Tag: Eleuthera
Escape from Paradise: One Couple’s Experience, Bahamas, March 2020
Friends said, “If you expect to leave The Bahamas, do it now.” We thought it best. (I failed at retirement and needed my library in New Hampshire in my work for Hillsdale College in Michigan.) Accordingly, we changed our flights to Nassau and Boston from our usual April departure to March 25th.
Jet Blue was in chaos. In my first online chat session they said the change would cost $472. It’s always a good idea to disconnect and try another chat link. The second time it was “no charge”! We always use “Even More Space” (premium economy, early boarding), and those seats were wide open.…
Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (3)
Concluded from Part 2…
Staniel Cay is an active stopover for sailing yachts with an affable yacht club for lunch. We spent an hour meandering its winding lanes and admiring the colorful cottages. On the way back we stopped at Compass Cay to “swim with the sharks”—big, friendly nurse sharks which behave like aquatic dogs, nosing up to a water-level dock to be fed bits of conch and allowing their sandpaper backs to be scratched.
These nurses are quite different from your image from “Jaws” (and as veteran Bahamian divers know, we have nothing that threatening in local waters anyway).…
Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (2)
Once reached, the gemstone islets of Exuma invite you to meander at a deliberate pace in placid, gin-clear waters. There were sailboats and cruising lots galore along the islets, and you can see why. Sailing from one to another, dropping anchor by whim or fancy, is an experience that will wash the world away.
Every islet is different and has its own attractions. At Warderick Wells Cay is the Exuma Cays National Land and Sea Park—a good first stop after crossing over from Eleuthera. A marine fishery and native plant preserve, it occupies 176 acres.…
Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (1)
EXUMA, BAHAMAS, FEBRUARY 5TH— Getting from our home island of Eleuthera to other Bahamian Family islands is complicated, usually requiring air travel via Nassau. But the nearest of the Exuma Cays is only about 40 miles from Cape Eleuthera, or 65 miles from Governor’s Harbour, and you can do that in under two hours in a fast boat. So off we went from Cupid’s Cay aboard Capt. Paul Petty’s immaculate Marlin 35 skiff, Martinis & Bikinis.
The date was our anniversary, so it couldn’t have been better timed. Paul and his affable mate Dwayne had six passengers, including three residents of Rainbow Bay and three Canadian ladies, one of whom organized the expedition.…
Arrington McCardy 1947-2011
Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths
PoOn the Queen’s Highway a few miles north of Gregory Town, about 300 yards before the Glass Window bridge, pull off the road across from a sandy track leading up the hill toward the Atlantic on your right. You can’t miss it: the Ministry of Tourism has recently erected a marker. You’ve arrived at the Queen’s Baths.
Walk up toward the Atlantic as the bush thins out and the sand takes over. Soon the sand thins and you’re walking on bare coral. Watch your step to avoid the uneven surface and pockmarked holes. As you approach the ocean, work your way to the left (north), keeping Harbour Island on the horizon ahead of you.…
Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake
First published in The Eleutheran, September 2008; Edwin’s Turtle Lake Marine Preserve, with a fine new dock and the bottle shack restored in December 2014.
Edwin’s of oldThree miles south of Governor’s Harbour, on the right side at the S-bends as the road plunges toward Palmetto Point, is a large saltwater lake. Passersby who stop to investigate will find the remains of a curious shed built of mortar and beer bottles, the amber, green and clear glass sorted by colour, bottoms facing out. A few yards away, obscured by bush and weathered by the years, was a wooden sign whose words were just legible:
Edwin’s Fishing Lake
Established March 10th 1954
The First Fishlake of the Bahamas
Over 20,000 fish of 32 varieties have
been placed in this lake.…