Day 20 continues: Eleuthera
The schooner is in full sails, gliding through the water. The sounds of the waves, the wind, and the sails rustling are calming to the soul. Everyone is relaxing enjoying the sights. We then turn and head towards a safe harbor at Hatchet Bay. Once a fresh water pond, it’s converted to a safety haven for ships.
The narrow rocky entrance to Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera
The entrance to the lagoon is narrow and rocky. It takes a few attempts to go in. Looking at the opening it’s less than 75′ wide. Once in we all cheer.
The ship is anchored, and we are free to jump in, snorkel, paddle board, kayak, sail in the dingy or do whatever. Some go into town. I stay on board and watch. I rather have a cocktail and enjoy the activities from the ship. Julie takes out the Paddle board.
Julie Paddle boarding for the first time
She makes it look so easy. Sue and Mary take out the rubber sea kayak. It doesn’t look very seaworthy. They are both wearing life preservers, so I guess they will be safe. Jim takes the sunfish out, but apparently gets into some trouble and he is hauled back to the boat. I miss that one and will have to ask Jim what happened out there in the calm blue lagoon.
Derek, one of the crew members who touts himself as a Navy sailor capsizes the dinghy, the one that Jim was in earlier. One minute he’s sailing then the next minute he’s in the water with no boat. He sunk his Dinghy! According to my friend David, the hat that Derek wore (and was very proud of) is a German Submariner officers hat. Steve (the carpenter) told David about that as we watched him sink and laughed. What a crew! He’s the center of jokes for a while. Well what do you expect when you tell everyone you are a sailing pro but apparently sink a dinghy in less than 30 minutes on the water in a lagoon?
As the afternoon progresses, the crew brings the ship to the dock for the evening. After dinner, a bunch of us walk up to check out the few straggly buildings in Alice Town/Hatchet Bay-our first glimpse of civilization since we left Nassau a few days ago. It’s quite run down, but it’s where the locals and the sailors hang out.
The sky opens up and a massive amount of water comes pouring down on us. We run for cover. Ten minutes later the rain is gone. We find a bar called Da Spot, Most of the Liberty Clipper crew and guests are there. Derek is wearing a life jacket. Too funny. That’s his punishment. LOL. 
We head to the back of the bar and we see a Domino game being played. I’ve never played, so I watch for a while. Sue, Mike, David and Micheline play. I finally get into the action. An old woman named Helena who calls herself HDB aka Hold Down the Bar and a younger man Jamai are showing us how to play. It’s fun. She has such a thick island accent it’s hard to understand what she is saying, so I just nod and laugh. Mike, Sue and I take goofy pictures and post it on Facebook. What dorks we are!
Playing domino’s at Da Spot, Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera
We play for a while longer and head back to the ship and play cards, then hit the hay. What an awesome day!
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