Sweetings Pond

Our final excursion at Hatchet Bay was to Sweetings Pond, location of the proposed Seahorse National Park. It is a land-locked pond up to 45’ deep in some places, connected to the ocean somehow underground. It has a diverse array of sealife, minus the predators, which makes it an important refuge for the resident species, especially the seahorses. I found a 2020 Discover article about it that you can read if you like. It’s encouraging to know that the Bahamians are planning to protect this sensitive area and its life, while still allowing eco-sensitive use of it.

Thank you to SV Breath and SV Reef’n It for the intel on how to find this place and what to expect when we got there. There is no signage for Sweetings Pond on the main road and they gave us landmarks to look for. They also told us about the snorkeling rules we couldn’t have known about otherwise until it was too late and we were on site.

We walked the 1.5 miles to the pond, read the rules, then carefully got in. It was not the best day to snorkel due to the solid overcast, but it was still quite enjoyable. We spent about 40 minutes tooling around along the edges where it was shallowest, about 10’ (Dave went a little deeper). We saw one seahorse. Technically, Dave saw it. Despite his shining the dive light on it and pointing at it, I couldn’t discern it as a seahorse separate from the plant life it was hiding in. Alas! We did see numerous fish like we’ve seen diving some of the reefs; bivalves with bright orange, feathery mantles; fast-moving brittle stars; lovely, white nudibranchs; large crabs hiding under the overhangs; good-sized gastropods. A very worthwhile trip!

Every once in a while, we’d poke our heads above the surface to track the dark clouds that had been fairly far off when we started. They got closer, kicking up the wind and creating a bit of chop on the surface, the darker clouds reducing visibility. We got out of the water, put all our wet gear in the canvas bag we brought, stowed anything we wanted to keep dry in the drybag, donned our coverup gear, and then it started raining just as we set off back toward town. We knew this was a possibility when we set out on this adventure and decided that getting caught in the rain before or after snorkeling wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, we appreciated the free fresh-water rinse. Two very kind people stopped to ask if we wanted a ride, but we declined. No sense soaking their car when it was a fairly short walk. It only rained for about half of the walk back and started again just as we reached the dingy, a sprinkle really. We rinsed our gear and the rain got heavier, so I stayed out to hang our salty clothing and sandy towels and got my hair good and rinsed of the salt. 

When I was done, I dried off, changed and Dave made us hot cocoa with dark rum, which we enjoyed while munching on banana bread and playing cribbage. It rained most of the rest of the evening, so we spent it inside playing cribbage, listening to the news, eating yummy pizza, and watching a movie.

I got a handful of decent pictures and put them in this slide show. I struggle with free-diving, so my photos are all from the surface, which limits what I can capture. Enjoy, stay safe, and take care of each other.