Hatchet Bay – ELEUTHERA – Emmette’s Island Tour

HATCHET BAY – ELEUTHERA – EMMETTE’S ISLAND TOUR – January 24, 2019
Celia and I sat at Spanish Wells, looking at the weather forecasts and models. There looked to be a nasty little cold front blowing through for the next couple of days, bringing with it some rain and shifting winds up to 30-40mph! Many anchorages in the Bahamas are quite well protected from the easterly trade winds; there are even several to hide from strong “northers”, but there are not many protected from a strong west wind, which this front would have.
We couldn’t afford to stay at the marina in Spanish Wells and stay on budget, so we looked at a chart of the western shore of Eleuthera to see what was to be found heading along our route south. Combing through the various charts and guides, there seemed to be a small bay about 30 miles south with 360* protection called “Hatchet Bay”. The guides claimed that it was a small settlement with not much happening, and that the anchorage had “weak” holding. An old salty sailor I spoke to at the marina had unkind words for it as well. Still, it seemed like a decent choice for the weather in my opinion. I was only afraid we might get bored since it seemed likely the weather would keep us there for the better part of a week. As it turned out, I need not have worried on that account. It would be an absolute highlight of the trip with some unforgettable experiences and people.

We did get stuck in Hatchet Bay for a week…and I am glad we did! There were no pristine beaches here; the harbor was surrounded by rock and Australian Pines. As we pulled up to the public dock, we were greeted by a couple locals at the top of the stairs as we came ashore to assess the “town”. One introduced himself as “Emmette”. He started rattling off the services he could provide from his convenience store and property that were perched on the hill at the top of the public dock area. “I can get you a rental car; we have laundry, showers, and a store. I give island tours if you want.” My initial reaction was that he was a typical tourist hustler and I didn’t think much of it as I thanked him for the info and proceeded on my own tour of the little town.

The settlement wasn’t big, so we decided to do a loop and poke our heads into whatever local businesses, bars, and restaurants we found along the way to see which ones we wanted to come back and visit. The town seemed a little down on its luck; the homes and buildings showing lots of neglect since some long past storm, or storms, had ravaged them. The streets had quite a bit of trash strewn about and semi-stray dogs were everywhere. Everyone was very friendly as we walked around and kids and dogs played in the streets everywhere. We found a couple local take-out (known as “take-away”) spots where the locals ate, a couple of tourist/high end restaurants, a couple local bars, and a few random stores and businesses. As we walked past the local schoolhouse and up a hill, we found a little local’s bar called “Da Spot” where we cooled off with a cold Kalik and got sucked in by a few minutes of cable TV and sports before heading back to the boat.
On our way back, we stopped at Emmette’s store to see what he had going on there. As we got to talking with Emmette, we liked him more and more. He was recently returned to his home here in Hatchet Bay after living in Nassau for most of the last 30 years for work. He was in the process of revamping and improving his family property to cater to the cruisers who now came right to him every day since the government built the new public dock there. He was in the middle of updating a couple of small rental cottages and building a small bar and restaurant. Along with everything he already had going on, it was evident he was quite the entrepreneur!
We were centrally located to visit some natural attractions in the area and inquired about renting a car the next day with our friends Zach and Lindy from S/V Holiday. Emmette said no problem and we planned to reconnoiter the next morning.

As often happens, things don’t go exactly according to plan in the islands…when we arrived the next day, Emmette told us he was unable to rent us a car and no one else nearby could get one either. Instead, he offered us one of his “famous” island tours for less than the rental would have been! We said yes, and that was the beginning of our friendship with Emmette and the start of an amazing day. Emmette had a couple chores to do before leaving and so we hung out and met his wonderful wife and son. When he came out to load us up in his little SUV, he was holding a guitar and told us he was also a well-known musician on the island. He had a song about the island of Eleuthera he had written that they play on the local radio and wondered if he could play it for us before we left…um yeah! His song, “Eleuthera”, (among others) became an ear worm for all of us for weeks to come!

We asked him to take his guitar with us and we headed to our first location: the Hatchet Bay Caves. These are the longest underground caves in the Bahamas. The caverns stretch for over a mile. You can actually enter the entrance just off the Queen’s Highway (the main north-south road up and down the middle of Eleuthera) and come out a different exit at the ocean’s edge! Apparently, you can get lost down there and there is a string which marks the main route. It is of course very dark and we brought powerful flashlights to light the way. It was indeed one of the strangest and interesting caves I have been in. The only negative was that much of the walls were marked with graffiti. Otherwise, we were amazed at some of the structures and the sheer size of this underground cavern. After maybe 1/3 of a mile in, my flashlight which was by far the brightest one we had, started flickering, and we decided to turn around and head back out the way we came. It was then that Emmette, who is from here, admitted that this was his first time ever going down there! We emerged back to the world of light after about 40 minutes in the caverns. What a crazy place!

Next up was the Queen’s Baths. These natural pools are like your own personal baths carved from the rocks and situated in a beautiful spot where the incoming tide turns them into bubble pools. Before we got there, Emmette was inspired by our many questions about the area and went into full on-tour guide mode. He was very open and knowledgeable about the history and geography of the island and shared this information generously. Suddenly, he pulled off on a dirt road, proclaiming that this was Lenny Kravitz’ property which he was fixing up and was currently building a new house on the property for his daughter. He said he had done a little work for him and he was a super nice guy. Lenny is currently on island and Emmette said we could ride out towards the house under the pretext of asking one of his contractor buddies something and we could see if we ran into him…fun! While we got to see his houses and the property, we did not see Lenny. No brush with fame for us this day.

The Queen’s Baths lived up to the hype and a couple of us braved the cool temperatures and took a little dip while we cracked the days first beers. After a bit of exploring, we hopped back in Emmette’s car for the ride to the famous Glass Window Bridge. Once a narrow, natural rock arch separating the mighty Atlantic from the Exuma Sound, a severe hurricane had collapsed the natural bridge. It was now replaced with a man-made concrete bridge to keep the island connected. However, it is still quite a dramatic place to visit. We enjoyed the views, took some pictures and it was on with the tour.

When we had left, Emmette said he had maybe 3-4 hours to show us a few spots. I think he was inspired by our enthusiasm and attitude about life and he really wanted to show off his island. He announced that no tour of Eleuthera would be complete without a visit to the Sapphire Blue Hole and Preacher’s Cave. They were about a 40 minute drive further north. We all seemed to be having fun, so it was on to the Sapphire Blue Hole. We thought we had seen some pretty sweet Blue Holes by now and figured it wouldn’t be anything too dramatic. Wrong again! We drove out a seemingly endless and empty road to nowhere and turned up a non-descript dirt road. Suddenly, we arrived at a little parking area with a couple of picnic tables. The lot of us walked up the little path and peered over the edge to see a color of blue water in this tiny Blue Hole which even the Bahamas had not previously revealed to us…it was incredible! The pictures do it no justice. We couldn’t wait to jump in. It was beautiful. After our swim, we had a picnic lunch while Emmette played some more songs for us on his guitar.

But we were not done. Next was “Preacher’s Cave”. If you read my last post, you will remember that some of the earliest inhabitants of Eleuthera were the Eleutheran Adventurers who gave the island its name (which loosely translates to “freedom”). They were a group of pilgrims seeking religious freedom who shipwrecked on a reef of the famous “Devil’s Backbone” in northern Eleuthera. The survivors came ashore and there discovered an enormous cave near the beach open on one side which allowed them shelter and where they would make their first home and start their settlement of the island. Much like Hatchet Bay Caves, most of the guidebooks say these places are hard to find and get to, but apparently someone has recently taken an interest in making them presentable and accessible again. We found new signs pointing the way and the paths had been cleared. Preachers Cave had a monument to the early settlers and Emmette told us this place was said to be haunted. It did have a little bit of that feeling that would make you not want to be there at night alone! There were several natural skylights which allowed you to explore the interior of the space. There was a giant bee hive in one of the upper skylights. What a lucky place to shipwreck!

We drove over to see the beautiful beach where they had come ashore and look at the Devil’s Backbone Reef. It was back into Emmette’s little SUV for the long trip back south. It was already late in the afternoon, but Emmette wanted to take us to even more sites! We stopped at a couple more off-the-beaten-path beaches on our way south where we had a couple more beers while Emmette played guitar and sang Ronny Butler (the godfather of Bahamian music; look him up!) songs for us. As we pulled back onto Queen’s Highway, we all had big smiles after such an eventful day. We never would have gone so many places or the places we did in a rental car without Emmette as our tour guide. He even paid for the gas! Back at his place, we expressed our gratitude, and settled up with a nice tip on top of the agreed upon fee. Over the next week, Emmette became one of our favorite people we have met in our travels through the Bahamas. He was knowledgeable, affable, generous, gracious, and loved to sing and play his guitar. Much time was spent hanging out in front of his little store in conversation with his family or with the locals who would stop in for this or that.
The anchorage had been a good choice. The bay is so protected from every direction with just a tiny cut in the rock to get in and out. The holding ended up being very good. The anchor was well dug in and we held just fine in wind gusts of over 35 kts! We discovered some amazing caves just outside the harbor one day which were so big we could drive the dinghy into them. One of them even had bats in it!

They flew around a bit when we shined the light on them and kind of freaked us out. Hatchet Bay was a great time. We began to understand what a beautiful island Eleuthera is and started looking forward to seeing more of it! After a fantastic week, the weather was good for travel finally and we made the boat ready to depart. Next stop was the next protected harbor on the south end of Eluethera called “Rock Sound”.

Thanks for taking the time to read these posts. As of this writing, Boat Monkey and the crew are enjoying some time in the Exuma Land and Sea Park after we had a little engine issue we had to deal with at Staniel Cay. I will try to post about our visit to Southern Eleuthera and our return to the Exumas as soon as possible. For anyone who tracks our progress on the map, you may notice we are moving back towards the north. Unfortunately, life has thrown a little curveball at our family, and we will be sailing back in the direction of Florida over the next few weeks so as to be more available to help support them.

Lots of love from Todd, Celia, Boat Monkey, and Captain Cluck.

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