Planning Plan B – December 8, 2022, Ten Bay, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Sailing Hubby and I spent last night at Governor’s Harbor.  It is not a great anchorage, and I don’t think Ron slept much at all in fear we would drag.  The anchorage was loud with ripping motorcycles, but they did have diesel we needed so we jerry jugged that back to the boat and filled her up along with some fresh bread and eggs.  We also found the hot sauce we had been searching out that we had a chance to try in Spanish Wells.  Excellent “Picante”!

We hiked part of the island and searched out an old US Navy base. It was used in the 50’s to listen for Russian Submarines but then decommissioned in the 80’s. We also got to see the beach on the other side of Eleuthera which was beautiful even if it was deserted. The base was fully operational and played a key role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. We saw the water source for the base, barracks, guard shack upon the entrance to the base, and one of the administrative buildings. It was pretty cool to literally step back in time.

Ron then hunted for his dinner snorkeling once we got down to Ten Bay which was a beautiful beach. He had fresh red snapper for dinner. Being vegetarian, I, of course, stuck to my tofu & veggies but we started to plan the next leg of the trip which includes crossing the Exuma Sound. While this doesn’t look very far and is only a day trip, there are a lot of moving parts to consider like the wind speed and direction, sea state, tides once we get to the cuts (which will dictate our actual path), and there is a tropical low spinning above east of us right now. While not getting to technical you can get all the travel parameters right only arrive at the cut(entrance to the anchorage) early or late and find rolling breaking waves. This make for a very tense time for the last few moments of the trip. Needless to say it is good to have plan A plan B and plan C just in case.

Based on what’s going on the tropical low is causing an agitated sea state but the waves will likely be low enough for us to go over on Friday from Rock Sound, so we are moving south today to stage for the jump to the Exuma’s. There is a bigger storm coming Thursday and we need to be inside the land and sea park, as it is the most protected place, without backtracking to Spanish Wells. There is a lot of hiking and snorkeling there and plenty to keep us entertained while we wait out the weather. We spent 2 weeks there last year and it’s beautiful. We didn’t go to Rock Sound last year, so I am interested to see what’s here. If nothing else, we will get rid of our trash before we hit Staniel Cay, where it is $6 a bag to do so. At that price, it makes us very thoughtful of our trash.