Long Island #2

This past week has flown by so quickly. Along with our friends from Escapade we rented a car on two separate days to explore the island. The first day we went to the north end of the island and yesterday we did the south end of the island. One of the highlights was the small Long Island museum. It did a good job of explaining both the history and culture of the island.  We visited Deans Blue Hole. It is a hole over 600 feet deep used for free diving. People come here to set world records. In fact Deans blue hole was featured on 60 minutes several months ago. Next attraction was Hamiltons cave. We got a personal tour from Mr Hamilton.

The day before yesterday we were dinghying to the beach for a walk and some exploring and we heard someone shout hay Geo Nova. It turned out to be Frank and Gail from Double Time a fellow member of Portland Yacht Club. We last saw them in Hampton Virginia. We explored a new beach with them this morning. This afternoon it’s laundry and tomorrow it’s a sail back to Georgetown. The weather looks good for a nice sail to cover the 40 or so miles. Monday Naomi and Hans David’s sister and brother-in-law will meet up with us for a week in the sun.    

Columbus Monument

View from Monument

View from Monument

Cliff 100 feet down to the water

We decided not to take this road

another fabulous beach

Squall coming down on us yesterday morning

Deans Blue Hole

Mail Boat

Sponge on beach

Church in Clarence Town

Ladder going up to spire of chirch

Hamilton Cave

people waiting for their goodies to arrive on the "mail boat'

Today's Beautiful beach

Sun Set last night

Frank and Gail

Black Point To Long Island

The voyage from Black Point to our next chosen anchorage required us negotiating Dotham cut, a passage from the Bahamas banks into the Atlantic Ocean. This cut is wide and deep making passage relatively easy and safe in most conditions. Some cuts particularly when strong wind opposes strong current can be down right dangerous. This day’s sail ended our steak of nice sails. The wind was too close to the nose so we had to motor sail to Lee Stocking Island, the former home of the Caribbean Marine research Center a casualty to the poor economy. This island was another beautiful place. Next stop, one night and on to Georgetown, the center of activity for the Exuma islands. Here we were able to meet up with our friends on Megerin and Discretion. We had parted ways after Wardrick Wells. It is always nice to meet up with good friends.

On Thursday we set sail for Long Island with our friends on Escapade who we have been traveling with since departing for the Bahamas from Florida. The 40 or so mile trip was another gorgeous sail but a relatively slow sail. For the most part the wind was on the stern and it was light, non-the less a very pleasant trip. This long island has little in common with the better-known Long Island. Its name is apt because it is about 55 miles long. Today we went for a walk on a drop-dead gorgeous beach on the Atlantic side of the island. We plan to spend the better part of a week here before going back to Georgetown to pick up Naomi and Hans, David’s sister and brother in law who will flying in from the other Long Island.

We are off to happy hour at the Island Breeze, an inn and restaurant that has a morning net. They come on the radio in the morning to talk to the cruisers with emergencies, weather and open mike. It’s a way to find out what is going on in an area. We found out that boaters are helping the community get ready for the local regatta being held on April 1^st, so tomorrow we will join in to help hammer or paint or what ever is needed.

Happy hour was great with music and meeting other boaters. A boater that weaves showed everyone how to make a hat or basket out of the coconut palm leaves. We stayed until sunset and there was a green flash, this happens as the sun sets over the water if the conditions are just right there is a green flash right after the last of the sunsets. It doesn’t have anything to do with how many beers or rum punches you have had!

Making Basket

Sign at Government Dock Black Point

Eastern Shore Great Guana Key

American Oyster Catcher

Beautiful Beach Banks side of great Guana Key

Sound Side of Lee Stocking Island

List of activities for the Easter Festival

Bahamian Mocking Bird

Geo Nova Under Wing and Wing Sail Plan

Kurt and Jane on Escapade

Escapade under sail

Long Island

Magnificent Beach Long Island

Wilsons Plover

View of beach through rock

Chiton

Barracuda

Long Island Beach

Ashley Saunders explaining how he built the house with only local materials

Some of the material found on the beach

Ruddy Turnstone on the rail of the boat

Escapade under sail Kurt and Jane

Beautiful Beach

Shroud Key

Conch in water

looking out into Exuma Sound

Highborne Key

First and last underwater photo before camera died

Sharks don't fall off the dock

Highborne Key

Sunset in Paradise

Remnants of loyalist settlement on Wardrick Wells

Sound Side of Wardrick Wells

Hiking on Wardrick Wells

Blue Crab

Sea Spray

Relaxing at Pirates Lair

Aqua Blue Water

Bananquit

I hate this computer!!!!!!

Highborne Key to Blackpoint settlement

I spent an hour this morning on the boat writing this blog entry and am now on shore to get the wifi to post it  but the document I had written disappeared into thin air.

Off to the Exuma Land and Sea Park. This covers a large area and includes many islands. It is a Bahamian National Park.

We left Highborne Key for Shroud Key which is really a conglomerate of multiple islands connected by areas of mangroves. There are several passages that bisect the island and connect the Bahamas Banks to Exuma Sound. With favorable timing from the tides Diana and I joined our friends Kurt and Jane for a dinghy adventure to the sound side. We were presented with a magnificent beach. It is totally devoid of development however we saw the beach was littered with plastic and glass debris. I believe this debris is from far far away not local.

After 1 night at Shroud we sailed to Wardrick Wells the headquarters of the park. We spent 4 days hiking and snorkeling. Both activities were very special. One of our hikes ended up longer than we expected. We had planned to walk to the park ranger station where we would meet some friends. It should have been a 30-minute walk, 2 hours later we arrived after multiple wrong turns on a poorly marked and very rugged trail. We managed to put ourselves into a large stand of Poison Wood trees; fortunately none of us were effected.

The snorkeling was fantastic! We saw countless species of fish many displaying vibrant bright colors. We also saw a Caribbean lobster for the first time. There were also lots of different hard and soft coral.

After 4 nights at Wardrick Wells we sailed to Black Point Settlement; a small town on the northern tip of Great Guana Island. The people here exemplify the friendly Bahamian. Yesterday we did our laundry while looking out at crystal clear aqua blue water while eating fresh home made carrot cake, 1$ per slice. Thought I died and went to heaven. We expect to be here for several more days and then slowly make our way to Georgetown.

The sailing in the Bahamas has been second to none. Nice wind in the right direction and no seas. Yesterday’s sail was so magnificent. Clipping along at 7-8 knots with almost no heel.