Ruins, Ruins and More Ruins

March 31, 2013

 

What would a Bahamian island exploration be if there were no ruins to see?  And, Cat Island did not disappoint.  One thing that was very cool about the Cat Island ruins was that they were very easy to find, they were right next to the road, they were in relatively good shape, and both of them that we visited had a bit of history behind them.  You didn’t have to walk for miles (an exaggeration, but just barely), and then wonder if you had actually found the ruin when you saw a pile of rocks.  This had been our experience throughout Exuma.       

 

Henry Hawkins Armbrister’s Great House was very close to one of the beaches that we used to land our dinghy.  The house had been built in the 1760’s by a Scotsman.  This was before the Loyalists arrived, with their slaves, and established about 40 cotton and cattle estates.  The great house was burned by slaves during a revolt before the slave emancipation in 1834.  Note that this was about 30 years before the slaves were freed in the states.  As you can see, the walls are still standing, and you can still experience the great view that the Armbristers had of the bay. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second plantation we visited was owned by Andrew Deveaux.  In 1782, the Spanish invaded Nassau with 1500 soldiers and 3500 support personnel, and the English surrendered.  With a great deal of imagination, Andrew Deveaux was able to overcome 600 Spanish solders using 220 men, only 150 of them armed, and retake Nassau for the British.  The attack included having many more boats in the harbor than were needed to transport the soldiers and dividing the troops into divisions and spacing them apart, giving the illusion of more men.  Also, two Indian chiefs, dressed in war regalia, were introduced to the Spanish governor, and they told him that their braves were on the warpath and ready for the order to scalp the Spaniards.  Deveaux was then given a grant of land by the King, to reward him for returning Nassau to the crown.  The great house overlooked the water, and there are still sheep that graze the property.  I assume that the same thing can be said of these sheep as some that we saw in the Virgin Islands: “no one knows who owns them, but if you try to interfere with them, you find out quickly who the owner is”.  You can see that nothing will stop nature, by seeing the tree that is growing up through the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cemeteries are always interesting places to visit, and we visited one close to the Deveaux house.  We found the gravesites interesting, several having designs resembling cobblestones and others having stones resembling heads at one end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat Island, a very cool place to visit.

 

Joyce

Anchored New Bight

Cat Island, Bahamas        

Cat Island Easter

March 31, 2013

 

On Friday we went to the Children’s Home and Chapel in Old Bight for a Good Friday service and today we went to Easter Sunday service at Zion Baptist Church in Old Bight.  Our journey to these places  is somewhat of a story. This is a bit long, but hang in there for an interesting story – at least I think so!

 

Shortly after we arrived at Cat Island we were at the New Bight Market and wanting to go to a restaurant at the Regatta Park, about a mile away.  There was a van parked at the market marked as C&O Taxi, so we asked the woman driving if she could take us to the restaurant.  She said sure and declined to be paid when we arrived  as noted in a previous blog entry.  That woman was Olive King, who also operates Olive’s Bakery in New Bight.  We later called at her bakery to buy some bread and met her husband Chris. On that visit we learned then he was the principal of the primary school in Old Bight.

 

After we had moved down the bay to Old Bight for better protection from the predicted south winds, we met several women on the beach scaling fish for the Good Friday fish fry being put on by the Old Bight Anglican Church.  The women invited us to attend.  In talking with them about churches, we learned that Chris Smith was also the pastor of Zion Baptist in Old Bight.   Subsequently, we talked to Olive again and she invited us to their Good Friday and Easter services, which we said would love to attend.  She offered to give us a ride to both; we accepted her offer for Easter, but since we planned to have a rental car on Friday and wanted to also go to the fish fry, we said we would drive ourselves on that day.

 

Previously we  had met a woman in Exuma that told us to look up here brother Alfred Moss who, with his wife Cindy, run the Children’s Home and Chapel in Old Bight.  We had stopped by the home the same day we talked to the women cleaning fish, but they were not there.  A few days later, when we had a car, we finally managed to connect with them at their store in Smith’s Bay.  They also invited us to their Good Friday service, but we declined explaining that we had committed to go to Zion Baptist’s service that day.  They understood, but also invited us to stop by to join them for their Good Friday lunch which we also declined in that we had already committed go to the Anglican fish fry.  They also understood, but said just stop by, which we said we would love to do.

 

So now the social calendar on Friday is packed: Good Friday service at Zion Baptist; fish fry at the Anglican church; stop by the Children’s home for a visit.

 

So on Friday we dinghy ashore, do our ‘superman/woman’ change into church clothes and fire up the rental car.  After a few hundred feet, it just didn’t feel right so I pulled over -  observation – nearly flat right rear tire.  We headed back to the service station where we rented the car, but of course they were closed on Good Friday.  Maybe their air compressor is on and we can refill the tire – nope – no air.  OK, maybe we have time to change the tire.  I opened the trunk and found a spare, but NO jack.  Then a couple pulled in trying to return a car – she was a Cat Islander visiting from Nassau.  They had a jack and her companion, ‘Pinder’, helped me with the tire change.  Crank up the jack, remove the flat tire, good so far.  Try to put on the spare – Houston we have a problem – apparently the borrowed jack is not raising the car enough.   ‘Pinder’ and I then search behind the station for some  wood to put under the jack.  OK, now the car is up high enough to put on the spare.  Lower the car – might still have time to get to Old Bight.    New problem – the spare is nearly flat.  It now appears that we are not intended to go to Good Friday services on Cat Island.

 

Then we see the van from the Children’s Home heading south.  I  flagged them down and asked if they could give us a ride.  It seemed clear that we would be attending services at the Children’s home today.  Chapel services were wonderful.  We learned that the children are from Nassau and it is a great ministry to get them in a more wholesome environment.  Alfred delivered a great sermon and afterward we had a wonderful meal, described more fully in a previous post.

 

Alfred and Cindy Moss on the right

 

 

On Easter Sunday, we rode to Zion Baptist with Olive and Chris, and after a lively service and good message they invited us to a luncheon at the church with chicken, fish, peas & rice, and coleslaw.

 

 

 

 

 

We have enjoyed Cat Island a lot. The people are very friendly, gracious, and giving.  Thank you to all our Cat Island friends.

 

Our only 'complaint' - for most of our trip we have been losing some weight - Cat Island has reversed this trend :-)

 

We will return to Cat Island!

 

Tom

Anchored New Bight

Cat Island Bahamas

 

 

 

 

Real Bahamian Food

March 30, 2013

 

Since we left Bimini, we have bemoaned the lack of ‘real’ Bahamian food.  The ‘Taste of Heaven Bakery’, in Bimini, in addition to offering great bake goods, offers box lunches for $6-8 with entrees like curried mutton and steamed fish.  It is frequented almost exclusively by locals and you can get what they are cooking today (no real  menu) and when it is gone, it is gone.

 

Although we loved the Exumas, there are no restaurants at all in the Park, and the restaurants outside the park serve mostly typical tourist/cruiser fare – fried fish, fried conch, hamburgers, chicken, etc..  While these dishes can be very good, it is not really typical Bahamian food.

 

Going to Little Exuma, Long Island, and especially Cat Island we have had some great native food.

 

On Little Exuma, Dee at Santanna’s offered fried fish and lobster with the most delicious fish sauce we have tasted.  One note, when one eats native fish dishes, expect some bones.  The boneless filets we often eat are not the most economical use of the fish; Bahamians typically stretch it farther.  After I ordered the fried fish at Santanna’s the server asked “You have had this before?" before he would put the order in.  After I finished the whole fried snapper and complimented Dee, she laughingly commented “ I didn’t know if you could handle the fish” (i.e. the whole fish with bones). 

 

Le Pon in Clarence Town on Long Island brought some more fried fish (good, but honestly not as good as Dee’s), but accompanied by some delicious yellow grits and peas (beans).  Also, at an authentic Bahamian restaurant, since most orders are to go, expect that your scraps (fish and chicken bones) will not go to waste – Bahamian dogs don’t usually get Alpo.

 

Cat Island is one of the most traditional islands, so it is not a surprise that we have found native food almost everywhere.  In Old Bight, at Bim’s take-away, I had my first 'stew fish' since West End last year.  Stew fish, a traditional Bahamian breakfast is fish cooked in a rich brown rue.  It is typically served with grits or ‘Johnny Cake’, a heavy sweet bread.  They also prepare conch the same way.  Note that it is stew fish– not stewed fish.  After eating stew fish/conch, you will not want to eat for a while – it is very rich – a breakfast made to start a long hard day of work.

 

Stew Fish

 

 

When we attended the Good Friday Lunch at the Old Bight Children's Home (more to follow on this visit), we had some spicy stew fish, Johnny Cake, and potato bread (baked in pans lined with palm leaves).

 

Cordell’s restaurant at the Regatta Park in New Bight has virtually been our second home here.   'Cordell’, her daughter ‘Ceedell’ (CD), a friend ‘Pompey’, and a host of others cook up a great variety of native dishes: steamed fish in tomato/onion sauce, yellow grits and okra, fried chicken and fish, and possibly my favorite - okra soup.  I ordered a large bowl of the okra soup and a side of potato salad and soon realized that I had too much food.  The soup was much hardier than I expected, filled with ham on the bone, dumplings, white beans and of course okra – it was delicious! 

Not only do they cook great food at Cordell’s, they are very friendly and we have become friends. 

When we arrived last night at Cordell's for something to eat and hopefully hear some 'rake & scrape' music, Pompey and several other Bahamians were hanging out talking and enjoying there favorite drink of cranberry juice and gin.  It was an informal affair with cans of juice and a bottle of gin on the table that were used for refills as needed.  When we arrived we got a couple of beers and joined the group. After about 45 minutes, 'Ceedell' yelled out "Guests are here" (meaning a party of about 10 people from the nearby Fernandez Bay Resort) and the guys leaped up, cleared the table of the bottle of gin and cans and quickly disappeared. After a few minutes, we also evacuated the place and moved over to a nearby place in the park where the Bahamians were hanging out.  On reflection, we were very happy, that we were not considered 'guests'.  The next day Joyce and I were talking and I said "It was really funny when the guys cleared out for the guests and then we left to hang out with the other Bahamians".  I quickly laughed that unconsciously, I had categorized us as Bahamians - we have been hanging out in the islands a while I guess!

 

And as a final note, not only is the native cuisine delicious, it is relatively inexpensive at ‘local’ eateries.  We ate one meal at a ‘resort’in our two weeks here on Cat Island .  There one cheeseburger was $18; at Cordell’s this would typically be about the tab for two lunches with sodas.

 

Tom

Anchored New Bight

Cat Island, Bahamas

 

 

Cat Island - 'Out There'

March 22, 2013

 

We are currently anchored off New Bight on Cat Island.  After a rocky (literally) start, we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here.

 

The Exumas and Abacos are great, with beautiful beaches and friendly people, but they are crowded with cruisers.  For example when we arrived at the Black Point settlement (one of our favorite spots in the Exumas) we expected a hand full of boats – but there were 40 there on arrival and at the peak 70. 

 

Cat Island lies about 50 miles east of Exuma and has no all-weather protection, so it does not get a lot of visiting boats; at most there have been 6-7 boats here in total in a very large bay.  To us it, feels like what cruising should be about – visiting far-away places and meeting people of different cultures.  People here often ask which boat you are on and have a good handle on what types of boats are visiting and where they are anchored.  It reminds us of when we used to take a boat to Everglades City in the remote Ten Thousand island in south west Florida in the 90’s, when people would ask us – “You’re the people on the sailboat at the Rod & Gun Club aren’t you?”

 

Wednesday night featured some moderate west winds which produced a significant swell that rocked us pretty good for about 12 hours, but by Thursday afternoon the swell had died down and by Friday morning it was very calm.

 

On Friday we dinghied into shore on the north end of the island to walk around some more, and hopefully get some lunch and some fresh provisions.  As we neared the end of the side road leading to the main highway we noticed an African Bahamian man sitting under a porch in front of a fairly nice house. We exchanged greetings and complimented him on his landscaping.  We struck up a conversation and he ended up inviting us to join him on the porch.  His name is Al Russell and he is a 6^th generation Bahamian. He is descended from Lord Russell, an Englishman, who was granted the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama  in the middle 1700’s.  He has had a varied career as a mail-boat owner/captain, owner operator of the Bridge Inn, which is currently largely out of business due to the economy and damage from two hurricanes, and other pusuits.  We had a great conversation about  Bahamian politics and churches (4 of his sons are pastors).  Although you would never know it from looking at him, we think that he has done well financially over his life; he and 4 of his brothers/cousins own Powell Cay in the Abacos – which is currently for sale if you are in the market for an island.

 

We then continued our walk to the New Bight Market, which to our delight was well stocked with fresh produce and a wide variety of goods.  Inquiring about lunch, we were referred to the small kitchen where  we had eaten on Tuesday.  In that it was about 1 ½ miles south, we took the opportunity to ask the woman driving the C&O Taxi in front of  the market if she could take us to the kitchen.  She said yes and we piled in.  We learned that she was Olive King who, in addition to driving the taxi, runs Olive’s Bakery near the government office – she had been at the market to get some baking supplies.   When we arrived at the kitchen and we went to get out I asked her how much we owed her for the ride – she responded “ Oh nothing – I was going this way anyway”.

 

We had eaten curried chicken at this same kitchen on Tuesday, which was OK; I had joked with the young woman at the counter that curried chicken (Roti) was  one of my specialties.  After joking about whose was better – I said if the bay was not so rough I would bring her some.  Today, the dish that was ready when we arrived was steamed fish (grouper that had been swimming yesterday) that was delicious!  The woman that I had talked to ended up taking her lunch break and joined us at our table.  Her name was ‘Ceedell’ but said that people called her ‘CD’ for short.  We had a delightful conversation which included exchanging some recipes, and I said that when we return to Cat Island, she and I will have a curried chicken ‘throw down’ which she thought would be fun.

 

 After lunch we got some great provisions at the New Bight Market and after returning to the boat, we moved back down closer to the New Bight settlement.  We hurried to get ashore to visit Olive’s Bakery.  When we approached the house, it was not obvious where the bakery was (it is basically in her kitchen) or if anyone was home.  After knocking at the side and then front door, we were greeted by Chris, Olive’s husband, the ‘C’ in C&O Taxi, and the principal at the Elementary school in nearby Old Bight.  We had a great conversation with Chris and bought two loaves of bread and a pound cake.

 

Overall, Cat Island has been great, and may be our favorite destination yet.  The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming and it feels remote compared to other parts of the Bahamas.

 

Tomorrow we will move to Old Bight to get better protection from the southerly component of an upcoming front;  we are not sure what we will do for the westerly winds due on Monday but we have several alternatives, although we have definitely decided to not move north in the next 7-10 days as originally planned, as that would move us towards some pretty nasty weather.  

 

As the weather allows, we will travel north to Eleuthera and then the Abacos if we have time. This move north will be be clearly 'turning the corner' to start heading back to Florida by late May.

 

Tom

Anchored New Bight

Cat Island Bahamas  

Map of Cruise 2012-13

 

 

 

 

Exuma to Cat Island

March 20, 2013

On Monday March 18, we crossed Exuma Sound from Emerald Bay to Cat Island. This was Joyce's birthday and Captain Bligh ordered her to sea :-).  It was particularly cruel since the wind and seas were higher than forecast and more on the nose than expected, so we had 53 miles of close-hauled sailing.  Sailing close to the wind is not the most comfortable point of sail and we had a 'lively' trip.  We did, however, sail the whole way motoring for only a short period of time out of the marina and into the anchorage. This was our longest 'pure' sail in a long time!  Joyce's Birthday present!

Yesterday we went ashore in a lively southern breeze and got wet beaching the dinghy and soaked on way back to the boat.   

We did take a brief tour of New Bight including Father Jerome's retirement home/monastery.  Father Jerome was the Anglican/Catholic priest that built many churches in the Islands (see my post regarding Long Island - South on 3/1).  It sits on Mt Alvernia, the highest hill in the Bahamas at 206 ft.  It is an impressive structure resembling a medieval monastery and life there was very austere. Below are a few pictures:



From the 'Stations of the Cross'  lining the path up the hill
'Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem'

Today we have moved to the north end of the bay to get better protection from an approaching front.  The protection in Cat Island is not great, but we think/hope that we will be OK tonight.  We will then have a couple of days of fairly settled weather and need to decide where we will stay for the next (stronger) front expected over the weekend. The weather has turned unsettled and we may defer moving north until it settles more - it is forecast to be worse, the farther north you lie.


Tom
Anchored at New Bight
Cat Island, Bahamas
Map of Cruise 2012-13

Car-less Exuma Adventures

March 17, 2013

 

We have stayed at Emerald Bay Marina longer than anticipated due to weather.  Emerald Bay is a bit away from things and without a car your options are limited, since there is no bus service.  We had planned to rent a car on Thursday to go to the opening of the Bahamian Heritage Festival in Georgetown but were unable to get one. The Heritage festival is widely attended  by Bahamians from throughout the islands. It is also Canadian school break week so cars are next to impossible to rent.

 

But being unable to rent a car has led to some wonderful adventures made possible by some gracious African Bahamians.

 

First I personally, and I think Americans in general, do not  like to be dependent on someone else;  I think it goes against our culture of independence.  When talking to a friend once that has faced some serious medical issues, I asked him what God was teaching him through his struggles.  He said that he is learning that for every giver, there must be a receiver of that gift.  He had always thought of himself as a giver, and now he was learning how to allow others to enjoy giving to him.  While I am in no way comparing our carless situation to his serious medical problems, his answer has broadened my appreciation for giving and more importantly receiving.

 

We had learned from one of the marina workers that a restaurant in Rolleville, a small settlement 8-10 miles north of here, had a good buffet and on Saturday had a van that would take people from Georgetown and parts north to the restaurant and return.  When we called to arrange a pickup, they told us that they were not running the van today due to the Heritage Festival.  But they said that they would come pick us up!  Right on schedule Elvis Rolle, who with his wife Maryann, runs Exuma Point Restaurant pulled into Emerald Bay to pick us up.  After talking to Elvis and asking some questions about Rolleville, he took us on a tour of the settlement and explained some of its history before we arrived at the restaurant.  Upon arrival we met charming Maryann, who was born on Cat Island, our next destination. She gave us the name of her brother who runs a children’s home there and told us to look him up.  It was not a busy day there because of the Festival, but it was a wonderful opportunity for us to talk to them both.  They joined us at the table and we talked for some time. They both work full time jobs, run the restaurant on weekends, and manage the restaurant at the airport – they are busy folks,  but seemed happy to spend some time with us.  The buffet was delicious and if you get a chance to visit them, take the opportunity.

 

On our previous visit, John, one of the marina workers had invited us to an ordination at his church which we attended and enjoyed a lot.  But we wanted to go to a regular worship service there.  Learning of our lack of a car, John offered to pick us up in the church van.  So at 9AM John arrived at the marina to pick us up. I had previously told John that I had left the states with two Bibles, both of which I had somehow lost.  John proceeded to give me a gift of a new bible that he happened to have.   I offered to pay, but John refused. 

 

We then proceeded to tour several of the nearby communities picking up: Miss Portier, a cousin of Sidney Portier, who in spite of some serious medical  issues exuded joy and subsequently led the young children’s bible study;    Sister Sarah, a lovely Exumian women;  a group of young people with a small baby from Curtis;  and stops at several other houses.  None of these folks could have attended without John and the van.

 

Arriving at Mt Sinai Union Baptist Church in Stuart Manor, we joined John’s lively  adult bible study before the worship service.

 

John’s wife, ‘Sharmain’, warmly greeted us and offered us bottled water.  She later led a very spirited time of worship.

 

The message was delivered by Marcus Rolle, a man born and raised on Exuma  who led a troubled life as a young man.  The local pastor, Cedric Smith, mentored him and he now lives and is involved in ministry in the States.  He returned to honor Rev. Smith who will be retiring in few months.  He calls Rev. Smith ‘Dad’, to acknowledge him as his spiritual father.  His message was very good as he encouraged the congregation to “Hold On and Don’t Give Up”, loving people like Rev. Smith loved him.  As we left Pastor Smith shook my hand warmy, looked me straight in the eye, and warmly said "Please come again".

 

Before we reversed our van trip, John picked some sapodilla, a local fruit for us to try and at Miss Portier’s he picked a few papaya for us from a tree near her house.  We got back to the marina at around 2 PM, after a full ‘morning’ at church.

 

 

 

One thing that we have learned, that it is hard to out-give the Bahamians.  They often have relatively little by American standards, but enjoy sharing what they have with others. They are truly very friendly and generous people.

 

 

Tom

Docked at Emerald Bay Marina

Exuma, Bahamas

 

 

 

 

 

Watching SU in Big East Championship

March 16, 2013

We had a rare treat this evening watching SU play in the Big East Championship.  We do not have a TV on the boat and we rarely dock and have a TV available.  But things aligned tonight to allow us to watch the game.  We are docked at Emerald Bay Marina on Exuma Island which has a very nice 'club house' with a wide-screen TV.

Luckily Joyce noticed a Facebook post about the championship game and suggested we try to watch.  It is the first basketball game we have watched in two years.  Cruising is great, but there are definitely things you give up.

We even brought our SU water bottles.  We make a special effort to buy these bottles, because they are very sturdy;  most water bottles these days have been made very thin and flimsy to cut down on plastic waste.  But we refill our water bottles all season and need sturdy bottles.

Unfortunately after a great first half and an early second half 16 point lead, Louisville roared back and beat the Cuse soundly.  Sad ending to a game that already had a sad undercurrent, as SU and many other schools leave (or have already left) the Big East for other conferences.


Tom
Emerald Bay Marina
Exuma, Bahamas

Immigration Lets Us Stay!

March 14, 2013

 

On Tuesday, March 12 we traveled by rental car from Emerald Bay Marina to Georgetown Immigration.  Our previous approved stay was set to expire on 3/19.  We had tried to extend at the Immigration office in Long Island, but that office would not renew our stay until the day it expired or at earliest the day before.   Rather than wait in Long Island for almost 2 weeks we decided to return to the Georgetown office who had previously told us they would extend within 2 weeks of expiration.

 

Well the great news is that we got a 90 day extension to 6/20/2103, more than enough time for our plans.  Georgetown Immigration was very nice and processed the extension in about 15 minutes.  Below see our immigration papers.  Our original stay is at the bottom, and the extension is near the top.  Please note all hand-written dates are DD/MM/YY.

 

 

 

 Actually as we count the days, we may be ‘illegal’ on next Wednesday 3/20, but we will trust that Immigration did the date math to their satisfaction.

 

We also did some provisioning and other tasks on that day and got to spend some time with friends Rick and Susan of ‘Just Cause’.

 

We had hoped to leave Emerald Bay yesterday, but there was still a large ground swell, that made the channel very rough.  A ground swell has large widely spaced waves originating from a far away storm.  At its peak, these swells were 14 feet high with a 15 second period (that is long). Today the ground swell is way down, but last night a front came with fairly strong winds, so we are still trying to determine when we will leave. 

 

While we are here, however, we are making the ‘best of  the situation'. We have discovered a nice restaurant at the nearby Grand Isle Resort http://www.grandisleresort.com/ which is open to the public.  In December this resort was host to a photo shoot for the 2013 Sports Ilustrated swimsuit issue.  Yesterday, we also bought day passes to the resort which gave us access to their pool - no swimsuit models present as far as I could determine.  We do not often have such amenities;  the last time we swam in a pool was at Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton back in October.  It is nice to take advantage of marina/resort facilities once in a while.

 

 

Tom

Docked at Emerald Bay Marina

Great Exuma, Bahamas

 

 

 

 

 

Long Island - North

March 7, 2013

 

Yesterday we rented a car for another day and traveled north.  Our objectives were to get our immigration stay extended and to see the north end of the Long Island.

 

We failed to get an extension on our immigration stay.  We were 13 days from the end of our current permitted stay and the official at Stella Maris airport insisted he could only extend it on the day it expired or at most the day before.  We were told in Georgetown that they could extend within 2 weeks by calling Georgetown.  When I relayed what we were told, the officer said “ I have never done that”.  Dealing with immigration is one of the most frustrating aspects of cruising in the Bahamas.  The requirement to appear on the expiration day is a real burden to people like us traveling by boat who are subject to wind and weather.   Our current plans are to return to Georgetown and get an extension there. 

 

We visited the Columbus Monument at Cape Santa Maria, the northern end of the island.  Long Island is regarded as Columbus’ third stop in the New World. As we have come to expect, the road to the site was long and very rough.  In deference to our Dodge Caravan (an ‘awesome’ off-road vehicle) we parked about a ½ mile from the monument   and walked the rest of the way.  Ironically, after the very rocky section just past where we parked the road was much smoother. 

 

 

 

The monument impressively sits high on a point overlooking the Cape.   The views in different directions are strikingly different:  

 

Ocean-side

 

 

Beautiful white sand flats

 

 

Salt Pond to the south

 

 

We found it interesting, that the monument is primarily dedicated to the Lucayans, the  indigenous people of the island.   Between the diseases that the Europeans brought and brutal slavery, the Lucayans were virtually extinct in a short period of time.  Very sad and oft repeated story.

 

We then visited Cape Santa Marina Resort  http://www.capesantamaria.com/. The whole Cape area has beautiful white sand and the beach at the resort is gorgeous.  It regularly appears in the those lists of ‘Top Beaches’ and graced the cover of a recent edition of Frommer’s Guide to the Bahamas.

 

Lastly we visited the ruins of the Adderly Planation, another failed Bahamian agricultural project.  Again the road to the site was rough and the site poorly marked.  We would have never found the ruins if not for the advice of another cruiser who advised to turn right and walk down the beach where you will find an unmarked path; in all honesty although it had no sign, it did have a few conch shells marking the start of the path.  As with most of the ‘ruins’ that we have seen, they are overgrown and crumbling and will not be much to see in a few years;  historic preservation is not a priority in a third-world country.  Joyce says she has seen enough ruins for the trip.

 

When we returned to Thompson Bay,  a west wind had picked up in late afternoon and we had a very lively and wet dinghy ride back to the boat.

 

 

Tom

Anchored Thompson Bay

Long Island, Bahamas

Map of Cruise 2012-13

 

Long Island - South

March 1, 2013

 

We are currently anchored at Thompson Bay/Salt Pond on Long Island.  Most boats anchor in the northeast corner of the bay, but we have been located about a mile south near the government dock, predominately amongst local fishing boats. 

 

A neighbor - Trawler 'Southern Comfort'

 

 

Although slightly shallower, this location has a number of advantages, most importantly a short dinghy ride to the Long Island Breeze dock, the center of cruiser activity in this area.  It is also somewhat calmer in the moderate southerly winds that we have been experiencing since we arrived.  Additionally, the northern bay has, uncharacteristically for the Bahamas, a fair amount of silt making it less suitable for water making.   Our current anchorage is, however, unprotected from the west, and we will soon move north for the upcoming strong north west winds.

 

The Long Island Breeze http://longislandbreezeresort.com/ is a very nice restaurant/small resort that was just built and opened in 2008.  The owners' timing was, of course, unlucky in that they opened right before the global recession.  They are nice folks and we hope that they can weather these economic times. 

 

Yesterday we rented a car and toured the southern part of the island.  We first traveled about 20 miles south on the Queen’s Highway to Clarence Town and visited the Flying Fish Marina www.flyingfishmarina.com/.  This marina is one of the southernmost marina facilities in the Bahamas and is used as a base by sport fisherman for the rich fishing grounds to the east. It is also used as a staging point for cruisers heading to the eastern Caribbean. 

 

We scouted out the restaurants there and found a couple that offered the usual fried fish/conch and burger menu that one somewhat tires of in the Bahamas.  It is actually somewhat difficult to find ‘authentic’ Bahamian cuisine in the islands.  Luckily we stumbled on the ‘Le Pon’.  It had the profile that we have come to identify – small and plain, off the beaten tourist path, predominately takeout, and visited by a stream of locals.  Also as typical, the menu is brief and changes daily – today’s entrees were  ‘steamed fish’ and chicken wings.  I had, the steamed fish, Joyce had the wings.  The name of the fish dish is a little misleading, in that it is a whole small fish, deep fried, but then finished by being cooked briefly in a sweet onion sauce.  It came with coleslaw and grits.  The grits were fantastic – they were somewhat like peas and rice, but with grits as a base.  The plate was overflowing (I wish I took a picture) and  I didn’t think I would finish it, but I did – it was all delicious!

 

Highlights of the trip include visiting several of Father Jerome’s churches and Dean’s Blue Hole.

 

Father Jerome was an architect and Anglican priest that was dispatched to the islands in 1937 after a hurricane to help rebuild the churches there.  His distinctive style is evidenced in numerous Anglican and Catholic churches on Cat and Long Island.

 

 St Peter's - Clarence Town

 

St Peter's - Clarence Town

 

 

Church in Dunmore

Church in Dunmore

 

 

A blue hole is a small deep area situated in much shallower water.  Dean’s Blue hole at 632 feet deep is reputed to be the deepest one in the world, and its location right next to the shore also makes it unique.  While we were there, a couple of young men were ‘free-diving’ from a platform that is situated in the hole.  One performed a free dive to 50 meters – he was under water almost 2 minutes!

 

Dean's Blue Hole

Dean's Blue Hole

 

 

Tom

Anchored Salt Pond

Long Island Bahamas
Map of Cruise 2012-13