Adventures of Luck of a Fool: May 4-8, 2023 Rock Sound, Eleuthera

5-4 Thursday We moved the boat to the southern end of Rock Sound. We snorkeled the rocks where there is a school of angelfish, my favorite. I took a camera and Dave took a spear. He speared 4 good sized channel crabs and 2 fish.

when the feather dusters feel motion or aren't feeding, they retract into the white tubes

Back at the boat, he cleaned the fish and the crabs. We boiled the 4 crabs in Old Bay seasoning, then we had our fill. When we were done eating, I cleaned the rest of the crab to have crab eggs Benedict on Dave’s homemade bread. But first we have to buy lemons.

That evening, we had a zoom call with the sailing club in Rapid City, SD. They had lots of good questions. Steve Mangelson and his daughter, Sarah, connected with us. We’ve known them since we bought our first sailboat in 2004. It was a lot of fun.

5-5 Friday We snorkeled the coast line in the early afternoon, but it was overcast and not as interesting as yesterday. So we cleaned up and headed back to Rock Sound, about 3 miles away.

amazing schools of minnows

We went to Wild Orchids for dinner and the Cinco de Mayo party. They said they were going to have a special menu that night, but didn’t. The only Mexican beer that they had was Corona, so I had a margarita and Dave had Guinness. We had their awesome bbq chicken wings and their spring rolls. Dave had their bbq ribs that were very good. I had grilled grouper and vegetables that were in a foil bag with a nice broth. They had a 3 piece band play from 6-9. It was nice island easy listening music. But we left about 7:00 because the bugs were so bad, biting our legs. We could see our boat from the restaurant and took some nice photos. During dinner, Dave noticed a water spout across the bay, but it looked like it was next to our boat. It was gone within a few minutes.

our boat at anchor with water spout

Back at the boat, we could still hear the music from the band, along with DJ music from the fest grounds on the beach in the other direction. Interesting combination.
5-6 Saturday. We had a “town day” in Rock Sound. This year we have a cart to help haul fuel jerry cans and groceries. We went to the public dock and unloaded everything. First we walked to a grocery store about 10 blocks inland. Since the fuel cans were in the cart, Dave carried the groceries on his back. We went straight back to the dock, so he could offload the backpack. I waited in the shade with a nice breeze while he took the cart and cans about 4 blocks in a different direction. When he returned, we met 2 boaters that were at the restaurant last night. Rick and Christi are on a power catamaran called Inked Mermaid. Christi had 4 tattoos of mermaids plus other tattoos. They were from southern Wisconsin and have been living aboard for 2 years. This is their first time in the Bahamas. Nice couple.
Back at the boat, I unloaded groceries and stored them. Dave stored the fuel. Then he started the water maker, which we do about every 3-4 days.
5-7 Sunday. It was a little stormy this morning. But I made it to shore and back between squalls to go to church in Rock Sound. I thought I was arriving late for the 9:00 mass, but people were just arriving. They didn’t have a priest, but went through the parts of the mass and readings. There was a lay minister that distributed communion. It was a nice gathering with singing, too. Will the occasional storms, we had a lazy day.
5-8 Monday. About 10:00 that morning, we heard a loud horn honk. After about the 3rd time, we wondered if it was a boat. We looked outside and there was a cargo ship passing between us and the shoreline. A guy on the boat was gesturing with his hands and trying to tell Dave that there was a shipping lane paralleling the coastline. He was headed to the government dock. It wasn’t on our navigation charts, and we had never heard of that before. While the ship was at the government dock, we moved our boat further offshore and further south, away from their dock. The ship had stirred up a lot of sand in the shallow waters. We didn’t want to take in sand in the raw water intake for the engine. Therefore, we drifted aways to get out of the sandy water. Before anchoring, we ran the engine at high rpm’s to clear the intake of any sand. When the ship left about 2 hours later, HE WENT BEHIND US!! I think he was wrong about the shipping channel. It wasn’t a very crowded anchorage right now, but there are usually a lot of boat, maybe 30, in the area he was telling us was the shipping lane. They also grounded their ship right in front of the government dock, so we think it was in inexperienced captain. Otherwise, we had another lazy day with squalls.