The next couple of days the dark clouds took over and the winds exceeded 30 knots, which in turn roiled the sound. Amazingly, the passing squalls gifted us with rainbows to port and across the anchorage to starboard, both assuring us that we picked a good anchorage, and all will be well.

Sunday, the winds lessened and shifted to the north. Some of the smaller boats bailed and went to the other side of the sound in anticipation of the constant wind (now more like 15 knots) shifting to the east.

Finally today, after spending several days hunkered down on the west side of Rock Sound, dodging the passing cold front (blogging, reading, housekeeping…), we pulled up anchor and took a half circle ride over to the east side – 3.45 nautical miles, one hour, half circle instead of straight across in order to avoid the shallower water – 1.5 miles from where we started. We are now just where we planned, which puts us north of town, and boy are we looking forward to exploring Rock Sound (the town!). We’ve not stepped off the boat for five full days, our record to date. All’s well!

A constant part of traveling on a boat is “watching the weather.” We’ve all seen the “spaghetti” tracks from the different computer models during hurricane season. Well, it’s no different for us; every day, a couple times a day we check various sources, each with their own take on upcoming weather. We’ve mentioned we’ve been headed south because of impending weather. Yep, that cold front that dropped snow on many in the states has finally made its way down here, and we will feel its effects over the next few days (minus the snow, of course).

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The outlook for tomorrow at our location includes 30 knot winds, which equates to 34.5 mph. As our sailor friends would say, “it will be a bit of blow.” If you notice in the details, the wind will start coming from the west and then change to the northwest. How do you like the temps? Sound like the warm Caribbean to you? (Remember, no sympathy, Honey. They’re dealing with a second round of snow.)

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What’s interesting is, the next day it keeps on “clocking” around. Sunday from the north, Monday from the northeast and finally back to the prevailing east. Well…. where to go? After looking at the charts and talking to our cruising buddies, we chose to come down to the very bottom of Eleuthera, Rock Sound, because it provides good protection from just about all directions.

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Last night, here in the very, very quiet anchorage. Two “verys” because for the first time in 29 days in the islands, no roosters! Ha! Kinda miss ’em. Anyway, we decided to put out our underwater light to see what we could attract. About an hour or so later, we got real little guys circling, little guys circling probably eating the really little guys, and slightly bigger guys cruising by picking off the little guys! A visual microcosm of life in the real world! All of the sudden a school moves through; what the heck was that? Wow! We enjoyed several passes by a small school of Caribbean Reef Squid! (Yeah, we looked it up!) Very cool!

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When we arrived in Rock Sound, our friend, Madeleine, mentioned a money bat flying into their saloon, attracted by the lights. Having been visited by a really large, and I mean LARGE, moth-type creature a week or so ago, we put the screens up at dusk, all except for the upper hatch to the flybridge, for which we don’t yet have a screen. Well, you guessed it. After settling in, we were visited by an Ascalapha odorata, known in the Bahamas as a bat moth or a money bat. The largest moth in the western hemisphere, they have a six-to-seven-inch wingspan. Unlike other cultures, here, they are harbingers of fortune! Nevertheless, they panic when they find themselves flying into our saloon ceiling unable to escape. Gentle catch with a soft towel and safe release!

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Great start to what looks like at least a 3-day visit!

Finally! A walk in the park

Since we enjoy visiting parks and gardens in the States, it was a given that we’d join the Bahamas National Trust to also support the Bahamian national park system. After fortification at Tippy’s (see Day 2, Part 1), we were finally ready to explore the Levy Native Plant Preserve, created in 2009 by the wife of Leon Levy (co-founded Oppenheimer & Co.). Longtime residents of Eleuthera, in his memory, she wanted to create a living classroom of botanical abundance and history.

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Trails wind all through the Preserve with so much flora to take in. One plant that really caught our eye was the Thatch Palms because their attached fronds almost make a circle. Warning here comes an interesting educational tidbit: Before Columbus, the native Lucayans attached dried thatch palm leaves to the roof frames on their huts to keep out the elements. Thatch Palm is still used to make “straw plait,” the process of braiding strips of dried thatch palm leaves and weaving them into a variety of items, such as straw baskets, bags, hats.

Thatch palm is pretty cool, but there’s supposed to be a tower around here where we can catch the cool breeze. The trails are the “wiggle-est” we have ever been on, so a couple of miles seems much longer and on a warmish day we may not smell so fresh; good thing the Welcome Center had bug spray, because the mosquitoes are finding us…

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Along the way to the turtle pond (which way does this map go again? I think we took the long way to Ethan’s Tower…twice), we did see some interesting things.

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During her overview of the park map, the nice young woman at the Welcome Center, Jewel (nicknamed JuJu), told us the pond was home to more than 30 special freshwater turtles, the Trachemys terrapen, sometimes called Jamaican Sliders. She called them “lying turtles,” as in they tell visitors they’re never fed. Man was that true. Turtles leaving wakes! They made a beeline straight for us as soon as we arrived. It was hilarious! Definitely ended our visit to the park with smiles and laughter.

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There is so much to write about the Preserve we could go on for quite a while, but we still needed to get back to the boat. And of course, that was an adventure. We decided to use the “Breez” connection. So, a call to Ronnie’s (the dive bar).
“Hey Quincy, is Breez there?”
“No? Well, he mentioned a dude who gives rides.”
“Yep, that’s him.”
“Oh, his name is Buff? Thanks for the phone number.”
“Hey, Buff! Can you pick us up? We are at the Preserve.”
“Yes, we walked here.”
“You can? Great!”

Ten minutes later, Buff (let’s just say Buff is a big guy) arrives in a Nissan Teana (Maxima) complete with Japanese console and voice prompts; and whoosh off we go! We say whoosh because Buff being a local knew where all the subtle potholes were, and hence drove at meteoric speeds on the straightaways! Which was handy, because the hardware store could not fill our propane tank, so in a flash, we were at the propane supply place (at least 10 mi. north – less than eight minutes!). Not to be discouraged by a grumpy dude who first told us no, Todd went over and “sweet talked” the accompanying older gentleman into filling our tank. Whoosh, back to the harbor, thanks Buff! Oops, the wind had shifted again, and the bay was “a boiling!”

Think about sorta jumping down off a dock from your butt onto a bucking bronco (dinghy)… Back across the churning bay to the Mare, get the bronco fastened to the crane and back up on board, and we are home exhausted. “Pedometer reading” for the day? More than 5.5 miles….

Ah, the pleasant sound of roosters….

Tippy’s

The day dawned beautifully, with coffee and tea on the bow, watching the sun rise over the church. May as well give up and join those blasted roosters. (Why am I thinking about fried chicken?) Okay, time to drop off the propane tank at the hardware store for a refill and then find the Levy Native Plant Preserve.

Susie: “It’ll be fun, Honey.”
Todd: “Oh, can we?”
Susie: “We could look for the bakery first.”
Todd: “Doughnuts?”

To avoid what we had to do yesterday – the climb out of the dinghy and wade to shore, then dry your sandy feet thing – we called the French Leave Resort marina on the other side of the harbor to ask if we could use their dock. Yes! That’s great because when this exploration is over, we’ll have a full propane tank to carry back to the dinghy, and the marina is closer to the hardware store. So far, good plan.
According to Breez (from Governors Harbour, Day 1 post), since we’d be going to the other side of the island, we should visit Tippy’s near the Preserve, for a bite to eat. Oh, and we should probably hire a car. He did mention something about UP hill… But, nah. Not us. We like walking, and we need the exercise.

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There are roosters everywhere.

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Somewhere along the way it seems we may have gotten a bit punchy.

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And finally! Tippy’s! We made it! Tippy’s!!

Now let’s find that Preserve.

Ah, the stories about the beginnings of the many Bahamian islands. Meet the original Eleutherian Adventurers, religious exiles sailing from Bermuda, these folks actually crashed into the reef outside Spanish Wells in 1648. The natives (Arawaks) were pretty wiped out by the Spanish (slaving and good ol’ disease), so the gang set up shop. Typical of many early English settlements, they had fits and starts, but explored, nevertheless. Seeing a nice harbor about halfway down the island, they named this area “Colebrooke Town.” This township makes a credible claim of being the first permanent European settlement, and more importantly, home of the first Republican form of government in the New World!
Today, albeit deep, the harbor is a quiet place. Err, sans the near constant rooster crows day and night. We had planned to stay here for a couple of days, so exploring we went. The harbor has houses on the island side and it connects to Cupid Cay, where the yellow government building and big dock are located.

In the middle is the pretty pink library (est. 1897) and the beach in front of the church where we can land the dinghy. With so much in sight we just had to dinghy to the beach to explore the town. Quick explanation for the landlubbers: the dinghy doesn’t come up onto the land. We can “beach” it, but with the engine, it’d be too heavy to drag back to the water, so we anchor in very shallow water (planning ahead for what the tide’s going to do), climb over the side and wade ashore. Makes the clothing and shoe issue kind of tricky.

Since we got a “retired cruisers” start, i.e. 11am, we asked a few locals sitting on a bench near where we splashed ashore just where we should go for lunch. Ronnie’s, it is! Ronnie’s little dive bar/ pool hall/ humidor and eatery opened in 1957 and serves simple fare at fair prices. Unfortunately, they were out of conch, grouper (out of season), and salmon (uh?). Not a salad in sight! So, easy choice, a cheeseburger and a Philly, please. During quick chats with the friendly folks in the place, we learned that everyone has a nickname. Quincy (real name) the bartender introduced us to Breez the regular, who gave us great tips about exploring the area and even offered to call his friend Buff, the “local Uber,” to drive us around. We needed to stretch our legs so opted to walk, following Breez’ excellent directions, over to the Atlantic side to hopefully see the pink sand beach.

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We walked about 2.5 miles round trip. Not a bad walk at all. Up the hill (146 ft climb), past the nice houses, police station (see Daddy, we’re safe!), and an artist decking out a new convenience store.

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So, we returned to the boat for showers and early bedtime (are we old or what?) with plans to find the Levy Native Plant Preserve the next day.

Did we mention the roosters? Whew. Those roosters… all blooming day and night! Find the girls willya?