Back to Eleuthera

After a one night stop at Little San Salvador, which is owned by a cruise ship line, we sailed into the Cape Eleuthera Resort and Yacht Club. It is a beautiful place that saw better times back in the 1970's when there was a world class golf course on the property. They sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Andrew and we saw foundations of small cottages that were destroyed at that time. It is now under new management and the staff is very friendly and helpful. Pascal's Restaurant had just opened the week before we arrived and we had two delicious meals there. Since we rarely stay at marinas and eat in restaurants, we dubbed these two days, "Dan and Laurie's vacation."




While at Cape Eleuthera, we toured the Island School and the Cape Eleuthera Institute. The school opened in 1998 with a goal of conserving marine life and providing alternative food sources and jobs for the residents of South Eleuthera. The yacht club (owned by Dick DeVos from Grand Rapids, Michigan) donated 18 acres of land to the school. They now have local middle school students who study there as well as high school and college students from around the world.

All of the high school students who come to the school for a semester of "Study Abroad Learning," get certified in SCUBA. They also train and complete either a four mile open swim or a half-marathon run at the end of the semester.




One of the students, Alisha, gave us a tour and explained research projects involving marine life and sustainable development initiatives.





The school was built using "green design" using recycled and locally produced and sustainably grown materials. They have their own farm where they grow citrus fruits and their own vegetables. They also raise pigs and chickens. They power all of their vehicles and some of their boats with bio-diesel. They reclaim the cooking oil from local restaurants and cruise ships and turn it into usable fuel.



The school is powered by wind and solar. It is an inspiring place and seems to be a great place for students interested in marine biology or conservation to get some hands on experience.




We had a light air day and motored the short distance to Rock Sound. On the way, Laurie got this shot of a dolphin. This looks like a swimming pool, but is actually 12 feet deep water in Rock Sound.




Before we left Rock Sound, we went for a long beach walk on the Atlantic side of the island. The beach is about two miles from town where our boat was anchored. On the island of Eleuthera, it is hard to walk very far without someone stopping and offering a ride. We caught rides both ways without even putting out our thumbs.

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Location:Cape Eleuthera and Rock Sound

Just when we thought beaches couldn't be any prettier.....

...we got to the north end of Cat Island. This is an area that is not often visited by cruising boats, due to the out of the way location and lack of protection. We had heard about this beach last year from Dave and Teresa, on board Deep Blue. When we got a favorable weather forecast, we decided to check it out.



It is as magnificent as they had described. The white sand stretches for miles and no one else was here. We walked and walked and saw only our footprints.




To get to Cat Island, we left Long Island on February 8, from Calabash Bay. Clearing Cape Santa Maria, we could we the Columbus Monument in the distance.


We set fishing lines as soon as we were in deep water and fished all the way. Our only success came when Laurie caught this nice Wahoo on a hand line. He was delicious!


After a night at New Bight, we headed north up the coast of Cat Island. On the way, we enjoyed the company of three dolphins that played in our bow wake for a long time.


This is Laurie looking for more dolphins.

We spent a night at place called Orange Creek, then moved around to the northwest point on the island. In the short trip to this anchorage, we saw a whale in the distance. This was a first for us! No pictures though. He breached a number of times, but was too far away to photograph.

From here, we plan to cross to Eleuthera and continue our slow progression north.


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Location:Port Royal, Cat Island, Bahamas

Rum Cay to Long Island

After three days at Conception, we had a nice sail to Rum Cay. Our intention was to stay in a marina after a month at anchor. About an hour out, we reached a man on the radio who indicated the marina was in between owners. We could tie up for free, but there would be no showers, laundry, or electricity. On our sail over, we landed this fish. We were excited thinking that we may have landed a tuna, however after consulting our fishing guide, we found out it was a horse-eyed jack and no good for eating. Darn!




When we first entered the marina, Laurie saw a big shark in the water that she could tell was not one of the nurse sharks we are used to seeing. We continued to see big sharks in the water and were advised not to swim in the marina. Sharks are used to coming in looking for food from the fishing boats. Dan went spear fishing a couple of times on a nearby reef, with Dennis from the boat next to ours. On his first trip, he encountered a lemon shark bigger than he is, but luckily the shark turned away from him. On one of his expeditions, he speared this lobster. Despite being assured by locals that no one had been attacked by a shark at Rum Cay in their lifetime, Laurie declined to snorkel here.





On our first day on the island, the local cop was kind enough to pick us up while we were walking in Port Nelson and to let us know about the local businesses. We ended up renting a golf cart and touring the island. At one time, there were about 6,000 people on the island. Now there are only about 60 residents, all in the Port Nelson area. While at Rum Cay, we enjoyed Kaliks at Kaye's and a delicious wahoo lunch at the Ocean View.




We drove to a beautiful beach on the north side of the island, where we took a long hike and collected shells and sea glass.




After two nights in the marina, we anchored out, which we would not recommend due to surge that resulted in a couple of rolly nights. We then sailed to Long Island, catching this nice Mahi on the way.




At Long Island, we finally got the access to showers and laundry that we had been wanting. We enjoyed Mike's hospitality at the Long Island Breeze, including a fun Super Bowl party. Bo and Joyce from Dream Catcher were at Long Island when we arrived. One day we rented a car with them and toured the south end of the island. We enjoyed lunch at Max's Conch Bar. This is Gary, aka Max, making his famous conch salad.





This is Laurie and Joyce at Max's. In addition to the conch salad, we had grouper that was very good.




We visited Dean's Blue Hole as we had last year, but this time we knew to bring our snorkeling gear. Dean's is the deepest blue hole in the world and international free diving competitions take place here. There was a diver practicing when we arrived. He went down 280 feet.




We visited Saints Peter and Paul's Church in Clarence Town, one of Father Jerome's churches.






We walked a beautiful beach on the southernmost tip of the island.








On our way back we encountered some children walking home from school who readily posed for us.









Before leaving our Salt Pond anchorage, we took a couple of walks to ocean beaches.







We spent our last two nights in Calabash Bay near Cape Santa Maria. It is a beautiful anchorage where we both enjoyed snorkeling. Not a shark in sight! We also were both excited to see the green flash at sunset for the first time.

Location:Cape Santa Maria