Eleuthera

March 29th - April 10th, 2012

Leaving the Exuma's we had a day-long great sail northeast to the island of Eleuthera, which is large (90miles long) and narrow with rocky cliffs and bottoms, which can make it hard to anchor.  But with light winds it was not a big problem for us and we went ashore for exploring.  The town of Rock Sound had an "ocean hole" inland which was interesting.  It is sea water but no one, even Jacques Cousteau, has been able to find the bottom.

Eleuthera's people were extremely nice and many times we were offered rides as we walked along.
It is not a big tourist area, as it is pretty rustic in most places - mainly a good place for some serious fishing.
Some of the names I came across in their cruising guide were:  Hammer Head rock
                                                                                                    Devil's Backbone
                                                                                                    Poison Point
 Not a place for sissies !                                                               Starved Creek

                                                                                                                                                             

Ocean Hole

Jesse, Ginny and us at ocean hole

This is the library in Governor's Harbor - the second largest library in the Bahamas.

The inside of the library was beautiful.

The four of us were lucky to go to dinner at Rosie's, an Eleutheran woman who runs a small restaurant on the other side of the island.  She picks you up in her old car & cooks a meal as if you were in her house.  It is a very simple meal and the house is filled with her collection of shells, driftwood, etc. from this beach.  

T

Ray climbing back up to Rosie's from the beach.

The beach at Cocodimama resort on Eleuthera.

Sunset at Governor's Bay - not our boat

The gang arriving to our boat - possibly for happy hour?

View on Eleuthera

Wind Dust under sail

Cruising the Exumas

March 9 - 24

Bananaquit - or known as "sugarbird"

The Exumas are chain of many islands or "Cays" that run Northwest to Southeast.  The body of water on the east side is Exuma sound which is deep blue water.  We cruised down the west side on the Exuma Banks which is more protected but can be shallow and has many reefs to avoid.  So navigation is really important requiring frequent checking of charts and talking to other cruisers.  We feel so lucky to be "buddy-boating" with Ginny and Jesse, as they have done this before.  We didn't go to all the cays - there are a lot! - but feel we saw a lot.  The water color and clarity cannot be beat - just beautiful.

Typical water color

We visited Staniel Cay for a few days and one of the highlights is to go to the beach where wild pigs live in the bushes.

Pig attack !  Going after Ginny and Jesse.

They swim out to get food - i took apple cores and carrots. They have been known to try to crawl from the water into dinghies - I threw my food !

A face only a mother can love.

Going on a dinghy tour of small uninhabited Exuma cays with Ward & Richard, Ginny and Jesse.
We are evaluating the swift water running through the cut.
Some of them are owned by celebrities such as Johnny Depp and David Copperfield, but we did not see those.

Getting ready to snorkel Thunder ball Cave, made famous in the James Bond movie 

A typical street on Staniel Cay.  There are two small grocery stores, this is the "Blue Store"
The mail boat comes every 1-2 weeks to bring fresh provisions and everyone makes sure they get there before they are all gone.  The abundance in the US always amazes us when we get back home.

Ok, enough pigs - How about some crazy people in the water with a bunch of nurse sharks?
The sharks congregate there to get fish carcasses from the fish cleaning stand.

Outside the cave.  We saw some amazing coral and fish but my camera did not work.
Swimming into the cave is easy at low tide but high tide you have to go underwater.  Inside is a beautiful grotto.

One of our favorite places at Black Point in the Exumas was Lorraines.  this is her mother, who makes delicious coconut bread every day.

The "Pink Store" on Staniel Cay.   The stores were very dimly lit to conserve electricity.

Cruisers happy hour on the beach
Very informal, bring your own drink and snacks.

Jesse, Ray, and Mike from "Goose Bumps" at the cruisers happy hour

Girls at happy hour.

An uninvited but welcome guest at happy hour

Another species frequently seen in the Exumas is the mega yacht - owned by billionaires, these babies cost many millions .
And the fuel bills per week run into the many thousands of $$$

 

These mega yachts rafted up together with their toys tied alongside.
Their dinghies probably cost as much as our sailboat.

Windblown ( It never stops!),, sun in the eyes, but having a good time.

Mahi mahi - wish we could catch one half this size.  this fisherman from Michigan did give us a smaller one and fixed it on the boat - delicious

Dinghy landing on Staniel Cay - we are going out to lunch.  Just drive through the stone breakwater and haul it up on the sand.  

Another - and most common way - to get ashore is to climb the ladder.  In this case it is low tide and the ladders have a tendacy to bend inward.  Then you have to hand up or down whatever you are carrying - provisions, garbage, etc.
We also have to take our propane tanks in to have filled periodically - or no cooking.

A happy meal onboard Megerin