Windy Sail
Phyllis Atha
07 April 2012 | Governor's Harbor, Eleuthera, Bahamas
The storm that forced Charlie and I to come back to the boat, also completely disrupted the Ronnie Butler concert. Guess no one even showed up. Steve and Deb stayed until about midnight. They met Ronnie and he signed a couple of CDs. They seemed to have a great time even though the concert didn’t happen. Charlie went to bed about 9:00 and I woke him up when they called on the VHF so he could dinghy in and pick them up. We were still all up fairly early. Steve and Charlie patched the dinghy again. Then we pulled up the two anchors and I motored out of that narrow cut while they were securing the second anchor. The seas were much calmer since the wind was now from the northeast and we were protected by the island. The wind was still up to 20 to 25 mph and we sailed down the coast to Governor’s Harbor at 5 to 6 kts. with just half the main and jib. We arrived about 2:30 and anchored. Just as we were coming in to anchor, three dolphins came up anch played at the bow of the boat. After lunch we dinghied into the beach right in the middle of town. Walked less than a block to the grocery store and bought a 5 gallon bottle of drinking water. Then we walked over the ridge of the island to the Atlantic side where we found a pink sand beach. Really an actual pink beach. The walk over was about a mile and sort of strenuous since it was either uphill or downhill. We walked the beach, and about the only thing I found was a widow's tear sea bean. Then hiked the mile back over to town. Stopped at a cute little restaurant/bar called the Buccaneer where we had conch fritters, cracked conch, and some cold drinks. Stopped at the store again and bought some frozen squid as fish bait. Charlie and I dinghied back to the boat and Deb and Steve snorkeled back. No dinner tonight. We were all still full from the conch snacks earlier. Had popcorn and watching a movie, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Other than still being windy, the skies were partly cloudy and the northerly winds were a bit cool. Still cool this evening.