Our first full day in Eleuthera we explored Rock Sound. Landing at the dinghy dock by Dingle Motors, we introduced ourselves to Chris Dingle who briefed us on the area. He’s a friendly chap that runs a hardware/convenience store/gas station and takes delivery of DHL packages for cruisers. The town is famous for a Blue Hole, so we walked to Blue Hole park where we viewed the large hole of unknown depth. There were lots of fish and the hole is tidal, so it must be connected to the ocean somewhere.
From there we found the local bakery and stocked up on wheat bread. Back at Dingle Motors we called Rose at the Nort’ Side Resort for a visit to the Atlantic side of the Island. Rose, the owner, came and picked us up, saving us the 4 mile walk, up hill.
Noah managed to find some kids to play with and we had a nice meal with 9 other cruisers. The beach was beautiful, but we were not the first set of footprints and someone beat Beth to the sea beans. Rose gave us a ride back to town and asked if we wanted to see Tarpum Bay since she had to go there to pick up fish. She gave us the tour and the run down on the local area while stopping at little shops to buy onions, cheese and cabbage. She knew which shops had the best prices so we picked up some supplies as well.
The dock at Tarpum Bay was full of activity, but the big groupers being cleaned were all spoken for. Rose said that a grouper usually goes for about $95. We learned that Parliament was dissolved yesterday. That means elections will be held within 30 days and we can expect lots of speeches.
Getting back to the dinghy dock we found the dink standing up with the motor skeg and bow the only things in the water. We’ll remember that Dingle’s Dock is for high tide only. Found rocks in the dinghy and after talking with other cruiser’s found that local kids toss them from the dock into dinghies. We won’t be leaving our dink unattended for long here.
There is a homecoming festival here for Easter weekend and it began Wednesday night. We were anchored just off the park where the festival is being held. Music started at sunset and went on until midnight. The bass notes were vibrating the boat!
Thursday was a serious provisioning day. Learned that a better dinghy dock is a little further north at a (currently closed) restaurant marked by an obvious tiki hut bar. It is close to “The Marketplace,” a modern and very well stocked grocery- they even had Hebrew National Kosher Salami- we can’t find that in most groceries in the states, unless there is a large Jewish population in the area! Took the cart, two boat bags, two back packs and the insulated bag. Returned with them all full. We then
moved across the harbor for west wind protection for tomorrow’s expected front AND to have a quieter night. We will then have to decide if we want to stay for Monday’s front, or move to Hatchet Bay for that one. We can see the bottom in 7 ft of water, but that is about the limit of visibility. Checked on the anchor and it is buried so deep that we can only see chain.
Did haircuts on the swim ladder in calm conditions so not much hair made it back into the cockpit. It had been too long since we’d cut Noah’s hair and he was having trouble keeping his mask sealed because of his long bangs. We managed to get all the provisions stowed in time for dinner. Enjoyed a pretty sunset and watched some locals fishing with a net. What appeared to be a young boy, jumped in the water to set the net into a big circle. Once the circle closed the older men pulled the net in and
extracted what might have been mullet.
It is Friday morning and the wind is just starting to pick-up and we’re getting a light rain with overcast skies. The anchorage went from 6 boats yesterday morning to 19 this morning with at least two more boats on the way in. We’re one of the smallest boats here and have anchored in the northwest corner of the bay.
We hope everyone has a good Passover and Easter Weekend.