Paradise Found

June 6 – 8, 2012

We left Clarence Town harbor right after breakfast, knowing we only had 10 miles south to go  to reach our destination of Little Harbour.  We would easily be able to get the anchor down and dinghy launched before lunch. 

With the wind out of the southeast (in our faces) we had a bit of a bumpy ride, but we knew it would be for a short period of time.  Once you've correctly located the correct gap through the rocky barrier island, the narrow entrance into Little Harbour requires that you get properly lined up and follow the deeper water side of the channel.  With the wind behind us, we were pushed through the rocky gap into the calm water of the “secret” harbor,  and then all our jaws dropped at the same time.  I always like to be surprised in this fashion.

I think John Milton must have been here a while before he wrote that epic prose, Paradise Lost.  Little Harbour is my idea of a petite tropical paradise, especially because we were the only cruisers present so there were no other boat noises, and it is out of range of most of the VHF radio chatter, which is minimal around this end of Long Island anyway.  I'm going to post photos, but they will not do justice to the real ambiance of this little gem of an ocean retreat.  You won't get to hear the birds singing from dawn to dusk, the wind rustling the cute little silver thatch palm trees, or the water lapping the sandy shoreline.  Or when the winds kick up, you won't hear the waves hitting the rocks guarding the harbor's entrance which makes you look over there and see the white foam spilling over the rocks and smile because you are tucked back inside, comfortably snug at anchor, away from the ocean's fury.  You don't get to hear the splish-splash from the sea turtles surfacing for air and then abruptly diving down again.  Most any time, we could look out from the boat deck and see no less than 3 turtles at the surface within close proximity in any one direction.  I even saw a couple with research tags.

FLUKE at rest

This photo shows the oceanside barrier rock cays behind FLUKE.  There are actually 3 openings in the series, but only one affords cruising boats safe passage through since the others are too shallow.  Two of our cruising guides describe Little Harbour with positive adjectives like lovely, picturesque, and offers excellent protection in all directions from frontal passages.  However, another author says he would only use this anchorage as a last resort.  We figure he must have never come in here, or else he tried to get out when there was a big swell coming from the east and an outgoing tide, which would make for steep, scary waves in the narrow entrance.  We just wouldn't leave under those circumstances anyway.

Rocking and rolling

Late one afternoon, a sailboat entered the harbor, coming in under windier conditions than when we had entered.  The sailboat looked like a rocking horse when it was coming in.  Visitor would have thrown up for sure, and I think I would have too!

Looking northwestward

With winds out of the southeast, we chose to anchor in the southern part of the harbor to get better protection from the wind.  Since that section of the harbor is closest to the main entrance, when the tide was rising and the winds were strong, some ocean swell came in the harbor and made for a bit of a roll.  However, the movement was never enough to make you feel like it was going to make your anchor move or keep you from getting to sleep.  If the winds switch to the north, you can move to another anchoring area on the northern end of the 1 mile long harbor.

Looking southeastward

The southern part of the harbor is used by the “locals” as a swimming area and fish camp.  It is accessed by a dirt road that winds down through the hills (up to 60' high), branching off the island's main highway, called Queen's Highway.  On one of our land walks, Eddie and I took the dirt road from the harbor and found out it has a branch that leads over to a dead end on the ocean side.   There were lots of skittish, big blue-green lizards scurrying through the thorny underbrush, not the curious curly tails like I've written about before.  The coastline is very steep, about 30' high in this area, and there are no oceanside beaches.  We scavenged through the rocky area and picked up some driftwood pieces that had been thrown high up from the ocean during a storm event.

There is an old wrecked fishing boat in the water in the southern end of the harbor, but the fish camp looks like it has recently been used since most of the traps look like they are in good condition.  So, I guess other fishing boats come in to offload their catches, rest, or receive supplies.

Fish traps

We all snooped through the fish camp, looking for anything of interest.  We could see a fire pit where ocean trigger fish had been roasted, their intact, fully whole, thick leathery skins left behind.

Who has been sleeping in my bed

Leave it to Eddie to have to try out one of the camp “beds”, just like Goldilocks.  Good thing there wasn't any fish left cooking on the grill too!

While I've talked about how safe and secure we felt tucked into Little Harbour, there is plenty of evidence of real weather turbulence from hurricanes going through the area.  The western shoreline, especially directly across from the entrance channel has a whole long pile of rotted vegetation pushed even farther inland, like a bulldozer came through and just pushed everything away from the shoreline.  If you peer into the thick underbrush you can see hundreds of pieces of plastic debris pushed 10 yards deeper, forced inward by the powerful force of hurricane winds.

Lifted high and dry

This sailboat was totally lifted out of the harbor and flung high up onto to the rocks, not even across from the main entrance where the winds and waves would be the most severe.  Several other wrecks also dot various parts of the southern end of the harbor, reminders that there is truly no fail safe hurricane hole anywhere in the Bahamas.

Northern cove

One morning, while Captain Wayne was boat-bound baking bread, Eddie and I decided to go check out the big beach on the northern end of the island.  It was almost time for the tide to start falling, and we had a southeast wind, so I was particularly concerned about finding a safe place to anchor the dinghy.  We couldn't afford to let it blow on shore, because it would be too heavy for Eddie and I to move by ourselves if it ended up beached or in real shallow water.  We needed to find a sandy spot, with no rocks so the anchor would hold and the dinghy wouldn't get smashed on the bottom.  We both got really frustrated because we couldn't agree on a safe spot and we got into a huge fight.  Eddie finally got so mad he hopped out of the dinghy in waist-deep water (we weren't wearing swim suits) and told me just to tell him where to put the anchor so that I would be “happy”.  I just wanted Eddie to understand my concern for keeping the dinghy afloat.  The best spot we could find still necessitated that I had to wade in to shore too, so at least Eddie wasn't the only wet one.

Lunchtime

Still fuming from the landing operation, Eddie and I went our separate ways.  There were several pairs of night herons nesting around the harbor, and I watched this one patiently catch ghost crabs along the weed line. 

Eddie found a 5' long, fat piece of a weathered tree trunk that we both agreed would look great in the yard at home.  Weighing in at about 100#, we dragged the trunk down into the water and floated it out to the dinghy.  Eddie took the heavy end, and I took the light end, and at the count of three, we heaved it up on the pontoon and then tipped it inside gently to the floor.  Done with hurdle number one, we still had hurdle number two to overcome, and that was what was Captain Wayne going to say when he saw this monster.  I said the worst that could happen was that we would just have to dump it overboard and let it float to shore somewhere else.  Wayne has gotten used to the “surprises” his crewmates bring back to the mother ship when they have been left to their own devices.  He made a couple of initially negative comments, but agreed we could strap it to the swim platform and see how things go.

The water is as clear underneath as it seems from above.  We had a great time spearfishing in the channel and around some of the coral heads in the harbor.  We managed to get some hogfish and grouper for the dinner table and just had a great time watching all the underwater activities.

One last look

Three nights here just wasn't enough. I had a lot of mixed feelings about taking advantage of what looked like a good weather window for us to make a comfortable exit and passage around the southern end of Long Island or chance staying longer and not being able to leave with such good conditions.  With reluctance, I agreed that we could leave beautiful Little Harbour on June 9.