Alabaster Bay

We left Hatchet Bay on May 18^th right after my nephew’s livestreamed graduation from New Hampshire Technical Institute (his Associate’s degree in Animation & Gaming; I paraphrase the title). It was only a 2.5 hour cruise to Alabaster Bay and we had lunch after anchoring. There was only one other boat there. We got some hammock time before the rain started. It wasn’t heavy, but it kept us indoors the rest of the evening. Over dinner we had a video call with my family to celebrate Gabe’s graduation. It was so good to see their faces!

We’d come to Alabaster Bay because it was a lovely anchorage, it broke up the trip to Governor’s Harbor (the next major town) and we wanted to see the US Navy Experimental facility/Auxiliary Air Force Base ruins, which we did the day after we arrived at the anchorage. Mid-morning we parked dingy at the little beach and made the 1.5 mile trek to the ruins. You can click on the link for some more in depth background (that includes additional links). The basic timeline, however, is that the base was started in 1950 as a Navy test facility for a sound surveillance system for tracking Soviet subs in the Atlantic. The Auxiliary Air Force Base commenced operations in 1957 as part of the Air Force Missile Test Center’s Atlantic Missile Range. The base was decommissioned in March of 1980 because the US couldn’t secure favorable lease renewal terms from the Bahamian government. So, of course, we left everything to rot on someone else’s land. Back to the ruins…

There were mostly ruins of old housing, gate and guard houses, and huge oil storage tanks rusting. Near the latter the Bahamians have constructed what appeared to be a water treatment facility of some kind. It was posted “No Trespassing,” which we honored, so we could only see what we could from a distance. We didn’t spend too much time, but I did take quite a few pictures, which I’ve posted below as a link to a YouTube video (slideshow, really).

From one part of the ruins we walked down to the famed pink sand beach, which only looked pink where the water washed over it, otherwise it looked pretty white to me. We walked north a bit and encountered a fresh sea turtle nest, which I do not have pictures of because I’d left my camera with our stuff at our entry point to the beach. I had enough picture of beaches and figured I wouldn’t need it. So of course we saw something cool. A man we met on the beach told us of a beach bar/restaurant about a mile south with great burgers and cool vibe. So we headed south. En route we encountered the family from @sailingseadragon, whom we’d met earlier in the anchorage. We had a chat with them, then left them to continue their water play while we headed for lunch. We were greeted at The Deck by the friendly owner/cook. He does make an amazing cheeseburger and mahi burger. We ordered one of each and split them. He also makes a great rum punch with fresh coconut, mango, pineapple and orange to top it off. The place really does have an awesome island vibe (pictures included in the video below). You can snorkel the reef in front of the restaurant and he has a fresh water shower at the foot of the stairs for folks to rinse off before going up to sit. There is both completely outdoor and under-roof seating, but all open to the luscious breezes, with wooden shutters placed to block, if necessary, rain that may pass through. The décor is all tastefully recycled flotsam and jetsam (picture in the slideshow). We were the only ones there at the time and enjoyed ourselves. We later learned that he’s a pariah on the island, and had we known then what we learned later, we would not have ventured there. Nonetheless, we seemed to have caught him a good day and enjoyed the food and atmosphere.

On our walk back up the beach we met the family of Sea Dragon again and stopped to chat some more. They directed us to a path that took us past a part of the ruins we would have otherwise missed (largely the barracks I mentioned earlier). By the time we got back to Lady we were hot and tired, so we floated for a bit in the shade of Lady’s hulls and had a light, late dinner because we were still full from lunch.

The next morning we had some chores to do before setting out for Governor’s Harbor, and we wanted to snorkel around Alabaster Bluff a bit. After the snorkel we noticed the skies darkening to the south of us and our radar showed quite a mass of rain. We made lunch and waited. We were hailed by SV Sea Dragon during lunch. They had set out for an anchorage just south of Governor’s Harbor and hailed us to let us know a big squall had kicked up and they’d ducked into Governor’s Harbor to wait it out, suggesting we delay our departure if we hadn’t already left. So we decided to stay put for another night. 

Next stop, and next post- Governor’s Harbor! Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.