You Can't Judge A Bay By It's Name

Governor's Harbour to Rotten Bay   |  4.3 Hours  |  29.5 Miles   

The morning started with a few surprises, the most being ... crab pots! It is stone crab season in The Bahamas and dozens of traps lined our course. Being seasoned veterans of the Chesapeake Bay crab pot minefields, we quickly reverted to our eagle-eyed watch positions and kept lookout for the small volleyball-sized floats. Initially they were not difficult to spot in flat seas and bright sunshine. Soon heavy cloud cover moved in, accompanied by increased winds and a brief rain shower. The floats seemed to hide in the whitecaps and gray sky.

Our ride turned both sporty and salty. We watched through the windshield as Crossroads received several fresh coats of salt spray as we moved directly into the waves. By stepping to our cockpit I was able to capture a shot of Paradigm Shift as she plowed through the choppy water and created an impressive spray. We passed many of our favorite sites from previous years as we moved north along the coast of Eleuthera. Twin Silos marked the position of the Eleuthera Pineapple Farm which we visited two years ago. We wondered how Mr. Russell was doing. A short distance later, we were at the Glass Window Bridge. All looked calm in the small opening between our shallow water of Eleuthera Bight and the deep water of the Atlantic Ocean on the opposite side of the rocks.

In order to get protection from wind and waves coming from the west and shifting to the north, we continued beyond the bridge and anchored off of Lower Bogue in a spot oddly named Rotten Bay. Contrary to its name, we found the anchorage to be just what we were looking for. The sun came back out and the water turned a bright blue. We lowered the dinghy and Barry took me over to Paradigm Shift. Glenda and I enjoyed floating and relaxing in the inflatable chairs for a couple of hours. Barry rejoined us for appys on the upper deck. We returned to Crossroads and raised the dinghy as the sun was setting.

The sunset was pretty, but the view to the east was better. Paradigm Shift was bathed in golden light in front of an impressive cloud bank. A few moments later, the large full moon rose brightly into the evening sky.