Eleutheran Adventurers

posted in: Cruising Life 0

This morning, the Burnett’s guests were safely delivered into the hands of Mr. Wilson, Eleutheran taxi driver, and now Mel can finally blog as she floats just off a beach on Meeks Patch Cay and gazes at the beautiful…80 foot poweryacht named Pipe Dreams that just pulled up off the stern.  Sigh.  Better put your plumbing where your mouth is, 20-person-capacity Pipe Dreams, and close those seacocks while we are down-swell of you. 

We all had a great time this last week exploring Eleuthera with our old Minnesotan friends Elana and Steven Sour.  We learned that to enjoy cruising Eleuthera, you have to have flexible expectations.  The availability of rental cars, good snorkeling, or winds from the right direction fluctuates daily.  The tourism pamphlets advertise all possible activities and sights with equal gusto, and so patience and exploration is required to find your own list of favorites.  For example, un-advertised, Exuma-Sound-side Annie’s Bight had far better snorkeling than either Rainbow Cay or Poponi Beach.  Also, the Governor’s Harbor fish fry was fun but felt more like a party on a tourist-packed cruise ship than an authentic Bahamian cultural experience.  We are talking “Gagnam Style” people, not junkanoo.  Finally, we almost didn’t go to the Glass Window Bridge (it’s just a bridge) or the nearby Queen’s Baths (hot water when it’s hot out?  No, thankyou!) but overall they were the most spectacular things we saw.

In the end, though, Eleuthera allowed us to pack a huge variety of fun activities into just a few days, including the essential Bahamas experience of relaxing while gazing at these beautiful turquoise waters.  Steven made strides in getting more active after over a year of battling a life-threatening illness, and Mel learned from him that: 1. Saying “I can’t believe you are still alive” to a patient doesn’t go over as well as one might think and 2. She has been cooking food the wrong way her entire life.  Elana got to see the little darlings she babysat years ago in Minnesota be all teenagery and complain about living on a boat with their parents, and she helped out greatly in the Great War with the Flies.  Greg got to kill a lionfish in Annie’s Bight and get stung by jellyfish in Hatchet Bay, and Mel got to experience what it was like to have sea lice attack her butt.  Our guests left with the expected sunburns in odd places, bottles of pink sand, $10 pina coladas in their bellies, and the 600 pictures Mel took on a USB drive.  We hope they had as much fun as we did!

For those planning to cruise Eleuthera, gory boat details of our stops can be found by clicking on the “Eleuthera” tab here. Here is a small sample of pictures:

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