2017 Life Logs, Day 116: Island Tour and Dinner with Totem
Date: Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy, E 10 knots
Location: At Anchor in Rock Sound, Eleuthera
It was a long but great day. We picked up the rental car and were on way to touring the island of Eleuthera by 8 am. We drove north to a place called the Glass Window Bridge and worked our way south. The first stop, the Glass Window Bridge, is the narrowest part of the island at only 30 feet wide where you can see the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Exuma Sound to the west. We climbed the prickly limestone rocks to a high spot to take photos and saw two water spouts in the Atlantic. We then drove a little south and climbed through those prickly limestone rocks once again to get to the Queen’s Bathtub which is a series of natural tide pools where you can sit and soak up the sun in warm water if the sun is shining. Unfortunately, we were there when it was cloudy and the tide was coming in, so the pools were not as warm as they could have been. Yet, the view of the Atlantic Ocean was gorgeous. Next, we had lunch at Daddy Joe’s and continued our trek back to the south. We made stops at a couple of beaches, in Hatchet Bay, and in Governor’s Bay. The two bay stops were important as it helped Sam and Dawn make a decision on our next stop. Hatchet Bay has a very narrow entrance and Governor’s Harbor is beautiful, thus much more alluring. So tomorrow we will sail from here to Governor’s Harbor. The homeward bound part of the trip was spent trying to find one of the pink sand beaches that Eleuthera advertises so I could take a sample home. It was a great day and I hope to post photos tomorrow once we reach Governor’s Bay.
But our day was not over when we returned from the island tour. Sam and Dawn had invited Totem’s captain and his three children over for dinner tonight, and what a delightful evening we had together. Totem is on her way home to Washington state after their 9-year circumnavigation. The three children are now 17, 14, and 12. They have grown up and been educated onboard and are three most impressive teenagers. Niall (pronounced like the River Nile), the oldest, could go to college this fall, but he wants to remain on the boat until they complete the circumnavigation when they cross their path in Mexico. So he will be applying for colleges this fall. While we talked about their adventures in Papua New Guinea with all of its World War II history, Mairen and Siobhan (pronounced She-vaughn) built card houses. It was fun to watch them work so carefully to keep the card structures from falling. And all I could think at the end of the evening is that it would be wonderful if all children could be so lucky as to experience the world as they have. This family was in Falmouth last summer giving a talk at the Falmouth Academy. I had been invited by friends Bruce and Jane Wooden to go, but I didn’t make it. This was just one more reminder of what a small world it is.
