went for our beach walks, then returned to Lady for lunch and shortly afterward set out for our old stomping grounds at Hoffman’s Cay.
I refer to Hoffman’s Cay as our “old stomping grounds” because this is the third year in a row that we’ve been here. It’s interesting how familiar it feels here now. We were here in March of 2020 with my folks (before heading back to the US due to the pandemic), in late July/early August of 2021, and now June of 2022. Yesterday morning we walked the mile-long beach (at low tide) on the north end of Hoffman’s and saw our familiar friends the rays, sea turtles and trigger fish in the shallows, plus various seabirds and some lizards on shore. This year, in addition to gulls, terns and osprey, we saw a gorgeous heron. Yesterday afternoon on the rising tide we dingied over to Turtle Bay and up the mangrove creek. We weren’t able to get as far up the creek as in the past because the mangroves have encroached on it a little more. We saw the largest variety and quantity of fish and other sea life in 2020 with my folks. Last year we saw hardly any sea life there; this year was somewhere in between. This morning we walked the trail across to the Atlantic side beach and saw that the wreck of Low n’ Slow is still high and dry. I need to verify it from last year’s photos, but I believe it’s in the same spot as last year, but last year we noted that Mother Nature had moved it quite a distance from where we’d first seen it in 2020. I wonder how long it will be before she batters it beyond recognition. This year we saw three seaturtle nests on the beach (see the picture above)! Every year there has been a different experience. Tomorrow we may revisit the Blue Hole, or opt to walk the long beach again, or maybe snorkel the ledges. Regardless of our decision, we will enjoy the beauty of this island.
Our time here in this remote part of the Berry Islands is short this year. By Saturday night we want to be anchored back in Bullocks Harbor at Great Harbor Cay. Last year we took two days at anchor there to start cleaning and prepping Lady for closeup, then spent two more days in the marina finishing up, staying at the nearby guest inn those final two nights. That plan worked very well, so we are repeating it this year. Tomorrow we will likely head a few miles north to Soldiers Cay and either stay there a couple of nights or move Friday up to Great Harbor, behind the Stirrup Cays, and then continue to Bullocks Harbor on Saturday. Why gun it when we can dub our way back slowly? We’re hoping to catch up with our friends on Wildly Intrepid somewhere between here and Great Harbor Cay, but those kinds of things are so weather dependent. Our fingers are crossed.
It’s been a short season, but enjoyable. We’re on the cusp of pleasantly warm and unbearably hot; not a bad time to head back to New England where we will cruise the Gulf of Maine on Dumbledore. New adventures await!h
On Friday I will post about our time in the northern Exumas. That will probably be my last post from here in the Bahamas, since next week will be quite busy with closing up the boat. So check back on Friday. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
Our last morning at Governor’s Harbor we went ashore early to avail ourselves of the laundromat to wash our sheets. We can and have washed them aboard Indigo Lady, but it’s challenging, so we hold out for laundromats when we can. Going ashore also afforded us the opportunity to get some gas for dingy, a couple of bottles of wine for Dave, a coffee from Da Perk for me, and some cinnamon rolls from the local bakery. We were back on Lady and underway by 10:30 am, enjoying those fresh and still warm cinnamon rolls!
It was a quick trip to anchor off South Palmetto Point, a stop I wanted to make because I’d heard about the amazing Island Farm with fresh produce, honey, jams & jellies, baked goods, etc. We were just preparing to go ashore to the Farm when @sailingseadragon dingied over to say hello. We’d met them back in Alabaster Bay. They were heading to Rock Sound. We arranged to meet up there the following day and spend some time together. Dave and I went ashore and walked the mile to Island Farm. We missed out on the baked goods, but we stocked up on fresh produce, including locally grown bananas, plus local honey, cheese and fresh salami. We also sprung for a Bahamian rum cake, commercially baked, but at least in the Bahamas.
About 6:00 am the following morning, we woke to a few mosquitoes buzzing around our heads. After swatting a couple of them, we decided it was best to just get up and get underway for Rock Sound, though earlier than we’d planned. As soon as Dave got to the salon, he discovered that our magnetic screen door had blown open along 5” or so, which is what let in the mosquitoes. Dang!
We had a quick breakfast of fresh, local sugarloaf pineapple that we’d bought in Governor’s Harbor, along with half each of the third cinnamon bun we’d bought there as well the morning we left. Double yum! We were underway by 7am. This was a longer, 23 nm trip, so I had a few hours to get ahead on blog entries and periodically go cabin to cabin rousting and killing mosquitoes. By the end of the evening we’d collectively killed about 3 dozen of the blighters, at least half of which had already bitten one of us.
At one point about halfway through our trip, a fish hit the line Dave had out trawling, but it got off before he could see what it was. We told ourselves it was just a barracuda, which we would have thrown back anyway. About a mile from the anchorage, in about 10 feet of water, we hit another fish. This time Dave landed a 25” black grouper! He dispatched it and put it in the bucket to clean after we’d anchored a few minutes later. Our new friends on Sea Dragon had passed us as the fish hit. As soon as our anchor was down, their nine-year-old son was on the radio excitedly hailing us to find out what we’d caught and how we’d caught it. He loves fishing and is learning how to spear fish this season. We invited them over for drinks and snacks for later in the afternoon. Dean and Sarah came over for some adult time, leaving the kids on board for some solo time of their own. We had a lovely chat for 3 or so hours and then they left for the very short dingy ride back to their boat and kids.
We went ashore shortly after breakfast the next morning and headed about three quarter of a mile south to Cathedral Cave, also known locally as Spider Cave. The local nickname of Spider Cave is due to the numerous webs stuck to the rocks. They reminded me of Halloween decorations. The cave itself has lots of openings in the ‘ceiling’ allowing in sufficient light from above to not require flashlights. It was fun to poke around the nooks and crannies in this spacious cave. Lots of tree roots reached down from above seeking the cave’s floor. There were also lots of bats, lots more than we’d seen in Hatchet Bay Cave. This also meant lots of bat guano in some places, so we had to be careful where we put our hands. There are, of course, pictures and video of the caves and bats in the slide show below.
We walked back into town looking for a place for lunch. Rock Sound Harbor is a large, well-protected harbor about 1.75 miles wide and 4 miles long. Their public dock is huge and new with at least a dozen ladders to climb up. Impressive. There is an airport at the north end of the harbor. So I expected there to be more in town, but there wasn’t much, which surprised both of us. Most of the stores and restaurants mentioned in our 8-year-old chart books no longer exist. Not sure what happened over those 8 years, but there’s not much here anymore. If the shiny new public and government docks are any sign, perhaps the town is working on building itself up again.
We had heard about Wild Orchid’s, however, through the Bahamas Land & Sea Facebook group, and that’s where we ended up for lunch. They are extremely boater friendly with both street side and dock side signs welcoming boaters. They let cruisers tie up to their dingy dock and even drop off their garbage. Lunch was really good, too, and the staff friendly. It was slow, only one other couple there. The bartender noticed a dingy drifting off and once she established it didn’t belong to either couple present, she drove Dave down to the town dock where our dingy was tied, and Dave zipped out to tow it to and tie it off to Wild Orchid’s dock. Great teamwork! Later in the afternoon the owners of the dingy stopped by to thank us with a bottle of wine.
We returned to Lady to pick up our snorkel gear, then headed back to shore to visit the famed Ocean Hole. It was green, and not a healthy green. But we bought a few slices of bread to feed the fish and I got in the water with the camera to document it. Then Dave came in and we swam for about 5 minutes before deciding there was nothing to see because (a) the fish hang out where they get fed, and (b) the visibility was abysmal. We later found out the hole used to be crystal clear and a place locals hung out on the weekends to swim and play in the park on the south end. I fear the feeding of the fish to draw in tourists was the demise of the ocean hole. So sad. Before heading back to Lady, we dingied around the ample harbor looking for the in-water, small blue holes (ranging from 24’ to 45’ or so) we’d seen on the charts and stopped to snorkel at one. That one was shallow enough to almost see bottom, but the visibility wasn’t great. Still, we felt cleaner after the swim in the green hole.
The next morning I made a final shopping list and we headed to Wild Orchid’s dingy dock to drop off garbage and walk to the supermarket for a final provisioning run. We were followed by a dog we’d met the prior day. He actually followed us all the way to the market, waited for us while we were inside, and followed us all the way back to our dingy. Dave had given him a small piece of bread the prior day when we were feeding the fish. No wonder the pooch followed us.
Later that afternoon Dean, Sarah and the kids from Sea Dragon joined us aboard Lady for drinks and homemade pizzas. They brough cookies for dessert. We talked nonstop for several hours, adults and kids alike, with our evening winding down on the tramps gazing at the stars with an astronomy lesson from Dave. Alas, the following day we would part ways, but have been keeping in touch through texting and social media.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again (and again, and again), but one of the most enjoyable parts of cruising for me is meeting other cruisers. Dave and I both love spending time with other adventurers of all ages and backgrounds, who are each exploring this world from the sea. Our time together may be brief, but each meeting leaves and indelible imprint on our lives- a new friendship, a new perspective, a new way to think about life aboard, or life in general. To each of you who have touched our lives while cruising and who may be reading this now- thank you!
Thus concludes our exploration of Eleuthera. From Rock Sound we headed to the northern Exumas for some diving until it’s time to head back to Great Harbor Cay at the end of June. I will start to tell you about this part of our adventure next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
Governor’s Harbor was the first permanent European settlement in the Bahamas. Technically, the main settlement was on Cupid’s Cay, connected to Governor’s Harbor by a causeway, with a minor settlement in Governor’s Harbor, then called Colebrook Town. The settlement was created by a British group from Bermuda, seeking religious freedom, that wrecked on the Devil’s Backbone reef and sought refuge for several months in Preacher’s Cave (see my prior post that includes this). It’s the center of Eleuthera, both physically (pretty close, anyway) and governmentally. It’s less touristy than Spanish Wells, but it was a bustling little town with all the essentials, including two good-sized grocery stores, two liquor stores, a hardware store, automotive services, banks, an historic library (that I unfortunately did not get inside), a new laundromat (score!), and even a movie theater. As I mentioned in my last post, we enjoyed the Friday night Fish Fry when we were there, and we explored the Club Med/French Leave ruins. I had a delicious, fresh made lemonade at The Tea Kettle on Cupid’s Cay during our first walk about. We had lunch twice at The Buccaneer Club, itself formerly a resort and now simply a restaurant. Just outside of town is the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve.
We visited the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve on our second full day in town. There’s a sign near where we parked our dingy stating that it is 2 miles to the preserve. That was a bit optimistic; they rounded down from the actual 2.6 miles. We were prepared for this, however, because we cheated and used Google Maps before setting out on the trek. We like to be mentally prepared for long, hot walks.
Leon Levy was an American investor and mutual fund manager. He and his wife, Shelby White, had a house in Eleuthera and became very attached to the island, its culture and its people. After his death in the early 2000s, his wife wanted to do something in his name that would also benefit Eleuthera. The Preserve was born of her working with the Bahamas National Trust. The preserve serves as an educational center, a place for propagation of indigenous plants and trees, and a research center for traditional bush medicine. We walked their well groomed 1.5 miles of trails and even climbed the wooden tower that grants panoramic views of the island. It was post spring bloom, so I didn’t take pictures of all the green shrubs, just stuff that particularly caught my eye. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, almost as much as the mosquitoes enjoyed us.
After hiking the 2.6 miles back to town under the hot noon sun, we opted for another lunch at The Buccaneer Club. We’d had lunch there the day before and had planned to eat aboard after the Preserve, but we were too hot and tired to face putting together even something as simple as a sandwich. So we sat in the breeze and shade on Buccaneer’s deck and indulged. Totally worth it!
You can learn more about the preserve by clicking the hyperlink in the second paragraph, and please do enjoy the slide show below.
We made two more stops on Eleuthera, which I’ll tell you about next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
May 20th we headed to Governor’s Harbor from Alabaster Bay. It was short, 5.5 nm cruise in good conditions, though overcast. Still did it on just battery and solar, though. We’d heard there is much debris and general poor holding in this harbor, so we spent 15-20 minutes tooling around the anchorage with the side scan sonar on and me looking down from the bow. We wanted to be sure to avoid the remnant mooring blocks and other debris on the bottom. Our reconnaissance paid off, because when we finally dropped anchor, it set the first time. Dave dove the anchor and our swing area to ensure we wouldn’t snag any debris if we swung; he declared us well set and all clear. Yay.
We went ashore to check out the town, noting the locations of the liquor and grocery stores, as well as the location of the Friday night Fish Fry we’d heard about (it was Friday night, after all). This is the first big town (big for this island) with wet entry only; there was no dingy dock. On top of that, it’s too shallow for a dingy out as far as a couple hundred feet from the cement stairs or ramp. So we anchored dingy where she would still float and waded to the ramp. It was either that or drag her back to deeper water when she grounded, and she’s a bit heavy.
We returned to Lady not long afterward for a bit of relaxing, followed by virtual sundowners with our boating club before heading back ashore for the Fish Fry at 6pm. The Fish Fry is a weekly fundraising event for the town. It was busy with locals and tourists alike. Dave got us some conch fritters as an appetizer from one of the nearby stands while I stood in line to order our main meal- two orders of fried fish, each with two sides; we both got the peas & rice, then I had the coleslaw while Dave had the mac n’ cheese. We also each had a Bahama Mama- very strong with the rum. Since it was a fundraiser, we opted to follow up with dessert (like we needed an excuse). Dave had chocolate chip cookies and I had a piece of homemade Bahamian rum cake. I think the cake was stronger than my rum drink, and it was delicious! We enjoyed listening to the DJ get the crowd doing line dances and then a limbo contest. We left the party around 9:30 and it was still going strong until almost 11. Fortunately we could barely hear it from the anchorage even though it was right down near the water.
The next morning, about mid-morning, we headed ashore for the ¾ mile walk to the Club Med ruins on the Atlantic side of the island. I did a little online research about the place, which was spotty, and at times inconsistent. Best I could figure out, the location was originally the French Leave Resort in the 1960’s and was sold to Club Med in the latter part of that decade. Club Med was heavily damaged by Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and never reopened. Sometime in the early 2000s many of the structures were bull dozed in preparation for a new entity named French Leave to rebuild on the site. The rebuild never happened, although there is a small French Leave resort not far from the ruins. One of the structures still standing appeared to be an office, one room of which contained one of those blueprints cabinets with wide, shallow drawers. Only the drawers were all empty and the contents strewn about the floor. They appeared to be plans for the new resort that never materialized; one was dated 2006, so the timeframe fits. I’ll let the pictures in the video slideshow linked below speak for the rest of what we saw. I also found this link that includes several ca. 1960s post cards from when it was French Leave Resort (and one from Club Med).
When we returned to town we stopped for lunch at The Buccaneer Club, which we’d heard was good. It was. Got a few grocery items and some liquor; scored a whole case of Kalik Radlers Mango (hard to find) at half the price of buying the things individually. Kalik is a local beer; the flavored Radlers barely qualify, though. They’re mostly hummingbird nectar with 2% alcohol. No wonder I like them. The rest of our day was spent on Lady and very low key.
Our excursion the following day was to the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, but I’ll tell you about that one in the next post. I took lots of photos! Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
Life on Lady 