Eluthera again

 It's Good Friday as we sail into Staniel Cay and stumble onto a party. The locals have set up a BBQ near a pavilion, with a snow cone machine and trays of Mac n cheese and more plus a rapping DJ loud enough to stifle conversation. The kids are bedecked with bunny ears (made in china) and enjoying candy eggs. Cruisers mingle with each other, locals mingle, and sometimes cross the tribal barriers. We do so more than most, especially with the kids. 

A box of sidewalk chalk turns the roadway and a beach wall into artistic expression and random scribbles. A volleyball net brings together kids and cruisers, and a tug of war rope gets nearly everyone down to the beach. 

And the food! Plenty of burgers and dogs and pork ribs, plus an open bar, all for whatever you want to donate. Some of the music is quite danceable and the three of us (plus a very few others) make good use of it. After meeting several other cruisers and exchanging boat cards (like business cards) and the sun has set, it's time to get back to Athena while we can still see and others can see us. 

Onward a few islands north, and Athena brings us to Wardwick Wells, headquarters of the National Park. The Royal Bahamas Defense Force also maintains a presence here, and just as we arrive at the office, two soldiers are unloading a few weeks worth of foodstuffs. So Sharon offers to help and soon we've got a bucket brigade going, until the dock is cleared and their commissary is cluttered. The park ranger noticed and gave us two free nights on the moorings. The park would do well to leverage more volunteerism. 

Shortly, the tide turns, and we dinghy to some nearby coral reefs and enjoy snorkeling. 

Then comes the storm. We chose this well protected mooring field for it, and the winds did blow and the rain came tumbling down. With all the fresh water and lots of time on our hands we do laundry. But with the high humidity it took several days to dry. We could see the waves crashing on the far side of the island and spraying high intro to air. Dramatic. 

On the second day of storm we dinghy to shore to hike BooBoo hill. It's a tradition to leave a sign with your boats name on top, and we've made a nice one, which we add to an impressive pile of driftwood, life rings. scraps of fiberglass etc, some are faded and illegible, some are carved by hand or CNC. There are paintings and logos and stickers and more. 

Onward and our next stop is Shroud Cay, where Kristen and I have been but a first for Sharon. We have been carrying two inflatable kayaks for a year and this is our first opportunity to use them! Sharon paddles one and Kristen the other while I row the dinghy deep into the network of streams that penetrate the extensive mangrove swamp. Here we see turtles and young sharks and a few birds and other fish. At the end of the creek is a huge mudflat bordering a beach facing the ocean. A nice spot for a picnic lunch and beachcombing and swimming. The sun is high and intense and we're quite baked by the time we get back to Athena. 

Now it's time to leave the Exuma island chain and cross over to Eluthera. On our way out into the deep ocean we finally catch a fish!! It's a King Mackerel, about two feet long. We enjoyed fresh steaks for dinner. 

Rock Sound on Eluthera becons us in for several days. We brought over a stack of books from the US, which we give to the local elementary school. They're very happy. The principal was busy, but we chatted with the P.E. teacher. She showed us the playground and swing set which were falling apart. The plastic parts were degraded by the intense sun and the chains on the swings had rusted through. The next day we returned with four hanks of rope to re-make the swings. These were our old halyards which we had replaced a year ago with new lines. They'll have to make seats and set it up. She told us they also need art supplies, sports supplies, dry erase markers, and paper.

That evening we're at the bar which hosts our dinghy dock and parking for our folding bicycles, and meet Shaun, the CEO of One Eluthera, a local not for profit that teaches construction, electrical skills, hotel and restaurant management, farming, and much more. So the next day we ride our bikes to their facility. We get a tour of the whole place and head home with a backpack full of eggplant, cucumber and a few tomatoes. Enough to share with another sailboat anchored nearby. 

It's time to continue north to Governor's Harbor. We're close hauled all day, arriving in time for sunset. We come here for the Friday fish fry and the botanical gardens. The fish fry is much more than just that. There's also chicken and pork and sides, and a DJ keeps us dancing late. 

We ride our folding bicycles two steep miles to the Leon Levy botanical gardens, part of the Bahamas National Park system. Being Earth Day, admission is free plus there's entertainment and kids activities and another DJ so we get more dancing! There are a miriad of trails wending through upland mangrove, coppice and palm forest. Eluthera has more rainfall and thicker topsoil than most of the Bahamas, so the island supports a wider range of species, bigger trees and denser forest. 

The next harbor up the coast is Hatchet Bay and Alice Town. This is an anthropogenic harbor, having once been an inland salt pond, until some entrepreneurs dug through the limestone ridge, in support of the booming local agriculture of chicken, eggs, pineapple and dairy. Tourism and summer homes for billionaires has since replaced agriculture, and sailors love the protection this harbor offers. Nearby is a limestone cave, reputed to extend for a mile. We rode our bicycles there and entered. There have been people in the area since the Loyalists fled the US after the revolutionary war, and they've left their mark on the walls. Graffiti, signatures and dates adorn any available surface. The earliest date we saw was 1802. 

Our next port of call is not really a port, but anchored off the beach near the Glass Window and Queens Baths. North and south Eluthera are joined by an ismuth which was once a natural bridge in the limestone ridge. People drove across it. A hurricane knocked it all asunder, so it was rebuilt in concrete. 

Nearby is another example of karst topography, the Queen's Bath. Along a 30' limestone cliff, the shore has been beaten back by the Atlantic waves and dissolution to form a basin of tide pools surrounded by cliffs and caves. We enjoyed wading and swimming there, being careful to not touch the sea urchins. Yikes. Occasionally waves were big enough to flood into the pool giving a jacuzzi effect. 

Next stop Nassau.