Days gone from Virginia: 106
Days in Bahamas: 45
Miles traveled: 1,473
No more toilet stories!!
Things overboard: Nothing this trip.
Trip Firsts: A FULL day with the sails up!!! In all the days we've been gone this was the first real sailing day.
January 27 through February 1, 2011: We left Hatchet Bay on Jan. 27 headed for Governor's Harbour. Hatchet Bay is on the outside of this cut. We really grabbed a mooring ball in Hatchet POND...big pond but well protected. The cut getting is was blasted away as you can see by the picture. It's pretty amazing to see tankers come into this narrow cut.
Early in the morning before we took off I was in the cockpit and heard what I thought was a bird diving into the water...as I turned around I saw a MANTA RAY about 3' across jump twice. Amazing site. We left Hatchet early in the morning and we anxious to get to Governor's Harbour because our mail was waiting for us. Take a look at what $105 DHL delivery looks like...then look at what's next to it. Yep, it's a hard pill to swallow but the picture after that says it all.....look at the smile on David's face. We got Christmas cards that were really appreciated.
Mooring ball markers are a strange breed down here. We've seen floats, styrofoam balls and the like but this takes the cake...
After we get the boat squared away we try to get into town to walk as much as we can. It's great to stretch our legs and this time we talked to the DHL lady and she told us where to get fresh fish, who to rent a car from and where to eat!! We ended up walking around and found the locals selling fish....talk about fresh..
Take a look at this. His crawfish (lobster to us - crawfish to Bahamians) ranged in price from $10 for the small, $20 for medium and $25 for the large....needless to say we have a delicious dinner.
Looking north at the only boat in the Harbour...ours.
We also saw these 2 little kids eating ice cream getting ready to go to Junkanoo.....they were really sweet. One thing about Bahamians, they are all smiling, happy and so polite.
We spent the next few days doing projects we needed to catch up with including servicing the watermaker.
Our fresh water maker costs over $6,000 but was brought to a halt by a simple $2.00 "O" ring.
After spending all day working on it David finally got it going so we are back to making fresh water. Thank goodness because hauling jerry jugs from the beach is awful.
Yesterday, Jan. 31, we rented a car and drove the entire length of Eleuthera. We went up north to see the GLASS WINDOW and PREACHERS CAVE then headed all the way south to Rock Sound. We only missed 30 miles of the 110 mile long island. Of course, there are some spectacular beaches and sites to share with you but dumby here forgot my camera. So you'll have to suffer through my descriptions:
Glass Window is a bridge that was literally moved 7' to the west by a rouge wave that broke it lose from its foundations. It's a awesome testament to the fury of Mother Nature. Unfortunately, it cut the island in half until it could be repaired. Preacher's Cave on on the beach opposite the Devil's Backbone in Northern Eleuthera. Earlier I had described about the first settlers on Eleuthera who got shipwrecked here back in the 1800's. I was mistaken...it was in the early 1640's. Survivors climbed up the bank and found a cave where they survived the storm. The cave is about 100' across and about 200' deep. They settled there and also built an alter for the church services.
One of the really big highlights of the trip (for me, anyway) was being able to pick up my fresh, clean, folded laundry from a wonderful little old lady in town. She did 1 load of whites, 2 loads of darks and towels for $19.00. Amazing!! I wish we could have left her $100 dollars after seeing the state of her house. She smiled the entire time.
Now I will be honest with everyone. I also had a major meltdown here. I was ready to "be back home"...but I am home and after much calming discussion by the Captain we decided to move onto the Exumas. This adventure, while exciting and romantic sounding, is hard work. I've gone through missing my kids terribly, missing my friends and wanting a apt./condo or something to call home. But we are home and were able to talk things through.
February 1, 2011: We got underway headed to Cape Eleuthrea Marina and Resort. David was really happy because for the first time this entire trip he was able to sail all the way down from Governor's Harbour. The winds were perfect and we made 6.5 to 8.5 knots the whole way. We decided to treat outselves to a marina since it's been 18 days without a real shower/hot water and a full battery charge without running the generator!! Whoopy, hot shower tonight. Unless you've done a lot of camping or sailing you don't know how exciting this can be. The resort is owned by the man who also owns the Orlando Magic basketball team. It's an eco-friendly place, very quiet with tons of fish in the "harbor", water costs .45 a gallon for water, .65 kwh for electricity and it's $4.00 for a 5 minute shower (.50 for each extra minute). But it's beautiful and worth every cent. Here's what we saw when we came in...
Everyone is really friendly but we hope business picks up because right now it looks like there are about 6 staff for each guest. The brochure said you would be able to see all sorts of fish and sharks in the crystal clear water. We were also told we could buy fresh fish from the local fisherman that came in here to clean their catch. What they didn't tell us was .......what we would see.......take a look.....
There are so many different kinds of fish right here in the harbor it's amazing to watch. While I was cleaning the conch I heard some fish who had schooled up by a foot bridge literally jump out of the water. I didn't see what was spooking them but we did see a barracuda in the stream earlier..who knows...it was just awesome to hear.
We leave here tomorrow, Feb. 2nd, for the Exumas. We'll be checking into Warderick Wells and the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We're excited because they have a volunteer program you can donate time to. We'll see what we end up doing. Again, we're not sure about internet connections. We had to pay for a day with one of the providers here so we're hoping there is the same thing in the Exumas.
Until then....we've been keeping up with the awful weather most of you are having and are concerned for everyone. Please take care and be safe and warm. More later..... Dave and Peg
PS: If you're set up on SKYPE let us know via our email address. We've talked to my brother, Bob, and to Stephanie and to Tom, our Hilton Head friend. We'd love to hear from you. Take care =)
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