January 12, 2017 Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera

Today, we moved south to Hatchet Bay.  It is about 1/4 of the way down the length of Eleuthera.  We sailed south west to go through a cut in the islands and rocks, Fleeming Channel.  Then we turned east and into the wind.  That means we had to motor the rest of the way.  The wind varied from 12-16 knots with gusts to 20 k.  So it was a fun sail/motor day.  We were doing 7 knots while we were sailing, but slowed to about 4.5 motoring against the wind. 

Hatchet Bay has a channel cut though the rocks to enter it.  It is then protected from all directions from the wind, thus a good hurricane hole.  We entered not knowing how many other boats would already be there.  We found a place to anchor.   As we were anchoring, the man on a neighboring boat rowed over to us in his dinghy.  We were ready for someone to tell us that we couldn’t anchor there.  But as he got closer, we recognized him.  It was Rich from Colorado that had been crew on our boat when we raced in the Abacos April 2015.  We actually saw him in Lake Worth before we left for the Bahamas January 2016.  We visited with him for awhile.  He was the one who inspired me to start making bread on the boat.  So we gave him one of my pretzels to show him what he started.  We plan to get together in the next day or two.
//entrance to hatchet

entering Hatchet Bay though the cut in the rock

view of entrance from the inside of the bay