Governors Harbour to Current Cut

Just as we were leaving Governors Harbour, we noticed a seahorse attaching itself to our anchor chain as we brought it up.

It turns out there was a pair of seahorses and they were tenacious in their attempts at holding on to the chain. One got hauled all the way onto the bow before I noticed it laying on the deck. It flipped itself back into the water, hopefully unharmed. After that, the seahorses repeatedly swam over to the anchor chain, attached themselves, and then dropped off when we moved the chain up. They were about 6 or 7 inches long and looked like a piece of seaweed under water. 

We ended up catching them, drying them out and grinding them up into a powder so Matt can sprinkle it on his food to improve his virility.  No!  We wouldn't do that...especially when we have so much powdered rhino horn left.

We actually sailed for a bit before having to resort to our engines to get us to Current Cut in time for slack tide while there was still daylight. The cut, which can rip along at 8 knots and look like a whitewater river, was nice and mild for our transit (just remember, 1 3/4 hours after high tide at the Nassau station is slack tide at the cut).  We had no luck catching any fish so we had leftover Indian food and freshly made flatbread/pseudo-naan for dinner.

Later that evening, after we had gone to bed, we finally heard from the owner of the boatyard. The email said that we wouldn't be able to get hauled out on Monday as scheduled and that he would let us know a new date as soon as he knows more. Good thing we hurried to get back up here. Oh well. There are worse things than waiting around in Paradise.



Governors Harbour

Lighthouse Beach anchorage at the southern tip of Eleuthera

We finally made it to the famous Archer Bay fish fry at Governors Harbour that had been just out of reach for us over the last couple weeks on Eleuthera.

 

An abandoned building in Cupid's Cay (the other side of the
tracks to the well-kept Governor's Harbour).

Matt had been to one other Bahamian fish fry, near Freeport, which had a number of different vendors and more people, especially locals. He had fun and convinced us we should try the Governors Harbour version. We bought some overcooked whole snappers and delicious barbecued chicken and shouted over the ear-bleedingly loud club music. It was fun, but it seemed to be heavily weighted with tourists. Mark and Conrad hardly touched their food because they were having so much fun playing with some local boys and the two girls from Kiawah that we met earlier in the day. A bunch of rubber bands appeared and our boys started weaving some bracelets, which some tourists actually paid them a dollar each to make. It was very kind of them, but they may have created a monster. The boys have been scheming of ways to make spending money and are now convinced that selling rubber band bracelets is their ticket to wealth. Even though we couldn't stay for the Junkanoo parade because it was already hours after the boys' bedtime, they had a fantastic time.

 

After a day at the beach (Matt was pole spear fishing for dinner) and long walk to the Leon Levy Plant Preserve, we attended part of the school Junkanoo competition for Eleuthera. Everyone was exhausted and Matt was asleep by 9. Then the DJ at a bar in Cupid's Cay started to yell and sing at the top of his lungs into the microphone until the wee hours of the morning. It sounded as if the speaker was right next to our boat. I can attest that keeping someone awake with really loud music is an effective form of torture.

Three days earlier, we came to Governors on a really uncomfortable but fast upwind sail in what turned out to be 40-knot apparent winds. Given the forecast for the week, it was one of the only days we could actually sail to Governors from Rock Sound, rather than motor. Had we known how windy and rough it would turn out to be, we might have chosen to pay for the diesel instead. I have been lamenting how many engine hours we seemed to be logging and gently pressuring (the way I see it) Matt to cut down on engine usage, even if it means going 4 knots. So naturally I deservedly got the blame for the bumpy ride.

Before Governors Harbour, we spent a few days at Lighthouse Beach on the southern trip of Eleuthera. The area is only accessible by boat or a nearly off-road drive and the pristine beaches are covered in soft sand, without the ocean garbage that washes up on the shores of most islands. Our new friends Jai, who is with the Island School, and Patty came down to spend the day with us. Despite the relatively chilly weather, Matt and Jai went pole spear fishing and broke the fish drought we had been experiencing.

 

 

 

We're leaving Governors to head back up to Spanish Wells for our boat fixing appointment. Unless something changes, it looks like there's some motoring in our future.

Waitin' by the dock of the bay

We had been hanging around Rock Sound, taking some trips to nearby Cape Eleuthera and Tarpum Bay, while waiting to hear when we can get hauled out in Spanish Wells. The other day we finally got a tentative date near the end of the month. Although that might have been enough time to allow us to go south to Cat Island, the forecasted winds were not favorable. This time of year the winds typically have a strong south-easterly component but for the next week and a half they are to be mostly from the north. This oddball wind causes two problems, first there aren't a lot of anchorages on Cat Island that offer protection from North winds, and second, if the winds don't turn back SE in time, we'll have to slog against them to get back to Spanish Wells. So we'll probably stay in Eleuthera for now, but might try and get to the very southern tip where the snorkeling is better.

The underwater terrain in Rock Sound doesn't offer much protection for fish, so except for a small lionfish (which made a couple sushi rolls) we haven't caught dinner for awhile. As it has been relatively cloudy and cool (low 70s) for the past few days, we have been spending a little more time in the galley trying to recreate some favorite foods we haven't had in a while.



A pretty close approximation of everything bagels.

3 kinds of homemade dumplings. Conrad

helped to make them (Mark made one).





Random stuff about the Bahamas

 

This is our third trip to the Bahamas in a year because of repeated boat-fixing activities in the States. Although we have not visited as many anchorages as other boats, we have visited several places more than once and stayed longer than we might otherwise have. As a result, we have gotten to know more local people (non-cruisers) and learned various facts/nuances about life here that not every visitor picks up.

 

For example, electricity here is really expensive. A typical house in Marsh Harbour pays $600 a month. That's how much 8 months of electrical cost us for our 2-flat in Chicago in 2011. And the $600 surely isn't going into improving the infrastructure: the power goes out with a regularity that would have Americans stringing up ComEd executives faster than you can say, "Won't somebody please think of the ice cream?!" You would think solar would be a more popular option but I guess capital is an issue and there are pesky regulations about generators (which would be needed as back up on cloudy days).

 

We also learned that stray dogs are called "pot cake" dogs because they eat all the scraps available, including the burned rice caked  on the bottom of the pot. The dog pictured above is the opposite of a pot cake dog. He's owned by a Rock Sound restaurant/hotel owner and has to be one of the best fed dogs in the Bahamas. He'll bark at you for the first 30 seconds and then he is a typical "I have just met you but I love you" dog.

 

From a child-rearing perspective, corporal punishment is alive and well in the Bahamas. We were a little surprised when a well-meaning grocery store owner told Mark that he was sure to get a spanking if he didn't listen to his parents. We have heard that most public schools also freely spank children, sometimes punishing an entire class to enforce order. Matt witnessed two mid-twenties men roughing up a teenage boy that they said was "teefin'" (it took Matt a minute to realize they were saying "thieving"), referring to the way the teen was observed casing parked cars. The men did not appear to know the boy. It was island justice--capture, trial, sentencing and punishment, administered in 5 minutes.

We don't spank our kids but were raised in a time when almost no one spared the rod.  Therefore we're not offended by the cultural difference (from a distance that is--having our sons physically disciplined by a stranger would probably raise our hackles).  In fact, comparing the behavior of our often unruly youngest with the mostly well-behaved Bahamian children sometimes gives us pause to reconsider. Of course, not all the local kids are Miss Manners clones.  Anecdotally, the behavior of children here seems to mirror the range that you see in the States. Some have been angels, a few have been hellions (especially when their parents are nowhere to be seen), and most are somewhere in between.  But the fact that most address us and other adults with "Yes, Sir" and "Yes, Ma'am", makes it seem like they're better behaved than they are. It's comparable to the American south in that way.

 

Here in Rock Sound, we have been to the relatively well-stocked Market Store numerous times trying to see which items had been "reduced for quick sale" but were still viable.  We had some delicious conch fritters at Pascal's (a gourmet restaurant in the middle of nowhere) to quell our guilt over using their freely-offered water to fill up our jugs. We visited some truly prehistoric-feeling caves rife with bats. We crossed over to the Atlantic side of the island to see the pink (if you squint) sand beaches and play in the surf, dodging eager pot cake dogs along the way. Mostly we have enjoyed postponing most of the boat tasks on our to do list for a little while (although Matt did spend a full morning changing the oil and watering the batteries). We're still waiting to hear from the boat yard in Spanish Wells about the availability of their lift to decide whether to go North or South.

Roxanne (or Rock Sound if not spoken by someone with a Kiwi accent)

In Hatchet Bay, Matt and I scored some stone crab claws from the local processing plant. A big bag was only $20 because they were "floaters" (no, not what you think...they float because they just molted, which means the meat is not as dense so they don't make the "premium quality" cut). We had always avoided stone crab in restaurants because they seemed expensive for a bunch of claws. Well, we have seen the light and, as long as they're only $4 a pound, we'll eat them all day long. 

The crab was a nice consolation for missing the Friday fish fry in Governor's Harbour. We had really wanted to go as several people had waxed poetic about the fish fry and gotten that wistful look of people had trying to describe a warm Krispy Creme donut to someone who had never tried one.  It seemed impossible that it could meet our expectations. But, the wind didn't cooperate so we'll have to try the next time or next island.

 

Our sail to Rock Sound was fast and bumpy. Of course, local crabbing means crab pots to dodge. We were sailing right into the sun so we didn't see most of the floats until we were almost on top of them. It was like a mostly boring video game, punctuated by wild veering and a bit of swearing.

We were trolling 2 lines and kept getting fish on, but we were moving so fast--almost 9 knots--that the fish were getting dragged and bounced, cartwheeling off the waves as we tried to bring them in.  We lost about 4 of them before we decided to head the boat up when we had a fish on so we could slow down to a reasonable 4 knots. We ended up with a cero mackerel and a half (the other half ended up in the stomach of maybe a shark or a big barracuda). We cooked them that night and have now placed cero high on our list of yummy fish. 

Rock Sound has a couple of play lots with all the unsafe equipment of our childhood: steel merry-go-rounds, wooden teeter-totters a mile long, fast slides and swings that get you high enough to launch yourself 30 feet. It was a throwback to a time when fun won over liability issues. Mark and Conrad can't get enough. Of course, Mark skinned his hands and knees a good bit when we let him scooter down a long hill, so we're not necessarily the most protective (responsible?) parents out there.

 

We'll hang around this town for a bit while we figure out if the timing will work to return to Spanish Wells to get hauled out again and fix our keel.

Hatchet Bay (Alice Town)

While in Alice Town, we visited some caves about 3 miles outside of town. Mark and Conrad agreed to go even though it meant riding their scooters in the heat, mostly because they really wanted to see the bats.

Matt and I prepared ourselves for the inevitable whining and wailings of tiredness that usually comes with any trek longer than 2-3 blocks. Instead, the boys impressed and surprised us by making it there and back, plus exploring about 2/3 of a mile inside the cave, with almost no complaining. Maybe they are toughening up. Or maybe they were just super excited about the bats. Either way, it was a welcome change and the caves were well worth the visit. Among the new experiences for the boys that day was seeing bats in the wild, total darkness when we turned off our flashlights, and of course the caves themselves. There was quite a bit of graffiti and a lot of broken stalactites and stalagmites, but it was still an impressive cave system. And some of the graffiti is reportedly from the late 1800s, so it's now valuable antique graffiti.  It was different from the caves we've been to in that the temperature of the cave was very warm- it was in the low 70's rather than the low 50's typical for  North American caves.  But it was in the shade (obviously) so it still offered some relief from the midday sun.

On the walk to the caves we also got to see a small pineapple farm along the road, a remnant from when the area used to be full them. The other unusual sight was a half dozen or so medieval-looking silos that used to house a U.S. missiles installation before they were abandoned.

Mark and Conrad had fun playing in the local Alice Town playground. All but one swing is broken and the lot is a bit overgrown but the slide was fast and steep (yeeha!).  They experienced their first wooden teeter-totter, which along with merry-go-rounds seem to have vanished from American play lots, probably for safety reasons. The park is mostly filled with empty wooden structures that make up the stage and vendor stalls for the big local festival in early August.

Gregory Town, New Years Eve Day

Northern Eleuthera is edged by bluffs and lush pine-y trees. This is unlike the mostly flat Bahamas with smatterings of palm trees that we have seen so far. On New Year's Eve Day, we snorkeled near the bluffs surrounding our boat. Although we didn't see any new creatures, the sheer numbers of purple sea fans and shimmering silver-blue minnows was astounding. Both the kids are comfortable snorkeling now, although it's amazing that Mark doesn't scare away all the fish with his unorthodox swimming technique and his habit of screaming through his snorkel when he sees anything.

An honest-to-goodness hill (a very steep one).

We saw very few tourists and lots of friendly locals in Gregory Town. It seems a bit less prosperous than the areas of the Exumas and Abacos that we have visited. Near the shore, Conrad would have continued to talk the ear off the fisherman cleaning his catch if we hadn't eventually dragged him away. The boy loves fishing and fish. Unfortunately, he still doesn't like eating it much. He'd never admit it though, and gets more excited than anyone when we catch something.

We saw that the fishermen had a sizeable pile of large barracuda. We asked about ciguatera, which is the reason that we haven't sampled any of the ones we have caught. Apparently, there is a risk but clearly it's one they are willing to take. Speaking of ciguatera, a local doctor from Nassau told us that fake ciguatera poisoning is a common excuse used to get out of work (sometimes used often enough by a single worker to become suspicious).

 

Cotton

 

Since we didn't catch any fish today, we resorted to a steak that had been frozen (and repeatedly semi-thawed during several freezer snafus) since last January. Probably not quite ready for an upscale steakhouse in New York, but it was amazingly still edible.  After a dessert of some tasty pineapple tarts (with one surprise coconut one thrown) from a bakery in town, we went to bed at the normal time. We were unexpectedly roused at midnight when the local resort two small bays over set off an impressive New Year's fireworks display. I momentarily sat up but was so tired that I couldn't even make it to the grand finale. New Year's Eve on a boat with two kids is super-exciting. Yeah, it's definitely because of the kids...(yawn).