Leaving Spanish Wells, we sailed back to the southern end of Eleuthera where we are meeting friends who are going to be our crew for our trip North.

Our initial plan was to take two or three days for the move south, but the weather gods were smiling, and we had a very fast single day sail all the way back to Rock Sound, a trip that took us a more leisurely four days, and three nights at anchor on the way north.

Rock Sound’s Ocean Hole

At Rock Sound we took a chance to explore a bit on shore.  One of the local attractions is a blue hole just east of town.  Named the “Ocean Hole” it is a collapsed cave that somewhere deep under the island connects to the ocean. It is full of salt water, and a large number of fish.  It is not clear if the fish find their own way in, or if they are planted by local fishermen. In any event, the locals treat the Ocean Hole as the equivalent of a public aquarium and stop by to feed their “pet” fish.

The mostly tame “wet pets” of rock Sound’s Ocean Hole.

Annie (left) and Alicia; Harmonie’s pick-up crew for the trip north.

We met Alicia and Annie, and some of their friends and co-workers, at Frigate’s Restaurant in Rock Sound for dinner.  A great place to eat, just remember to bring the bug spray if you are going to be there around sunset! Alicia and Annie will be joining Harmonie for our sail north to the East Coast of the USA in just a few days.

I have known Alicia since my early days of teaching sailing in San Francisco Bay.  We are looking forward to an extended ocean passage with more hands than just Karen and I onboard to share the load!

Alicia had a few extra days, so she joined us for a sail over to Cat Island, and a chance at deep-sea fishing on the way.  We re-stocked the freezer with a nice Mahi-mahi, and a Wahoo.

Where ever there are fishing boats, there will be predatory fish looking for an easy handout.  In the anchorage at Cat Island our begging friend was a medium-sized barracuda who made short work of the scraps from the mahi-mahi.

Alicia and the barracuda keep eyes on each other.

Crossing the shallow reeef strewn waters of Cat Island Bight, our new crew has bow lookout duties fully under control.

Back at the southern end of Eleuthera, we are taking advantage of a promotion offered by the Bahamian government: Reserve 3 nights in a marina, get a $300 credit on your bill.  We’ll be staying three nights at Cape Eleuthera Marina, and our net bill will be: $57.  Can’t beat that with a stick!

The marina is delightful, well run, and clean with a slowly developing resort around it.  It mostly caters to fishing boats.  With any marina in the tropics where a lot of fish cleaning is going on, you might want to pay careful attention to the “No Swimming” signs.

The marina reception committee checking to see if we had any fish scraps left over from a successful fishing trip.  They might be normally friendly, unagressive, nurse sharks, but still…

We are almost ready for our trip north.  Alicia and Annie have work schedules to consider, so that will have some influence on where we touch land first to get them home in time for work. Depending on the weather, it looks like our port of entry will be somewhere from Norfolk, VA, to Boston, MA.