Eleuthera and The Exumas, Bahamas

Some folks have been asking us what our plans are for getting to our new Trimaran. So here is the scoop in brief: We will be flying to Rock Sound on the island of Eleuthera, Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale with Watermakers Air on a Cessna Grand Caravan (Room onboard for 9 they tell us!) We will be taking about 400 lbs of gear including an outboard motor, three anchors, etc!

We will stay in a Vacation Home right on the sound while we prep the boat. Then when she’s back in the water, we hope to sail over to the Exumas and explore the that lovely chain of islands on our way back to Fort Lauderdale.
In the map below, Eleuthera is the hook-shaped island east of Nassau. Rock Sound is the sound in the “hook” at the south end of the 180 km long Island (it’s 2km wide!) Depending on weather, we may sail southeast of Eleuthera to Cat Island (not shown) then across Exuma Sound to Georgetown in two hops. But as always with sailing, the wind helps to guide your journey so we will hope for fair winds.

I will include some pictures below of activities we hope to do and scenes we hope to see. But I also thought I’d share a glimpse into this beautiful part of the world. This video is by Sheryl and Paul Shard from the Toronto area. Their TV series Distant Shores is a great inspiration. Here is a YouTube peek into Sailing in the Bahamas.

Church in Rock Sound.

Iguanas on Allen’s Cay (pronounced “key”)

Swimming pigs at Big Major Cay in the Exumas have their own official website!

Carleen fully intends to swim with the nurse sharks at Compass Cay. Here is a short YouTube video (posted by gcurry6)

Compass Cay sounds like a great place to visit. Its owner, Tucker Rolle, seems like a great guy as you’ll see in an interview in this excerpt from Distant Shores. This clip features Shards sailing north along the shallow Bahama Bank on the west side of the Exumas.