On Sunday, June 8th, we motored to Eleuthera and anchored at Royal Island. We had planned on sailing across, but shortly after leaving the cut to the ocean Geoff got quite seasick. There were some fairly large swells (about five feet). We ended up motoring, because it would have been more of a challenge for Ruth to handle the sails alone while also looking after Geoff. Geoff was finally able to get enough Gravol in so that by the time we arrived he was feeling almost normal. Other than the swells, it was actually quite a nice day for our trip to Eleuthera.
We spent Monday at Royal Island for Geoff to recover and install the watermaker (it now works!). Outside of another boat on the other side of the anchorage, we were alone in a large and almost completely enclosed bay. The statement of the day by Ruth was "What a wonderful Monday.... everyone's at work - and we are here!" It certainly didn't feel like a Monday at Royal Island. We are finding that we frequently lose track of the days of the week.
On Tuesday we motored to the northernmost islands of the Exumas chain. We had been hearing since Florida that the Exumas are wonderful. The water is very clear here, so clear that you can see the bottom 20 feet down even with just the moonlight. But the rest of the landscape is very barren and scrubby - not the tropical paradise we expected. We are begining to think many people like the Exumas because during the crusing season (which is over the winter) it is not as crowded as the Abacos.
Over the next ten days, we slowly worked our way down the Exumas island chain. We spent a day at Warderick Wells in the Land and Sea Park for our first real snokeling of the trip. We saw some nice coral and tropical fish. On Sunday we anchored off Big Majors Spot. The cay is famous for the pigs that residents of a neighboring island keep here. The pigs roam freely and are fed by cruisers arriving on boats. We took the dinghy into the beach, and the sound of our outboard engine brought a large pig running towards us out of the shrubs! We brought some cut-up potatoes and got to feed and pet the pig. On Tuesday we toured Staniel Cay which gave us our first feel of an Exuma town. The two grocery stores were really small - they seemed to have less food and household supplies in them than we had in our house in Ottawa! One of the attractions of Staniel Cay is Thunderball Cave, which was featured in both the 1960s Bond 007 movie "Thunderball" and in the movie "Splash". The snorkeling in and around the cave was pretty neat. We brought some cut up potatoes with us (the left-overs from the pig adventure!) and dozens of small tropical fish went into a feeding frenzy - Ruth couldn't see her hands through the fish as she was feeding them! The cave also had some of the best coral we've seen yet.
Sailing on the banks between Eleuthera and the Exumas
Our neighbour at Hawksbill Cay
Hawksbill Cay
Ruth feeding a pig at Big Majors Spot
Beach of conch shells at Staniel Cay
Town of Black Point on Great Guana Cay
