After a comfortable motorsail across the Exuma Sound from Warderick Wells to the town of Rock Sound in Eleuthera, we went grocery shopping, took Sailor to a beach and rested for the remainder of the day.  The next morning we motorsailed to Governor’s Harbour and decided to rent a car to tour some parts of Eleuthera we hadn’t visited in the past.

First we drove to the northern end of Eleuthera and stopped at the Glass Window Bridge. The narrow bridge, which is very high above the water, falls away to sea level on either side, dividing the island in two with the dark waters of the Atlantic on one side and the turquoise water of a bay off the Exuma Sound on the other.  Driving over the bridge is a little scary, especially knowing that in 1991 a huge rogue wave knocked the bridge askew by seven feet. The photo below was taken from the bridge looking down into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s impossible to  take a picture of both sides without being above the bridge, so here is a link to some photos taken from an airplane http://www.eleuthera.com/glasswindow.html

We stopped for lunch at the Rainbow Inn in Hatchet Bay, which we highly recommend. Luckily for us almost all of the restaurants here have outdoor deck seating, usually looking over the water, because Sailor is always with us. In this case we ate on the deck but they were so dog friendly we could have eaten inside the restaurant.  We had an enjoyable conversation with cruisers who live in Palm Beach and we learned we had anchored next to their home on Lake Worth where they also dock their yacht.

We visited two beautiful beaches with pink powdery soft sand on the Atlantic.  The first, called Airport Beach, is at the abandoned US Naval Station which is a few miles north of Governor’s Harbour and close to Alabaster Bay.  It is also near Surfer’s Beach, which is north of this beach where breakers can be seen in the photo. The beach looks like this for miles. There is a very interesting story about the Naval Station on the following link which also includes several hundred photos of the ruins. http://voices.yahoo.com/an-adventure-abandoned-united-states-naval-11874013.html?cat=37

The second beach is at the old Club Med, which was destroyed in a 1999 hurricane.  Ruins of the buildings are still there on the hill above the beach. The area is now called French Leave and apparently the new owners are  going to build a “marina village” on the property. Of course, we were alone on both beaches. These are only a few of the gorgeous Eleuthera beaches.

Below is what is left of the huge swimming pool at Club Med. Much of the property still has intricate stone walkways and lovely landscaping.

We also stopped at a small beach by Gauldings Cay, a tiny island in the Sound.  The sandy beach is great for swimming and there is a nice little park by it for picnics.  I had to take a picture of this unique table in the yard of one of the houses on the beach in case my son would like to do this with one of his old surfboards.