Hatchet Bay, Mutton Fish Point

We spent our days in Hatchet Bay hanging out on Manatee and dinghying into shore.  We had a nice routine going.  We dinghy in, secure LilBit at the dock and walk across the street.  The road down to the beach is a hardly paved road about a mile long. The BaTelCo tower and the Electric Company are on this road, but no homes to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (that I have seen so far). Usually we pass a herd of goats and sheep and occasionally a group of pigs!  If we wanted to go to Surfer’s Beach, about 5-6 miles North, we would hitch hike, and always got a ride.

Hatchet Bay dinghy/boat dock

Whirlpool- the tide going out, down a blue hole, near the shoreline at the dinghy dock

 The old BaTelCo office, with the herd of goats

Pigs! A herd of about a dozen of them

The Beach!  Hatchet Point

Fishing for fun

The winds were going to be favorable for a sail North, so we left the bay once again for a short trip up the coast to Mutton Fish Point.  We sailed on a light southeast breeze for about 3 hours and found another gorgeous anchorage to set the hook for a couple of days.  We passed homes on the shore of the Exuma Sound.  Some were small and some were huge, but they all had the same amazing view of the sound.  

A huge home.  Note the steps leading to the water, carved out of the rock wall!

A modest home…

The Cove (a resort)

We dinghyed along the shore the following morning and walked a couple of beaches. We discovered what appeared to be a public landing on a beach at the end of a road and decided to bring the dinghy to shore and walk to the street.  It was approaching lunch time, so we thought we could spot Daddy Joes, a local restaurant outside Gregory Town.  It was a short walk to Queens Hwy and the road came out directly across the street from the restaurant! How nice.  We walked across the street and had a great lunch and great conversation with the owner.  We were the only ones there at the time.

Mutton Fish Point, beyond the point is the Glass Window

We watched an osprey take a bath at low tide

Dinghy ride

A rudder, used for the entranceway to their property

A fence lining the road

Signs at Daddy Joe's

I love the signs!

After a couple of ice cold Sands Beer and a yummy lunch, we headed back across the street, into the dinghy and back to Manatee.  We enjoyed a most spectacular sunset!

Shortly after hitting the sack, Ed got up one final time to check on things.  He saw lights from a large boat about 1/2 mile away.  It was a surprise to us as we hadn’t seen a single other boat sail by since we got here. It was dark, and we watched as the boat appeared to be anchoring.  After deciding all was well, and they were anchored safely, we went back to bed.  The following morning we discovered that not only was it a large boat, but it was a 100 ft. long square rigged sailing vessel.  I looked at our AIS on the chart plotter to discover that the boat’s name is “Eye of the Wind”, and remembered I heard some talk on the VHF with that name.  Thanks to Google, we found out that “Eye of the Wind” was built in 1911 and is still in commission,  as a charter boat based out of England, available for private or corporate charters.  All the sails are hand raised.  The sailors literally climb the masts and open the sails manually.

Our first look at Eye of the Wind, at dawn

Winds were kicking up a bit out of the ENE, and we were ready to head back to Hatchet Bay.  It was a nice motor sail down the coast, keeping close to the shoreline for comfort, yet still tacking our way south.  

Stephanie came into town, so we finally got a chance to see her!  We had a great time catching up, went down to Governor’s Harbour with her and Dan for a little business and a nice lunch at Leo Rose’s. It’s so hard to believe it has been 25 years since we have seen Stephanie.  People don’t change.  She’s still the great, kindhearted, everybody’s friend person. 

Dan and Stephanie

Friday was a “surf’s up!" day. That means most of the people in the anchorage and living nearby  are either surfing or on the beach watching the surf. After all, that’s why they’re all here.  Since we have been hanging out with this group of surfers, we enjoyed watching them catch the waves and taking pics. 

                          Colbey is cruising from Maine (our next door neighbors in the anchorage)

                                        Pete, (a good friend and neighbor in the anchorage)

Ed can’t surf this year, his knee needs attention.  But we really enjoyed watching our new friends surf.  And I have become a real beachcomber.  Developing an addiction for treasures from the beach.  Ed walks with me a lot and has learned the collection process as well!

                                          A typical bounty when we go beach combing!

We were invited to a local party at a beautiful, rather unique house in the neighborhood of Dan and Stephanie.  The host is producing an album for this young rock and roll band from Spain named  "Los Labias”.  The band was there at the party and man were they great! 

The house where the party was, taken earlier in the week.  (We were walking by the house and I took pictures)

Los Labios

Whew!  Eleuthera has been good to us!  We love it here and will be back.  Now its time to re-fuel, re-water, and re-provision. 

We have a nice looking weather window after Wednesday so we will start our journey home.  We’ll take our time though, and re-visit Bird Cay, then home via Bimini to the East Coast of Florida. Sounds like a fun adventure awaits!

Exploring Eleuthera, Pineapple Cays

Saturday 2.27.16
We left Hatchet Bay after a relaxing sunrise and breakfast.  The winds were out of the ENE 10-15 kts, which gave us a beautiful sail down the coast.  It was a nice relaxing sail, in the clear blue waters of the Exuma Sound as we followed the coast down past Rainbow Cay, James Cistern, Black Point, Pelican Cay, Alabaster Bay, Levi Island,Governors Harbour and Cupid Cay.

 We fished as we usually do, and this time we caught a couple of Cero Mackerels.  That was exciting as we had been out of fresh seafoood for a few weeks now. We got to the Pineapple Cays shortly after lunch and found a nice anchorage in 15 ft. of water behind Sheep Cay.

The Pineapple Cays, Sheep Cay and Round Cay

After spending a bit of a rolly night (the winds clocked a little too much to the east, giving us surge), we explored in LilBit with our sounding line and found a much better anchorage in Pau Pau Bay, close to the rocky shore in 12-15 ft. of water.  We enjoyed the next couple of days, took a long walk into North Palmetto Point to the grocery store.  We walked the beach on Sheep Cay.  The anchorage provided more protection from the east winds so we slept like babies.  We snorkeled on Monday, in search of Snapper, Grouper, Lobster etc.The water was COLD but really clear and the coral heads were phenomenal! But no lobster found.  We didn’t want to work that hard to spear fish, there were only a few small ones anyway.

The shoreline of Palmetto Point, and Broken Cay

Our anchorage

Crystal clear water!!

Another shot of our anchorage

   

Beautiful sunset

The rocks where we snorkeled

Tuesday 3.1.16
We were ready to head back up the coast.  We both agreed that we had no burning desire to go further south to Rock Sound Harbour.  The winds were now out of the ESE, and very light.  However they were perfect for a peaceful sail back up the coast.  We hooked two HUGE fish, both of which got away!  The first one actually snapped the line right at the swivel.  Took our spoon with it!  It had to have been a very large fish, Ed fought with it for a while before it regained strength and snapped the rig.  The second big one that got away was also giving Ed a run for his money, the pole was bent over in a half circle.  Just as I went to let the jib out to slow the boat, the line got caught on a fitting on the boom and sliced the line!! Damn! Another big fish and another nice spoon gone! We are running out of big enough tackle now.  We proceeded to catch a couple more fish, a true Spanish Mackeral and another Cero Mackerel.  We learned the difference between a Spanish Mackerel and Cero Mackerel.  The Spanish Mackerel was way more bloody, and the meat had a red color to it.  I guess all this time, we had been catching Cero’s, not Spanish Mackerels.  The Cero are much much lighter and taste good!

Spanish Mackerel

We arrived back to Hatchet Bay early afternoon and found our spot to anchor.  We sautéed the Spanish Mackerel and added it to the left over gumbo for lunch, then dinghied over to SV Mahina  (Peter and Bonnie).  We had pictures of Peter surfing that we wanted to share with them.  We chatted for a while and returned to Manatee for another quiet evening.

Flying the bahamas flag

Hatchet Bay, Surfers Beach

We had quite a week in Hatchet Bay.  We picked up a mooring ball on Sunday evening and went into town on Monday.  We rented a car to explore the island.  We got in touch with an old friend from Ed and Georgeanne’s childhood in Jupiter, Dan, who happens to live on the island.  He invited us to his home. They call their house "a surf shack", but it is a beautiful home with an awesome Atlantic Ocean view from their back deck!!

Dan and Stephanie's driveway

The view from their back yard!!

Dan drove us to Surfer’s Beach.  We were just flabbergasted over the waves and the beauty of the beach.

We moved off the mooring ball to save the $20/night fee and anchored out in the bay. It was a warm day, so I dove the anchor with Capt Ed.

The following day we took the car down south to Governor’s Harbour and explored a little.

We visited Levy’s Reserve, to learn all about the local botanicals and hike the trails. It was like a state park and had all the indigenous plants labeled with their scientific names. Ed enjoyed the walk and Georgeanne and I enjoyed learning about all the plants that are native to the Bahamas. 

Pineapples!

A beautiful palm frond, the preserve was full of them

After asking several “locals”, we discovered that the former Wykee Resort is behind the property called “Hut Point”.  We did some snooping around and were able to take some pictures for Charlotte, whose cousin once owned this beautiful piece of land.

We had a great lunch at the Bucaneer and Georgeanne enjoyed talking with the locals there. We had a beer at “Tippy’s”, a beachfront bar and headed back to Manatee.

 We had the opportunity that evening to go to “Sugar Apple”, the local bar that was having Open Mic Night. We had a great time, listening to the local surfers and residents jam.  Most of the people that played were from somewhere in the states.  The lead singer is a dock master in Beaufort, NC.  Others have lives in the states and come over here for the winter season.

Signs along Queen's Hwy, heading into Gregory Town

Entranceway to Sugar Apple Restaurant and Bar

Wednesday we drove up to the Glass Window, a very narrow piece of land, a bridge between the Atlantic Ocean and the Exuma Sound.  The ocean side looks so different than the “bay” side! Georgeous views!!

Silos along the highway, remnants of the islands farming history

The view towards the Atlantic side

The view towards the Exuma Sound side

Water churning down below!

After a nice lunch, we went back to Surfer’s Beach.   We parked the car at the end of the paved road and hiked the rest of the way to the beach. The path down to the beach took us right to the group of surfers we had met at the “Sugar Apple” the night before.  

Surfers Haven Hotel and Restaurant

The hike down to the beach

So as not to get lost!

Path down to the beach

The surfers "hut"

Surfs Up!  Ed is in heaven!! Too bad his knee is not up to surfing.  He would have been out there too.  But we can't take the chance of him blowing out his knee while surfing.  Not now.

Georgeanne and I just had to take a dip and get pounded by the surf.

We hiked back to the car and went back to Manatee for a nice relaxing evening before Georgeanne had to go home.

The following day we drove Georgeanne back to the North Eleuthera Airport to head home. On the way back from the airport, we did some more sightseeing.

"The Cow and the Bull", 2 boulders that have been literally blown and placed there by a past hurricane

So many cool signs on this island!

We sure had a good time while Georgeanne was here!! Now it's time to leave Hatchet Bay for a few days and explore more of the coast of Eleuthera.  We'll head south tomorrow.  The winds are favorable for a nice sail.