Smilin' Like Eleut'ra

 If there is one thing to say about the sailing lifestyle, it is dominated by the weather.  On a good day, it propels you to where you want to go with good speed and minimum turbulence.  On bad days, you hunker down and do your best to hide from it.  The rest of the time it wavers somewhere in between.  And most of the time, the wind seems to be coming from the direction you want to go.

Our short trip from the Glass Window anchorage to Hatchet Bay was no exception.  To sail straight there, the wind would be within 15 degrees of right on our nose.  Our boat can go about 40° into the wind, but is faster if you bear away to about 50°. If we wanted to go straight there, we would have to motor.  But we are a sailboat and diesel is around $6/gallon here, so we tacked our way down to Hatchet Bay.

The entrance to Hatchet Bay 

The Hatchet Bay entrance is interesting.  The "bay" was actually an inland salt water lake near the rocky shoreline, and someone decided to make a cut through the rock so it could be accessed by boat.  The cut is narrow, but once inside, there is excellent protection from the wind in all directions.  If memory serves, we decided to go there, in part, to hide from an approaching cold front.  We squeeze through the entrance and find a spot to drop the anchor, alongside several other boats that were doing the same.

Not a wide cut through the rocks

A fair amount of room once you are inside

There are a few interesting things to do here.  There is another inland salt water lake you can walk to and go snorkeling.  It was said there was some interesting life in this lake, including a large number of sea horses.  We made the walk and went snorkeling there.  After the walk on a warm day, the relatively cool water felt good.  We saw a number of starfish, some interesting coral, and other creatures.  I thought the seahorses would be easier to spot, but they were quite elusive.  I did see one, but our friends on ICat were better with the underwater photography and managed to snap a couple pictures of them.

Can you see the horse?

Alice Town, a small settlement, sits at the southern shore of the bay, and we decided to visit there.  We figured we would check out the town and grab dinner while we were out (we also needed to drop off a little trash while we were there...on a boat you try to minimize trash production,  but it can't be entirely eliminated).  Unfortunately, it was Sunday and just about everything was closed.  We wandered about town for a bit and ended back at the dinghy dock and one of the few places that opened around 4pm.  

Wandering the quiet streets
of Alice Town

Boaters Haven is a cruiser focused business that runs(?) the dinghy dock, a convenience store with some supplies, a small restaurant, and a bar with a patio that overlooks the bay.  The food and drink prices were quite reasonable, particularly by Bahamian standards: $2 sodas, $4 bottled adult beverages, and a $9 fish sandwich that was quite tasty.  But the best part of this place is Emmitt (the owner?).  In addition to running the business and apparently a small farm, he is also a musician.  He entertains his guests with some original songs and covers and truly makes an evening there memorable.  To Emmit and crew, thank you for a wonderful evening and meal!

Emmitt entertaining at Boaters Haven

One other thing we wanted to check out after the weather passed was a small cave you could dinghy into if the weather and tides were right.  It sits outside and just south of the bay.  It was interesting to take a dinghy into a hole in the side of the island.

A dinghy in a cave

After a few days in Hatchet Bay, we decided we wanted to find a bit less crowded anchorage and left to visit the Pineapple Cays just off of South Palmetto Point.