Rock Sound 04/01/13

It’s been over a week since I wrote my last blog.  On last report, we had said goodbye to friends and were anchored south of the town of Rock Sound.  That morning, we weighed anchor and moved “where the action is”.  The adventure of Eleuthera began.

Elethera is a completely different scene from the islands we’ve experienced so far.  Meaning “Freedom”, the people here are fiercely loyal to their island and country.  The water here is more open and less clear so activity ends up being much more land based.  We immediately felt welcomed by the town and its people, all of whom seem to be your friend from first encounter.

We heard early on that the Easter holiday was important here in Eleuthera.  Little did we know HOW important.  Every town has a “homecoming” with four days of events planned (in the Bahamian way of “planning”, that is).  But I’m ahead of myself.  Since hearing of the festival over the weekend, we decided to stay put for the week and see what it was all about. 

Although the conditions of the anchor fields and the dinghy docking facilities left quite a bit to be desired, we settled in.  Being that our first day in town was a Sunday, nothing was open and, with the wind blowing and the water messy, we stayed aboard most of the day.  That made the improving conditions of the next day that much more welcome.

Over the week we’ve had so many memories, it’s hard to relay them all.  We met a new couple – Devon and Liz, a British couple aboard Moose Tracks – and spent most of our time with them and our friends aboard Lammeroo.  Rob and I hiked across the island one day to visit to Nort’side Restaurant that everyone who knows about Rock Sound mentions. The sign in town give 1.25 miles to the destination but we found it to be over 2.5 miles so we were more than ready for a good meal when we arrived.  Unfortunately, as it goes here, the owner had decided to go to Nassau for the day and there was nothing to be had but another 2.5 miles back into town! 

We made the best of it and walked the beach, finding my first and only “hamburger bean”, a treasured prize for all cruising beach combers.  On the long road back, we flagged down the only vehicle we had seen during the journey and caught a ride for the last leg back.    We ended up having a great lunch with them – tourists from the states on their way back from a scuba adventure.  We had lots of laughs and shared stories and we were glad to have had the twist of fate that introduced us! 

Another day I organized a pot luck lunch at the ocean hole in the middle of the town.  We made an announcement on the VHF to the boats in the harbor, welcoming them to join in and we ended up having a great turnout of 8 boats, amazing food and lots of fun.  We swam in the hole, had a surprisingly gourmet lunch for a potluck and made new friends.

Being that we had so much time to spend here, we spent another day and a half touring the country of Eleuthera by car.  We teamed up with MooseTracks and found a car to rent from “Coco”.  Allthough Coco had forgotten to tell his wife we were renting the car (you gotta love how things are done down here!), we worked out the details and got underway.  We had an amazing 30 or so hours!

We spent the first half day touring north.  We stopped at the nicest produce farm we’ve seen in the Bahamas and had fresh hot cross buns, picnicked on a pink sand beach, toured a nature preserve and more.  The day was jammed packed with activity and things to see and do.   We stopped at the “Glass Window”, a previously natural bridge between the sound and the ocean.  We hiked up and down and around the area, exploring all the ins and outs of the gorgeous landscape.  From there we decided to find the northernmost tip of the South Eleuthera before turning around toward the famed Governor’s Harbor Friday night fish fry.

On the way back south we visited the Hatchet Bay caves, the definite highlight of the day.  I’ve never been in a real cave before – you know, with NO light and crawling on your knees in places, etc.  Of course, in the Bahamas, this takes on a whole other element in that safety measures are not something generally worried about too much!  We donned our completely inadequate head lamps and gave it a try.  We found an amazing treasure of underground scenery that we only could see on the camera screen after the flash had gone off!  It was great fun and we all felt pretty proud of ourselves for “giving it a go”!

The fish fry ended up being a bit behind schedule (HA!  We’re in the Bahamas, mon’!) so we wandered around town and stopped for a drink before deciding we’d just go back to Rock Sound and have dinner there, avoiding driving too late at night and having to limit the beverage consumption!  On our way back to the car, we ran into the group of people who picked us up on our missed lunch hike!  Where else can stuff like that happen?!

Half day #2 of our car journey took us to the south end of the island to Lighthouse Beach.  It was another beautiful day and we enjoyed seeing the private cruise line station at Bannerman town and off-roading down the ragged drive out to the point of the island.  We walked the beach and climbed the rocks until it was time to return the car.  It was Good Friday at this point and we were almost stuck in the Bahamian countryside with no gas but we were lucky enough to find a pump at the only marina on the coast! 

After returning the car we walked back into town and showed Devon and Liz the bat caves we had visited earlier in the week with Jim and his son, Daniel.  Just a short walk from town, the small ocean hole and surrounding bat caves were another completely new experience for me!  With great towering tree root systems and bats on the ceiling, it’s a fun place to explore.

The rest of the week was taken up enjoying (mostly) the events of the Rock Sound Homecoming weekend. I’m signing off to give you a reading break!