Monday April 25th - Friday April 29th: Governor's Harbor to Spanish Wells

     What a beautiful week we've had exploring central and Northern Eleuthera.  This long island has some of the prettiest places and some of the nicest people we've encountered so far in the Bahamas.  The island is close to 100 miles long, and at its widest it's 5 miles wide.  In some places it's less than 1/2 mile wide.  The Western side has a mainly rocky coast and that is where the towns and their harbors are.  The Eastern side is reefs and beaches.  Cruisers tend to favor the Western side, and that is where we spent most of our time.
     Our next stop after Rock Sound was Governor's Harbor.  This was once where the Governor of the Bahamas lived, and the affluence that comes with such residence is still apparent in the colorful Victorian houses with landscaped lawns.  There are many part time residents here who have houses in the US and in Europe.  The old Club Med is now an exclusive marina village that can accommodate mega yachts two at a time.  Dan and I spent several hours walking through town.  We also walked up over the spine of the center of Eleuthera to the beach on the Atlantic side.  We didn't bother with the shops - their signs touting importing "resort ware" and duty-free perfumes.  Not the kind of thing we're interested in, but it does tell you who this town caters to.

Wille Dawes and tender at Governor's Harbor.

Atlantic beach, Governor's Harbor.  Note the pinkish sand - Eleuthera is known for it.

Stop or yield?  Yield & stop?  They do have normal stop signs too.

Stone steps leading to one of the houses.  See the steep angle of the street.

Haynes Library, Governor's Harbor.  

     After Governor's Harbor we traveled about ten miles up the coast to another little town, this one much, much different.  Alice Town, in Hatchet Bay, proclaims itself the "nation's safest harbor."  In one regard, this is probably true.  The small, well-protected harbor has a narrow, man-made entrance and one can probably ride out a hurricane without worry here.  However, the holding is dubious due to the collection of debris (old pilings, sunken vessels) and this is pretty much a reflection of the town.   There is a brand-new dinghy dock leading to a small town crowded with very colorful houses, but on closer examination you see the abandoned dinghies tied to the new wharf, broken fences and shutters on the houses, and trash strewn everywhere.  It's as if Alice Town has given up on trying to keep tidy.

A supply boat navigates the narrow entrance/exit to Hatchet Bay

     Here in the harbor we met up with our friends Leigh and Brian on Presence-ing.  They'd been here for a couple of nights and were filled with suggestions.  We invited them to dinner aboard the Willie.  Over over chicken on the grill and the fresh salad they brought, they told us about a nearby pond with seahorses and farther down the road, the entrance to an extensive run of caves.  Leigh also mentioned an organic farm stand where she'd purchased handpicked arugula.  Sounded good, we thought.  On Wednesday Presence-ing took off to pick up guests farther up the coast, and Dan and I went to town to begin what we thought would be short walk to the pond to see the seahorses.
     We walked through the town and beyond, and walked.  And walked.  By now we'd understood that the Bahamas doesn't really advertise its sites, and we didn't expect to see any You-Are-Here signs or a billboard proclaiming the wonders of this pond, but we did expect to see something that led to it.
     We walked single file down the main highway, taking in scrubby fields on both sides, noting the abandoned silos that are remnants of when someone thought this part of Eleuthera would make a good cattle farm.  (Eleuthera, unlike much of the Bahamas, does have plenty of fresh water, but apparently not enough to sustain the vegetation and the cattle.  The venture didn't last long.)  We finally spotted what looked like a very large pond, and started down a dirt track that led to it.  A few mosquitoes, what looked like a construction dump site, and we were at the rocky ledge that overlooked the water.  If there were seahorses, we didn't see them.  Maybe this wasn't it, we thought, so we backtracked to the main road and kept going until we found another dirt track to the water.  This one didn't go all the way to the water, and neither of us felt like bushwhacking, so we thought, one more time.  We walked to the next dirt track, absurdly guarded by stone pillars and headed down into a grassy field that ended well short of any water, but there was a sort of sign.  Dan's first thought was that this was an abandoned housing project.  I walked over to the sign and called back to him "We've walked to the caves."  This was the entrance.

Abandoned silos.

Entrance to the Hatchet Bay Caves.

     We hadn't planned to go to, let alone into the caves, and didn't have flashlights, so we only descended into the first cave where there was still some light to see.  This apparently was an archaeological find - a burial site for the Lucayan natives that once lived here - but it has been extensively vandalized.  Stalagtites and stalagmites have long been broken off and there was a lot of graffiti.  Pretty sad to see, but not unexpected.  There isn't money or staff to take care of such places.
     The way back to Alice Town was long and hot.  We were within the town borders when a kind soul picked us up and offered us a ride back to the dock.  He saved us about five minutes of walking, but we were grateful.  We stopped at the little grocery store for a chicken to roast for supper, and headed back to the boat.
     Dan looked at a map and informed me we'd walked over five miles that morning, and though we'd found the caves, we had missed the pond.  The large body of water we'd seen was about a half mile beyond the little one with seahorses.
     We decided we'd seen enough of Alice Town, so we weighed anchor and went a few more miles North and anchored off a little beach.  Here we jumped in for some snorkeling.  After our long, hot walk, the cool water was very welcoming.  We saw baby jellyfish and a couple of very large puffer fish hiding out under the ledges.  It's such a wonder to us that no matter how much we snorkel, we see something new.
     Thursday we left the main island of Eleuthera and traveled through Current Cut up to Spanish Wells.  Spanish Wells is a very popular town with tourists, but not so exclusively affluent as Governor's Harbor.  This place is Bahama's fishing capital; 90% of the lobsters caught in this country are caught by fishermen who live here.  Lobstering is over until the end of summer, but the fishermen are busy with charters, taking small groups of people offshore to catch mahi-mahi, wahoo, and tuna.  The town is a cluster of businesses, natives, and rental cottages, and all the people we've encountered here have been very friendly.  The locals all have a sort of British lilt to their speech - we've not really noticed such an accent before.

Cape Cod cat boat in Spanish Wells.

Some of the fishing fleet in Spanish Wells.

     Thursday afternoon we temporarily anchored off the Atlantic side of Eleuthera to snorkel an ocean reef.  The water was deeper than we are used to, so it was hard to dive to the bottom to examine shells or ledges more closely.  We saw a few new things here - ocean trigger fish, a spotted trigger fish, and black grouper.  We also saw a school of squid.  I reminded Dan that hammerhead sharks like to feed on squid, so we kept a wary eye out, but fortunately didn't see any of those nasty predators.  We snorkeled until we were chilled, there was so much to see.
     We moved the boat to the other side of Spanish Wells, anchoring with several other cruisers for the night.  Friday morning (this morning) we went into town for a good walk around and to make use of the local wi-fi.  Tomorrow we're planning to cross up to the Abacos.  It's a fifty mile run, and will take us all day.