Lovin’ Rose Island

March 17th - We wanted to go to the Rainbow Inn for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with the favourite leprechaun costume but that would set us back a few days. And plus I don’t really think there are a lot of true Irish Bahamians, but then on St. Patty’s Day everyone is Irish. We are anchored near the Glass Window and in the morning as we are leaving I regretted not taking the dinghy to get pictures from the west side of the island. The wind had settled and the seas were flat to our next destination, our very favourite anchorage near Nassau at Rose Island.

We had read about “Current Cut” which can project you through an opening between the two island at warp speed and is not recommended for slow trawlers like us so we decide to take the safe big boat route and dodge coral heads instead. By two pm we are anchored at Rose. I dive to check the anchor and we decide to lift and reposition because we didn’t like the set and there was lots of fluffy white sand 25 feet away. Second time was a charm and we have a good set.  We go out to the reef in the afternoon in search of lobster. This will likely be our last chance to spear before heading into Nassau. The lobsters remain elusive but the reef is healthy and gorgeous.  Back at the boat we shower to get the salt off us and start making dinner. We look out and see that Marsha and Chris from  Endorphins have just anchored behind us. We hail them and they invite us over for freshly caught Mahi-Mahi Tacos.  A pleasant evening of story telling and we head back to the boat at midnight way past the usual cruiser’s midnight (nine pm).  

Nassau and Paradise Island (Atlantis Resort) at sunset from Rose Island

March 18, 2011 We have many fond memories (and one nightmare but that’s another story) of Rose Island from our first year in the Bahamas. This is the first anchorage in the Bahamas where we started meeting other cruisers in 2004. Rose is about 7 miles Northeast of Nassau  and is a protected anchorage from North and Northeast winds which are the prevailing winds during the winter. We are also able to spearfish here but Nassau is a no spear zone also it is away from the crowds and noise of Nassau. We would rather be here at anchor rather than Nassau except for the internet access which is non-existent. Also there is a large resident Spotted Eagle Ray that likes to jump out of the water and make himself known.  It is said they do this to scare off fisherman.

We had planned to go spearing with Chris on Endorphins at “first light” but first light turned out to be   around 09:00 am. Chris laughed when we stopped by his boat to discover that we were just going out. They headed to Nassau for a few nights at a marina.  We found nothing in our morning outing and head out after lunch for round two. This time we caught a Nassau Grouper (our first this year since the season has been closed for Nassau Grouper until Feb 28^th) and a lobster. On the way back to the boat we stop at our neighbouring trawler to say hello. Within seconds we are invited in for a drink with Rita Kay and Clay aboard their 34 foot American Tug named Carleigh from Houston Texas. Giddy-up – more Texan friends! Over a beer we get a tour and get to know each other.  I purchase some earrings which Rita Kay designs.  We watch the sunset and the moon rise and are blessed once again with another amazing full moon and star-filled night.

 Leaving Rose Island (first attempt)

March  19, 2011 The plans were to spear in the morning and go to Nassau in the afternoon. We went out spearing and caught spiny lobsters and one slipper lobster.  Slipper lobsters are not that common and kind of look like prehistoric creatures but taste good. This was our first one we caught.  We had to work hard to get these lobsters. The first lobster we spotted Ted missed his shot and the lobster went deeper into his hole. Unwilling to give up we both keep diving and looking through the holes in the coral to find him. We can see the tip of his antennae but that’s it and we can’t get a good shot. Ted finally sticks his spear on the backside of the hole enough to tickle the lobster into moving so that we can spear him from the entrance. It worked but took us about 15 minutes. The next lobster I spotted from the top of the water (which is unusual) in fact there were two lobsters in one hole, we call this a “lobster hotel”. Big lobsters are called “lobzillas”. I signalled to Ted, he took and look and planned his strategy trying to get both lobsters. He went down and got one and while I went to the boat to drop off the lobster in our pail, he chased the other one. You have to be careful to carry the lobster up and out of the water or else a barracuda may come along from out of nowhere and grab it off your spear. Barracudas are obvious not stupid, they know a free lunch when they see one. Unfortunately the second lobster backed away deeper into the hole never to be seen again by us.  I must have loosen the stainless steel tip off of the end of my spear when I was fighting to get the creature off because the next thing I noticed I was missing my spear tip.  The final slipper lobster I need saw, the next thing I noticed is Ted fighting to get the lobster out of the hole.  All in all it was a successful outing.

Spiny and slipper lobsters

Back at the boat we invite Clay and Rita Kay over for lunch. They arrive around 12:15 and the next thing we end up spending the afternoon talking. By then it’s cocktail time so they go home to change and pick up drinks and come back for some fresh lobster (caught this morning) dip.  So much for our plan to go to Nassau, oh well as they say, plans set in Jello. Tomorrow is another day.

Leaving Rose Island  - Nassau here we come

March 20, 2011

We had plan to go to Nassau today but our good friends on the Margaret Lee pulled into the anchorage last night and invited us to go spearing in this morning. This is our last chance to go spearing with them.  Ted is off at 08:00 with Ed and their guest. I beg off because my body is tired and sore from the last few days spearing.  Ed got one lobster but Ted passed up spearing a lobster that was too small. Sadly he returned with an empty pail, no catch today but he does find my missing spear tip. There are hundreds, even thousands of coral heads around this anchorage and the chances of Ted going back to exact the same one and finding my tip is amazing. Marge and Ed drop over afterwards with their guests and with a tray of Marge’s heavenly cinnamon sticky buns.  We visit for awhile and when they leave we pull up anchor and cruise to Nassau.

We cruise into the eastern entrance of Nassau and through the harbour looking at the lovely homes along the waterway and the mega-yachts parked in-front of them.  The traffic is always busy in Nassau but particularly busy on a weekend with local traffic and lots of cruise ship in port for March Break.  We cruise past the western anchorage and take a look at how the cruising boats are sitting with the wind and the current.  We turn and come into the anchorage but run into some shallow water and circle around again. On our third past we decide to forgo the usual anchorage and anchor across from the big ship terminal. We drop the hook and are happy that we have a good hold especially since the current changes every six hours.  For six hours you are pointed one way and then at slack tide you are half way in between and then pointed the other way for another six hours.  Having the anchor properly set is very important here. We don’t leave the boat in the afternoon but rather monitor to make sure we are holding with the current change. The winds are not strong enough to oppose the current so wind matter less than current.  We watch as the boat moves and we are pleased with our positioning and the fact that our stern is positioned toward shore and we are well out of the way of main channel, for now! The afternoon local boat traffic with the booze cruises is non-stop but we know it will settle down after dark.  Ted gets up a few times during the night to check the anchor watch on our navigation computer but everything is good , until.....

Next blog ...."evicted from Nassau"

It’s not easy to leave Governor’s Harbour

Wednesday March 16^th

If you can recall when we arrived at Governor’s Harbour we had fouled up our anchor with a cable from the Batelco Tower. Well the time had come when we were ready to leave and we had to deal with this. We put a plan together that I would swim to where the anchor was and Ted would follow me in the dinghy. With fins and snorkel and some weights to get me down to the bottom (in 17 feet) I would take a rope from Ted and put it around the crown on the anchor. Then Ted would tie off the rope to the dinghy and motor around to drag the anchor free of the cable while I watched to make sure we didn’t damage the cable.  The last thing we wanted was to disrupt all the telephone service on the inland.  We had a plan! Just before I get in the water at 07:30 I see a rainbow (must be a good sign).

Rainbow part one

 By the time I get to the anchor the rainbow is running from one side of the harbour to the other in a full spectrum of colour. I didn’t get the full rainbow picture because I was already in the water but trust me that this was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen.  The rainbow must have been lucky because after a couple of attempts the anchor was free. I just had to go back down to undo the rope which wasn’t easy but all in a days work.

Back to the boat and pull up anchor and cruise further north to our final stop on Eleuthera at Mutton Fish Point. The wind had picked up from southeast and caused some chop and waves to build. Luckily we were able to tuck right up around Mutton Fish Point and the waves flatten out and it was calm.  We had a good spot for the night with the winds coming off the island even though the anchor was not set as firmly as we liked, but we weren’t really worried about drag in these winds.  The bottom looked hard and very little sand so settling the anchor was difficult. This is not a place we would want to be if the wind clocked around to the west. 

We decided to go exploring to the ocean side on another “elusive beach”. The only beaches around  to take the dinghy to were private so we went to a rocky shore and anchored the dinghy far away from the sharp coral rocks and waded into shore. We walked up through a rocky road that looked like it had been sandblasted and recently been graded with course aggregate and may someday be an actual road. After a 1/4 we found the Queens Highway and walked a bit longer till we found the road between the two salt ponds. From there we hiked for about a mile and a half to the cliffs and found our elusive beach which was called Lovers Beach probably because it is so secluded. We found a few seabeans , some sea glass and a few shells and then headed back on our long trek back to the boat. On the way we spotted the Pineapple Fields for which this area is known for.  How do pineapples grow, you ask?

Pineapple Fields

 

Pineapple growing

Often on side roads we find old cars and buses that have been long ago abandoned.

Abandoned Car

Now take all look at this one. Look closer and you see what else is growing near the car and the pineapple fields. Yes cabbage! Who would think that the cabbage would grow here. And why would anyone plant cabbage here? Another mystery like why do roosters crow all day.

Cabbage growing

Governors Harbour awaits

March 13^th

After 5 days in Rock Sound we are ready to continue our cruise north to other destinations on Eleuthera. We had a lovely cruise north to the Pineapple Cays near the towns of South Palmetto and North Palmetto with the namesake trees near the beach. We liked this little town as we drove through by car, so we decided to spend more time here however it was not to be. The only three sailboats there were leaving as we arrived and maybe we should have taken that as an omen. We spent the next hour trying to set the anchor but with no luck. There was not much sand under the grass and hard bottom. We decided to push on to our next destination a few miles north which also had the reputation for bad holding. We arrive in Governor’s Harbour and drop the hook. Ted spotted a cable or rope in the water but thought we were okay. I dive in and swim to check the anchor and sure enough the only thing that is holding our anchor is a cable about an inch in diameter that looks to be in line with the Batelco Tower.  I hadn’t mentioned this before but all of the islands are connected with cables that lie on top of the sand as opposed to buried cables so sure enough we found one. We decided that since the winds were light in the lee protection of the island we were better off to leave the anchor as is since it was actually holding and deal with untangling  it when we are ready to leave.

It’s Sunday so everything was closed but we do a walk about town anyways. This is a very prosperous town in comparison to the ones we have visited earlier.  The influence of money is felt here. There are lots of old stately homes with beautiful gardens. Even the town is cleaned with less garbage on the streets and many more colourful bushes. 

Colourful trees

We walk the mile to the Atlantic side and find the former Club Med Beach far easier than we did by car.  What could be salvaged from the resort after Hurricane Floyd is now called French Leave which is now a gated resort. The beach is often used so there is not much in the way of shells and sea beans. We meet some people  on the beach from Alliston, Ontario who have a winter home nearby. Back at the boat there are only three other boats in the anchorage with us, a far cry from the hundreds in George Town.

Monday March 14^th

We tour the shops in town, purchase fuel, beer and more rum. Our kids are probably reading this and smiling.  We find the post office (in the pink building) and also the internet access to update the blog.

Diane updating the blog in from of (you guessed it) the government office.

On the outer edge of Governor’s Harbour is a plot of land known as Cupid’s Cay. The first inhabitants could only walk across the cay at lower water carrying whatever supplies they could handle.  Over time a wooden bridge was build that was later destroyed in the hurricane of 1929. When the current causeway was built people moved to Cupid’s Cay now home for 100 people. Most of the pastel coloured homes are old and close together and the road is very narrow.

Cupid Cay homes are yellow and pink

We were told by Neilson, a local resident that homes are cheap in Cupid’s Cay compared to the prices of Governor’s Harbour where the colourful homes are spread out on the hillside overlooking the harbour.

Govenor’s Harbour

Governor’s Harbour is also home to the Globe Princess Theatre, the only theatre outside Nassau which was playing Narnia.

Relaxing view of the harbour

We walked around the old graveyards in town and read the headstones dating back to the 1800’s. We went to the Buccaneer Club, a rather civilized and touristy restaurant for Klick’s and conch fritters.  I was disappointed (and annoyed) that they include 15% gratuity with the bill since our waitress could not crack a smile. We would have been much better off to go to the hole in the wall bar called Ronnie’s Hi-D-Way on Cupid’s Cay. The good conch fritters and the murals on the wall (almost) made up for the bad service.

I could write a whole page on this. When do they roosters crow in the Bahamas? The answer: they crow morning, noon and night. Ask any cruiser why the rooster’s crow all day long and they just laugh. And it’s not just here in Governor’s Harbour it is everywhere we go. At New Bight on Cat Island they crowed all night long. And there everywhere, they wander around the streets like stray dogs. We finally asked Nelson who lives on Cupid’s why they crow loudly all day long, and he just gave me an odd look. I explained that it was only in the Bahamas that they do this, that in Canada and the US roosters crow at daybreak. He said “yes they crow at 4:00 am” but I asked why they don’t EVER stop crowing and he just laughed. We’ll never know the answer and you never get use to hearing them crow mid day or a midnight.

Rooster wondering around

Mail boat arriving at sunset from Nassau. I love when the rays of sun appears at sunset.

Tuesday  March 15^th I have already posted the pictures from our diving north and south of Governor Harbour a few days ago.

Eleuthera – it’s not for everyone

We drove through some small towns such as Cupid’s Cay, Alice Town and Hatchet Bay on our day tour of the island. We stopped at Gregory Town, home of the Pineapple capital of Eleuthera in search of fresh pineapple. At it turns out pineapple season is in June but we managed to find a “bakery” with some pineapple tarts and a couple of “Inland native craft shops”, one which we spent a fair amount of time and money. Back in the car we go off-road and follow an ocean side trail (which is single lane, packed sand road) in search of the former Club Med restaurant and what is dubbed as the most beautiful pink sand beach in Eleuthera.  Believe it or not we followed the directions of a tourist. Talk about the blind leading the blind. We figured that he was probably laughing his head off knowing we were going on a wild goose chase. We finally abandon the sand and rocky road at a T-intersection and head for a civilized road to try and preserve George’s car. On second though we should have rented an SUV.  It was now 16:00 and we had not had lunch yet so we take another road and find the former Club Med (destroyed by Hurricane Floyd) now called French Leave. We follow the road further south and come upon The Beach House Restaurant and Tapas Bar simply known as The Beach House.  The setting is amazing and the sand truly is pink and like powder. If you come to the Boatel this summer, just ask me to see this special pink sand, I have a sample to prove it. We enjoyed dinner at this very relaxed and superb restaurant. This was our first real non-Bahamian restaurant that we experienced during the winter, meaning no peas and rice, no Bahamian mac and cheese, no coleslaw.  

The Beach House

Dinner with Marsha & Chris

The end of a perfect day. Notice the birds flying on the left above the dock.

 We headed back on the road to the boat and so ends our special day on the road in Eleuthera.

I bought a t-shirt in Gregory Town that stated  “Eleuthera – it’s not for everyone”.  I thought to myself what an odd marketing message. You would expect to hear “Eleuthera – something for everyone”.  We discussed it with our waitress at the restaurant.  It is said that Eleuthera is for those that do not need to be entertained but rather for people who find pleasure in the simpler things. It’s for people who do not need the casinos, fast food outlets or the malls, but rather those that see the joy in the beautiful of natural things such as pink sand beaches and perfect sunsets.  Eleuthera is for people who walk to the beat of a different drum.  I would say that Eleuthera is for us.

The Glass Window and other majestic rock formations

The Glass Window deserves a section of the blog all on its own.   I will attempt to describe the “The Glass Window” although words and even pictures can not quite describe the power and grandeur of this unique location.  It is now a majestic rock formation where the calm Bight of Eleuthera with its shades of emerald and turquoise water almost meets the roaring cobalt blue of Atlantic Ocean.  You can look through from the safety of your dinghy from the Bight side into the Glass Window to the powerful and dangerous waters on the other side. The site was originally called the Narrow Passage and in 1872 an enormous wave rose without warning and washed over the arch and island.  In 1926 it was a natural rock bridge 85 feet above sea level but it was washed away by a hurricane and replaced by a bridge in 1960. The Queens Highway today crosses the span with a concrete and steel bridge however a rage on Halloween Day in 1991 spawned a rogue wave that picked up the bridge and moved the northern end of it seven feet westward. Looking down at it your mind reels with the force of the Atlantic Ocean to move such a structure.  

We regret not going by dinghy a few days later to get pictures from the dinghy on the Bight side. Our pictures here are from the cliffs and from the bridge.  Chris being the “no-fear explorer” is out on the edge of the cliffs to get pictures. 

Chris on the edge of the cliff taking pictures

Water moving under the bridge from the Atlantic to the Bight

 

Waters on the Atlantic Side and the calm on the other side.

When we finally were able to pull ourselves away from The Glass Window we headed south looking for the next stop in our guide book “The elusive beaches of Eleuthera”.  We were looking for a place called the Queen’s Bath but passed a blow-hole on the side of the road. We stopped to take pictures and Ted dubbed it “the Queen’s Bidet”

The Queen’s Bidet

Not only are the beaches (as well as other points of interest) elusive, the directions to find the places are elusive too. We pull off the road in search of the Queen’s Bath and miraculous find them. We found another amazing water/rock formation which the average tourist would doubtfully ever see.

The arrow in the rock formation

Water sweeping over the rocks

The big waves crashing down, correction huge waves.

This is “like” the waves that sprayed Ted as he stood at the edge of the cliff to take a picture. I got the after picture of his drenched by the waves.

The bath with Marsha and I standing on the cliff above. Look at how small we look.

Best of all no fences, no admission fee and no crowds.

Road Trip of Eleuthera Island

It is said that cruisers live day-by-day and that plans are firmly set in jello. Since stepping off the corporate treadmill 6 ½ years ago we live our lives based on this mantra and change our minds with the weather. We were ready to lift anchor and leave the harbour when we saw “Endorphins” coming back in the harbour. We hailed Marsha and Chris on the VHF to make sure everything was okay. They mentioned that they were just repositioning closer to the dock and had rented a car to tour the island and invited us to join them. Thirty seconds later our plans had changed and off we go on a road trip. We meet Chris and Marsha at the dock at nine to pick up our car from George. We are assuming that this was George’s car but he didn’t know how to open the trunk, no key and no pull handle. Guess he never used the trunk but since it was a hatch back we just stuck our belongings in through the back seat. We dropped George off at the airport and off we went in search of adventure.  George did not request a driver’s license, insurance or even a deposit. We didn’t even fill out any forms but rather he got out and said see you tomorrow at 09:00. 

Let me explain that Chris is  best described as a master adventurer and so along with Ted as the co-pilot they couldn’t resist to follow a side road to see what was there.  Chris stopped at a gas station to asked for a map of the island but they laughed and said they were fresh out  and told us  to “just follow the Queen’s Highway”. With cruising guides  and a precious book called “elusive beaches of Eleuthera” we head north. We stop at the airport and pick up a map that is just a layout of the island with the names of the towns.

We pull off the road at some impressive gates and follow the road around to a new sub development which looks more like it belongs in Florida than on Eleuthera. We parked and walked to the restaurant at the Sky Beach Club to admire the property.

Sky Beach Club

We waked along the strip of beach and found a few shells and Chris announces his quest for fresh coconut. Finding a coconut tree was easy but getting the coconut down was the hard part. Ted & Chris try to climb the tree by having Ted stand on Chris’s back but quickly give up on that idea. They did manage to knock the coconut down with a piece of wood found nearby but not without alot of effort banging against the coconut. With 3 fresh coconuts in hand we head back to the car.

First attempt climbing the coconut tree. Notice Ted's foot is on Chris's back and they are both hold dead palm leaves.  They quickly decided against the approach when the leaves came off too easily.

Second attempt using a piece of driftwood to knock the coconut down

                                                                                              Success a fresh coconut

   

Back on the road going north we enjoy the sites along the way.  At this point pictures are worth a thousand words.

Pink and green house in Governors Harbour. Why not!

Building a magic carpet. The small print actually says Magic Carpet. He is just putting the roof on.

We found the Fashion District

One Stop Shopping - what more do you need? As you can tell by now I love signs.

To the Bat Cave Robin

March 11, 2011

We had rain in the morning for about an hour and a half which did a good job rinsing the salt off the boat. After the rain we headed to town to pick up some fuel and straw baskets as gifts. I go back to the post office to mail another post card. As I mentioned before the post office is always in the government office which is always pink so it is easy to find the post office.  

          Pink government office and post office

After lunch we walked south of town to the second church and find the entrance to another pond and the path leading to the cave. Someone had installed a new ladder to get down into the entrance of the caves. I also have to explain that these caves are actually very impressive underground rooms. We wonder in amazement from one room to another.

 
Ladder down to the cave

 

Look at how small I am in relation to the ceiling height

We were told by the other cruisers at Rose’s that the trip to the cave is worthwhile and that there are no bats but I still keep a watchful eye and I am pleased to report no bats!

 

Inside the cave. I am in the middle of the picture. Those are Banyan vines growing (up or down) from the huge Banyan tree over head.

On the way back to the boat we notice a few new homes with waterfront view that are rental cottages. They look out of place beside the older stone houses with missing roofs. It seems odd to us that there are so many stone building that are abandoned that seem to have solid foundation walls and yet people build new homes from the ground up. Maybe it is unlucky to restore a house that has been damaged by a hurricane?

We didn't see a lot of new building expect for a very few new rental proporties such as the one below. There were pineapples on the gates and on the fence across the street too. The house next door however was a an abandoned hurricane house with the windows gone and the roof in sad repair but at least it had a roof.

New rental property with shutters closed

 

The house next door

Lots of abandoned stone buildings

We passed Grandma’s Goodies a few times but it was never open

A map of the Island on the wall at the plaza. We are the very south part on the Island above what looks like the whale's tail on the left hand side.

The view from the beach at Rock Sound with the Boatel at anchor. Notice no other boats around us!

Swimming with the fishes at Rock Sound!

 March 10, 2011

We decided to head out early to spear outside in “the Bight” and wait till later to run the generator.  We spent the morning moving from one small patch of reef to the next. We had a successful outing with 3 small lobster, 13 Lionfish and 3 large conchs in our buckets before returning to the boat at 11:30. The Lionfish are plentiful and we do our best to help irradiate this invasive fish. We also get some good underwater pictures on the shallow reef.

Yellow Stingray

Scrawled Cowfish - look closely and you can see his horns

Queen Angelfishes

By the look on the captains face you can tell that cleaning the conch is the least favourite part. The conch (animal) is in his right hand and turned out to be great conch fritters.

After lunch we head back to the school to drop off the rest of the school supplies and pick up our cart. Natasha arranges for her husband to drop us off at the Shopping Plaza just north of town on his way home to drop off the children.  He is a real estate developer and built the plaza. He tells us to let the cashier know when we are done and she will arrange to have someone drive us back to the dock. This is the most impressive grocery store we have seen since leaving Florida. We stopped at the liquor store to pick up a case of rum which was $60 for a case of 12 one litre bottles! We got 10% off for a case but he only had eight bottles in stock so we filled the case with another brand. He said he would get more next week. There was no stock in the back, what they had on the shelf was what was available.  Sure enough we got a drive back to the dock with someone who was headed to the airport, even though I did point out that the airport was in the opposite directions to which she responded “no problem, my pleasure”. 

Peace, Love and Sandy Feet in Rock Sound

March 9, 2011

We sorted out the school supplies while the generator was running and got ready for our adventures to the east side of the ocean for a day at the beach. Bahamians call this the North Side for some reason we can’t explain.  We walked up to the school and visited the kindergarten and grade two class. The kindergartens were just going out for recess so we got pictures by the playground. They just loved the Canadian flags we gave them.

Ted & the Rock Sound Kindergarten

Isn't she just a doll!

 The Grade 2 class gave us their best smiles.

                               

To all of you that were at our going away party and donated books and crafts, these pictures are for you!

What really surprised us is how polite of the children on Eleuthera have been, always saying good-morning or good-afternoon.  As we were meeting with Natasha the principal, a tour bus arrived from Princess Cay with people stopped here from Princess Cruise Lines. Natasha said that they get tours almost every day and sometimes a couple of times a day. She grabs a drum and rushes off to meet the tour bus and brings them to the grade two class where they perform 3 musical song and dance numbers for the tourist from the cruise ship. Natasha invites us to join the group and I get the children on video.  Natasha explains to the group how important tourism dollars are for them. The money gets allocated to help operate the school for which they are grateful. In fact one of the song is “tourism money is so much fun...”.  I wish I could post the video I took here but I don't have enough bandwidth on the wifi.

Natasha explains to us that the government provides funding for the basics but extra’s like glue and craft supplies which she calls “fluff” are funded by the teachers out of their own pocket.  I explained how we collected school supplies at our going away party and distributed them to the schools in the Bahamas.  I asked if other boaters dropped off supplies and sadly she said no.  George Town and the Exuma Islands get so much but I guess that these islands get forgotten. I told her that I would put something out on www.cruisernet.com  to try to spread the world.  I also recommended that they register with the Seven Seas Cruising Association. We will do our part this summer to collect craft supplies for them. 

We said our good-byes and head further up the road another mile to the east side of the island and another secluded beach.  We left our cart  at the school which we used to transport the books and promised to come back later in the day to pick it up. Natasha offered us a drive to the beach but we opted to walk instead and enjoy the island. We easily found our way down the path to the beach.  We stopped to talk to a Bahamian on the beach who was friendly but difficult to understand. He has walking along the rocks looking for shells and managed to find a turban shell with a huge hermit crab in it. He would use this as bait to catch the Triggerfish that swam along the waters edge. Today it was too rough for him to go out and fish.  He got on his bike and drove away and we never saw anyone else the rest of the day – our beach. I got a t-shirt from Ted for Christmas that said “Peace Love and Sandy Feet”. It describes our experience in the Bahamas perfectly. 

When we arrived we ate our picnic lunch and left our shoes and backpack near some rocks and head off to explore. We spend the entire afternoon walking along the beach collecting shell, sea glass and sea beans. We went in for a swim around the coral heads looking for what we could find in the water. Four hours later we were back to our shoes with a bag full of treasures.

We had seen a sign and heard about a restaurant on the ocean side so we head off in search of it with no idea how far it really is. We walk along the road and occasionally see small wooden signs telling us that we are headed in the right direction.

Rose’s Nort’ Side Restaurant sign

We follow the hydro lines and arrive on a small cluster of roofs. We walk past the first house and hear a dog barking. Rose the owner of the restaurant comes out to shout to us that we are going the wrong way. We back track and are greeted by a fat tail wagging golden lab named “Teddy” who Rose tells us “hates black people – he just growls at them but he knows the white people will pet him”. She welcomes us to her restaurant and announces we are just in time because she is about to serve dinner to some other cruisers.  With an ice-cold Klick in hand, we introduce ourselves and have time to get to know each other before we sit down at a large table to enjoy Rose’s home made Bahamian cooking.  I have to take a moment to describe the Nort’ Side Restaurant.  You first enter the bar with its sand covered floor and ceiling covered in palm fronds. What a great bar.

The sand covered floor at the bar at Nort’ Side Restaurant

You walk through the bar to the enclosed patio in the back which is an eclectic mix of shells, marine and nautical decor. A turtle shell is mounted on one of the wall. The restaurant seats 30 to 35 people and the tables are covered with freshly starched green table clothes and Rose’s hand made candle holders.   Definitely a Bahamian experience. Rose offers to drive everyone back to the dock (it’s part of the deal with dinner). She takes the other 5 cruisers first and comes back for us. We start walking and she picks us up on the way. We find out that Rose had worked at Batelco (telephone company) and had raised here  children in Grand Bahama.  Her and her husband had bought the cottage and the restaurant as a retirement dream of his 11 years ago. Unfortunately he died five months after they moved and she stayed on to run the cottages and restaurant.  She has built a reputation by word of mouth amongst the cruising community.  We were told that a visit to Rose’s is a must when going to Rock Sound.  We’re glad we had an opportunity to meet Rose.