Yesterday we sailed 42 miles from Warderick Wells Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters to Powell Point on the SW corner of Eleuthera, then up the Davis Channel NE over the banks down to the SE corner of Eleuthera Sound to the quiet community of Rock Sound. Winds, which started out at 10-12 kts died during the day to dead calm yesterday afternoon and overnight. It was very warm in the afternoon but cooled off to about 72 overnight which precipitated a very heavy dew over the boat. The sun has been up for two hours and the dew remains!
We have so far traveled 116 of the 180 nautical miles of our cruise from George Town, Exuma to Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. The weather has been very cooperative thus far with mild winds and clear days.
Our first two days out of George Town took us to Black Point on Great Guana over the Exuma Sound’s deep waters, then over the shallow, colorful banks to Staniel Cay and Big Major’s Spot. We went for a noontime swim in the beautiful Thunderball Grotto and dingy ride over to Pig Beach to see the swimming pigs. Then on to Sampson Cay, one of our favorite stops in the Exumas. After uploading photos, enjoying dinner ashore with another cruising couple, and a morning walk around the island we sailed north to the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we took a mooring just north of the HQ building. After a quick and peaceful overnight we set out at 7:30am for Eleuthera.
Mystique has been in the sparsely populated and gorgeous Exuma Island chain for the past year, and we shed a few tears as we watched the last of the islands slip from view astern. We’ve enjoyed these islands with both of our children and their spouses, shared Andy and Jessica’s beautiful wedding on the beach off George Town, enjoyed the company of visiting relatives, and befriended many locals and cruisers including David and Kathryn who have been so good to us.
As the 30 miles ticked by our thoughts turned to the upcoming two weeks and we began anticipating our upcoming stops and new adventures. Our first stop at Rock Sound began with some excitement. After walking through town to visit the Money Tree machine at Scotia Bank we stopped by a deli/hardware store where I overheard several locals discussing a fundraising project. I noticed two of them were wearing Rotary pins and asked if they were with a local Rotary club. Two hours later Jan and I were riding in a car north about 40 minutes to the weekly Rotary dinner meeting!! The club on Eleuthera was just chartered in June this year and we were among the first ten visitors. The BBQ rib dinner was prepared by Mariah Kary’s(sp?) chef on the island!
The person driving us to the meeting is the Principal of the Deep Creek Middle School, part of the Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute [ www.ceibahamas.org ], a progressive high school for native Bahamians and students from the United States who come over for experiential learning focused on the life of the sea around the Bahamas. The school offers tours on Fridays, very conveniently, so we’ll hitch hike the 20 miles down there for this afternoon’s tour.
Eleuthera is already proving to be a more populous and commercially successful place than Exuma. There are small villages scattered around the south end, with two larger and successful vacation hot-spots at the northern end: Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.(Dunmore Town). The long, skinny island has one main “Queen’s Highway” (two lane road) running from one end to the other connecting everyone together.
We’ll work our way up the west side of Eleuthera over the weekend then head for Spanish Wells, a bustling town on the NW side of the island, on Monday. After a few days there provisioning, taking on diesel, and doing laundry we’ll head over the Atlantic Ocean 60nm to the SE side of Great Abaco.
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