It's all because of two cartographers, Herwig Shutzler and Luis Feille that we found the island.
I worked making maps for student text books and Bibles for about nine years. The two persons I would credit with bringing R.R. Donnelly and Sons, Cartographic Services to Lancaster would be these two guys. Herwig hired me right out of college.
Both Luis and Herwig are outstanding men of good character. Luis was also known to tell great tales of his life. When working along side of Luis, I had a project which included a map of the Bahamas. He informed me that he and Herwig both owned property on a island there however, they had never visited the place. He said most likely it was not much more than a sand bar. Of course, I thought this was quite peculiar. Luis shared how the two friends had purchased this land very cheap as an investment in the 1970's and they still owned this parcel. The name of the island where the land existed was Eleuthera. With a name like that I could hardly forget it, however, life moved on and so did I.
Spin the clock ahead about 15 years and it's time for Mason to graduate from High School. We had hoped to plan this big European vacation to visit each of our exchange students for 5 days. We'd been saving the money and were ready to buy tickets and make plans.
It turned out however, that the 3 weeks we would need for the trip would not fit into David's employers schedule. For a multitude of reasons and a lot of prayer and soul searching we had to change our plans from a 3 week trip to Europe to a 2 week vacation closer to home. We had already been excited to get our passports so we were hoping to at least get out of the country. We had been to St. John and camped there at Maho Bay - we didn't want to go back to the same place but enjoyed relaxing on the island. We also knew this needed to be a trip of true relaxation with little to do but spend time together.
We have been travelers for year and most of the time we return from our vacations just a little tired because we try to pack so much in. We needed a vacation, not a trip. We had truly prayed and knew this was going to be a time for us to think about what comes next for our lives.
I remembered the island of Eleuthera - and Googled it.
I was hooked. It sounded like the place for us spend two weeks with little to do. Not a lot of tourist action but plenty of adventure. Caves, kayaking, beaches, simple living, it was all calling out to us. We aren't the sunbathing beach type - we are more the snorkeling and beach combing breed. We are not the night life and shopper crowd, we are the nature and nurture nuts. The more I read about the remoteness of the island, the more I was intrigued. We would have to rent a Villa, because there are no large or abundant hotels. The villa's all warned about the insect population, the occasional power outages, and the need to rent a car. It also told of the helpfulness of the people and the natural beauty.
This is how we found the island - but there is more to the story of how we found BMH...
