We played a little dodgem’ with a couple of cruise ships as we left the anchorage at Little San Salvador on our way to Eleuthera. It was a 15 mile sail to our first anchorage in Rock Sound. The weather was due to turn nasty with squalls and such and Rock Sound offered good protection. Tuesday the nasty weather rolled in as expected although it wasn't really too bad. It was actually nice to have a day at home for a change and we managed to get a few chores done and I made a pretty awesome apple pie which we enjoyed with freshly caught tuna, coconut rice and carrots. Truly the best fish ever and my pie wasn't bad! By Wednesday we were ready to get to shore, so when the wind shifted we raised anchor and moved to the town side of the harbor. We had a nice walk to the Ocean Hole and then found a little place to have a cheeseburger and a banana split. First time ever to see a banana split in the Bahamas, we were thrilled. Coleen was excited to find a video store selling new movies 5 for $20. I suspect that despite their packaging they may not have been entirely original… I was excited to find a clothing store, first real clothing store we've seen. We had a cruisers happy hour at a little shack by the beach with lots of good food.
Friday I packed a lunch for Coleen and took her to spend the day at the Haynes Library. When we arrived the jazz band was giving a concert for the local school kids. It was loud! I settled Coleen in the Children’s Room and set off for a walk around town. Governors Harbour has lots of steep hills and gorgeous old houses. We were amazed that some of the houses were over 200 years old, no easy feat in the land of hurricanes. We even managed to find a bakery with donuts. What a treat!
Sunday we attended services at the local Methodist Church just a short walk from the dinghy dock. The church was huge, but the congregation was small. In fact it was mostly the people in the choir. Notably, there were only a couple of men present. As with many of the small Methodist Churches in the Bahamas, they didn’t have a pastor and the message was given by a member from a nearby church. They were super friendly and welcomed us by name from the pulpit. As we were walking back from church, someone called my name, and then asked if I’d like to have some authentic native Bahamian peas and rice for lunch. I said, “Sure!” We were invited inside their tiny home while they packed up to huge containers with ribs, chicken, peas and rice, corn on the cob and salad! It was delicious and I felt truly blessed.
Monday, we shared a car rental with the folks on Sunkissed and headed out early to explore Harbor Island. We drove almost to the northern end of Eleuthra and then took a water taxi to Harbor Island. We rented a golf cart and had great fun dashing around seeing all the sights. It was a beater of a golf cart, but we had fun none the less. At one point our friend John had to get off the back and help push the golf cart up a steep hill. My favorite part of the day, was our picnic lunch on a pink sand beach that stretched for miles. We also enjoyed a cheap beer at a tatty, little local place and then decided it would be better to go to one of the fancy hotels for a drink. We picked the Coral Sands and I had an awesome mudslide. Unfortunately our golf cart sort of self-destructed while we were inside and we had to walk back to the dock. Thankfully it was downhill. The fellow who rented the golf cart to us was none too happy to see us returning without the golf cart and took off in a huff when we said it was in the parking lot at Coral Sands. Oh well, totally not our fault!
As if the day wasn’t full enough, once back at Hatchet Bay we were invited to the Rainbow Inn for drinks/dinner and to hear the local band. We enjoyed good pizza, an amazing view, good music and fun times with friends to wrap up our time in Eleuthra. We didn’t stay late as we had an early morning departure planned. It was a an awesome day, but a bit of a budget buster, so we need to lay low for a few days and enjoy the snorkeling, sailing, eating fresh fish, no cost part of cruising for a few days.