May 17, 2016 Town of Current Settlement, Eleuthera

We decided to go to shore today, just to see what Current Settlement was like.  We  had to leave our dinghy on the beach.  With the change in the tide, you have to either drag the dinghy up on the shore when you arrive or when you leave.  We decided to try Dave’s pulley system for leaving the dinghy off the shore again.  The swivel that the pulley line runs through didn’t work quite right.  The line would twist and not slide through to move the boat off shore.  We spent some time going back and forth in the dinghy or walking the lines apart at the beach and were finally satisfied.  We realized we were using a cheap galvanized swivel that wouldn’t swivel with constant tension in the calm water.  The first time we used it, the wave action helped relieve the tension for the line to slide through.  Guess we’re going to have to replace that swivel. 

Dave working on anchoring system

We walked about a mile into town.  We found a little convenience store to get a cold drink and a couple snacks for the boat, An Elite Touch.  We visited with the owner for awhile.  The main grocery store has closed.  So he just recently opened this store and is gradually adding items.  It was about half the size of a single car garage.  But he had a cooler for drinks, a freezer for meats, and several basic items on the shelves.  He also told us that he sets lobster traps “condos” and fish traps.  When they bring in the catch, they can make $10-15,000 with one catch.  Not bad. 
 

little building with Coca-Cola sign is where we bought our snacks

We walked through the little town, population 130.  It reminded me of a little town on the prairie.  We walked to the south side of the island, saw a park, cemetery, post office/library, several homes, some deserted.  The few people we met were very friendly.  One asked “How you are?”, with the accent on the are.  We have heard it said that way in a few places. 

beach on the Exuma Sound side of the peninsula- south side

community park

the sign said beware of falling coconuts in 3 different languages, English, Spanish and French

We thought we could walk to the edge of town and overlook the Current Cut.  We asked directions and followed the road a long ways.  We could see clouds moving in, and we didn’t close the hatches on the boat.  So at the first site of water, we turned around.  Now we probably had 2 miles to walk back to the beach. 

On the last stretch of road to the beach, a car stopped to visit with us.  The guy was an old hippy from Canada.  He had a vacation home here in Current Settlement.  He has been coming here since sometime in the 80’s.  He had to rebuild once after a hurricane.  He wanted to tell us all about how safe and laid back this area is.  But then he went on to tell us about helicopters and airplanes coming in occasionally to catch drug smugglers, still today.  Sometimes people find bales of marijuana floating along the coast or suitcases of money.  Some turn it in and some sell it.  When he found out we were from SD, he started telling us about wanting to go to the Sturgis motorcycle rally.  By now, the clouds were moving closer and the flies were swarming around us.  Luckily another car came by and he had to move on.  I think he would have talked all afternoon.  Dave has had to ask other Canadians “do you have a story that ends?”

Back at the beach, we couldn't pull the rope though the swivel to bring the dingy back to shore.  Since I had the lighter weight clothes on, I volunteered to wade out to it in about waist deep water.  Dave’s shorts take forever to dry.  Plus he doesn’t have as many pairs to choose from as I do.  He’s going to change that swivel.  It’s good to play around with this anchoring system to get all the bugs worked out. 

We looked at the land map after we returned to the boat.  The town is actually quite a ways away from the cut.  I think if we had looked closer at that before we left, we wouldn’t have tried to walk to the cut.  Live and learn.
///photos of town and dinghy