Rock Sound, Eleuthera

We left Cat Island for Little San Salvador, a private Island owned by the Holland America cruise line. It is a cruise ship stop for most of the winter when the large cruise ships of up to 2,500 passengers arrive daily. Quite the spectacle as they ferry passengers ashore for hours of fun. We only stayed for an overnight stop to break up our journey and did not ask permission to go ashore as it looks all too staged for our liking.

The following day we had a mostly down wind slow sail up the southern coast of Eleuthera then a brisk beam reach into Rock Sound. It is a large harbor with all round protection so we anchored on the south side the first night out of the waves. The next day we moved to the West side for the passage of a front. We heard a British accent on the VHF radio and hailed them to introduce ourselves. We met Andy and Barbara on s/v Ptarmigan. We had a lovely morning drinking tea and chatting about England and our respective trips so far. We met Laurie and Rob of s/v Moonshadow when we anchored again nearer to town and arranged to meet later. Rock Sound was readying themselves for “home coming” which is an annual event where past residents return to their home town and they have a big party. It was also Easter so that makes it a long weekend holiday for a really long celebration. They had the main street closed with a stage erected alongside many food stalls and a beach bar.

Home coming stage - local kids dance group

Home coming crowds - a BIG event here!

 

On Wednesday a call went out for a pot luck lunch at the Ocean Hole. This is a very large salt water hole that is inland and around 600 feet deep with fish in it. We swam in the water and enjoyed a lovely lunch and great company with about 20 cruisers of which 4 were kids.

Admiral's meeting at Ocean Hole

Captain's Meeting at Ocean Hole

The Island is very large so we decided to hire a car with Laurie & Rob to see the sights. Laurie arranged the hire with Coco’s restaurant and bar, it seems like you rent from a person rather than a business but it’s hard to tell. We had 24 hours so day 1 we went north and the first stop was Island Palm Farm for hot cross buns and some fresh produce. Then on to Leon Levi Preserve which is a Bahamas national trust garden and enjoyed the trails and the variety of plant life.

Palm Island farm

 

Leon Levy Preserve

Liz, Devin, Laurie & Rob

 

Next was a quick stop at Governors Harbour bakery then lunch at Pink Sands beach. The next stop was the glass window where the Atlantic ocean is only yards away from the Bahamas banks and the contrast in sea color is remarkable. We took a walk along the rocks and found a nice heritage site as well.

Glass Window

Water contrasts

 

Our next stop that day was Whale Point, the road was pretty rocky and in one place we had to turn around as it was completely washed away. We are slowly getting used to the road system and what we think is a road is being redefined. Our next stop was Hatchet Bay caves, not that we love caves but there are some awesome ones around the islands and these are among the best and free too. The added benefit was it was a one way transit through the cave with a ladder at both ends so we walked back over the top of them. The evening saw us back in Governors Harbour to scope it out and partake of few beers, however we didn’t want to wait for dinner so drove to Rock Sound and grabbed food at the festival. The next day we swapped the car for a “jeep” as the southern roads are much worse than those yeasterday.

Washed out road

Hatchet Bay caves

 

So we rose early at 6 am to continue the car ride south. Our first stop was the cruise ship village at Bannerman Town, unfortunately it was closed and again is privately owned by Princess cruise line. We stopped to talk with a local fisherman and his 2 sons who were just headed out for the day. Then on to Lighthouse point and had a great beach walk and stunning views of southern Eleuthera. After a frantic search for gas to refill the jeep, we eventually refilled managed to refill at a marina! On the way back from car rental we stopped at another set of caves in Rock Sound in search of bats, unfortunately they were out as we found it empty.

Lighthouse Point

We have had a wonderful week in Rock Sound, it was great to see so much of the island and also to see the home coming festival and experience some of the local culture. It was difficult at times as the Bahamians don’t seem to know what a schedule is but like the roads you get used to it after a while! It was great to see so many people out for most of the celebration and the music was great and really clear on our boat in the harbor right up to 2 am ;-)

We arrived yesterday in Governors Harbour and just before we entered the harbor we saw the AIS signal for a “Raft Antiki”, we had seen it in the harbour on our car trip, but never expected it to have AIS! Well it turns out there is much more to the story... so go here to read about it.

http://www.eleutheranews.com/local/2180.html.

Raft Antiki

We had a wonderful walk around town today and visited the Bakery for Biscuits, cinnamon roll and Chicken pattie (Scones, Chelsea buns and Curried pasties to us Brits). Then a long visit to the library, the second largest in the Bahamas, where we found the local ladies coffee morning. We had a wonderful few hours chatting with local ladies and hearing first hand about the Raft Antiki.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter whatever you did.

Devin & Liz.