Rock Sound

 Boy, has it been windy here! Pretty much non-stop for over a week now. 15 to 20 knots every day and first from the south, then the west, then the north and now the east. Though it has let up some at night, the days have been something!

Friday, after leaving rockin' Ten Bay, we moved into the all-weather harbor, Rock Sound. Though it was still windy and choppy and Samba sailed all over her anchor, it wasn't rolly or uncomfortable, so praise the Lord!

Rock Sound is a rather large harbor and is oval shaped, 3.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, with an entrance only in 1 corner. When we arrived, we counted 50 or 60 boats scattered around. Everyone was trying, as best they could to minimize the waves their boat was experiencing.

At night, all boats are required to burn an anchor light all night so it was like a little city with lights everywhere and was quite beautiful.

Once the anchor was down, Jim dove on it to confirm it was well buried in the sand, which it was. We knew this would be a long, difficult weekend and wanted to make sure Samba was ready for what was to come - - rain and wind, and more wind.

Friday night, Carol made a wonderful pizza and we actually watched a Netflix move using a local mifi router we had picked up in the Bahamas. Wow, what a luxury!

Sunday, as the wind moved around to the west, we counted maybe 30 boats who moved over to the far west end of the anchorage to try to escape the battering waves. We decided to hold fast because we knew the wind would be continuing to clock around and they would be coming right back within 1 to 2 days.

Carol tried to hide behind our SCUBA gear box to escape the wind and get a little sun. It didn't last long.

Finally, Monday morning, the wind had made it all the way around to the east. Though forecast to run 20 to 30 knots for the next 5 days, the direction was great and everyone started moving out of the sound. It looked like the armada was setting sail.

Once the wind is out of the east, there are many anchorages on Eleuthera that are tenable so the sailboats began looking for someplace new to visit. We decided to stay because we only have 1 more day before we need to be heading to a marina where we can leave the boat for a month. More on that later.

Today, we headed to town to check out a little restaurant over on the north shore on the Atlantic coast.

Rock Sound had just completed one of the nicest docks we've ever seen in the Bahamas. It is solid, deep and has lots of places to tie up a dinghy.

Rock Sound has a number of cute little stores and a lovely Anglican church, right on the water, that was all decked out for Palm Sunday.

The sign for the Northside Restaurant indicated 1.5 miles so off we went.

We passed this cute elementary school on the way with a great sign in front.

At one point in our sojourn, 2 ladies in a car stopped and asked us where we were headed and what we were going to do. We told them we were headed to the Northside Restaurant. The driver smiled and said she was Rose and that it was her restaurant.  She asked us what sounded good and after several tries with not much success, we told her to just make us something and we would be fine.

Jim was checking the distance with his watch. At 1.5 miles, we were in the middle of nowhere so we kept on.  Then, we ran out of road but, fortunately, a small sign on a telephone pole indicated the restaurant was somewhere ahead so we kept going.

After 2.25 miles, we finally found the "restaurant" and that was after climbing a washed out jeep trail. Hmmmm.

It was interesting and quite eclectic. Over the years, they had collected all kinds of flotsam from the beach and used it to decorate their restaurant. All of the extra was stored in their gazebo.

Notice all of the old fishing lures they had found on the beach that were hanging from the ceiling -- how fun!

The bar was a little rustic and they had covered the plywood floor with sand. LOL.

We quickly discovered that only 1 person could sit at a picnic table. 2 caused it to tip over.

Jim drank their only bottle of beer and, fortunately, Carol was able to get a bottle of water. The restaurant was beyond the end of the island water supply so they didn't have any running water. Everything had to be carried up in jugs.

While waiting on lunch, we walked down to the beautiful pink sand beach. Jim went first to make sure the stairs would hold. They were realllly rotten and weak. We made it, though.

These spiny sea urchins were living in a little indentation in the rock that was kept wet simply from splashing waves.

After almost an hour, lunch was served - - peas & rice, slaw, salad and a pork chop. It was all she had and it was excellent.

We got to talking with Rose and before we knew it, she was sharing pictures from her family picture album and was telling us all about her 5 kids who are all professionals and now in Canada, Switzerland,  Australia, Nassau, and Rock Sound. She was a lovely lady with quite a story.

She said her dog, Jim, liked to sing so we asked her to show us. She & Carol started singing Jesus Loves Me and Jim, the dog started singing right along. It was hilarious. His diction wasn't so good but the tone was, well, doggy.

After lunch, she took us back to town & then on up the coast to Tarpum Bay to show us where she was able to buy groceries without paying tax because the shopkeeper didn't charge tax to any of the locals. She told us about virtually every home we passed, who lived there, if they were sick or in or out. It was quite a delightful afternoon!

Though her kitchen was humble, her heart was huge. Thank you Lord for such a gracious lady.

After our tour, we had her drop us off at the Rock Sound blue hole - a 600 foot deep hole right in the center of town.

In order to be back in time to serve on a men's and women's 3 day retreat in Goshen called The Way, we will have to leave Samba for a month and then return with our kids for a vacation in June. Tomorrow, we will head to the marina and spend the rest of the week there, out of the wind (yay!!!), relaxing and putting Samba to sleep for a month.