Sailing Ohana

The name of the island Eleuthera comes from the Greek word for “freedom” so there are a lot of references to freedom there. It is another favorite island for our family. Eleuthera gets more rain and is more mountainous than the rest of the Bahamas, so there is a lot of farming, wildlife, birds, and beautiful scenery. It is famous for pineapples, and has pineapple festivals during the summer.

We landed on the Southwest part of the island where we got a slip at Cape Eleuthera Marina. It was a stressful place to dock because it is curved so that each slip is slightly wedge-shaped. Backing into the narrow front was tight, and there was enough wind that we had to do a lot of maneuvering to keep from slamming into the dock. We had some good help from our neighbor and the dock hand. We celebrated a lovely Mother’s Day the next day. The boys set up a treasure hunt for me and at the end (inside the sailbag) was the Lego set of flowers that I brought with all the holiday stuff I packed. They made me a card and Tommy made breakfast. It was a rainy morning so see stayed in, made the Lego set, and played poker until it cleared up. The boys played with some really nice kids from another boat while Tommy and I went for a walk and explored the area. There is a great rock nearby to jump off of, and the mom from the other boat took them there in their golf cart, and then to the lazy river that feeds into the marina basin. The water in this marina is crystal clean and clear because it has constant flow through it, unlike most marinas which are dead ends. It’s also one of the only marinas in the Bahamas with a bathroom tank pumpout. We discovered a very nice laundry and shower building, so we decided to do laundry since we were leaving the next morning. We played at the pool and the boys’ friends bought them giant blended mango/strawberry drinks which they loved SO MUCH. I got to take a marina shower which I was thrilled about, and Tommy and I went to the restaurant for their Mother’s Day dinner. It was a sweet day.

We decided that we need to get serious about preparing for our return to the US. There are so many things to consider: Where to dock the boat depends on where we have the best chance to show and sell it, how expensive the dock rent is, can we stay on it while we prep it for sale (the answer is NO), when are spots available and will we be there by then, and so on. We wondered if we should we go to Fort Lauderdale where it will be easier to sell, or North, closer to Tommy’s parents’ house, where we can have a place to stay while we work on it. Are the contractors who are supposed to work on the boat when we return even available when we need them? How many more islands do we still want to explore before we leave the Bahamas? What is the best route to Florida, for the wind and Gulf Stream? It’s a lot of work to live on a sailboat, and it’s as much (or maybe more work) to move off of one. We decided that we will spend time exploring Eleuthera, and then head West (instead of north to the Abacos), where it will be easier to jump to Florida. All the marinas we called were either full, or our mast is too tall to make it under the ICW bridges to get to them. We arranged for the contractors to work on the boat for a couple of days at a Fort Lauderdale marina slip that they have for their work, then we will take the boat to a very expensive private dock where we leave it for sale. We will do as much of the prep work as possible here in the Bahamas where we can also have fun and we’re in a place we love, rather than a hot, humid Florida marina.

The Rock Sound Anchorage was a circus last season, and this time it was practically deserted. We stopped at Wild Orchids Restaurant to have a snack because they have a nice dinghy dock specifically for boaters. The tiny, gooey, fried spring rolls that Tommy and I shared were almost inedible and cost more than $3.50 per roll. They were a specialty of the restaurant which was supposed to be a sort of Asian fusion. We tried to get ice cream nearby, but they were closed.

We rented a minivan full of cherry-scented air freshers from a woman named Denise who drove it to meet us at the dock in Rock Sound, and we gave her a ride back to her house. She was delightful, and introduced us to her 7 year old nephew, who she is raising on her own. He was dressed for school in his uniform: gray dress shorts, belt, white button up shirt, tie, and white socks pulled up to his knees. So cute. Denise gave us a big lecture about not going off-road in the minivan, and how people once brought it back with tons of scratches from trees when they took it off-road, and how she had to charge them tons of money for it. We laughed, and assured her we wouldn’t.

We spent the next 2 days driving around the island, starting at the Eleuthera Island Farm which I visited with my friends last season. It was so nice to get fresh produce like lettuce, bananas, passionfruit, tomatoes and fresh baked bread. We stopped at Governor’s Harbour and did some souvenir shopping and got ice cream.

We visited the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve where the ranger gave the boys bags of turtle food for the freshwater turtles of all ages and sizes who live there. It was a beautiful hike through the mangroves and other forests with well-placed signs telling a bit about the flora and fauna there. The wind was very calm so the mosquitoes were out in full force, but we managed to hike the whole loop and look at all of the plants and exhibits including a replica of a Lucayan dwelling. One fact we learned is that the indigenous people, the Lucayan People, went extinct in a SINGLE generation after the Europeans arrived. This was a result of slavery and disease. I had been mistakenly telling people it was two generations.

After a lunch of various fried seafoods overlooking the water on the deck at Tippy’s, we went to find the famous Surfer’s Beach. The Google directions seemed straightforward enough, but when we arrived we found hand-painted signs directing us to a detour. We thought it best to trust local info over Google, so we followed the signs onto narrow dirt roads lined with trees and shrubs, with large potholes. I just kept thinking about Denise as the branches scraped along the sides of the minivan and the bottom bumped on rocks (it has about 6″ ground clearance). After trying various roads with no beach access, we found a shady pullout to park in, and hiked down to the beach. It was an ideal beach by Spencer’s rating scale, with great waves and a nice shelter that someone built. The boys played in the surf for the rest of the day. We decided to stop for dinner on the way back to the boat since it was a long drive. We stopped at a cute beach bar/restaurant but when we found out that they only take cash, were out of mac and cheese, and had limited menu that night, we hopped back in the car and drove to Governor’s Harbour. We ate at the Buccaneer where we were the only family amidst a lot of older Americans who were all dressed up. There was a pretty good band playing outside, just far enough away from us that we could enjoy it but it wasn’t too loud. Spencer got stone crab which is different from the typical crab we get at home, and not quite what he expected, but he ate most of it before he asked Tommy to finish it. I was happy to get a salad and some chana masala. I didn’t sleep well that night, worrying about the scratches on the van.

Our second car day was less busy. We drove up to the Glass Window Bridge where the deep Atlantic meets the shallow Bahamian water. The sea was calm, so we didn’t have the dramatic waves crashing over like last season. We stopped in Gregory Town and went to a wonderful little shop where the boys got inspiration for gifts they want to make for their friends from stuff they have here. Our lunch at Unka Gene’s was more Bahamian fare: Fried (“cracked”) conch, fried grouper, friend chicken, fries… I don’t want to eat at any more restaurants because they are so expensive and most of the food is just deep-fried stuff.

We ended the day at the famous Pink Sand Beach, where Spencer and I collected some sand to take home in an empty spice jar. We arranged to drop the minivan at Denise’s house and have her take us back to the dock. Tommy and I got our yacht cleaning supplies and polished the sides a bit, and realized that the scratches only looked bad because they were dusty. As soon as we cleaned it, the minivan looked fine. Denise said we did well, and returned our deposit. We slept with the air conditioning on because Rock Sound has lots of bugs.

We love Alabaster Bay which is north of Governor’s Harbour; it was the perfect place for us to enjoy snorkeling, skimboarding, beach time, shelling, and wakeboarding, in between doing boat work. The boys helped us scrub and polish, touch up caulking, and clean filters. We are doing as much of the the cosmetic work as possible now, so that when we get to Fort Lauderdale we can be really efficient with the limited time we have in the spot at the marina there. We had one day of nearly constant rain, so we watched movies, played games, cooked and laid around. The boat was really clean after all that rain! We took a family photo with a copy of our Lyons newspaper in hopes that they publish it in the “travels with Redstone Review” section.

The snorkeling off of Alabaster is very unique. There are schools of millions of small fish, ranging from a half inch to about 4 inches long. There are probably hundreds of groupers of all sizes, which Tommy and Jackson stalked for hours. There are many barracudas and a good variety of fish, from small reef fish to larger angelfish, hogfish, and schools of jacks. We saw a couple of turtles who eat the thousands of moon jellies and other jellyfish there, and are favorite foods of the sea turtles.

The beach has a sandbar which is partially dry during low tide and the boys played in the shallow, warm water while Tommy and I walked on the beach. Last year there were lots of sand dollars, urchins and starfish. This year I only saw a few, but I think it was the weather and season. The moon was a tiny sliver during our stay at Alabaster, so at night the stars were spectacular.