When I started this, we were in Staniel Cay waiting out a weather front….a couple of days later, we are in Cape Eleuthera…waiting out a weather front. I will tell you more about Eleuthera later, but it is described as the best kept secret island from Travel and Leisure. It is gorgeous, but, I think it is like most of the Bahamas….a little downtrodden from the economy.

We are anchored off Staniel Cay in the Exumas…waiting out some weather….story of winter in the Bahamas! we have been back and forth to Staniel a number of times, but it is beautiful. Our friends, Mary and Dave were also in Staniel and so we had a farewell luncheon at the Yacht Club. we have been traveling with them off and on since December and have had many a merry time…we will miss them! But, I think we have made friends for life.

So, to catch up, we last left you in George Town on our way home to Pennyslvania. while in PA, we had 3 snowstorms! So, we were very happy to be back in the Exumas. We had a great time in George Town….dinner with some friends of David’s from the Audubon society in the Poconos, a cocktail party at Peace and Plenty Hotel (a hotel that Dennis and I stayed at 25 years ago)… A country western and a blues band concert in Regatta Park with resident characters….the dinghy dock in town…the Anglican Church and the wonderful people.

After George Town, we sailed up to Farmers Cay for the 5F festival. farmers Cay is a great little island. Our friends Dave and Mary had gone up the day before to secure mooring balls for each of us and we had a backup reservations with Mr Roosevelt Nixon. While we were sailing in, we heard our friend from our Maryland Marina ask for a mooring ball too! We hadn’t seen Bill since sometime in Oct/Nov timeframe on the ICW. It was good to see Bill and Ken. They came down with other Rock Hallers

We started out the night before with a sunset drink at Ty’s Sunset Bar (one of 3 on the island)….beautiful sunset, but you have to be careful if walking as it is right next to the runway. The windsock for the runway is one of the most unusual wind socks I have seen and since we are in the tropics, it is not a necessary garment.

The day of the festival….we knew it was an event when a larger mail or supply boat came into the channel….music blaring and lots of people aboard. Overall the festival was a little disappointing…I thought it would involve more local kids, but we did have fun. I took some school supplies to the woman pastor and she saw some local leaves in our friend’s pocket. She used her arms to demonstrate the properties of the herbal Viagra.

We traveled up to anchor in Black Point  Settlement with Dave and Mary, and as we were sitting in the cockpit, a dinghy came by and more Rock Hallers….Dave and Cherie! We hadn’t seen them since Elizabeth City, NC and although it was just a short couple of cocktails and a catchup, it was sure nice to see them. We hope to see them again in the Abacos.

While in Black Point….a favorite island amongst cruisers, we visited the Garden of Eden. Willie, an elderly man who appears to be suffering from Parkinson’s lives a little bit outside town and most of his property is coral rock. He has a gallery of plants, driftwood, sculptors, etc and tells a story about each on his tour. Lovely man.

Black point has a couple of notable ladies…Ida who owns the laundromat, the best $4 hot shower and 5 fried conch fritters for a dollar. The place is immaculate and she cooks them right up beside the cash register. The other woman is Lorraine and she has a restaurant that is also really good…fresh fish sandwich was wonderful. Cruisers actually donated money over the past couple of years to help her expand. Lorraine and Ida also bake bread. The Bahamas is known for its bread….coconut, cinnamon, banana, white, wheat, etc. It isn’t like cake, it is bread and it is so good. David loves coconut bread french toast. Anyway, the island is stunning, the people so friendly and the food…tasty. Lorraine’s husband is a big Steelers fan.  I am going to send him a towel when I get home as he thinks his wife keeps hiding his and he needs it!

Some other interesting situations…we were boarded by the Bahamian Defence Force while we were in Blackpoint.  We saw them boarding our friends boat and then we took the dinghy back to ours and they boarded us, but without the machine guns they had drawn on our friends.  They were very polite, friendly and informative.  There were a couple of raids in Staniel the previous week.  A Texas couple and their 7 kids were there on a catamaran fleeing the US because of fraud charges.  The US and Bahamian Navy captured them and then there was another boat seized?   Really unusual for that kind of activity.  We see very little crime outside of Nassau.  Almost no one locks their boat, etc.  Another funny thing is you will see an orange golf cart on Black Point with a bunch of kids in uniform…yep, it’s their school bus and today on Eleuthera, we saw a bus from Chattanooga!  There are a bunch of kids from Park City Utah at the Island School for a week of ecological studies…they are about sixth grade and it is a wonderful program.

Back up in Staniel for the big blow coming in from the west, we anchor next to Eddie and Sam from the UK….and, they are fellow Bristol owners. Sassydancer (our boat) was one of the first custom, handmade boats built by Bristol. Eddie and Sam bought their Bristol over the phone from Australia from a woman in Rock Hall. For such a small town, it is amazing all the people we have seen down here from there or have some connection to it.  They are a really fun and interesting couple. We met them in Hampton Virginia and talked about the boats and hoped to hang out more, but we had boat problems and friends we were visiting there, so it was really nice to run into them.

From Staniel, we decided to sail to Eleuthera. It is one of the 5-6 times that you are really at sea. Most of our traveling is island hopping, but you have to make a few crossings when going from one set of islands to another. We had a pretty decent crossing…one wave crashing over the boat and getting me in the cockpit, but mostly just wind on our nose, 15-20 knots wind and 4-6ft waves.  Sounds scarier than it is…especially because what I first saw said 1.7 seas…later I figured out that it was in meters, not feet!

We came into Cape Eleuthera Marina, got a slip, had a hot shower, and set up a dinner date at Pascals for Valentines. A Nice romantic dinner and a good nights sleep!

This morning we woke up to pretty stiff winds and couldn’t think about sailing, so we rented a car, along with a couple we met last night and we toured Eleuthera. Sunday’s are very quiet in the Bahamas, almost nothing open, but we found a couple of interesting spots. Governors Harbour is a lovely town and right outside it are 2 very interesting places. Our carpoolers have sailed Eleuthera many times and they wanted a hamburger from this guy that started selling them from a tent on the beach 4 years ago  to a little cafe 3 years ago.  We searched for the cafe and then asked a woman if she knew where it was. We tried to follow her directions, turned around a couple of times and finally found “the Deck”. The view from the deck is stunning…the decor is really beach kitsch done well. And, it was supposed to be the best hamburger and fries anywhere. We walk up and Mark, the owner says he’s closed because his worker didn’t show up. Mark is totally stoned, but then says he will fix us hamburgers and drinks. We agree on what we want, etc and then another couple comes up, but they were just having drinks. Mark went from a tent on the beach to a very impressive 18 acres on the beach and an incredible restaurant and home. We did have a great hamburger and fries and rum punch, and then for dessert, Mark wanted us to join him in smoking his cigar sized joint. We passed…on not smoking, but got a kick out of this character.

The couple that came up for drinks told us about an abandoned navy base about a mile up the road, so we went to check it out. It was was like a ghost town…abandoned in 1980 after 23 years…sounded like secret stuff.

We are hoping to get to Spanish Wells tomorrow as a staging point for Grand Abaco Island. if the wind stays as predicted we should be able to do it…but if not, we will be in Spanish wells for 4-5 days for the next weather window to do the crossing over to the Abacos.

Have heard from some of you about the cold weather. We were actually cold this am and had to put on heavy sweaters. But, we didn’t have to put on boots and mittens!  We wish you a warmer winter!

Love to you all!

Katie & Dave