The Pink Sands of Harbour Island

The honeymoon sail continues!



The Pink Sands Hotel....vacation spot of the rich and famous. Cottages start at a thousand dollars a night and go up from there!!!


This is the lobby steps leading in to the famour Pink Sands Resort.


This beach is three miles long on the ocean side.


My first day on the pink sands beach.



This is the Blue Beach Bar that is part of the famous Pink Sand's Resort. This is where we had hoped to have a drink with Christie Brinkley and Richard Gere?!?


AAhhhhhh....soft pink sand between our toes...and warm ocean waves.



We took our snorkels one day to check out the reefs but the reefs near shore were covered with sand and very few fish. One really has to go out the furthest reef in order to get the best coral.


The first day on the coral pink sand beach of Harbour Island.

The Devil's Backbone to Harbour Island

The wagon train of five boats leave Spanish Wells for Harbour Island through the Devil's Backbone of north Eleuthera. The pilot was at the helm of First Edition, followed by Celebrian, Bobbie and Luke on Lattitudes,Mattie and Charlie on Pegasus and Michel and Carole on Emotion 3. We had cocktails with everyone the first night we were in Harbour Island to celebrate our conquering of the Devil's Backbone.

At times we were very close to the beach along the one and one half hour trip.

Our pilot Bandit...fifty dollars a boat to take us through the Devil's Backbone.

The Spanish Well's dolphin one more time!!

Eleuthera Delights

Eleuthera Delights
We left Rock Sound at 7am on Saturday March 20th for the 50 mile passage across the banks to Current Cut on the western side of Eleuthera. Current Cut is the name given to the cut through between the two islands of Current and Eleuthera. Sailboats have to time their transit through current cut because of the tide. We were fortunate that we hit the tide on its ebb and had a 8-9 knot ride through the cut. It is much easier to go with the flow than to fight upstream as long as you have good control. We anchored on the west side of Current Settlement for the night and had a nice quiet evening. The night before we had unenjoyed several hours of loud bar music outside of Rock Sound settlement so we were grateful of the peaceful anchorage. The next day we had a deightful sail to Spanish Wells where we are on a mooring waiting for the next cold front to pass so that we can go to Harbour Island.
We had been to Spanish Wells two years ago and had enjoyed our time here. It is an unusual community ...about 800 hundred citizens, all white, very religious, very affluent,hard working and most of the men and their sons work on huge lobster boats. Spanish Wells supplies well over half of the Bahamas' commercial crop of lobster, conch and fish. It is difficult for a 16 year old boy to say no to a job that can bring him a hundred grand a year...why would you stay in school? As for the girls they marry the young boys and continue to live here and have their families. There are about 8 main surnames for the phone book so most everyone is related. The last time we were here was after lobster season and the boats were all here; however this year the boats are all out of port until the end of March. We are hoping to buy some lobster but unfortunately it will likely be frozen.
Yesterday we went for a walk around the island called St. George's Cay...about 2.5 miles long by a quarter mile wide at its largest section. Most of it is the settlement of Spanish Wells. Evidence of the island's industriousness and economic prosperity is seen in the well kept homes, both modern and historical, as well as the heavy vehicular traffic of scooters, motorcycles, cars and trucks. It seems out of place to see a sport's car here instead of the usual golf carts. The name of Spanish Wells is derived from an early explorer who found fresh water here and Spanish galleons drew water here before returning across the Atlantic. The community dates back to the 17th century when the Eleutheran adventurers left England looking for religious freedom. On our walk we met Rita, the local manatee who spends a fair amount of time at the town dock. The locals come and feed her lettuce and she gets a little fresh water from time to time. Lynn had never seen a manatee and before she was through she had poured most of her water bottle out for Rita. One of the locals said that fresh water was like cocaine to a manatee. I do remember them in the marina in Titusville, Florida. They were lured in by the fresh water being used by boaters to wash their boats off. The marina didn't want the manatees coming in because they get hit by boat propellers but they had no way of keeping them out. We hadn't realized that there were manatees here in The Bahamas. We also met one of the local dolphins that hang around Spanish Wells while we were dinghying into the dock and walking the waterfront. It was like being at Sea World only better because both Rita and the dolphin were wild.
Speaking of dolphins....I have on my list of things to do before I die ...swimming naked with dolphins. Since coming to The Bahamas I have always been thrilled everytime I have seen a dolphin or had a chance to get a picture. When we were anchored on the western shore of Rock Sound two large dolphins swam by Celebrian. Rob called me up from the galley to see them and I made the comment that how I wish I could swim with them. Rob quickly handed me my goggles and fins and without another thought I jumped into the water. By then the dolphins had swum away but when they heard my splash they turned around to see what the sound was. They swam back to within about 15 feet of me and then turned around and continued fishing. I was so delighted to have been that close to them so I guess I can stroke off swimming naked with dolphins; however I would love to have another opportunity to do it all over again.
To go to Harbour Island from Spanish Wells takes you on the north coast of Eleuthera known as the Devil's Backbone. It is highly recommended that you hire a pilot to take you through the intricate coral reefs. We have hired Bandit who also looks after the moorings that we are on. Bandit says that he hopes that we can go on Wednesday so it looks like we will be here for another day. Today we have been getting torrential rain....the first wet front that we have had all season. We have topped up the water tank and the boat has had a good wash. It is wonderful to get the encrusted salt off the decks and hardware. I went ashore this morning hoping to do a little craft store shopping but got caught in the rain...oh well it's fresh water.
Harbour Island is the island of the rich and famous and Rob is hoping to have cocktails with Christy Brinkly but I am thinking more of Richard Gere....we will just have to see? Perhaps we will get to see Jimmy Buffet? The island is approximately 3 miles long by a quarter mile wide and there is a pink sand beach that runs down the whole ocean side. It is the tiny grains of coral and shell that gives it its rosy colour and everyone says you have to see it to believe it. Dunmore Town is the island's only settlement and is primarily a first class tourist resort. There are first class hotels, restaurants, shops and straw market so we will have lots to see and do.

While You Are Here.....

I decided that this sign beside a bench in Staniel Cay with Goldberry in the background deserved its own blog entry. I had posted a picture of it in the Changes in Lattitudes...Changes in Attitudes entry but did not get a chance to include what the words on the sign said so here goes....

While you are here....

Stop awhile...
Sit awhile...
Listen awhile...
Relax awhile...
Meditate awhile...

Live awhile longer.

Happenings in Rock Sound, Eleuthera

Happy Birthday Lynn!

A birthday cake for Lynn complete with heart sea bean and little sailboat!

We found a new blue hole and cave outside of Rock Sound where we had not walked before. It was labled as a heritage site; however it had not been mentioned in any of our guide books or charts.

The caves and the tree roots were amazing.

A visit to another heritage site with a blue hole and caves.

A return trip to the Blue Hole in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We couldn't help remembering that we had been here two years ago with George and Lynne on Ketch'nDreams and their two dogs Daisy and Tucker. They are still building the cruising fund for another sail.

Lynn and I hoped that the street name might help our fishermen catch fish?!?

Yes...there is a tide in The Bahamas....Goldberry high and dry!!!

Occasionally the captain and the admiral get dressed up. This was the night we went out to dinnert at Sammy's Place in Rock Sound with Lynn and Peter.



This picture shows Celebrian anchored off of Rock Sound.

Goodbye Exumas....Hello Eleuthera

Today is Monday March 15th and we are anchored in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a wonderful ocean sail from the Exumas and were greeted by a mother and baby dolphin on the banks.

Rock Sound is a great harbour for cruisers and the settlement is working very hard to meet the needs of the cruising boats. We were here two years ago on both our way down to the Exumas and our return from Long,Cat and Little San Salvador Islands to the Abacos. There is a decent grocery store, hardware store and even a liquor store. There are also some small gift stores so we are back in civilization here. Eleuthera is a hundred miles long by a bow shot wide (in other words very narrow) and has a population of about eleven thousand. This is quite a contrast to the Exuma Cays with its 365 cays (islands), 125 mile distance and its two settlements of Staniel Cay and Black Point with a couple of hundred people in each and Georgetown being the largest with about a thousand.
Today is Tuesday March 16th and we are moving over to the town side of Rock Sound. We had anchored on the western shore in the lee until today because of the continued west wind. Black Sound harbour is 1.5 miles wide and 4 miles long so it provides shelter from both the easterlies and westerlies dependent on where you anchor. Today we plan on picking up some provisions, doing a little gift shopping,a little exploring and the all important trip to the Napa Hardware store with a trip to the liquore store thrown in for good measure! Tomorrow we are planning on leaving and heading north up the coast of Eleuthera to Governor's Harbour. We may spend a couple of days there waiting for some east winds to take us across to Current Cut rather than beat ourselves up trying to push into a northerly. Chris Parker agrees that The Bahamas have not had the best weather this year, but he said on the SSB radio this morning that the eastern US has had the worst winter there in a long time with gale force winds and rain.....so....the weather here is definitely better!
It is Thursday March 18th and we are back on the western shore of Black Sound harbour sheltering from another cold front from the north west. This one is supposed to be short lived and with any luck will be through Eleuthera by tomorrow afternoon. Yesterday I had hoped to get an internet signal and send some blog updates; however the Batelco tower was having problems with power and the internet was down for most of the day. Now that we are on the other side of the harbour we can not receive the signal so for now I am unable to do any updates. Finding a place that has internet is one thing but finding a place that has a strong signal is another challenge. We have found no free signals this year and most places are charging ten dollars for the day. The odd restaurant has had free wifi if you eat there but even those seem to be few and far between and often the signal is poor. It sometimes takes me fifteen minutes to upload a picture to the blog so doing the blog is sometimes a labour of love. Tomorrow if the wind drops we may motor over to the town side and buy an internet signal but as aways it depends on what the wind decides to do. It sounds like we will make our next move on Saturday with a sail over to Current Cut, Eleuthera. We had hoped to head up the coast on this side of Eleuthera but we are running out of time especially if we hope to get to Harbour Island. Even though we don't fly home until the 14th of April it feels like we are near the end of our cruise and we have to be ever mindful of getting north on the ocean. We always like to spend at least a week before hauling out getting the boat ready so that means we really have less than three weeks to cruise.
Things in Rock Sound have changed since our last visit. It would seem that the economy has suffered here and several stores and eating places have closed. We spent our time walking around the area and returned to the ocean hole park. The ocean hole is a 100 yard ,tidal blue hole populated by salt water fish that move to and fro through subterranean sea tunnels. We snorkelled there two years ago but it was not that clear and clean. There has been a good effort to clean it up and turn the area into a park and the water seemed clearer with more fish. Here is hoping that the locals are no longer using the blue hole as a dump for garbage.
After our walk and getting our chores done the other day we treated ourselves to dinner out at Sammy's Restaurant. Lynn and Peter joined us and Rob had grouper and the rest of us had lobster. It was very delicious and it was my first lobster of the season. We had hoped to buy some fresh from the local fisherman but you have to find them on the dock and timing is everything. Yesterday was Lynn's birthday so we treated First Edition to "hamburgers in paradise", bean salad and a little cake that I baked. First Edition's library is amazing so one of Lynn's gifts was a friendship book mark. Captain Rob made her one of his conch bowls and as of this morning it is being used for jewellery. It was a nice celebration and as always we are grateful for the time spent with our sailing friends. Sailing provides a common bond but it is the friendship that develops that makes the relationship special.
Today is Friday March 19th and we are back across the bay for a few hours so that we can buy an internet signal and get some updates done. I hope to get in a call to my mom on Skype as well. It depends on the strength of the signal and how many boats are using the internet but it really is wonderful when it works. Rob has rowed into shore to pay for the signal and to get my password and with any luck this posting will soon be on our blog. The wind is forecast to build so we will likely move back to the more protected shore after I finish my internet entries. Rob is going to make a trip back to the hardware store and bank while I work on the boat.

Changes in Latitudes....Changes in Attitudes

Changes in Latitudes...Changes in Attitudes
Today is Tuesday March 9th and we are in Black Point. Since my last entry we have met back up with First Edition, sailed 15 miles south to Galliot Cay and anchored for the night and continued on another 12 miles south to Lee Stocking Island where we have stayed for the last two nights. We had hoped to stay longer; however our plans of sailing to Cat Island and Little San Salvador evaporated when we listened to Chris Parker's forecast this morning. Once again we have a westerly cold front bearing down on us in the Exumas; however this time we are going to use the front to sail to the sothern part of Eleuthera....we hope.
The anchorage at Galliot Cay was very pleasant and we had the whole place to ourselves; however the temperatures kept the skinny dippers shivering and under cover. We have used our oil lamp most evenings to keep the chill out of the air. That being said the days have gradually been warming up and we seldom don't get in the ocean for a dip. We had a great sail down to Lee Stocking and were making high 6s and 7s on the knot metre. Once we got settled Peter picked us up for a walk ashore to stretch our legs. The next day we had a tour of The Caribbean Marine Research Centre. Its purpose is to conduct various reef and fish studies on the island and in its surrounding waters. One of the students who is interning there gave us our tour. She had just finished a three month study of tiger sharks in Eleuthera and is now studying the effects of global warming on coral...two very different subject areas. The centre had a group of 12 students from Bloomfield College in New Jersey there for a week's course. What a great experience for these young people. After our tour we hiked up Perry's Peak, (39 metres/125 feet) which is the highest spot in the Exumas. We made the mistake of taking a different route home along the razor rock edge of the island. It proved to be quite the challenge and we were grateful once we got safely back to our boats. Some of us are wearing bandaids today but for the most part we were very lucky considering where we had walked. After lunch we took the dinghy around Norman's Pond Cay where we had hoped to see the abandoned ruins in the salt pond. We had tried to get there when the tide was high enough to get into the pond; however by the time we had reached the mouth the tide had started to ebb so we decided to go shelling instead. We came away from the shelling with quite a number of conch shells that the captain is hoping to fashion into beautiful bowls. We were upset to see the number of small immature conch that were cut. Legally the conch are not to be fished until they have a significant lip which means that they are mature and can reproduce. As with so many sea creatures the conch are being over fished and it is not the cruisers that are doing the damage.
Today we had hoped to stay and do some more exploring at Lee Stocking but we decided that it was more important to take advantage of the good sailing day and to head north to Black Point. Before we left today we saw two dolphins fishing along the cay near where we were anchored. Unfortunately they did not come by and give us a smile for a picture but it was still nice to see them. We had a great sail up to Black Point averaging once again high 6s and low 7s on our knot metre. At least our short trip to Lee Stocking didn't cost us much in diesel fuel. Peter and Lynn had a two foot mahi mahi on their line but it spit the hook just as they had it up to the boat. We had one strike and the fish spit the hook before we even tried to reel it in. Thank goodness for chicken!? We are going to head into shore to do laundry and then to Deshemons for our usual conch pizza treat. Tomorrow we will continue north and stage ourselves for a sail to Eleuthera with the idea that we will still go to Harbour Island but from a different direction. Of course tomorrow is a new weather forecast and we always have to be prepared for changes in latitudes and changes in our attitudes!

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

The Waiting Continues

The Waiting Continues

We are all provisioned and set to sail to the Jumentos but the weather gods are not co-operating and we continue to wait for a weather window. This morning is(Monday February 22nd) it doesn't look like we will have an opportunity until after next weekend. That being the case it is likely that Lynn and Peter will be back in the Exumas before we leave. The problem with their motor is fixed (kill switch) so they are relieved. Lynn flies home tomorrow and will be back on Friday so depending on the weather they may be able to leave Nassau by Saturday. As the time goes by we are going to be more hesitant to go further south considering what a poor winter it has been for getting around. We have had lots of nice days but we have had more than our share of cold fronts that keep us from moving. I have read nine books so that tells you something about the weather. I would highly recommend the following...The motion of the Ocean by Janna Cawrse Escary, The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findley, What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George, Isaac's Storm by Erick Larsen and The Cider House Rules by John Irving.

Since my last entry from Black Point we have checked out a couple of new anchorages in the Staniel Cay area. We stayed at Bitter Guana Cay the night before last. Bitter Guana Cay is home to dozens of iguanas. These iguanas are endangered and most of them have numbers painted on their sides so that they can be studied and identified. The only other place to see these animals is at Allan's Cay where there is a good population. Last year we saw iguanas in the Crooked and Acklins Islands but they were a smaller breed. These iguanas come right down to the beach looking for lettuce handouts. Lettuce for cruisers is like gold so I am not sure how much they get but they are definitely not too fearful of humans as you can see by the picture. Yesterday we anchored just north of Staniel by an island called Fowl Cay where there is a very small posh resort. Dinner for one is one hundred dollars so needless to say we aren't going out for dinner there. Sailing friends of ours, Heather and Murray on Windswept 4 call this area Oz. We hope to meet up with W4 in the next day or two. Heather and Murray have been coming here for a dozen years and have just returned from a month in the Jumentos. Yesterday we put Mr. J on Goldberry and did a little exploring. We had hoped to go further today but the front has come early and we are getting showers this morning. We are also getting some surge so I am feeling a little queasy so I will take a break from below decks and get some air in the cockpit.

How time flies when you are waiting for a weather window?! Today is Sunday February 28th and it has almost been a whole week that we have been hunkered down in Oz between cold fronts. The main problem has been the prevalence of north and west winds and short of Pipe Creek and this area there are not very many places that you can take a front and have the protection needed in high winds unless you go to Exuma Park and take a mooring. The other problem is that we can't seem to get more than a day or so of good weather in between the fronts. For instance yesterday was a beautiful day and we sailed Goldberry and went snorkelling and had a picnic on the beach with Heather and Murray. Last night the front came through with high winds and today it is still blowing. Tomorrow sounds okay but Tuesday we are expecting another front....the waiting continues. The good thing about this past week is that we have had an opportunity to spend some time with Heather and Murray. Murray has taken us to some great snorkelling places. Murray is a good fisherman and also hunts with a spear. We had a lesson in casting for snapper near a reef but the fish were too good at taking the conch bait and we were unsuccessful. We caught several pretty tropical fish but released them. Murray did spear some snapper for our dinner so we didn't go hungry. Our problem is that neither Rob nor I have the hunter instinct and would prefer the fish come to us cleaned and filleted. That being said we have tried to troll this season but have yet to catch anything to eat...the fish in The Bahamas have nothing to fear from us. In between cold fronts we have taken the opportunity to sail Goldberry which is such a joy and Heather and Murray had a little sail while we were onshore at The Goat Hair Salon. I had trimmed Rob's hair a couple of weeks ago but he is fearful of trimming my bangs so I try to do them myself. Both Heather and Murray have been cutting each other's hair for years and have all the right tools so by the time we left the beach we were all looking mighty fine. The beach we were on is a goat favourite as you can see from the picture. On the other side of the island there are some resident pigs that have become quite aggressive with dinghy visitors. They equate the sound of an outboard motor with food and have been known to try to climb into your dinghy. Both the pigs and goats belong to local Bahamians but there is no one living on the island. It has been a pleasure sharing some dinners and happy hours with W4 and we hope that we can introduce First Edition to them soon.

First Edition is on a mooring in the park north of here and may head south to meet us tomorrow. Lynn's trip to New Jersey went well and she is set until they return to the Chesapeake in May. We are undecided as to where we will try to go over the next three weeks but we will decide once we sit down with Lynn and Peter. They need to be to the Chesapeake in mid May and plan on leaving the Abacos about the same time we fly home in mid April.