Day 115- Rock Sound, Eleuthera

Days 115- 119 Passage to Eleuthera Island and Days in Rock Sound

Friday, March 27 to Tuesday, March 31, 2009
If you know the Bahamas or are looking at a map, you can see that getting to Eleuthera Island from the Exuma Cays is an ocean passage. It’s not a long passage and can be sailed in a day, but it is one of those sailing times that we try to prepare for. By now those of you who have been reading a lot of these blogs probably know the drill for an ocean passage: haul the dinghy on board; park the outboard on the stern rail; tighten down all ports & hatches; enter all waypoints into the GPS; secure everything inside; check the weather a million times; and try to get a good night’s rest. We skipped the step where Penny puts the scopolamine patch behind her ear because we were convinced that she had overcome sea sickness.

We were up and eating breakfast on board at 6 a.m. Caribbean Soul was off the mooring by 7 a.m. and the sails were up before we got through the cut and into the ocean. It was a great day of sailing! Winds were brisk, waves moderate, and Caribbean Soul locked into a speedy reach at about 7 knots—woo hoo! About half way to Eleuthera the winds picked up a bit more so, we turned into the wind long enough for John to crawl up on deck and put a reef in the mainsail. The reef didn’t slow us down—just made the boat easier to steer. The whole passage only took four hours out in the ocean to reach the closest part of Eleuthera--Powell Point—and then we sailed for another 2 hours on the banks. Finally, we had to motor 1 ½ hours into the wind to get to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. It was a great trip with lots of wave crashing and fast sailing. The boat was covered with salt and Penny was a bit woozy. Guess maybe ya just don’t outgrow sea sickness that quickly! Next time we’re back on the patch!

Rock Sound Settlement is a lovely little town. We anchored in a nice spot right across from Four Points Restaurant’s dinghy dock. With all that fast sailing, we had time to anchor, launch the dinghy, and get to shore in time for happy hour. We celebrated our successful passage at Four Points Bar. You can see in the picture that the patch-less Penny had overcome all wooziness after a good dose of that Happy Hour Medicine!

We were tired and didn’t stay long at Four Points. We got back to the boat in time to enjoy our first sunset in Eleuthera. Here are the pictures so you can enjoy it too. Ahhh, what a nice place to be!

In fact, we liked Rock Sound so much we stayed for 4 or 5 days. Here are some of the things we enjoyed the most at Rock Sound. Number one is definitely the people—the local people and the sailboat people. Four Points is a great meeting place and the people who worked there were very nice. One day John and I went in to see if Four Points’ TV could get one of the Carolina March Madness games as you can’t just assume that all TVs can get CBS or ESPN, nor can you assume that the bar tenders are willing to search for the game when we’re usually the only customers in the bar who want to watch. Just as we were talking the bar tender into searching for CBS, a Bahamian joined us and insisted that the bar tender turn the game up loud! It turned out that this Bahamian has parents from Rock Sound but was raised in the States. He had just flown in from his home in Philadelphia to attend a funeral here. Below is a picture of Penny and Mike. Then Mike took this nice picture of John and me. We had a great time watching the game and Carolina won! We hope Karen and Drew are proud of our efforts to support the boys in blue! During half time and time outs we got to know Mike. He and his wife are looking at places along the NC coast for retirement. We gave him our Beaufort contact information and are hoping they will give us a call whenever they are in the area.

Below is a picture of some fellow cruisers we met in town—Penny and George Miller from Waterport, NY. They were standing out in front of Grandma’s Goodies that was closed due to the local funeral, which was the funeral Mike came from Philadelphia to attend. The marching band coming down the street is the funeral band that was heading back to the church after the funeral.

Perhaps you would like to see some of the town. Yes? Here are a collection of houses. They range from a gorgeous blue shuttered house and brightly painted houses to a strange house with a series of additions –each made of a different material—and a structurally challenged house that we threw in for Finley because we know how he likes to wrap his engineering mind around cracked structure.

Other sights in Rock Sound are some pretty impressive (and strange) trees, a blue hole of ocean water, and a beautiful old Anglican Church built in colonial times (1800’s). Here are the trees. We have no idea what the tall ones are but they appear to be some kind of pine or at least in the conifer family. Notice the little spot of aqua sound water in the corner of one of these pictures. We say again—the water really, really is that color!

Here are two pictures of an impressive banyan tree and one picture of John with the ubiquitous bougainvillea bushes.

A blue hole is an interesting island phenomenon. The porous limestone along the coast will occasionally hollow through to the ocean side making a very deep blue hole on the banks side. We have seen several along the banks and the fish like to swim and hide down in these deep holes. Tourist literature often warns divers not to go into the holes when the tide is going out as you could get sucked in and stuck or something awful. The blue holes are not dangerous if you swim or boat on the surface or even if you snorkel on an incoming tide. We have never, however, seen a blue hole in the middle of a town. Well, Rock Sound has a blue hole right in town and they built a park around it. The locals say that they swim there, but on the day we visited no one was swimming—only an old fella tossing bread to the fish. Here are the Rock Sound Blue Hole pictures.

As you may already know, Eleuthera was settled by folks from England during the 1600s. For that reason, there are lots of very old Anglican Churches here. This one in Rock Sound seemed to be well cared for and quite beautiful. Here are John’s shots of St. Luke’s Anglican.
(3 pix: church)

The final collection of pictures included for your viewing pleasure is another island phenomenon: the Booze Cruise. Our favorite little Bahamian Restaurant/Bar—Four Points—has a contract with the big cruise ships that land at Princess Cay about 15 miles south of Rock Sound. They load three buses (about 60 people) and take them on a day-long excursion to the Blue Hole Park in Rock Sound and lots of other places along Eleuthera Island. The Four Points people provide lunch and entertainment! So, enjoy these pictures of the folks who are taking a land excursion from one of the really big cruise ships (Princess Cruise Line, perhaps). Their business is really good for the Bahamians here as the economy is definitely struggling. We’re not sure that places like Four Points would survive if the occasional sailboat person were their only clientele. The lunch/entertainment event itself seems to provide employment for a number of locals who do the dancing and getting the tourists to join in, who drive the buses, who sell local trinkets during lunch, who cook terrific cracked conch and fried grouper, and who mix exotic rum punch concoctions! The best part—we think—is that the buses come, unload the folks, sell lots of food and beverages, party with them, and dance them right back onto the buses in one hour! Fast! Just like clockwork—those folks have a schedule—no lingering allowed—just party and get back on the bus. Then, they leave this little piece of paradise for all the rest of us to enjoy!
(Booze Cruise pix)