Okay I have a trivia question: What does the word Bahamas mean? Does anyone have a guess? Okay, I cannot hear you, so I will have to tell you LOL. The word Bahama means. Are you ready for this… “Land of the shallow seas”. The Banks of the Bahamas are so beautiful. They are rich with the color of crystal blue-green waters.  We can see the bottom of the banks even in 30 feet of water.

I fine it odd that the channel 4 news out of Jacksonville put a travel warning on the Bahamas.  Every where it said to be aware of, we were there.  But we were there in the day, not at night.  These travel warnings about Nassau have been around for 5 or 6 years at least.  So nothing new. I think you always have to be aware of your surroundings no matter where you are. But on the other hand I never see a warning or travel alert about Miami, Detroit or Chicago. LOL 

Anchored in Junkanoo Beach you could see the bottom clearly.  As the boat turned on its anchor, Bryce noticed an anchor laying on the bottom of the bay. He snorkeled down to see it.

He tied a line to it a pulled it up. It was corroded with barnacles.

Well, the day came and we said goodbye to Sheila. Bryce drove her in to shore on the dinghy and they said goodbye. Sheila walked up to McDonalds to catch a bus to the airport.  She said she had no issues at all.  We pulled up anchor right away.  We didn’t waste any time.  The winds were perfect for us to sail to Alabaster Bay.

The day was very warm with hardly a breeze. Bryce found our old sun umbrellas and it was time to pull out the pool. I needed a cool down. 

Later that afternoon, of course not long before we anchored; it started raining.

But look it gave us a charming rainbow to look at. We arrived in Alabaster Bay in the Eleutheras.  Eleuthera is another island chain in the Bahamas.

Alabaster Bay.

Our journey in Alabaster bay lead us to the Ruins & Ghost Town of a US Navy Experimental Facility.  This dates back to the 1950’s when Western Electric was selected to build what was called SOSUS ( Sound Surveillance Systems). This was used for tracking the Soviet submarines in the Atlantic. This was part of the project known as the Hartwell project. You can google http://projecteleuthera.org for much more detail.

After our two mile walk to find the Ghost town of the Navy Military Base our first stop was the sandy beach off the Atlantic Coast.

We found two shacks full of old power stuff

Inside the shack we could see old engines and pumps.

On our way back up to the base I found a plant as big as I am. I feel like we are in one of those old movies where the plants come alive and attract you. LOL…

We stumbled upon the gates or I should say what use to be the gates of the base. The gate is missing.

We passed the guard shack.  It’s odd but I can totally envision life here on the base. 

The pump read 17 cents for gas. Not sure how accurate the reading truly is. This was the original gas station. It was near the

Public Work Buildings.

The ruins are now covered with over grown weeds.

Life is no longer seen here. Nothing but old collapsed buildings.

This plant looks like pea pods to me.

Most of the buildings are now gone.  Bryce said this looks like a huge parade grounds.  But it was at an angle.  So not likely a parade ground.

Not sure but this seems new. I had read that the Bahamian government was testing the water.  

This apparently was the Administration building.

This appears to be the Administration building.  We did not venture in, not sure how safe it would be.

Still in use. We think its an RO (reverse osmosis) plant.

This looked like a place to get repairs done on vehicles.

A pile of rubbish fading away.

The base was officially closed March 31, 1980 after the United States was unable to renew favorable terms with the Bahamas government. 

Youcan track our current position at https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC  We are actually in Hope Town in Abaco right now.

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