Playing tourist in Long Island, Bahamas

After a hair raising evening of thunder & lightening storms on January 17th, we left George Town, Exuma for Long Island, a charming, cruiser-friendly island about 35 miles away. Motor-sailing with the jib only in a stiff following breeze that put us dead down wind, we arrived around 3:30 in Thompson Bay, midway down the western side of the island, with about a dozen boats in the anchorage. By sundown, there were 27 boats seeking refuge from the more crowded anchorages in George Town.

The next morning, we were up with the roosters preparing the dinghy to go ashore to Salt Pond and rent a car for the next two days, since this is the best way to see the island. The first day, we headed south to Hamilton Cave, Dean's Blue Hole and Lighthouse Point for lunch. 

Hamilton Cave is the largest cave system in the Bahamas and is owned and operated by Leonard Cartwright, who will take you on the hour long tour if you see the tiny sign with his number on it outside a shuttered building and give him a call. He will tell you about the Arawak Indians that inhabited the cave many years ago and how it has been used for mining bat guano for fertilizer more recently.

Going further south, Deans Blue Hole is the world's deepest known salt water blue hole at 663 feet. To get the best view, we climbed up on the rocks and overhanging cliffs, where braver souls are known to jump! 

We continued south toward Clarence Town, where we stopped for fish tacos & a burger at the newly built Lighthouse Point Restaurant, part of the Flying Fish Marina and then briefly visited the church that dominates the hillside overlooking the bay. It was built by Father Jerome, who was an architect and Anglican priest sent in 1908 to Long Island after a hurricane, to rebuild the churches in his unique style of stonework with barrel vaulted arches and thick walls.

The second day, we headed north to the Columbus Monument at Cape Santa Maria.  We drove past some cleverly named establishments like Da Spot Restaurant and Bring De Boat Dis Way Liquor Store and stopped at Bert's Dry Goods for hand made straw gifts. The road turned to gravel and pits before we made it to the bottom of the 164 steps up to the monument. At the top was the most glorious view (difficult to capture with pictures) of the salt flats and lapis blue ocean below.

After visiting the monument, we drove south to the Cape Santa Maria Resort to check out the restaurant and facilities. The white painted main buildings, two story villas and one or two bedroom bungalows dot the idyllic beach on Calabash Bay and offer a nice restaurant on the water but we opted for a highly reviewed restaurant nearby.

 

Our choice, the Sunset Restaurant is in a rather featureless building, barring the aqua colored rope around the posts marking the parking lot. Reviewers come for the food and what I would call 'the Rodney experience'. Rodney is a former mathematics & physical education school teacher and principal, who retired after 40 years to start a restaurant and write and play his music. He requests that you make reservations so he can personalize the experience for his guests but we were in the area and called to see if he could take us right away. Rodney answered the phone and said he was in the grocery store but could meet us in 20 minutes. When we arrived at the restaurant, he was wiping off chairs and setting up the dining room. We asked for whatever he was serving for lunch and he recommended the grouper. He set us up with drinks & nuts and about an hour later came out of his tiny kitchen to put flowers on the table and deliver homemade apple, carrot & onion salad, assorted vegetables and exquisitely poached grouper.

After the feast, we chatted with Rodney about his teaching days and the music he writes and performs to this day. At our request, he added two downloaded tunes to our bill and we returned to the boat with full bellies that were well worth the price and an overall experience that was priceless.

The next morning we were pretty lazy, had a late breakfast and did some yoga on the foredeck. Since it was our last night in Long Island, we had planned to take the dinghy over to a popular restaurant bar on the bay for locals and cruisers. Tiny's Hurricane Hole, with its' adirondack-style chairs, tables & hammocks scattered on the beach and docks, invites you to stay awhile. We ordered rum drinks, conch fritters and Tiny's pizza special made w/ grilled brussel sprouts, pulled pork and jalapeno peppers and settled in for the afternoon. We chatted with locals and met other cruisers as they popped in for a drink (or two or three). One of the couples was from Kennett Square, of all places in the world, about 20 minutes from our condo in Devon, Pa.

Early the next day, we were off the hook and sailing back to George Town at about 5 knots with a full main and jib, in 6-10 knots of wind. It was a sunny and pleasant sail until the wind dropped out and we had to turn on Thunder, our engine, but we arrived safely and anchored off Sand Dollar beach for the next phase of our Bahamas adventure.