Yesterday we arrived in Governor’s Harbour early in the afternoon and after getting the boat anchored and eating a lunch of fresh bread just out of the breadmaker, we put our bikes in the dinghy and went ashore.  First we stopped at the Haynes Library.  It opened in 1896 and was about to be demolished in 1994 when a committee was formed to renovate it.  With gifts and fundraisers, the library is now the second largest in The Bahamas, after Nassau.  At the left is the outside.  Inside there are various rooms in the two storied building and many books.  There were several shelves for trading, so we dinghied back to the boat and got ten duplicates we wanted to trade.  Both Mark and I like to save our books after reading them.  This is probably not a good habit for residents of a boat, but one we can’t seem to break.  We were able to get ten new books, but all of the ones we traded were paperbacks and most of the new ones were hardcover, also not a good addition to our weight.

Next, we rode to the two grocery stores.  Both were smaller than Rock Sound’s Market, but still had a good variety.  We even found frozen conch at $6 a bag, probably about a pound.  While it’s fun to find conch, cleaning them is not easy, so we willingly paid the small amount for ready to cook conch.

Speaking of cooking, I finally started using the pressure cooker I purchased about two years ago and haven’t used yet.  This was foolish as I discovered it’s very easy to use and with four pressure cooker cookbooks, I’m finding a lot of good recipes.  So far I’ve made two meals. Each took five minutes and included pasta.  One was a delicious three cheese ziti and the other a chicken casserole. 

Back to the bike tour, we soon discovered that Governor’s Harbour is an upscale settlement.  Maybe our clue was the sign on the restaurant at the left, “We Proudly Serve Starbucks Coffee.”  Now, I didn’t get too excited or even go inside.  Maybe I should have, but I don’t think they were a “full service” Starbucks.”  They are probably just brewing the coffee.....not making frappuccinos.  Still, we haven’t seen that sign for a long time.  We think the only place in The Bahamas with Starbucks is Nassau.  Yes, we did have a frap there but it was quite expensive compared to the already high price in the States.

Then we started up a hill and got our next clue.  Yes, these were not the quaint little houses we have seen in other settlements.  When we heard a dog barking and a man came out of his house calling, “Winston, come here!” we knew we weren’t in Kansas anymore.  No potcake is named Winston. 

This is a hilly town, but we were determined to get to the beach, which we heard has pink sand.  It was well worth the bike ride up the steep roads when we came to the beach.  As seen in the photo at the top of this page, the sand was indeed pink and the beautiful wide beach was deserted.  Oddly, there wasn’t a single shell on the beach and this was the ocean side of the island.  We walked for awhile and enjoyed the peaceful, quiet experience.   Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy and the photos we took of the beach did not reflect what would have been there with bright sunshine.  Eventually it got late and we had to leave.

After we got back to town, we went across the street from the library to a different area called Cupid’s Cay.  While it looked nice from the water side, once we got into it we realized that this was a rather poor area.  It appears that Governor’s Harbour is populated by people who have come from other countries and either live here permanently or have vacation homes.  There are probably some wealthy Bahamians living in the large estates also.  We met one couple in a kayak and they said they have a “place” here and live in the Caymans.  I suspect their “place” was one of the mansions we saw on the hill.  Our main purpose for going to Cupid Cay was to get a picture of a house we saw when we first arrived.  It was impossible to miss it due to the bright lime and pink paint.   Also in this neighborhood were some interesting looking restaurants.  We heard a pounding sound and came upon a woman beating conch with a tool to tenderize it.  She was at a table outside her restaurant. We also passed an ice cream store which took a lot of will power to avoid. 

We had planned on a short stay in Governor’s Harbour but It is raining this morning and squalls are passing us out in the ocean.  Weather permitting, we’ll probably leave tomorrow. It’s a good day to rest, read, and maybe watch a video.   There are only four boats in the harbor.  This is not a major stop for boats, but probably just a place to anchor overnight with good protection. That is not to say that the town isn’t interesting.  However, it is quite small and we seemed to see the whole area during our short bike ride yesterday.  It is the capital of Eleuthera and also one of the oldest settlements in The Bahamas.