Rock Sound Walkabout

   Rock Sound is a small town with one major attraction for Bahama cruisers - you can dinghy to a dock very close to the airport and walk to the customs/immigration office. Very convenient for those like Sally and Conrad who have been here since December and need to recheck into immigration.  
   This is main street and the main concentration of buildings. Dingle's is the main store/gas station where you can find out just about anything you need to know about Rock Sound sights/services.

   This is the main dinghy landing dock with convenient garbage barrels at the base of the dock. Public water spigot was about 100 yds down the road. Eleuthera was hard hit by Hurricane Irene last year and is still recovering. You can see the damage to the wooden pier beyond the concrete. Most of the wooden docks on the island were damaged by the hurricane.

   Two main attractions in Rock Sound are the swimming hole and the caves. Here is the swimming hole, a natural salt water hole several hundred yards from the ocean. The local children swim in the hole and there are lots of fish in the hole that congregate at the swim ladder waiting to be fed.

   There are many caves throughout Eleuthera, some with writings on the walls from hundreds of years ago. We didn't see any old writings here but the tree roots growing down through the cave were very unique. This cave had lots of chambers but each with light and overhead openings so a comfortable walk through without spelunking gear.

   The great thing about cruising the Bahamas is the beautiful and different (from US) sights you see just walking or sailing around. We watched this turtle in a small blue hole just outside the cave entrance. I expect the Bahamians are not as impressed as we are with these sights they see everyday, but for us, there are amazing things to see around every corner.

Rock Sound, Eleuthera

   We finally left Blackpoint after two weeks and sailed out of the Exumas to Rock Sound on Eleuthera Island. Our choice was to go on a sailing day with scattered squalls or to wait several more days and have to motor on a sunny day. We chose the rain squalls.
   The showers and squalls with winds to near 30 kts showed up as forecast, but the sailing was fine with the IP380 reefed down. We arrived at Rock Sound just before 5 pm as the rains finally quit.
   Lots of rainbows through the day with this double one as we anchored off the Rock Sound shore. The white building at the base of the rainbow just happens to be an Anglican church.

   Some impressive rain squalls that gave us a good boat washing. We kept 2 reefs in the main sail and kept adjusting the genoa to the winds of the moment. Had a couple 40 deg heels in gusts but generally just 15-20 degs of heel.

   This was our second rainbow of the day, the first one was too large to get in one photo.

   We left Blackpoint just after 7 am. This was the view coming through the cut in the Exuma island chain as we transited out into Exuma Sound. The squall on the horizon was a harbinger of what was to come during the afternoon.

   Safely anchored off Rock Sound and ashore for a walk in town. 

Bahamian Iguanas

   Tuesday was a good weather day, but winds from north of east (plus 5ft seas) meant we couldn't sail to Eleuthera, so we decided to go explore Bitter Guana, the island just to the north, where wild iguanas live - and no people.
 

   The sign says don't feed the iguanas, but the iguanas came running to greet us, so obviously someone is feeding them. Sure enough, a local Bahamian arrived shortly with a bucket of fruit and veggies for them.

   So we can now put off our visit to the Galapagos as we have seen the wild iguanas of the Bahamas. Of course these iguanas do stay on land like normal iguanas and don't swim like those in the Galapagos (or the pigs at Big Major), but they look the same and have no fear of humans.

   There were about 30 in this group of iguanas. We saw a few more further up the island shore who missed out of the morning feeding session.

   We went exploring further up the island shore and spotted this large ocean osprey nest. One osprey stayed on the nest the whole time, apparently sitting on eggs, while her mate to lower left kept a watchful eye on us and loud warning cries.

   We had some success fishing the rocky shoreline but fortunately we don't have to sustain ourselves on these meager catches.  We went to Scorpio's for happy hour and had Grouper fingers and rum punch for dinner. A very enjoyable day in the Bahamas.

Exploring Blackpoint

   We've been here at Blackpoint for just over 2 weeks now, not completely by choice - the weather has kept us restricted to the lee side of the Exuma chain, but this is a nice place to sit for awhile with wifi, water and reasonably priced stores, plus good protection from easterly winds.
   We try to get ashore each day for some exploring. There are some spectacular views of both the ocean side and bank side with great ocean colors.

   This is a view of the bank side taken from the "Sand Castle", a private residence where Sue and Sally went to look at the house and the sea jewelry the owner makes. We anchored in this bay for the windiest days.Here's a photo of the "castle" on the bank side from our anchorage area.

   One of the neat sights is the blowhole on the ocean side. When the surf is up (as it was most days of our visit) the waves push through and underground cave and shoot spray and sometimes white water out the blowhole, just like a geyser. Sue braved the saltwater shower to pick for shells blow up through the hole.

 Blackpoint is the second largest Bahamian town in the Exumas and provided an opportunity for Genny to perform some "dog therapy" services for some children in reading tutoring programs. Hopefully she will get to repeat this today as the boys have been asking about her when we see them in town. Also, due to the weather, Genny hasn't been ashore in a week so she will be excited to go.

Lobster for Dinner

   Finally, a successful day of hunting as Conrad and I both got a large lobster each along the Exuma Sound side of Guana Cay. I thought it was going to be a banner day as I speared this one on the first coral head I checked, but we spent the next 4 hrs searching over some very promising looking coral and rocks and only found one more. Conrad also shot a good size Yellow Snapper. We both missed a very large Margate that was a little too cautious for us to get close to him.

   These big guys really look like space aliens up close. Here is is minus the tail and antennae, getting ready to be nurse shark or stingray food.

   The First Mate and head chef (only chef?) prepares our catch for a future dinner. Fifteen minutes in a steamer pot and he's ready for the fridge.

   Last night it was spaghetti with tomato arribiata sauce topped with  lobster tail. An excellent feast.

   Unfortunately, we will now be going a week or more with no fish/lobsters to eat as a strong weather system is moving in with 20-30kt winds for the next 7 days. Looks like no hunting until about the 12th of March.. We are moving to anchor around a point off this beach where there will be good protection from the winds but it will be outside internet range so its back to HF email connectivity. Part of next week we'll be confined to the boat as it will be too rough to dinghy into shore but we should be able to get in from time to time and walk the mile to town, at least for happy hour.
   If you look close you will see the Moorish looking castle on the point in the background. Nice digs? It is appropriately called Sand Castle and we look forward to getting a closer look when we anchor in this cove. 

Swimming with the Pigs

   At Big Majors in the Exumas the pigs have learned they can get food tidbits from the cruisers if they swim out to the dinghys. So now "Pig Beach" is a don't miss spot on the Exuma cruising route.

   They'll be no shortage of pigs to entertain future cruisers as a new litter has just arrived. They came squealing onto the beach with momma pig, then quieted down and got down to business scrounging for food. The babies didn't go swimming, but they will learn from the older pigs soon.
   Heather on Windswept IV has written a children's book about the pigs, "The Pig Who Couldn't Swim" which has nearly sold out its first printing (250 copies) to the Exuma cruisers.

   After hunting, snorkeling, watching the pigs and collecting basket weaving palms ashore, it was time to move on south to Blackpoint. 

Snorkling Thunderball Grotto

   Off of Staniel Cay is Thunderball Grotto where the James Bond movie was filmed. At the Staniel Cay Yacht Club there are several photos of the movie cast with Sean Connery hanging around the Yacht Club bar.
   The grotto is a favorite snorkling sight for cruisers and tourists. I got to try out my new Panasonic underwater digital camera. As you will see, good underwater photography is all about the lighting.

   In the movie, James Bond swims into the "secret" grotto hidden from outside view but if you know where to dive you can come up inside the island into the grotto. We go at low tide and slack current when you can see the opening (its a few feet high at low tide - at high tide the opening is covered with water).

   At the entrance to the grotto a school of "sergeant-major" fish (with their multiple yellow and black stripes) hang out waiting for the snorklers to feed them. We watched a group of young girls feed them from a Cheez-Whiz can.  Sue is checking them out here.

   A large Nassau Grouper has learned the grotto is a safe place to hang out. This guy would quickly be on a dinner plate if he strolled around anywhere else in the open like this. They normally are hiding in the dark shadows under ledges or rocks.

   Inside the main chamber the ceiling is pretty high with openings in the roof. Our friends told us 5 years ago there was only one opening so looks like the erosion is accelerating.

   Most of my underwater photos came out too dark even with the flash on, but I see the closeups in good sunlight come out excellent.
   The water is crystal clear here and the colors are far better through your diving mask compared with how the camera shows them. Staniel Cay is one of the best spots in the Bahamas to vacation at. You fly in here on Watermaker Air from Fort Lauderdale.