March 16th- Rock Sound to 10 Bay, Eleuthera Bahamas

A day at the beach.

The weather was nice for an easy ride down to 10 Bay. I was hoping to spend around a week exploring some of the beaches along the coast of Eleuthera. This plan was very short lived once I started looking at the long range weather forecast. The problem is when fronts move through the wind clocks around to the west and there are very few places to seek protection from the wind and waves. On to plan B. We’ll go to the beach when the weather is good and hide out when it’s not.

10 Bay was beautiful. We were the only boat anchored. We hadn’t been swimming in a few weeks so that was priority one. Ollie was exhausted by night fall.

Some scenes from 10 Bay.

March 17th- 10 Bay to Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera Bahamas

Just one more day! Nope. Around noon time we finally made the decision to move on. I knew Hatchet Bay was going to fill up due to the approaching front. We had an extra day before it was going to happen but I wanted to grab a good spot in the harbor. 

We had a decent sail up to Hatchet Bay except for one event. At one point I noticed our speed had decreased. At first I just figured we were in an adverse tidal current. Then I noticed the auto pilot was making extra noise and we weren’t exactly on course. I shut down the auto pilot and found that I could only turn the wheel in one direction. Looking behind Evergreen I could see we were dragging a lobster trap. Apparently the line was stuck on the rudder. There is a quirk in the Bristol 35.5 design that makes a small area of the rudder perfect for catching lobster traps. We quickly dropped the sails on deck to stop the boat. Just as I was about to jump off the boat to cut the line away, I turned the wheel hard over in the one direction it would still move…… And the trap just fell off! Sails up! Back on track to Hatchet Bay.

March 18th and 19th- Hatchet Bay/ Alice Town, Eleuthera Bahamas

We put Evergreen in a nice little cove before the storm. The harbor did fill up but no one anchored near us due to shallow water. Day one was a sunny day so we went into town. I am warming up to Alice Town now and am enjoying it more than our last stay. The Potcakes still bark at us but don’t approach. Day two, we had our storm. It wasn’t that bad. The harbor is very protected and the water stays flat. We were able to harvest 10 gallons of rain water for our tanks.

Some scenes from Hatchet Bay (the nice day).

March 20th- Hatchet Bay to Glass Window Bridge (Twin Sisters Beach), Eleuthera Bahamas

The weather calmed down and the sun came out. Time to go! The area around the Glass Window Bridge came highly recommended.

Our selves, along with S/V Luckiest and S/V Windweaver headed up the coast to The Glass Window Bridge area. We dropped the hook off Twin Sisters Beach.

I’ll start off with some info on the Glass Window Bridge. It’s over a narrow piece of land. It was once a natural bridge but collapsed into the sea. Other bridges were built over time. On one side is the deep blue Atlantic Ocean, on the other is the turquoise waters of the Bahamas Bank. People like to photograph the bridge due to the contrasting color. I didn’t but there are many pictures online (I didn’t want to climb up there). We did photograph the bridge from the dinghy. On the Atlantic side there are often dramatic waves crashing on the cliffs. The same storm that produced the “Perfect Storm” up north sent giant waves down here that battered the bridge for days. They pushed the bridge 6 feet. The bridge was repaired and is now one lane instead of two.

Also on the Atlantic side is The Queen’s Baths. This a natural rock formation where tidal water flows in to fill the “baths”. This was a very dramatic area. Lynne climbed down to put her feet in the baths. Ollie and I hung back as the rocks became too sharp for his paws.

Some scenes from the Queen’s Baths.

After visiting the Baths we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at the beach. I snorkeled around some shallow reefs and saw many colorful (tiny) fish. I felt like I was in an aquarium. Ollie had a ton of fun running around and swimming. He gets over heated quickly in the sun but then he just jumps in the water to cool off. During the day we gathered some fire wood with Luckiest. Plans were made for an evening campfire on the beach. First we rode our dinghies over to a beach front bar for libations and chicken wings. That evening Evergreen, Luckiest, and Windweaver got together for sundowners and lit our bonfire. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Some scenes from Twin Sisters Beach.

March 21st to 25th- Glass Window Bridge to Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera Bahamas

A perfect day and then the next weather report. 

After checking the weather I was stressed out about the approaching weather. It looked like the next front was going to be worse than the last one. Windweaver was moving to a dock. Luckiest had plans for moving up to Meeks Patch. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Lynne recently painted a small water color of Hatchet Bay for me to use as a bookmark. I found myself reading at 4 am to take my mind off of the weather issue. I looked at the book mark and instantly decided that is where I’m going. Decision made. We’re going back.

By the time we got back to the bay it was already starting to fill up. People were concerned about this storm and many boats are moving north from the Exuma Islands. My spot in our little cove was mostly taken up by a large catamaran. There are now many large catamarans in the harbor and they take up a lot of space. We cruised around a bit to find a spot. One of the two moorings were available in front of the Boaters Haven dock. The last two times we’ve been in here, there were two boats rafted on this mooring. We grabbed the mooring.

Good news/ bad news. Bad news- My friend on SV Ecola worked for the Bahamian Government and was involved with the installation of these moorings. There were probably around 10 moorings but most have failed over the years. The actual mooring block was rated to last for 80 years. Unfortunately, the chain was rated for 15 years and it’s been 20 years since the moorings were installed. The government has not maintained the moorings. Ouch! Good news – I found out from the captain of MV Captain Ron that the last 2 boats that had been rafted together on this mooring have been sitting here for 2 years. The captain of the boat dived on the mooring and attached chain and rope. I tied 3 lines from the mooring to Evergeen’s cleats and added a fourth from our supply. I debated diving on the mooring but in the end didn’t.

We had our storm. Things were a mess. Boats dragged their anchors during the height of the storm and had to reposition. During the day a large ferry came in to dock at the Government dock. The channel was blocked by boats and heated words were exchanged. Somehow the captain managed to weave this huge ferry through the anchored vessels. During one squall we had gusts over 50 knots. A huge motor yacht dragged it’s anchor and got hung up on a catamaran. Those boats almost drifted into a third. Evergreen stayed secure on her mooring. This time we were able to harvest over 40 gallons of rain water. Thankfully most of the salt and sand were pressure washed from the boat!

Some more scenes from Hatchet Bay.