After sharing a potluck Christmas with new friends in Spanish Wells, St. George's Cay, Eleuthera, and while wishing we could stay longer in the area, we reluctantly decided to head southward down Eleuthera to see all this new cruising territory that was now presenting itself to us. I apologize in advance for not having a single photo of us negotiating the tricky "Current Island Cut" which must be run at slack tide in order to get from Spanish Wells into the Exuma Sound running along the western shore of Eleuthera. Even at slack tide, the Cut is a half-mile long, 75-yard wide, coralhead sleighride at 10 knots through constant scarey whirlpools that moved Summer Breeze like it was a leaf on a rushing Colorado mountain stream. There was definitely no time for picture taking; my hands were cramping from white-knuckling the helm as we finally broke free of the extreme current and entered the banks to the south. This was one of those adventures that falls in the category of "once in a lifetime is enough".
The first pic below is after our heart rates settled down, and we're under full sail with a gorgeous day ahead of us.
The second pic is the view off to our left (east) of the Eleuthera "Glass Window". It is a narrow bridged gap between North and South Eleuthera where multiple hurricanes since the 1940's have literally snapped Eleuthera in two. What used to be a natural landbridge is now a concrete & steel bridge spanning the gap. Hurricane Andrew ('92) and Hurricane Floyd ('99) pretty much finished off any of the old natural span. It's still pretty neat looking.
After a beautiful 29 n.mile sailing day down the coast, we decided to bypass Gregory Town, opting instead for the hurricane protection hole of Hatchet Bay. According to all of our Eleuthera research, the Bahamian government had installed a half dozen free mooring balls for its cruising visitors to Hatchet Bay . . . or so the Cruising Guides say. This got very interesting.
Upon entering Hatchet Bay, which by the way would be really creepy trying to find without GPS, we were met by local entrepreneur or "PIRATE ?" Frances, in his mastless harbormaster vessel. Frances comes by to explain that the government's courtesy mooring balls are now $20/night and he had the authority to collect that fee from cruisers. He was already in shouting match with the only other sailboat in the harbor who had bluntly told Frances that he was full of crap; the other sailboat was trying to contact the local constable. We told Frances that we were hoping to stay a few days and spend some money in Hatchet Bay, however, if the balls weren't free, we'd be moving on first thing in the morning. He finally said that since we were so nice, we could stay two nights for the $20. By this time, the other sailboat was replacing his mooring lines with a stout chain which would be hard to cut, thusly setting his boat adrift in the middle of the night. We decided to go the safe route and payed off Frances so we could safely go ashore and sleep well at night. When we left two days later, the issue was still not resolved in that the local constable takes the weekends off. If anyone has been in Hatchet Bay since we were there, we'd be very interested to hear how the verdict on Frances' powergrab ended up. Needless to say, we left Hatchet Bay somewhat amused and shaking our heads. Hey, it's the Bahamas, Mon !
Frances might have somewhat spoiled our Hatchet Bay visit a bit, but he couldn't ruin the gorgeous sunsets and superb protection in his Bay (above). When we left after the second night, we headed south, deciding to totally skip Governors Harbor, and make for Rock Sound at the southern end of the island. The coral-guarded entranceway into Rock Sound was exciting to navigate, but we were greeted with another beautiful sunset and acres of perfect room to anchor.
We only stayed a couple of nights in Rock Sound as a weather window for a nice crossing from Eleuthera to the Exumas was beginning to show itself. Getting information was difficult other than some spotty Wifi at the local grocery/hardware store; the Batelco office didn't even offer a quick linkup. There's really not much going on in this area to see, however, we were able to fill up one of our tiny 4-lb propane tanks, usually $2-4 in the States, for a meer $21.25. Ouch!
On Dec.30 we did a glassy windless 44 n.mile crossing from Rock Sound to the Warderick Wells Cut in the middle of the Exuma chain. I have to admit, while it's always nice to explore new areas like Eleuthera, it was even nicer to enter some of our familiar cruising territory again in the Exuma Land & Sea Park.
New cruising friends on 50-ft Morgan "Carrie May "
Typical Exuma coastline, unless it's a gorgeous white beach
Doing a little volunteer fiberglass repair on a Parks boat.
During a sail down to Staniel Cay for a little shopping, we passed "Kismet". This megayacht belongs to the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. It must be old . . . it has a gaping hole in the hull at the waterline . . . he should really fix that.
Toe-feeding frenzy at Staniel Cay
Bell Rock at Cambridge Cay; Summer Breeze is way in the back right anchorage.
In mid-January we decided to start wandering northward up the Exumas toward Nassau, with every intention of avoiding Nassau itself. Unfortunately, we ended up bailing out of the anchorage behind Rose Island right in front of a norther and took a slip in the Nassau Harbor Club for 3 nights. We were kinda missing the internet anyway, and Jim was needing a cracked conch & Kalik fix, so it wasn't a totally bad culture shock experience.
ooooh, there we are . . . right there!!!
I did manage to get some great fresh conch under the Nassau bridge for next to nothing, and a case of Kalik Gold for $49.30.
Then we bailed on the marina and went back to Rose Island to wait for a crossing window to the Berry Islands. A window did quickly appear and we made the 43 n.mile jump from New Providence to Little Harbor and Frozen Cay in the middle of the Berrys. A few years prior, we ran into Shakira and Penelope Cruz at Flo's Conch Shack on Little Harbor Cay, but no such luck this time. We were hoping to spend a week or two with Chester at Flo's (there is a definite advantage to having a small cruising sailboat with a 4-foot draft), but he was off on business. We decided to continue on northward for Great Harbor Cay Marina on the far northern end of the Berrys. The wind & weather were perfect.
. . . even for a stowaway hitchhiker.
NEXT
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