Hatchet Bay

After Rock Sound Harbour, we had a nice motor sail north to Hatchet Bay.

Dolphins playing in our bow wake

The entrance to Hatchet Bay Pond was cut for a cattle ranching operation on the island that failed like too many other Bahamian ventures.  It is one of those entrances you want to get right the first time because there is little room for error.

But, once again luck is better than skill, and we made it.  In the Pond, we found a great place to anchor, only to be warned that we were in the approach to the Government Dock.

We managed to find a better place to anchor before the fuel barge and high speed ferry came in.

The settlement at Hatchet Bay is Alice Town. A sign in town advertizes Hatchet Bay Pond as the safest harbor in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, Hurricane Andrew disproved that theory, and there are boats still strewn on the beaches. It is well protected has good holding for the anchor, and is a great place to wait out a frontal passage. About the only thing Alice Town has to offer the cruisers since the grocery store burned down is The Front Porch.

Mark and Cathy on Carina, and Jane and Gary on Dream Catcher

Mark and Cathy rented a car the next day and invited us to join them for a ride over to the eastern shore where we could catch a water taxi to Harbour Island.  On the way we stopped at the Glass Window.

The Glass Window is a rock formation where the Bight of Eleuthera and the Atlantic Ocean almost meet.  It originally had a natural rock bridge which was washed away by a hurricane in 1926 and replaced by a bridge in 1960.  On Halloween Day in 1991 a rogue wave picked it up the northern end and moved it 7’ to the west.  Using Bahamian engineering, the bridge was shored up a little and the road moved to meet the bridge.

To be continued...