Unexpected Exploring on Eleuthera Island

While cruising the Bahamas we really enjoyed our time on Eleuthera. We found plenty to explore and wonderfully protected anchorages.

Spanish Wells

We started our time here just north of Eleuthera Island in Spanish Wells. The town of Spanish Wells has a nicely stocked grocery store- Food Fair where we stocked up on fresh food before continuing our journey through the Bahamas.

We spent four nights in the Spanish Wells area, anchored at Meeks Patch which is about two miles from town. The anchorage is nicely protected with space on the east and west side allowing cruisers to move if needed due to weather. While there are no large reefs we found plenty of small coral heads with plenty of small fish around the rocky coast of the island. There are nice beaches around the anchorage as well. On a flat calm day, we paddle boarded around the entire Meeks Patch island. We saw a lemon shark, a couple rays, turtles, fish and starfish along the way.

There are plenty of coconut palms on the island and we even found a large table with a cutting board type top to harvest our coconuts on the beach before heading back to the boat. The island also features roosters, chickens and pigs. We saw a couple small tour boats around the pigs with people feeding them in the shallow waters near the beach.

From Spanish Wells we headed through Current Cut south to Eleuthera. The current through the cut can reach 6-8 knots. The current is closest to slack and hour and a half after high water at Nassau. You do need to time your passage through the cut. We chose a calm day to motor through.

Goulding Cay

We anchored here to visit the Glass Window Bridge and the Queen’s Baths. This anchorage is really pretty and so quiet. Both the bridge and the baths were stunning and we highly recommend stopping here. You can beach the dinghy and then it’s just a short walk to both of these spots. The baths are best when visited at low tide.

Hatchet Bay

This anchorage was a land locked lake that now has a man-made, narrow channel to enter. It is a very protected anchorage. The town, Alice Town is quite small. We stopped in at The Front Porch for a drink. We had planned to get lunch but we found the prices to be much higher than we expected so after a drink we headed back to the boat to eat. From the restaurant you get great views of the anchorage and the people working the restaurant were super friendly.

While in Hatchet Bay we walked across the island to the beach on the Atlantic side. Its a pretty beach worth a visit. We also walked to the Hatchet Bay Caves. This was a long walk, about two miles down the Queen’s Highway. The road can get busy and there is no side walk. Several times we stepped off into the bushes along the side of the road to let cars pass. The cave is really cool to see. You can walk back quite far, about half a mile is what we read. There is a small latter that you walk down and then the cave really opens up. There is a string/rope on the floor so you can follow that along the cave and then back out again. We only saw a couple bats. There is a lot of graffiti which does take away from it a bit, we hoped it would lessen the further back into the cave we went but there is plenty of graffiti throughout the entire cave. Bring your flashlight if you plan to visit.

Governor’s Harbor

On our way back north we stopped at Governor’s Harbor for a few days. We had read that the holding isn’t great but we found decent holding in shelly sand. There are old moorings and rocky patches on the bottom so it helps to have good visibility to see where you drop anchor. We really enjoyed our time here. The town is set up very well with groceries, a well stocked wine/liquor store, trash disposal, free water and a gas station very close to shore. There are a few places to tie your dinghy or beach it. Wandering around town we found several cute little cafes and an ice cream shop!

The thing to do here is the Fish Fry event on Friday nights. The small beach side restaurant serves fish, chicken or pork dinners. The bar is open and they block off part of the street for dancing. It was definitely 95% cruisers and tourists, no many locals but a very fun event!

Palmetto Point

We stayed one night in this anchorage on our way down the island. Its really pretty again with the rocky coastline. We tried to do some spearfishing but we were not successful. There are a couple small islands nearby that we took the dinghy around to explore. It was a nice, quiet place to spend an afternoon/night.

Rock Sound

Our final stop on Eleuthera was Rock Sound at the bottom of the island. The anchorage here is also super protected from most wind directions. In town you can find gas, diesel, laundry and groceries. We found the grocery store here to have better prices on fresh food than what we saw in Spanish Wells.

The people in town were once again very friendly and willing to help in any way they could. We enjoyed talking to a few locals on our way across the island to the beach. The beach on the Atlantic side is a beautiful, pink sand beach. While the pictures don’t really make the sand appear pink it was definitely pink when you see it in person. The sand is super soft, we found it to be one of the best beaches we had visited so far in the Bahamas.

Across the bay from town, we found a great spot for spearfishing. We got a couple snappers and a huge crab with nobody else around fishing or snorkeling.

A short walk from town you can visit the Boiling Hole and Cathedral Cave. The boiling hole was not super clear, blue water but just beyond that you will enter Cathedral Cave which we thought was really impressive. Our first time through we missed about half the cave. After talking with a local artist we learned you can crawl through a small hole and continue into three more very impressive “chambers” of the cave which open up. The holes on the top of the cave have tree roots coming through them and into the ground, the sun coming through makes it really pretty in the cave. Again we only saw a couple bats flying around in the cave. We would recommend wearing shoes not sandals if planning to explore through the entire cave.

Also in town you can visit the Ocean Hole. It has plenty of fish, the water isn’t super clear but it is right in town and worth a quick stop. Before leaving Rock Sound we decided to check out the local food cart for lunch after running our final errands. We didn’t take any pictures of the food but it was really good! We had fried conch and mutton curry, both were amazing and the portions were huge. The prices here we much better than the front porch restaurant we saw in Hatchet Bay. There is no signage but if she is open and you walk up to the cart she will let you know what she has for the day.

From Eleuthera we headed off to the Exumas to continue our Bahamas Adventure! There are several other anchorages on Eleuthera that looked nice and worth a visit! Perhaps we may have to come back through someday!