Since we've seen so many locals fishing in the shallow waters west of Eleuthera, we decided to drag a line on our way to Governor's Harbor. Though we caught a big fish, we didn't want to keep it. The big, ugly barracudas have lots of teeth & can be a source of ciguatera poisoning in this area. Ughhh.
We anchored near Governor's Harbor, behind Laughing Bird Cay as we felt this would provide as good a protection as we could find from the coming 30 to 40 knot winds.
Though there was 1 small boat behind us, he decided to move around to the larger harbour for some reason. Maybe it was us?
Sure enough, Wednesday the winds picked up - a lot. However, our anchor held - - thank you Lord! This was the beginning of an extended period of very high trade winds blowing consistently around 30 knots - ughhh.
Thursday, we headed to town to check out the Leon Levy preserve we had heard about.
Though the sign said 2 miles, it sure seemed like a whole lot farther!
We love the colorful shops here.
We finally did make it to the preserve. We asked people along the way & the answer was always just up ahead or about a mile away.
It was a beautiful nature preserve that had been funded by Leon Levy, a Wall Street tycoon who had a home in Eleuthera. After his death, his wife wanted to create a place where people could learn about the Bahamas flora and fauna. In addition to locals and tourists, lots of schools now bring their students here.
The trails were well maintained and had lots of interesting information.
A mile or so from the headquarters, through some pretty rugged jungle they had built a substantial viewing tower.
There were an amazing number of orchids located throughout the jungle. Unfortunately, this tiny orchid is the only one that was in bloom.
