Robin, from The Lower Place, and I walked to the Island School on Eleuthera. We had heard a lot of great things about this school and wanted to check it out. I called to see if they were an “open” campus. The gal on the phone had no idea what I was talking about. She said to come on by and come up to the office. We did and were met by a gal who gave us a wonderful tour of the campus. This school offers two semesters for high school students during the Spring and Fall, both of which are 100 days and cost $29,000. There is a 30 day Summer session as well. The school prides itself on its sustainability and boasts solar panels and a huge wind generator. They have their own gardens, as well as places for chickens and pigs.

There is a beautiful pathway across the mangroves that is paved in recycled tires.

Princess Cruise Lines donates their used vegetable oil to the school that is used to make biodiesel.

During the Spring and Fall semesters, each student has to train for either a 1/2 marathon or 4 mile open swim 5 days a week. (This is totally in step with the philosophy of Plato, one of my favorites.)

Our tour guide introduced us to some gals who were PhD students, and worked at the school. Some were working on regenerating dead coral and putting it back into the sea. This was incredible to me! Another group was studying the behavior of the Nassau grouper that is apparently very overfished in the Bahamas. Watching these kids do this hands-on work was amazing! I told them it restored my faith in their generation. They are making a difference. In a very real way.

Had some fun rain at the marina that gave way to beautiful rainbows.

The next day, we set sail toward the northern part of Eleuthera. Had a beautiful trip in the lee of the island. Very little boat traffic, which was so cool. Dropped the hook at Alabaster Cove which boasts a beautiful pink sand beach. For those who know my husband, you will not be surprised that this is the first thing he did after we set the hook.

<Inserted by Mike: We all have our weirdities (is that even a word?) and this one is mine. Yep…we sail her in salt water, but I want the salt water to stay on the outside! Robin, of “The Lower Place,” now calls me “Low Sodium Mike.” Mary doesn’t mind when people inquire as to whether our boat is brand new tho…just sayin

The next morning, took off for Spanish Wells. Had a lovely trip. Had to go through Current Cut which can be treacherous due to the current. We went through near slack tide and had a very uneventful trip through. Was fun watching all the sailboats wait it out though. (I took some great video on the GoPro while Mike was at the helm, but was apparently holding the camera backwards….blond moment. I’ve never used it before. My excuse!)

<Insert by Mike…..Nope, never mind>

Came into Spanish Wells and pulled up to a private dock we had read about in Active Captain which was wonderful and cheap ($20/night). Got out and started walking. Spanish Wells was beautiful. Our friends told us we had to go to Budda’s, a great restaurant/bar adjacent to a liquor store.

The bar was great and had the best signs!

During our walks around the island, went past a really cool cemetery.

Kent and Heather from MV Heartbeat told us we had to stop by Papa’s Scoops for an ice cream. Being the rule followers that we are, we did. Poor gal serving up soft serve was being eaten alive by mosquitos (I, smartly, donned long pants and a long sleeve shirt knowing I’d be out walking during sunset and only got 5 bug bites!!!!). We each got a hot brownie with homemade vanilla ice cream to eat on our way back to the boat. I will not be able to fit into my boat here shortly….

The following morning, we departed Spanish Wells around 7:30 for the Abacos. The winds and seas were beautifully calm! And, the water was stunning!

Took us about an hour to get out of the cut and into the Atlantic. This part of the trip was truly stunning.

We were blessed with beautiful, calm seas for most of our 7 & 1/2 hour trip.

We are used to sailing in some very deep water on the west coast (Catalina Channel is 5,500 ft in places), and some very shallow waters out east. But this channel had to take the cake. We saw 15,000 feet in a couple of places!

About 20 miles away from Abaco, the wind and seas picked up and got our boat super wet with salt water. 🙁 Here is an example of the gourmet lunches I serve up while underway for a bit:

Surfed some good waves into the Sea of Abaco, turned left and went over the very shallow entrance to Little Harbour where our friends had “held” a mooring ball for us by tying a PFD to it. We picked up a mooring there, dropped the dinghy, beached it up on the sand and met up with Kent, Heather and Penny of Heartbeat at Pete’s Pub. Fantastic beach bar and restaurant.

Also had great music.

Sunsets from this joint don’t suck.

Somebody on a FaceBook Bahamas Cruising page took a picture of Little Harbour the other morning we were there. You can see our girl a little left and front of center.

Departed Little Harbour yesterday afternoon for the short trip to Lynyard’s Cay, just north. Depths were more than charted, and we had a beautiful anchorage mostly to ourselves in really calm conditions.

This morning, we took off in our dinghy around 10:30 to go the couple miles to Sandy Cay at slack tide to snorkel. The water was so clear that we worried we’d touch bottom. At one point we stopped, and using the handheld sonar, measured nearly 6 ft of depth. All well!

We hooked up our dink to a mooring ball and hopped in the water. We were immediately greeted with more than 7 large leopard rays! They were magnificent! The fish and coral were simply stunning, but nothing came close to our ray experience.

Came back to the mother ship, took showers, made lunch, and pulled anchor. Sailed the short ~12 miles to Tahiti Beach and dropped the hook. Got to reconnect with Dorado and The Blessing. There is a huge sandbar with a rum barge here. Fun joint. We took the dinghy a couple miles and tied up to a dock as I had read there was a place I could do some provisioning. Well, that place apparently burned down. Mike and I walked a bit and ultimately hitchhiked a ride from the chef at Sea Spray to a grocer in Hopetown.

Was able to get some eggs, lettuce, yogurt, mozzarella cheese, broccoli and q-tips. (I was so giddy to have fresh lettuce!). $57 later, we rode our dinghy back to the mother ship with our bounty. BBQ’d a pork loin with a gigantic salad for dinner. Were blessed with yet another beautiful sunset.

Tomorrow, likely heading for Great Guana Cay to hit Nippers. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Cheers! M&M