Alabaster Bay, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 Kris had read about an abandoned US Naval base near us so we went ashore prepared for a nice walk.  The base was used in the early 1950's for tracking Russian submarines.  It was abandoned and left to apparently rot in about 1980.  

 

Dinghy anchored, looking back at Sojourn you can see that it's a very overcast grey day.  Unusual!!

 

Actually pretty pleasant weather for a walk!   Along the roadway we saw a pomegranate tree.  I've never seen one growing before.  Very pretty fruit!

 

We followed a power line up a decent hill using Google Maps to guide us.  (Upon closer inspection we could have easily followed a nice roadway into the abandoned base....oh well).

 

After a bit of a struggle thru some brambles, we came upon what was apparently the kitchen/mess hall.  Remains of a cooler/freezer but that's about it.

 

Large structure - this must have been the dining hall as there was old wallpaper peeling away.

 

A different structure..

We walked down to the ocean side beach.

 

The beach was deserted but someone had apparently been here yesterday doing a bit of a sand sculpture!

 

The ocean-side beached of Eleuthera are just lovely!

 

We did a bit of trail blazing to get back up the hill to the Naval base.  Saw these huge aloe/agave plants and had to get a photo or two.  I kept hearing Seymour say "Feed Me"!  Haha.

 

Kris and Dean getting in on the fun.

 

 We weren't really on a trail so we had a bit of trouble navigating the underbrush.  At some point it was just easier to go inside a huge building and walk thru to the roadway.

 

There was a major rain catchment/storage system in place.  These huge tanks are no longer used but there is a desalination plant still in operation on the grounds (I assume owned/operated by the Bahamian government but I don't know that for a fact).

We walked around a bit more - all on the roadways now so much easier.  The original gated entrance.  There was also a guard shack further on but it doesn't appear that the entire facility was fenced or anything like that.

 

Back to the boats it's still threatening to rain.  In all we walked about 3 miles.

 

We were invited over to Charm for "Friday Pizza Night" - yummy veggie pizza with artichokes and zucchini.  Great combination! 

And we settled in for a very rowdy night with winds, rain and thunderstorms!  Uneventful but sloshy and noisy.   By 11PM it had calmed considerably and was a comfy night.