ALICETOWN, ELEUTHERA, BAHAMAS

I am sitting at Frank's Place, a restaurant on a hill about 50 feet above our boat in Hatchet Bay. The town's name is Alicetown, not sure why it is called that but it is a typical Bahamian town with a couple of restaurants, bars, one grocery store, one convenience store and an elementary school.

We had an easy passage to here from Rock Sound on Monday. Our friends, Bill and Kathy on Hale Kai are here in the anchorage. Bill was our group leader when we left Marathon back in February. In fact we now have been in the Bahamas 6 weeeks with 6 more weeks to go on our crusing permit. Plans are to continue to Spanish Wells for a few days(Joy's birthday is TuesdaY, April 5), and then over to the Abacos the middle of next week. Working our way up the Abacos over 4 weeks or so, and back to Florida at the end of April/first part of May.

Yesterday we rented a car and drove over to Governor's Harbor, a town fouunded by British loyalist back in the 1770s. Included are two pictures, one of the library exterior and the other is the children's reading room.

We also visited a beach, note the shoe tree, that was part of a US Naval Missile tracking station. This was abandoned several years ago. Club Med had a resort nearby, but that is also closed. There are many projects in the Bahamas that get started but run out of money and just become abandoned and left as empty shells. It is really too bad, but it is a case of people building with OPM(Other People's Money)

Joy and Kathy left to hitchhike to Surfers Beach this afternoon. The first people to stop were Derek and Sonya,who were on their way to the beach. Derek spent age 6 through 8 here in Eleuthera as his Dad and Mom taught school here. His Dad discovered Surfer's Beach back in the 60s when he was snorkeling and there was no access to the beach from the land as it was through dense "jungle". His Dad cut a path through the jungle and began surfing there as it was a perfect spot. Derek and Sonya have a plaque honoring their dad at the Tiki hut where the surfers gather and had flown in for the week to visit the beach. It is now a very well-known beach.

Here are some pictures taken over the last couple of days.

Joe

PS Happy Birthday, Gayle

PPS We are in an area of the Bahamas that has spotty Internet. It also costs about $6/hour to get on, so hopefully when we get to Spanish Wells we will have better service.