Amazon Adventure # 19. A morning to remember.

Current Island morning.

Heather tells the story of our morning`s meeting with the residents of Current Island and our day`s travels down the coast of Eleuthera.

From the journal:

Jan13th.
Woke this morning in what seemed a fairly uninhabited spot. Suddenly there was a chattering of voices, laughing and shouting. We peered out from under the tarp to find we were anchored beside what seemed to be a main path and along it were coming streams of people carrying produce and baskets to meet the ‘Current Pride’, a small cargo vessel bound for Nassau with stops along the way, parked off some steps at the entrance to the bay.
We received much interest and concern. "You all right? Gotta watch the tide." etc. Bill, in his pajamas, made the morning tea and carried on the conversation. It somewhat cramped our style to be in the midst of a throng when it came to tooth brushing and washing. Next, two speed boats parked in the bay came peeling over to us. Henry, who used to be a teacher and Darren, a shy 21 year old, told us about the fishing - chatted for half an hour and then Darren promised to meet us at Gregory Town to help us find fruit and vegetables.

Had our best sail yet! We just raced across the top end of the big bay enclosed by Eleuthera to the Glass Window - a gap in the rocky coast where it is only as wide as a road. We headed south to Gregory Town. It was hard to find as there is a small entrance to a perfectly protected little harbour. A noisy public school by the public beach: glad I`m not teaching there! Darren and a friend were waiting for us but there were no fruit and vegetables to be had as the mail boat had taken everything available to be sold in Nassau. They disappeared for a while and we walked around the town - fairly poor and not as friendly as some places. Then Darren and Warren appeared with some pineapples from Warren`s family farm. What a treat!

We sailed on south to Hatchet Bay - another hidden harbour well protected from a blow. We found a place to anchor and settled down to homework and supper making when who should arrive but Darren and Warren who visited all evening, shared our pineapple upside-down cake, and promised to take us to see a cave and the famous surfers beach east of Gregory Town. A very satisfactory day. So nice to meet and talk to people. Heather.