Our last day in Hatchet Bay

On Thursday, the now unnamed tropical system that was Debbie eased across north of us, from west to east. The winds had been strongest all along in the SE quadrant, and the feeder bands with gale force winds in intermittent bands has changed the wind direction. The SE, S, and SW winds pushed the water up into Eleuthera Sound, and raised the waters in Hatchet Bay a foot or so higher than normal. With the wind shift, the tide has dropped over 3 feet the last few hours, and the current on the other side of the cut is screaming to the south.

I stuck my head out the cut with the Whaler this morning, and again around mid-day, and while conditions have settled somewhat, it is still pretty rough out, and we are spending what I think will be our last day on the mooring in Hatchet Bay. In the morning, I hope to head down to Rock Sound, or if the weather conditions are super, may stop halfway at Governor's Harbour.

This afternoon, we went into the public dinghy dock, which was a wonderful place to sit in the shade and breeze, with its covered picnic table and benches. I visited with a local lady about my age, Pat, who has lived in Hatchet Bay for the past twenty plus years. She told me that Hatchet Bay used to be THE spot on Eleuthera, with a dairy operation that supplied milk for the Bahamas, and chicken farms that supplied chicken for the Bahamas. At some point, if I followed correctly, the agriculture department quit supporting, or closed the leases, or something, and the jobs were all lost as the plants closed. Every day, while the plant was open, they took the chicken guts and dumped them into an ocean blue hole and fed the sharks. Evidently that was quite a tourist draw for the cruisers staying at the local marina, now also closed.

The local large grocery store that was in the same building as a clothing store, and another store, burned to the ground and was never rebuilt.

Many of the people who live in Hatchet Bay work in Harbour Island, a 30 mile car ride to the ferry, and a short ferry ride to the island.

Mowing the grass at the power plant

I quizzed her about the directions to the ocean hole, and Allen, Tom, and I went and got our cameras and started walking. Just in case you are ever in Hatchet Bay: Walk towards the Atlantic on the road that goes past the Batelco tower, past the diesel power plant, through the sheep and goats until you get to a gate across the road. Back up just a short distance to the second trail back the way you came that leads to the nortwest. Follow that path until it turns sharply to the right towards the ocean. Stop, look to your left. Climb through brush in a direction about 10 o'clock from the trail before the turn, and you will find a badly overgrown, narrow blue hole with trees blown down over it.

You must realize that in order to find this hole, with the scanty directions we had from a woman who hadn't been there in 20 years, (nor had anyone else from all appearances been there in years) involves a considerable hike. We originally went through the gate, in each direction down forked roads/trails until they ended; one at the ocean, the other at an area they trucked sand out of at some point. We had split up to cover more ground. Actually, I think the guys were enjoying walking the coast while I saw scrambling through mosquitoes and brush, looking for a hole in the ground.

Don't drink and drive... yes, that was a car

At some point a pair of angry birds buzzed me with the speed of falcons. They didn't scream at first, and when the first one flew close to scare me away from its ground nest, it sounded like a drone flying past my head.

Allen and Tom on the beach, Linda is in the mosquitoes and brush far away

I enjoyed all the trapesing around, and we saw all kinds of interesting things before Allen eventually found the hole. In general, the exploration was better than the hole itself. The brackish hole was dark, like tanic, and I suspect the only thing living in it now are hermit crabs.

We returned with time to eat at sunset, and crashed pretty early. (Which may explain why I'm posting this at 0330 in the morning.) The wind has dropped to nothing, the harbour is like glass, and the mosquitoes are buzzing outside the screens, and a couple in here, too.

We'll be headed south after daylight, and I believe Tom, on the DAYDREAM, plans to cruise with us, meeting Pat and Ann from the NEXT GIG again in the Exumas.

I'll update next time I have an internet connection. I sure like this Rogue Wave wifi amplifier! I love the folks that leave their wifi unlocked for the cruisers, which Pat told me, the folks in Hatchet Bay do, just for us boaters.