| N 24 02.7 W 74 32.0
San Salvador, Bahamas is reputedly the first landfall of Columbus on 12 October 1492. We arrived here after a day sail from Georgetown to Calabash Bay on Long Island, then spending four nights at Conception, and then two nights on Rum Cay as we sailed our way "east going north". On Conception we had beach parties every night with "the armada" including Kenny and Everett on Loon. Each night was a fabulous pot luck feast typically involving what we speared around the coral reefs. One night was declared music night where each boat brought an instrument whether they could play it or not. This included a squeeze-box from Opal, the Martin guitar and a tenor calypso pan from Susurra, electric and acoustic guitars from Lala and Opal. Quite the entertainment! We snorkled and swam about Conception and explored the windward side where we found a Haitian wreck amidst the coral heads. Lots of bottles and debris were washed up on shore for beachcoming and the swimming and spearfishing was great. One day we took the dinghies and went up a shallow creek way into the center of the island looking for turtles. As we rowed in hundreds of turtles swam away from us. After about a mile we came to a deep pool filled with fish and patrolled by a 5 foot long barracuda. As we watched more and more crusiers came in and soon we had a little party there at the pool. Almost all were from George Town and some were headed south. There we met Jim and Denise on Lizard and Robert and Carolyn on Moondance.
The next morning we said a sorrowful goodbye to Loon as they turned north making their way back to Boston and we headed southeast for Rum Cay. The anchorage there in Rum (Columbus' second landfall on October 14) was very rolly so we only spent two nights there after wandering about the island looking for provisions. Our intent when we embarked from Rum was to head for Mayaguana but as we cleared the point the winds and waves came onto our nose so we bore off and sailed northeast to San Salvador.
As we approached the island the deep dark cobalt blue of the Atlantic immediately turned the aqua of 20 feet of water as the steep wall off San Salvadore rose up to the shelf off the beach. This nearby deep water brings lots of scuba divers here to swim with the big pelagic critters like shark and manta rays. We dinghied into shore and found, to our delight, a well stocked grocery store, a friendly bar that sold wholesale alcohol, and very friendly folks that lived on the island. I think San Salvador may be my favorite island yet. We walked about and met some of the locals - Dave, who was a fisherman, and Juice, a very entertaining guy at the "Juice Bar" - his brother's place. His missing front teeth, easy laughter, and dominoes play were quite memorable. We may have met all 60 of the locals there in the town center and at the Juice Bar. One day we walked across the island and stopped for lunch at the marina. Sitting on the veranda, eating and drinking and staring out over the ocean to the west, we watched sharks slide in and out of the coral reef. Quite serene and beautiful.
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