We left Warderick Wells (Exuma Park) for a 30 mile sail to the northeast across Exuma Sound to Rock Sound Harbor on southern Eleuthera Island.  We had a wonderful sail in 15-20 knot wind on a close reach with all three sails up.

Many other boats took advantage of the weather window.  When we arrived in Rock Sound there was only one boat anchored and within two days there were over 20 boats here.  What happens when more than five boats show up at the same time?  We have a sundowner party on shore where snacks, sailing stories and boat cards are exchanged. The local store, Dingle Motors provided the gazebo and the ice.

The area is decidedly different here.  There are more flowers and flowering shrubs. They must get more rain here.  The grocery store is well stocked and they even have a strip shopping center comprised of 4 or 5 stores with a well stocked grocery store.
 

We did get our first rain since we arrived in the Bahamas last February.  The rain was welcome as it washed three month worth of salt off the boat but the squally weather was not welcome.  A spell of bad weather moved in with squalls (30 knot wind), thunderstorms followed by three days of heavy winds.  So we sat out in the Harbor waiting for a “weather window.” Our last night in Rock Sound was their homecoming festival where we had some wonderful Bahamian food.

We left Rock Sound for Royal Island on the northern tip of Eleuthera a 60 mile sail.  We thought it was a good weather window but we had squalls and some wind gusts to 30.  Fortunately we were on the banks so we only had wind driven waves to contend with as opposed to open ocean swells plus the waves.  Even so we still had green water over the side of the boat.  We had one cut to go through.  These cuts are narrow and usually bordered by reefs that are sometimes below the surface of the water.  The cuts can be tricky as the tides flow through these cuts with strong currents.  For tide changes all the water that flows on or off the banks must flow through these cuts. To get to Royal Island we went through Current Cut where we tried to time our arrival for slack tide.  We arrived early for slack due to the wind and the speed we were going although we tried to slow down by reducing sail.

Royal Island is the staging area for boats waiting to go to the Abacos across the ocean.  Spanish Wells is near Royal Island but we skipped it this year as we lost time waiting for a weather window in Rock Sound.  We did explore Royal Island where the remains of an old abandoned estate can be found.  We only waited two days for a window to make the 50 mile ocean crossing to Little Harbor the Abacos.  The sea swells were down to 3’-5’ for the crossing but very little wind.  While waiting in Royal Harbor Benoit on Octopus (from our boat club in Vermont) arrived so we sundowners on his boat the night before we left.