Goodbye Exumas…Hello Eleuthera

4/3/17
Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas
Position: 24 51.870N, 076 09.788W
Posted by Bill

We left Big Majors Spot on 3/30 and moved a few miles north to Sampson Cay, one of our favorite anchorages. We moved to get some protection from south and southeast winds that were coming, but Sampson didn’t give us very much protection because of wrap around waves and bouncing off the rock walls behind us. We did enjoy the sand bars behind the anchorage. A great weather window was forming, so we moved back to Warderick Wells to stage to cross to Eleuthera. We picked up mooring number 12 on 4/1, and went swimming off of one of our favorite beaches. It is finally getting hot here and the swimming was wonderful! We had a very calm and peaceful night, thankfully.

Yesterday we left Warderick Wells, slipped out the inlet and made our way to the bottom of Eleuthera Island. We actually raised both sails!! It was the best ocean crossing we have ever had…calm seas and a nice gentle breeze. Both boats tried to do some fishing offshore, with no success. We tried a cedar plug that our good friend John Reddington gave us to try, but no luck. We went around the cape of Eleuthera and into Rock Sound Harbor. There is a nice settlement there with excellent provisioning, including a grocery store like we find back in the States. Most grocery stores in the Bahamas are like a small convenience store and there are very few stores like those we have come to take for granted in the US. We tried to do some shopping yesterday and also go to dinner, but almost everything was closed on Sundays, so we will catch up today. We are also going to wait out a short bout of strong winds tonight, and shoot for a 2 day run to Spanish Wells if weather allows. Longer term, we plan on taking the first good weather window to cross the ocean to the Abacos and then work our way back to the US by late April/early May. As always, we will travel based on the weather.

Sunrise on Exuma Sound yesterday:
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I still marvel at the color of the ocean when you get off shore. Here is an example of the water at about 4,000 feet deep:
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A couple of pictures of the town at our anchorage in Rock Sound (including Sophia Jeanne):
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We had really spotty internet access in the Exumas this year. I think something was wrong with the cellular data service while we were there. We should have good access from here on out, which will help with the blog!! Thanks for following us.

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