Must Stop
As I mentioned last week, with our friends from Starshine, we visited
the Batelco office (Bahamas phone service), the bakery, and several of
the gift stores. Starshine knew many of the people from previous
visits and were able to renew friendships. We picked up some gift
items for the kids and the owner of the gift store helped us wrap it
for mailing back to Canada - I think she used a whole roll of tape.
We have yet to meet more friendly people, making Rock Sound a great
place to stop. The anchorage is also big with excellent holding making
it an easy spot to get in and out of. Unfortunately, some Cruising
Guides have made most of the anchorages on Eleuthra sound dreadful,
including Rock Sound, and the word is just starting to get out to the
cruising community that this is not the case and Rock Sound, and maybe
some others, are definitely worth a stop.
Rock Sound was also the first place that we could get provisions since
Nassau. There was a well-stocked grocery store (in Bahamas terms)
within easy dinghy and walking distance. If you have enough groceries,
they will drive you back to your dinghy. We were also able to get our
propane tank refilled. We dropped it off at the hardware store and
they filled it and dropped it off at the dinghy dock - great service.
The liquor storeowner drove our groceries and us back to the dinghy
dock after we replenished our rum supply. (sounds like we bought more
rum than groceries, doesn't it?) Chris at Dingles organized getting
our laundry done. There were no Laundromats but a lady in the village
did a beautiful job of washing and folding our laundry for $6 a load.
This was the first time we had our laundry done (a traumatic event for
Karen), but we were well overdue after being out for 4 weeks. We
realized that we (that is the royal we which in this case means Karen)
will have to do smaller amounts as we travel to keep up rather than
letting it pile (literally) up. We dropped off the laundry one morning
and picked it up the next day.
Chris also organized an informal Happy Hour at a gazebo by Dingle
Motors for all the boaters in the anchorage. About 20 people showed up
and it was a great time meeting people from the other boats. We also
picked up a Domino's pizza for dinner. Dingle Motors have the pizzas
brought in frozen by the mail boat and used a small oven for heating
them in the store. We took the warm pizza back to the boat after Happy
Hour for a feast.
We decided to rent a car, also from Dingle Motors, and tour the
island. Starshine agreed to go with us and split the cost. We had a
great day wandering up the island. We stopped for lunch at a
restaurant overlooking the Atlantic. There was an offshore reef that
was breaking the swell and, of course, a white sand beach. The
restaurant had a great view and lunch was tasty. The homes by the
water were truly impressive with incredible gardens. This was in
contrast to most of the island where there are many failed ventures
lying in decay and homes, although well-kept, are not large. The
island economy is not good and they are looking for an increase in the
tourist trade to help out. We traveled as far as Governors Harbour and
saw the home of the author of the book "Eleuthera". Karen had just
finished reading this book. It gave much of the history of the island
and she could give a commentary on the locations as we traveled. We
also visited Nort'side Cottages on the East side of the island. Rose
runs a small restaurant there with several cottages for rent. The
place was immaculate, had a beautiful beach and would make a lovely
retreat. We went further down island to the Cotton Bay Club. This was
another failed development that was supposed to be a club, golf
course, marina, condos and homes. The mega-homes were still there and
looking good. Apparently the people from these homes (millionaires
all) pay to have the golf course maintained. All else though was in
disrepair. I should mention that this was my first experience in
driving on the left-hand side of the road. Fortunately, with a bit of
coaching, I managed to stay on the correct side and all was well. I
was tired by the end of the day and we headed back for a quiet
evening.