Rock Sound
We got underway out of Governor’s Harbour mid-morning on the 9th for what turned out to be quite a sporty ride south to Rock Sound. As we raised the sails, we were seeing 20+ knots out of the SE and E. We hoisted the main up on reef one, and shortly thereafter decided reef two would be better. It was a bit more upwind than we expected and choppier, too. Before we could make the change, though, we hadn’t dogged all the hatches down (thinking it was going to be a smoother ride than it actually was) and wound up with a big splash of saltwater through some of the hatches into the cabin. Ugh. It takes forever for salt water to dry…oh well.
Getting the main sized down to reef two made our movement and progress (and splashiness) much better.
Patrick tossed out some fishing lines and caught, but then unfortunately lost, two fish! – a barracuda and something else that looked like it would have been good to eat.
It was a fast ride to the sound, and the sea state and winds settled a bit as we turned in for the anchorage. The water was gorgeous! (See below, and the featured photo for today’s post.)
We motored in carefully, searched for a spot that would (fingers crossed!) have enough water for us at low tide, and set the anchor.
The next day, we cranked through school in the morning, then took a field trip to shore to check out a few sights. Some friendly stray dogs, or “potcakes,” as they are called around here, met us at the dock and showed us the way to the Cathedral Caves.
Cathedral Caves were pretty neat. Right off the main road in Rock Sound, you walk down some stairs and a path by the “boiling hole” to get into the caves, which are huge and have plenty of light due to the holes in the ceilings where tree roots are growing down into them!
It was fun to explore the caves, and there were a LOT of bats. They were all up in the tops of the caves and not flying around, but we could hear them!
After the caves, we walked over to the Ocean Hole, which is a big “blue hole” surrounded by land in the middle of Rock Sound. I don’t know much about blue holes yet, but I gather they are usually surrounded by shallower water, not by land.
It wasn’t the most stunning sight or anything, but there were definitely a bunch of fish in there! Crazy to think about how deep it must be.
As we headed back to the dock, we met a couple who were walking into town, and discovered they were anchored out on a Jeanneau called 3 Lil Birds with their 14 year old son. We invited them to come join us for lunch at Frigates, a local restaurant. At lunch, we got to know each other a little more and talked about the coming weather keeping us from making the jump to the Exumas (gale force winds coming our way…we can’t seem to catch a break with the weather lately).
Cecelia said goodbye to Cookie at the dock, and we went on a hunt for access to RO water in town. We found a spigot near a beach, and I filled the jerry cans while Cecelia and Patrick took the dinghy around to pick me and the jerry cans up.
The next day, Tuesday the 12th, we called and booked into a marina called Cape Eleuthera, which is just a few hours from Rock Sound, for Wednesday to Sunday. We knew bad weather was coming, and the shallow depths where we anchored in Rock Sound were not enough for us to stay comfortable in 30-40 knot winds. We were not necessarily looking forward to it, but at least we had a plan for how to get through it. The Thulins on 3 Lil Birds were also heading to the same marina, so at least we’d have some friends to hang out with while the storm moved through.
We also went to the grocery store one more time for some final provisions, and then managed to get caught in a downpour walking back to the dock. We took shelter (what little shelter we could find!) under some trees on the side of the road, and were totally amazed when a white van did a u-turn and pulled over next to us. A man leaned out and said “get in!” We crammed into his front seat, profoundly grateful for his offer. We found out his name was Louis, and he was actually headed to work at Cape Eleuthera, where he manages the RO water system, when he saw us and turned around to give us a ride. We told him we were headed there the next day and we would definitely find him to say thank you again. He dropped us off at a restaurant called Wild Orchid, where we were meeting the 3 Lil Birds crew for drinks and cards. Thank you so much, Louis! You saved us from being completely drenched through and through.
