The weather forecast for the following few days predicted front passing through with wind clocking from east to west gusting to 30 knots. Many anchorages nearby are not protected from the westerly direction, so we decided to go big and head 50+ NM towards the Eleuthra islands.

We weigh anchor with 20 knots SE winds and overcast skies. We put up the main and motor sail around Big Rock Cut and exited Staniel Cay. Once we rounded the cut we set a course directly for Powell Point near the cape of Eleuthras. The winds are at our back so we were prepared to go wing on wing. The winds were too strong so we reefed the mainsail and never pull out the jib. Surfing downwind we were averaging 6.5 knots comfortably sailing with following seas. The seas are still running pretty high, every once in a while a big wave will hit us and drive us down below four knots and then we will slowly regain our progress above six knots.

Rock Sound proved to be a nice place to spend several days. The harbor was large with great protection and holding, perfect for riding out several days of winds in the mid-20’s.  Our friends Buck and Debbie from S/V Tao (we last saw them in Chub Cay in the Berries) were also in the anchorage so we were able to hang out with them and went to lunch at Sammy’s which had good food for a VERY reasonable price.

We did laundry and met the owner nickname “Showboat”, an ex Bahamian national team baseball player. After hearing that I was born in Taipei, he went into memory lanes and proudly told us how they had beaten the Taipei-China team and played in the finals in 1995. We went next door to “Island Girl” gift shop and chatted with Lekesha who’s father knew 7 different languages including Mandarin Chinese and was called the “Jimmy Hedrick” of the Eleuthra islands until he suffered a stroke a few years ago. She invited us into her house to meet her father.  He was so happy that I conversed with him in Mandarin that he offered to send us his CD to our home in the US. On our way back to the boat, we could not believe how nice and genuine the Bahamian people are, how they warmly opened their doors in a heartbeat to total strangers like us.

We had read there were bat caves located about a mile south of town so we invited Buck & Debbie from Tao, Alex & Corky from Anodyne to try and find them. No directions were provided other than to just walk south from town along the main road until you see a church by itself on the left and the entrance to the caves will be on the right. Sure enough, across from the church there was a nice stone wall and stairs leading to the Boiling Hole, named for bubbles that appear when the tide is just right, and the Cathedral Cave, named for the proximity to the church. The Boiling Hole was flat calm so we didn’t get to see anything too exciting, but these water/ocean/boiling holes located through the island never cease to amaze us. We wandered through the caves keeping a close eye for bats and were amazed at the trees rooted in various odd angles. The bats were well hidden so we never did see any but heard later that some were in fact lurking in a far corner of the cave. We had seen several caves before and these were equally impressive.

We were SO glad we were able to spend the weather delays in Rock Sound instead of in an isolated anchorage.  By the time we raised the anchor we had been there long enough to start recognizing some of the people on the street and in the stores!  It was truly relaxing, but eventually it was time to continue heading north.