Hatchet Bay

Hatchet Bay is a man-made anchorage.  It was an enclosed salt pond that the locals blasted a hole through the surrounding wall to gain access to the Bight of Eleuthera.  This allowed supply boats to reach them and some fishing boats to make it out and a wonderful hidey-hole from weather for cruisers.  The surrounding village of Alice Town is not particularly prospers but they seem to be hanging on.  We had some interesting cultural experiences trying  to find the lady who makes coconut bread.  Everyone knew who she was but nobody could really give us good directions to her house.  We got three different house descriptions and two sets of vague directions.  Only the Queen's Highway was labeled and there are no house numbers.  After walking around for a long time, we gave up.  The little store hadn't received its shipment this week so we walked away with a soda.  It's the Bahamas, man.

Another narrow opening to add more gray hairs!

The government dock is large enough for the supply boats.  On one side are
some slips left over from a defunct marina.  They were full but no services
were supplied such as water or electricity.  Mostly a safer place to tie up.

Lots of other boats hiding our from the coming blow.

This was a large fishing boat still tied to the government dock.  I'm
guessing she was lost to Hurricane Matthew.

The homecoming pavilion with dinghy dock.  Every little town has some place
for a homecoming gathering, usually at Easter time for all the folk who have moved away
to more prosperous places to come home and reconnect with their roots.

On the other side of day is a bay which is not as protected as the pond
where we anchored.

The sign is  true!  

As we dinghied over to the dock we saw this cave in the side of the village.
We couldn't find any information about it and the town folk acted like
we were a bit off even wondering about it.  "Yeah, there's a cave" was about
all we got from anyone.

Creative use for an old sailboat.  they had one on each side of the
restaurant.

This house had the most elaborate garden in town.

This was pretty much the village of Alice Town.

These bright Disney characters were painted on the side of a
"coming soon" nursery school.  People were actively working on
the interior when we walked by.  It was the brightest spot in town.