Unexpected Adventure in Paradise: How I Came to Spend the Day with a Bahamian Legend

I was on the trip of a lifetime, truly a dream come true. In the spring of 2022, my son asked me if he and I could do a long sailing trip. I replied, instantaneously, "Yes!" So, in January of 2023, I pulled James Elliott out of school in the second semester of his high school junior year and we set sail for a father/son trip in the Bahamas.

James Elliott enjoying his paddle board. Unbeknownst to me the paddle would become a catalyst for an surprisingly adventurous day.

A few weeks into our trip we ended up in the area of  North Eleuthera. We arrived having sailed through the Abacos and crossing the North East Providence Channel to Egg Island and on to Royal Harbor, followed by Spanish Wells. After a few days in Spanish Wells (more on Spanish wells in a future blog or two), James Elliott and I discussed where we wanted to go, as we had to be back in about two weeks to meet my wife who was flying in to meet us. We decided to set sail for the Exumas via Davis Channel and crossing Exuma Sound, stopping by Hatchet Bay in Eleuthera first to explore.

Hatchet Bay is located beside Alice Town.

On the 25th of January, 2023, James Elliott and I departed Yacht Haven Marina and headed six miles east, to Current Cut.  We anchored off the beach beside the cut for a good night’s rest.  We weighed anchor at 6:30 the following morning to catch slack tide and transited Current Cut safely.  We made it to Hatchet Bay a little before noon. 

Water Music Enroute to Hatchet Bay

The entrance to Hatchet Bay

All of this area was new to me.  The entrance to the bay is a narrow, dynamited cut through a high cliff wall accessing a bay with 360 degree protection.  It is located in Alice Town, which is a sparsely populated area of Eleuthera.  As I prepped the dinghy for shore exploration, my heart dropped.  Half of the paddle for James Elliott’s paddle board was missing.  He had gotten the board for Christmas specifically for this trip and he loved it and had been using it nearly every day.  I told him about the paddle and he said it was no big deal, but it was and I knew it.  I hurriedly jury-rigged the top half of a dinghy oar to the bottom half of his paddle remainder and proudly showed it to him.

Pride comes before the fall.  He was unimpressed with it.  I told him that I would get him a new paddle and was totally unprepared for the adventure that would ensue…

I

took to the phone and looked up a surf shop in Gregory Town and spoke with the Surfer Pete.  He told me he didn’t have any SUP paddles and he didn’t think I’d have luck finding any on the hundred mile long island.  He told me to call a surf shop in Governor’s Harbor, but he didn’t think they’d have one.  I called that shop. Pete was right, they didn’t carry any.  However, they offered hope in the form of a lead.   They told me to call Marty who rents all kinds of equipment to tourists and they provided his number.  

I gave Marty a call and told him my predicament and he said he had a paddle I could buy.  He lived 45 minutes from where I was and I told him I’d rent a car and see him tomorrow if I couldn’t get a paddle before then.  That left me to inquiring with the local legend, Emmett Farrington. 

I had read a little about Emmett on the internet as the owner of Boaters Haven, a business on Hatchet Bay that included a restaurant, rooms for rent, cars for rent, and water toys (SUP???) for rent.  His establishment was located at the entrance to the public dock.  It was a ramshackle building with it’s subfloor filled with old kayaks and discarded items.  I dinghied over, looking to meet Emmett.  

At anchor in Hatchet Bay

There was nobody around the dock and the dinghies that were tied up there appeared to have been there awhile.  An older woman in a bikini with a foreign accent (Argentinian) arose from a lawn chair and walked up to me on the dock and I told her what I was looking for and asked if she knew where Emmette was.  She was kind of dirty, but very friendly and said that he might be at his house.  She walked me to his residence, to no avail.  She advised me to return later.

I dinghied back to the boat and reported my progress to James Elliott.  He hopped in and we explored the Harbor for a bit before I dropped him at the boat and went back to find Emmett.  Upon return to the dinghy dock, Maria met me again with good news: Emmette had returned.  She walked me around the building and there he was, burning trash in a barrel with a young man.

Maria introduced us, and Emmett was apparently very irritated with her as he barked, “Leave me alone, woman!”  However, he was pleasant with me.  I told him That I was looking for a SUP paddle to purchase.  I was clear that it had to be for a paddleboard, long with a handle on one end.  He said he had one, but for me to come back in an hour.  

An hour later, I returned.  Emmette took me around the junk-strewn building, fished around and found a half of a kayak paddle.  He grabbed an aluminum tube (from a defunct pool skimmer) and said, “we can saw this down and attach it to the paddle!” I told him that I had already jury-rigged a paddle and that my son was unimpressed.  I told Emmette that Marty in Governer’s Harbor, had one and asked if I could pay him to drive me there.  Emmett said he knew Marty and that the ride would cost $40.  I told him that would be great.  I called James Elliott, who was on Water Music, and told him that I’d located a paddle and would return in an hour or so.  And the adventure began…

Nagging at me in the back of my mind was anxiety at leaving my son in a strange harbor in a foreign country, but I was looking forward to getting that SUP paddle.  Emmette had me wait for him by his car, a little white Nissan hatchback, while he ran inside the building to get something.  My anxiety didn’t abate as I continued waiting for ten minutes.  He finally emerged with a can of Bluebird orange juice, and we hopped in his car to head straight for Marty’s.  Or so I thought.

Emmette inserted a CD into his player and said, “Dat’s me!”  It was him on the recording singing a rousing original tune, “No Island Leaves You Smiling Like Eleuthra”.  He sang along to his song and replayed it five or six times.  We hadn’t driven more than a mile when Emmette announced, “Gotta pull over and get some watah, got none at da house.”  So we pulled up to a bottled water business, Pura Lutra, and Emmette got out and got eight or ten gallons of water.  He was chatting with the employees, went into the building, out and back in.  He finally came back to the car and and asked if I had $20.  I handed him a fifty dollar bill and told him that was his for my transportation.  He tried to give me ten dollars change and I told him to keep it.  I was hoping this would mean we could get on our way.  It did not.  He went back inside the building for another ten minutes.  We finally left after a “quick” twenty five-minute stop…

When he pulled back on our route, he put the coals to the fire.  He put in a CD of soul classics and we sang along to Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.  I felt progress and my spirits were lifting. I enjoyed the view as we passed through the town of James Cistern and the highway was right beside the aqua blue water.  Emmettee put on his tour guide had and told me that Thursdays in James Cistern were an evening that people came from miles around to eat fish and to listen to Bahamian music. 

From there we made it to Governer’s Harbor with it’s colorful houses and buildings overlooking the harbor.  We continued all the way through town on down the Queens Highway and sparse population along with thick vegetation.  The Nissan sped up a hill and made a left turn at a two story white house with blue trim…Marty’s house!!  

As we drove up, there were twenty or so lounge chairs on the lawn that Marty was busily cleaning.  When we got out of the car, Marty approached, smiling to see his friend Emmette.  As they talked and joked around, I eyed the SUP paddle leaned up against the house-I was relieved!  I asked Marty how much I owed him, he said forty (seems like that was the going rate for everything) so I happily gave him fifty.  We talked to Marty a little while.  I told him about my father/son trip that I was on and his face lit up.  He proudly said that Eleuthera was the best island in the Bahamas.  Then he told me, “Wait here, let me show you some pictures.”   I was anxious to return to the boat, but of course, I waited.  He returned and showed me pictures from an event he had set up on the beach for a group of 40 visitors.  One of the pics was of a whole hog on a spit that looked impressive.  We said our farewells and got back into Emmette's Nissan.

We drove up to the Queen’s Highway, but instead of taking a right, Emmette took a LEFT!!  We were headed in the opposite direction from Hatchet Bay and my only child!  Emmette said, “I wanna go to da landfill while we are near.”  We drove about a mile and the land fill entrance was on the right.  

Emmette blurted out, “White people go to the landfill, too.  Women here sometimes.”  The place had an enormous crater that was a burn pit and it had piles of trash and garbage surrounding it (trash is burned on Tuesdays).  Emmette spied a white and blue pool chair, checked it out and said he’d be back tomorrow with a larger vehicle to pick it up.  Then he rooted around and found a large jug he said would be good for watering plants at his farm, and he put it in the car.  Emmett then declared that we could strap that chair to the top of his car (a dubious proposition considering the car’s compact size and Emmett’s penchant for driving like like a bat out of Hades).  I told him he’d need some rope.  He looked around and found a large piece of cardboard to lay on his rooftop.  I then helped him place the chair on the roof.  He found some wire and tied the front down.  Then he spotted a cardboard box, which he retrieved.  It had a brand new tray in it that he said he could use in his restaurant.  He looked around some more and found some thin plastic straps that he used to secure the back of the chair to the roof.  Then it was back down the Queen’s Highway headed north back to Hatchet Bay.

Emmette, Me, and Marty

As we drove back through Jame’s Cistern, sure enough a crowd was gathered and there was a Bahamian band playing.  I didn’t thing the chair would make it, but it did and we were finally back at Emmette’s place, 3 hours later!  

I got the paddle, jumped in the dinghy and headed back to Water Music,  James Elliott was happy with the paddle-which made everything worthwhile.  He laughed when I recounted my adventure with Emmett.  We decided to go ahead and move on to the Exumas ASAP.  I hauled up the dinghy, we secured everything on deck and departed Hatchet Bay for an overnight passage down Eleuthera to the Davis Channel and across the Exuma Sound to Highborne Cay in the Northern Exumas.

A couple of days later, we went to the marina at Highbourne Cay.  While taking on fuel at the fuel dock, I was talking with the dockmaster, Steve.  I told him about our trip and that we had come over from Hatchet Bay.  Steve said, “Did you get to meet Emmett?”  A smile broke out on my face and I replied, “Oh, I spent some quality time with Emmett!”