June 1-2, 2022 provisioning and playing, Eleuthera

 6-1. June 1 is the official start of hurricane season.  Hurricane Agatha in the Gulf of Mexico will determine what we do in the next week.  We had already decided we didn’t want to go to unknown waters at Bimini.  But we were undecided on whether we should stay put, or move north into the Abacos, then work our way north to return to the US from there.  
We listened to our “weather guru” on the Single Side Band radio at 6:30 am and asked for his advice.  He suggested that if we had good protection from the south, we should just stay put.  The storm looked like it would move more directly over the Abacos.  
We had 2 nice days before the storm would be on us, so we decided to pick up more provisions.  We moved the boat to the outside of Spanish Wells.  We rented a golf cart for an hour to run all of our errands. 

First we bought gas and diesel at Pinder’s market.  Then we rented the cart to start our one hour clock.  Dave dropped me of at the larger grocery store about a mile away.  He went to the Ponderosa gift shop to buy fresh eggs from Delroy’s mom’s chickens (the best).  Then he hit the liquor store for beer and gin (post storm party).  He returned to the grocery store just as I finished my shopping.  I dropped off Dave and all of our supplies at the dinghy.  I returned the cart at exactly one hour. ($12/hour rental).  Then Dave brought the dinghy about 2 blocks down the dock to pick me up.  We’ve got this down.

Dave has made friends at Pinder's over the years

We moved the boat back to Royal Island Harbour, but we moved to the west end of the harbor for better protection from the south and west winds that were predicted.  

rainbow at our anchorage in Royal Island Harbour

6-2 Thursday was predicted to be our last day of “calm before the storm”. We wanted one more play day in the water.  Before we left the anchorage, we met our neighbor.  It’s good to know each other’s plans for the storm.  We may be in contact via radio if there is a problem.  He was going to move his boat to a marina in Spanish Wells for the storm.  But it was nice to chat.  We gave him a loaf of our homemade bread and he gave us a gallon of oil of a brand he doesn’t use.  That’s the way boaters are.  
We went to the north side of Royal Island to snorkel.  First we stopped at the small island called Golding Cay and snorkeled from shore.  The current was strong there, so not as enjoyable.  

Golding Cay

Next we moved north of the island over the coral reefs.  Dave didn’t feel like snorkeling, so he followed me in the dinghy.  It was very relaxing for both of us.  

Dave should have been spearfishing for grouper

another grouper

On the way back, we stopped at sandbar just a couple feet below the surface.  We sat in knee deep water and had a couple beers that I had brought along (just in case the mood hit us).  I walked around the area and found 2 sand dollars.  We couldn’t believe we had never heard of this spot before.  I had read that this sandbar existed because tour boats brought people here to look for sand dollars.  We will definitely come back here in the future.

towards east

north

west

Before returning to the boat, we toured the harbor by dinghy.  Dave remembered seeing some debris on the bottom at the east end of the harbor.  Sure enough, we found some junk.  We also saw a lot of mangrove jelly fish.  They look like plants from above.  The visibility was bad, so photos aren’t the best.

mangrove jellyfish

We made jambalaya for dinner.  We wanted to have leftovers to eat during the upcoming rough weather.  It’s difficult to cook in rough weather.  Your dishes and ingredients don’t want to stay put on the counter.  And if it’s raining, the boat will be closed up.  That’s a bad time to be boiling water for rice or pasta.