West Palm Beach, FL to Eleuthera, Bahamas

3: GOVERNOR'S HARBOUR TO TEN BAY AND BACK AGAIN

The next day (Thursday) the weather was more of the same, so we took advantage of being in Governor's Harbour.  Steve, Brian, and the kids dropped Ria and Robin off at the laundromat and went in search of adventure with the kids.  Armed with a book for Robin and the laptop for Ria and a wonderful Bahamian homestyle restaurant above the laundromat, the two of them settled in for several hours while doing seven loads of laundry.  The older Bahamian woman who ran the place was very helpful and friendly, checking each of our loads several times for us and giving us a status report.  Since she also has a laundry service where folks can drop off the laundry and pick it up later (something we learned after we got started), she was very busy, yet she gave up three of her four washers and four of her five dryers for us, setting aside most of her own work until later.  The lady from the restaurant above brought down plates of food to Ria and Robin, and they feasted away.  Brian, Steve, and the kids showed up shortly later - hungry and with a car full of cranky children.  At our recommendation, they parked the car and the five of them invaded the tiny restaurant.  They enjoyed it as much as we did:  home-made Bahamian grilled chicken, peas-n-rice, macaroni and cheese, fried plantains, etc.  Very cheap and very good...  After the laundry and mid-day feasting, we returned to the library for awhile before heading back to Belisana.  The winds were forecast to die down the next day so we made plans to move to a nice anchorage by Ten Bay Beach.  At some point during our stay at Governor's Harbour, Andrew's lifejacket blew off the deck and blew away - that's how windy it was.  We never saw it blow away but noticed it missing.  Since Andrew and Abigail brought their own lifejackets from home that they use for kayaking, canoeing and sailing their catamaran on Lake Murray, we felt really bad that it was gone.  So Andrew had to wear one of our backup standard-issue orange lifejackets for the remainder of our excursions...

The next morning, we pulled the anchor in, untied ourselves from the mooring ball (which held remarkably well given the comments in our guidebooks), and were happy to finally be leaving Governor's Harbour, although it had been a nice refuge for us.  We had about a two-hour motorsail to Ten Bay, and were extremely happy to arrive there just before lunch.  We were able to get quite close to shore, and the anchor caught well the first time.  We set out a second anchor anyway to minimize swinging.  Then everyone jumped in the dinghy to go enjoy the day.  We were anchored closer to the northern end of the beach at Ten Bay, which was deserted, but the southern end had a few homes and also some drop-off points for guests staying at homes that were more inland.  When were arrived, there were maybe 15 people scattered near the southern end of the beach but our end was mostly deserted.  The next day there were maybe five other folks around.  A family that was visiting Ten Bay Beach for the day came over (Tim, Ann, Felix and Kai) and visited with us on the beach for a couple of hours.  They were from Great Falls, VA - only twenty minutes or so from our home in Alexandria - so we had a lot in common.  Plus they had two boys - one near Nolan's age and another close to Andrew's age - and the children all enjoyed playing together.  A shallow sand bar sat about halfway between Belisana and the shore, which had another shallow sand bar - a great place for the kids to play.  There was also a small reef to the north that offered some decent snorkeling as well.  That night we grilled steaks on deck and celebrated tropical living.  Then Ria put in a movie for the kids and made them some popcorn on top of the stove the old fashioned way, and the adults enjoyed a few hours of quiet conversation in the cockpit while admiring a still and beautiful anchorage.  We commented that days like this make it all worth it. 

We were blessed again with an even more beautiful day on Saturday and we spent most of it on the beach, arriving shortly after breakfast and staying past supper.  A good part of the afternoon was spent with Ria, Brian, Steve, Abigail, and occasionally Nolan bowling on the beach with coconuts.  Brian won but Abigail was a close second.  Later Brian barbecued ribs and wings on deck and cooked a type of quinoa pilaf, then he and Steve ferried all the food to the beach.  We all dug in and enjoyed the delicious fare, but not before the bugs came out in full force.  Steve and Brian built a bonfire in the pit they built earlier in the day, using driftwood and a tad bit of gasoline.  Even that was not enough to drive away the bugs (sandgnats? sandfleas?), and soon everyone abandoned the bonfire for the dinghy and the bugless Belisana. 

One of the activities that kept Andrew and Abigail quite busy while on the boat was learning how to tie sailing knots.  Brian gave them each a length of rope and instructed them on how to tie a few knots such as the bowline.  Andrew eventually just took our knot book and taught himself several more knots.

Ten Bay to Alabaster Bay

Since the wind was going to be coming around again to the south/southwest that night and the next day, we had to abandon our lovely anchorage and head to a place that offered more protection - something hard to find on Eleuthera.  We left about mid-morning and with a light wind right on the beam, cut the engine and enjoyed a slow, smooth sail along the coast.  With Ria at the helm, Brian showed Andrew how to raise the mainsail and he was able to do it all by himself, up until the last couple of feet.  That's not an easy task - !  Steve finished it off for him, then Brian set Andrew up with a winch and let him crank out the jib.  After that, Andrew took the helm for awhile and kept us right on course.  We went back past Governor's Harbour and settled in at Alabaster Bay, just in front of a great little restaurant called Coco Di Mama.  It took awhile to get the anchor set but then Robin and Brian went ashore in the dinghy and made reservations for us all on the deck at Coco Di Mama's for the evening.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal overlooking the sun setting on the edge of the Bight of Eleuthera.  Finding Nemo was playing inside, so the kids were occupied along with a few other kids there.  When it finally came time to head back to the dinghy, Brian pleased the kids with their own light sticks to hang on their necks for the dinghy ride back to Belisana in the dark.

Alabaster Bay back to Governor's Harbour

Despite supposed protection for the Southwest, we rocked and rolled all night.  Since the wind was going to get stronger and clock around more from the West, we upped anchor again and moved towards a different anchorage.  It was also Monday and Steve and Robin's last day.  We really wanted to find a nice beach for them and also position ourselves to get them to Governor's Harbour early Tuesday morning for their taxi ride to the airport.  They had had to change their flight from Georgetown, Exumas back to Nassau when we changed our plans and came to Eleuthera instead of the Exumas.  Bahamas Air was booked through Wednesday and the ferry's schedule didn't work out with their flight from Nassau back to the States.  So they ended up chartering a small twin-engine plane to take them back to Nassau and had to meet the pilot at the airport at by 9:30.  

During our short coastal hop, the wind was blowing a bit harder than the day before, so Brian was surprised to look back at one point and see a dinghy way behind us - the seas were a bit choppy for a dinghy.  He did a doubletake and noticed that our dinghy was no longer following us and that it was our dinghy that he saw off in the distance behind us.  We turned around and Brian got us close enough for Steve to grab the painter line with the boat hook.  We cleated the painter off and added a knot this time for good measure.  Losing the dinghy and our brand new motor - not something we can even joke about right now.

We tried anchoring behind Levi Island but the holding was bad because of shallow sand over rock and our anchor wouldn't set well.  After several attempts to get it to hold, we finally gave up and moved back to our mooring ball in Governor's Harbour.  The wind was really picking up from the West and the anchorage was very rolly with the swells.  But we had tested that mooring ball to its limit the week before and trusted it to hold.  Steve and Brian insisted that Ria be the one to get in the dinghy this time and learn how to attach the anchor line to the mooring ball shackle.  It wasn't really her skill that was in question but her fear of being between Belisana and the mooring ball - she blames it on seeing Jaws as a child.  Something about being next to objects in the water and not being able to see what's underneath.  But she did it...

Once safely on the mooring ball again, we still had several hours left to enjoy the day.  So we grabbed a taxi and went to a very nice beach near Tippy's Restaurant on the Atlantic side, which was calm since it was on the leeward side of the island that day due to the westerly winds.  We asked the taxi to come back in three hours and enjoyed the rest of the day.  There were some other kids around with their families, and Brian - who was playing with Nolan and Andrew in the water - was soon surrounded by three or four additional kids.  He always seems to attract kids and dogs wherever he goes, just like his dad.  Doesn't look like the same Atlantic from earlier in the week, does it?

The taxi finally came to get us and we all piled back in.  After a stop at the grocery store, we returned to Belisana and grilled the last of the ribs and chicken.  While cooking supper, the adults all had a nice discussion about the past couple of weeks and our journey in general.  The evening ended rather early with everyone crashing after supper, after Robin and Steve dug around Belisana trying to find all items belong to the Cox family.

Goodbyes...

The next morning, despite the rush to get the Coxes packed up, we enjoyed a nice pancake breakfast, courtesy of Robin.  After breakfast,  Brian was sitting in the cockpit waiting for all the luggage to be tossed up to him when he spotted something on the rocks.  The binoculars helped confirm that it was indeed Andrew's long lost life jacket.  That helped cheer everyone up - we were a bit down in the dumps about Steve and his family leaving.  The car rental guy, who was supposed to arrange for a taxi, then showed up and started yelling from the shore.  Unable to understand him, we got out the satphone and called him on his cell phone - the wonders of modern technology.  The taxi ride that he had arranged fell through, so he was leaving his car at the dock with the keys under the mat, for the same price as the taxi ride.  What a nice man. 

We're already missing Steve, Robin, Andrew, and Abigail very much.  Despite the seven of us stumbling over each other and all of our belongings on Belisana for twelve days and enduring some really nasty weather and a few mishaps, we all got along really well and enjoyed being together.  Ria asked Nolan if he liked having his cousins around, and he replied, "But Abigail is my sister and Andrew is my brother."  On Wednesday we received an e-mail that they had made it home safely, arriving at their house around 1:00am.  They were troopers during the bad weather and had endless energy for the good weather - a truly adventurous family.  We all have a lifetime of memories now from our wonderful time together...

Our current plan is to stay on Eleuthera for another week but move down near Rock Sound.  After another front passes through next week, we're not really sure where we're headed - probably Cat Island or the Exumas...