Road Trip Through the Northern Part of Eleuthera

3/5 – While coming up the coast of Eleuthera, there were several places we were interested in visiting but did not stop either because of poor holding in the anchorage or because we wanted to take advantage of a good traveling day and decided to bypass them. While waiting for the weather to clear, we decided to get a rental car and explore some of those places by land.

Renting a car in Eleuthera is not like renting a car in the states. There are no rental car companies here. You rent, more or less, from an individual. We arranged with the dockmaster at the marina to line us up with a car. Complicating the issue was the fact that we were at Spanish Wells (on St. Georges Cay) with no bridge connecting it to Eleuthera. This meant taking a water taxi/ferry from Spanish Wells to Jean’s Bay, Eleuthera. This is pretty much in the middle of nowhere with only a dock and a liquor store. Oh, did we mention that Spanish Wells is a dry island (no liquor sold anywhere) and so there is a big liquor store at Jean’s Bay which is a little less than a mile away by boat. All the residents from Spanish Wells go to this store for their liquor. The dockmaster told us our rental car would be waiting for us at the predetermined time at the dock. It was – well, maybe not the actual car, but the individual we were renting the car from was there in his taxi (he runs a taxi service and has a couple of cars he rents out). He drove us back to his home in the taxi where we picked up the rental car. The check out of the car included a map of the island and the words “remember we drive on the left side of the road here”. After that, we were on our own.

First up on our road trip was an area called the Glass Window. The Glass Window is framed by a bridge that connects southern and northern Eleuthera. On one side is the deep blue water of the Atlantic Ocean which is often quite angry while on the other side is the serene emerald water of the Bight of Eleuthera. Because the wind had been blowing for a few days, the conditions at the Glass Window were quite amazing.

Next up was the small settlement of Gregory Town. Here we checked out the Island Made Gift Shop where we all picked up a few treasures and then went next door and browsed through the Surf Shop. Surfing here is a big attraction because right outside of town is “Surfer’s Beach” reported to be similar to those in Hawaii . The guide books gave us pretty good directions to the beach … “just past Sugar Apple Inn travel 1 mile on a rough road”. They were not exaggerating the rough road part. We took the car part of the way and then walked the final quarter mile or so. The beach was very nice, but no surfers today. The breakers were too irregular. We did walk the beach, finding quite a bit of sea glass. Michael and Jana found 7 sea beans.

We continued on to Governor’s Harbour, a very picturesque seaside town. We had wanted to anchor here on our way down, but the holding is reported to be quite poor, so we’d bypassed it and stayed in Hatchet Bay. We drove through the town ending up at Buccaneers for lunch. The harbor was very nice and we decided “if there is a next time” we would give it a try in settled conditions.

At this point, we turned around and headed back north, with one last stop at The Bluffs. There is a pretty good-sized shopping center there and we were able to find a few items we hadn’t seen in other grocery stores. Then it was back to the dock, where we left the car and checked out the liquor store while waiting for the ferry.

Back at the marina we attended happy hour on the dock as many boats plan on leaving tomorrow (the weather is improving). Then it was off to bed as we’d had a very full day.

Our rental car -- not bad by Bahamian standards.
1990's car with only 135,000 miles

At the Glass Window. This is an opening where the water forcefully
flows from the ocean side to the bight side

Unfortunately, pictures do not do this justice. This is
the spray coming off the ocean as it rolls through the cut.

The waves and color of the Atlantic Ocean side

... and the color of the serene Bight of Eleuthera

The waves pounding against the rocks

The ocean water flowing through the cut to the bight side

This is a small blow hole about 1/2 mile from the cut.
The pressure was extremely great as it shot up in a small geyser.
Michael and Gerry look on in amazement.