Rock Sound, Laundry again

We head to the dinghy dock at 7:00 AM to gas the rental car and return it, but before that I drop Linda and Karen off at the Laundry-mat.

 

Laundry-mat

 

After we take the laundry back to the boat, we make one more trip to the Grocery Store. Linda stops at the Chamber of Commence office, a very nice facility, funded by Disney who is building a cruise ship port at the south end of Eleuthera, which will hopefully employ many locals. Linda asks if she could get her food list printed, which they do. We meet Kim and Cathy on Quiescence at Wild Orchid again for lunch, they returned to Rock Sound yesterday. 

 

Nile, Cathy, Karen, Linda, Kim & Mark

After lunch Mark, Karen and Linda walk to Louie’s for Ice Cream while I take our dinghy to the town dock to take the outboard gas can to the gas station to fill up. I pick Linda up on the return.

 

 

 

Rock Sound, Car

We head to the dinghy dock at 7:30 and have breakfast at Louie’s, before we go pick up the car. A lot of the cars in Eleuthera are used Japanese cars. All the labels are in Japanese and the car speaks to us in Japanese. We stop at Eleuthera Farms. There are lots of cars parked along the road since the parking lot is full. All the cars are rental cars. We get in line to get in and then slowly realize that this is the line to pay for purchases. We buy the last of some very nice cinnamon rolls. They have looks of bread and lots of vegetables. We later learn that Tuesday and Friday at bakery days, which explains the crowds.

Eleuthera Farms parking overflow, parking lot full

 

Long check out line, we thought it was the line to get in.

 

We next head to Great Harbour to find the Immigration Office to get an extension on our cruising permit.

 

Very small Immigration Office

 

 

 

Extension complete

After that we visit at friend who has a condo at “Pineapple Fields”. She heads home to Vermont in a couple days and we wanted to check out her unit for possible future rental. Her place is very nice and the grounds are gorgeous , with a swimming pool. It is just a short walk to the beach. I could easily spend a month here. 

Mark, Karen, Linda & Amy at "Pineapple Fields"

We leave and head to lunch at “Tippys” on the water in front of “Pineapple Fields”. Linda and I split coconut shrimp and have coconut Crème Burlee for dessert.

Since it is very windy we drive north to the “Glass Window” a bridge connecting south and north Eleuthera. When the tide is high and it is very windy some impressive seas pass under the bridge from the Atlantic side into the calmer bay. Unfortunately it is low tide so no waves are breaking into the bay. 

The bridge is one lane because years ago a storm pushed this end about 10 feet to the west.

 

Rather calm day at the Glass Window

 
A rough day at the Glass Window, This idiot survived, Believe it or not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkncilCQPr0

another video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NZDYiVBBCc

We also stop at the “Queens Bubble Bath” pools that becomes a Jacuzzi at high tide with the waves pouring in to the pools. When it is very rough and high tide it can be rather dangerous. 

 

Queens Bubble Bath

We stop at Gregory Town on our way back to “The Buccaneer” for dinner at Governors Harbor. We get back too late to Rock Sound to fill up the gas tank, so we will do that early tomorrow morning.

 

Linda talking with the owner of "The Buccaneer"

 

 

 

 

We meet Mark and Karen at 8:00am and head to the Stationary Store to arrange a rental car for tomorrow. We rented a car there the last time here. We walk to Hall Grocery store. Just before we get ready to leave it starts pouring. We wait about 45 minutes before it starts to let up. We leave the covered entrance and walk back to the dinghy dock. Mark and Karen comes to our boat in the afternoon to play cards. Right after they leave late in the afternoon is starts raining again. The boat has not been this free of salt since we arrived in the Bahamas on January 1^st. We had been complaining that we have had so little rain this trip to the Bahamas. 

 

 

Rock Sound, Rough night

Rough night on the boat. Linda has a sore neck and couldn’t sleep. I work on designing our new bathrooms using the same 3D software I used for our new kitchen. Linda reads.

Rock Sound, Windy

Quite day on the boat. Windy and rough and we stay on the boat working on various projects on our computers.

Rock Sound, Sammy’s

 

I make coconut, Banana (before they go bad) pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast I empty our folding water jugs on the deck into the front tank. Then I transfer the rest of the diesel fuel rail cans into the fuel tank. After that I take the empty cans and dinghy to the new town dock to refill the four cans at the gas station. It is still blowing 15-20 knots out of the south so it is rather rough at the long pier for dealing with climbing ladders with diesel cans. I tie up closer to shore on the cement portion of the dock that supports vehicles which blocks the wind and waves. The down side it is a bit of a leap up without any ladders. Also a long way down to the dinghy with full 5 gallon cans. 

 

New Town dock

 

Gas Station

 

After I get the cans back on the boat, Linda and I head into town to have lunch at our old favorite place, Sammy’s. We stop to take a picture of Linda in front of a Bougainvillia Bush/Tree, which we do when we past one on every island we visit. A local fellow stops his car and offers to take a photo of both of us, he says "I promise I won't steal your phone", which gets a laugh. Not a problem on this island of the most friendly honest people we know.

Bougainvillia, Nile & Linda

 

Sign-less Sammy's

 

We are disappointed to find that the previous owner had died. Strangely, they have no menu and the waitress lists off what is available. We have an OK lunch, but everything is fried, no bake, broiled or blacken choices. They don’t even have a sign in front of the restaurant, apparently was blown off and they have not replaced it yet.

 

 

On the way back we check out the hardware store and find it open, they don’t seem to have any regular hours. I need a replacement squeegee and they have one left. Then we next stop at "Stationary store" for a pint of Mango Ice Cream to take back to the boat.

In the afternoon I clean the engine intake water filter and replace the main house water charcoal water filter. Linda works on consolidating our food storage totes and checking inventory.

 

 

Rock Sound, Louie’s

Today we do grocery shopping in the morning.

 

The Market Place

After unloading our purchases on the boat we head back to town for lunch at Louie’s. 4 years ago Louie’s was just a food truck. Now they have a building for their restaurant and have been getting good reviews. They also have many flavors of Ice Cream. We all have very good lunches and very reasonably priced.

 

Lunch at Louie's

After lunch we go for a long walk/hike to the Atlantic side of the Island to the “Pink Beach”. Wasn’t very pink to us, maybe need more sunshine or more beer to see it. On our return, we return to Louie’s for Ice Cream.

The "Pink Beach" - NOT

 

 Rock Sound Walk