Exploring Eleuthera Takes Some Time

Eleuthera is a long, skinny island that is shaped a bit like a half circle with a sling shot on the bottom.  Or at least that’s what I think.  It is 110 miles long and in parts is only one mile wide.  Eleuthera is estimated to have an area of 176 square miles.  Now I realize that our former home state of Texas is significantly larger at approximately 268,000 square miles, but traveling by boat, the island of Eleuthera felt pretty large to us!

Originally we thought we would spend a few days on Eleuthera while waiting out a weather system, but we ended up spending more than two weeks exploring various anchorages and I know we missed many interesting places. 

After exploring Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and Royal Island, we sailed southeast back through Current Cut so we could explore the southeastern section of Eleuthera.

Current Cut was an interesting opening on Eleuthera that required some timing because of the strong current ~ yes, appropriate name.  As you can see from the picture of our instruments, our boat speed through the water was 6.4 knots but we had the current going with us and our actual speed over ground was 10.1 knots indicating that we had almost 4 knots of current during our trip through this fairly narrow passage.

LIB sitting pretty in Governor’s Harbour

Our first stop on the eastern side of Eleuthera was Governor’s Harbour.  We spent the afternoon walking the town and poking into the few shops we found that were open.  We arrived late on a Saturday so most places were closed and they don’t open on Sunday. 

Fancy and clean food truck

We did find a food truck and decided we to indulge in some ‘take away’ dinner.  See the menu in the window…. what would you choose?

I’m not sure what it is, but there are some stops that call to us or click with us more than others.  Governor’s Harbor didn’t call much to either of us and a weather shift dictated a move further south after only one night.

Rock Sound was our next anchorage of choice and this one we enjoyed more than expected. It is located just above the slingshot shaped part of the island. The first night we anchored in the undeveloped northern part of the sound to protect us from some northern wind.  But the next day we moved to the eastern part of the sound when the wind changed from that direction.  The town of Rock Sound is deceiving and at first glance you might think it has little to offer but we found plenty to do.

St. Anne Catholic Church,  just like home…. I wish we had been here on a Sunday!

This sign made me smile.

We enjoyed a cool beverage at this restaurant overlooking Rock Sound.  As indicated, the entrance was around the back where an open patio offered a cool breeze from the sound.

One morning we toted our bikes to shore and explored as much of the town and surrounding area as we could.  Our bike ride allowed us to see the varied terrain near the anchorage.

Unpaved roads and very little traffic were perfect for our mountain bikes.

Not a bad dead end for one road.

This time our road ended in a grassy, palm treed yard.

Mining for sand???

This was our most unexpected dead end on our bike ride.  This hill of sand must be 40 feet high.  Our guess is that they were excavating the sand and moving it elsewhere? Anyone have a guess?

Several places on Eleuthera have ocean holes in shore. These are pools fed by the ocean from underground.  It was pretty amazing to ride our bike through town and come across this ocean hole.  

Frank was happier than he looks in this pic.

You would expect this to be a fresh water pond, but in actuality it is ocean water with salt water marine life.  The town has built a park around the hole so locals have a nice place to gather and enjoy the water.

The park around the hole is simply green space.

Rock Sound has a well stocked grocery store where we were able to buy some fresh produce and a few odds and ends to shore up our food reserves on LIB.  We stopped in a cute little shop called The Blue Seahorse where I bought some earrings made of sea glass.  I consider the owner of the Blue Seahorse (Holly?) a bit unusual here in the Bahamas because she is very marketing savvy and interested in increasing her business.  We saw signs for her business in several places and she hopes to advertise in some of the cruising guides.  You should stop in and see Holly at the Blue Seahorse if you ever visit Rock Sound! She has some great items and she makes them all herself.

After enjoying several days in Rock Sound, we raised the anchor and moved further south toward Davis Harbour Marina.  This small marina has about 25 slips and most are used by local fisherman, by scuba diving trip operators or by fishing guides.  Davis Harbour is a small, well protected marina with super nice people and much more than expected.

Our first night here we enjoyed dinner at Frigates Restaurant right in the marina.  It’s always a positive when I get a break from cooking, plus the dinner was tasty and the atmosphere pleasant.  It is interesting that these places are so small that one person is the bartender, waitress, cook and cashier! 

Dusk at Davis Harbour Marina

Our plan was to stay at Davis only two nights as we wanted to fish along a submerged rock formation called The Bridge located between Eleuthera and Little San Salvador.  So we headed out early in the morning and fished for several hours with the intention of anchoring in a small area off of Lighthouse Point at the very tip of Eleuthera.

There is a Yiddish proverb “Man plans, God laughs.”  That happened!  We caught only one skipjack tuna and a barracuda.  Plus while we were trolling for fish, the wind direction became more southerly and made our planned anchorage untenable.  Yep, God had a good chuckle about our plans.

So back to Davis Harbour we went and we were very happy to have such a calm spot after a day of waves.

We spent the next day exploring nearby creeks in our dingy.  There were three creeks very close, so we took Day Tripper as far as we could then hopped out and explored on foot.  Captain loves jumping around in the shallow water but she isn’t much help when we try to bonefish!

Captain is a front seat driver in the dinghy!

Frank decided to bike to Lighthouse Point, the anchorage we were unable to visit due to weather, but I bailed.  I know I could have ridden the 25 mile trip, but I wanted a day at “home.” When I saw the pictures he took I regretted skipping the trip.  

Seeing the pictures made me sorry we were unable to anchor at that beach!

The actual lighthouse might need some repair.

Remember our friends Kristen and James of s/v Tatiana who shared the adventures at Harbour Island? Well they decided to join us in Davis Harbour for a day of diving! Paul, a local man, climbed aboard LIB and spent most of a day with us.  Paul showed us two nearby dive spots where the coral was in excellent condition which again was encouraging to see.

James captures some coral with scuba bubbles in the background.

Thankfully James had his GoPro with the red filter and his pictures were great.  

Look at the colors!

Really, what was I thinking moving onto a boat in crystal blue waters and not bringing a red filter?!

Hahaha, you have to be able to laugh at yourself, right? Conehead much?

After our second dive, Paul taught Frank and James a few fishing tricks using live bait.  We didn’t have any luck catching fish while Paul was on board, but we have some new techniques to try.

We returned to Davis Creek and said goodbye to Paul.  What a great guy he is and so generous with his knowledge.  We are lucky to have met him.

Of course Kristen and I decided that after a “long” day of water sports, we needed to be pampered with dinner at Frigate’s, so the four of us shared our evening meal and discussed our next move.

We have been in contact with Rally buddies, Kevin and Susan of s/v Radiance, and Frank and I decided it was time to head back toward the Exumas and see if we could rendezvous with them. 

Perhaps on our sail we can put to test some of the fishing pointers Paul shared…