Off to Long Island

With calmer seas and winds from the north we sailed from George Town to Long Island.  Friends snapped this photo as we sailed off Little Exumas Cay.

It never gets old to collect shells along the beach.  Norma cleaned our collection and is working on the conch shells to make into horns to sound at sunset.  We were told the smaller one will make a treble sound and the larger one will make a lower sound.  We may need some lessons from more experienced conch blowers.

We anchored in Thomson Bay Long Island on Thursday afternoon.  Friday we dinghied ashore and walked across Long Island to the oceanside for beach walks.  We met Josh and Katie and their two dogs rolling a 6’ section of a piling up the beach toward their car.  They live on the island and often find “treasures” that wash up on the beach to turn into things for their home.  Jay helped Josh get the pole into their jeep.  It was interesting to chat with them and learn of their adventures that brought them to live on Long Island.

Guess what lives in this hole?

We think this sand crab travels in a sideways crawl out of its hole and hides in the Sargasso sea weed that washes up on the beach to find things to eat.  This is a bigger crab about three inches wide across its shell.

Jay is finding some real nature photos.  He caught this snake eating his lunch of a lizard on the sand dunes along the ocean beach.

Sat. we rented a car with Fred & Patty on-board Casa Maré and traveled south on Queens Highway passing wild goats, sheep and a boar along the road.  We stopped at Deans Blue Hole in Turtle Cove where four young divers from England were taking turns doing practice free dives. We climbed to the top of the cliff as Norma peeks over at the Blue Hole below.  You can see one diver’s head by the white platform.  A line is suspended down from the platform to the bottom of the hole to guide divers as they practice.  There are tags attached at various depths during competitions for a diver to grasp and bring back to the water’s surface to prove how deep they dove.

A very clear and permanent sign at Deans Hole gives fair warning.  We’d like to return with snorkel gear and take a swim but probably won’t be grabbing any depth tags.

Quite a view of Turtle Cove from the top of cliff above Deans Hole!  

In Clarencetown  Jay ran up the steps of St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church. Several churches are being renovated as donations allow after recent hurricane damage, but this one was open for us to visit.

We climbed to the top of the church towers for a great view over the town and harbor. 

Climbing up the church tower was a tight fit.

Friends snapped our photo at the top of the church tower. 

We traveled on to walk Gordon Beach at the southern tip of Long Island and saw the many salt ponds along the way that once produced sea salt for export. 

Our newest boat improvement - Jay attached the black hydrofoil to our outboard and it performs almost like a new longer length dinghy.  It quickly jumps up on a plane to ride over top of the waves and gives us a much smoother ride.  Wow - what a difference it makes to dinghy travel!

We finally met up with Sara and Monty Lewis who publish the Explorer Chartbooks at Long Island Breeze Restaurant on Sunday.  Norma was studying the Explorer Chartbook back in August before we left home and discovered Sara was Norma and Jay’s high school English teacher at Georgetown High School.  It was fun to meet again and learn we have much in common.

Part II of rental car road trip on Long Island took us to beautiful Newton Cay on the northern tip on Monday.  We did not do a car rental on Sunday since the island businesses become quiet, more focused on family and church rather than doing business which is a good thing.  The roads end as you go north and you may continue to walk to explore Newton Cay.  In the photo you look from the trail out through the shallow harbors.

A view from the front windshield as we travel in our rental car showing the narrow single track path with lots of overgrowth.  Once you turn off Queens Highway most roads are a single track narrow dirt road.  The rental car takes a bruising although we are gentle as possible.

We can appreciate the efforts to build this monument knowing the primitive roads and steep trails to get up to it. It is dedicated to the “peaceful, loving and happy Aboriginal people, The Lucayans, and to the arrival of Columbus on Oct. 17, 1492”.

Another road ends and you may walk on trails to visit the Adderly Plantation ruins which was a cotton and livestock farm that could not withstand the stark farming conditions. Patty, Fred and Jay walk back to the car along the low tide beach on the northwest side of the island.  This used to be deep enough for a plantation dock to export goods but a 1929 hurricane filled it in with sand.

Cape Santa Maria Resort and Stella Maris are two resorts available for those who fly in for a vacation.  Usually the resorts are gated but these allowed us to just explore for fun.  We had lunch at Stella Maris out on their waterfront lunch spot.  Another cruising couple, Martha & David from Minnesota aboard Antigone, were also exploring and joined Fred, Patty and us for lunch. 

Stella Maris has several swimming pools for guests and this tidal pool carved in the rock on the waterfront.  Water flows in the higher trough in front of Norma on her left and exits through the cut behind her. It must be lots of fun and a great way for young ones to experience the ocean without the waves breaking.  It was fun to visit for a few hours.

Blogging is fun but takes a bit of time.  So when we can get internet access, we post an entry which is why some are longer than others. 

Enjoying George Town

The mile or so walk around Lake Victoria shows you George Town’s clinic (being renovated), a few restaurants, government office building (where we will go to get a visitors permit extension before ours expires in mid-March), local straw market for selling local goods, Miss Lee’s Corner Laundromat, a few simple lunch spots where some offer wifi.  We did sample a Bahamian lunch of pork pieces with a tangy cole slow topping, fried plantains, pigeon peas & rice and mac& cheese. Kalik is the popular local beer brewed in the Bahamas.

Unable to get a reliable internet connection on the boat in the harbor, we ventured into George Town and visited J&K Computers. You can sit and stay logged on all day or come back during the day as many times as you would like for $5. Julius and Krissie are a young married local couple who own and operate this business near Lake Victoria. They live in and are fixing up their house behind the computer shop as time permits.  The business occurs in a very small low green building with a door about 5 ½ feet high.  You step down into the building and check in with Krissie to pay your fee.  Julius studied computers in school and is very helpful and skilled at technical questions.  Krissie runs the shop and sets up “we” cruisers to log on.  There was a refrigerator in one corner of the room and Norma noticed a few people opening the top freezer to get a red or green Dixie cup.  Krissie sells the cups of frozen Kool Aid for 30 cents. They were popular.  Krissie knows her market and clientele – great little idea of hers.

On Lake Victoria, Jay filled the diesel jug from the local Shell station.  As well as serving local vehicle customers, they have a small dock for boaters to tie up which is where we have our dinghy in the photo.  A new station has opened in town across from the Market where we filled our gas jug.  We try to support them all!

In the distance is the main dinghy dock on Lake Victoria behind the Exuma Market usually full of dinghies from cruiser boats anchored across Elizabeth Harbor.  We leave our “homes” or boats anchored over by Stocking Island and dinghy across Elizabeth Harbor into George Town since Lake Victoria is only accessible through the arch and only a couple feet deep by the dock.  We fill our water jugs from a hose at the head of the dock maintained by cruisers but the RO water is compliments of Exuma Market.  There is another market on the lake used mostly by the local folks, although cruisers are welcome, since it caters more to their grocery needs.

On Volley Ball Beach near Chat 'n Chill, AJ took a conch from a string of them collected and stored in the water behind him to make a delicious conch salad as we watched.  He lets visitors feed the conch wastes (head,etc.)  to sting rays that swim right up to the shore to take them from your hand.  The rays seem to know when AJ is chopping at his stand as they just appear.  He says he has them trained.

 AJ learned to make conch salad and do his “chef” style chopping by watching his father. He used to drive the boat as his father hunted and collected conchs.  Then his younger brother (AJ is one of 6 children) took over the driving job and AJ moved on to salad maker.  AJ chops onion, tomato, green pepper, fresh conch to mix and sprinkle with his special mix of “island salt and spices”, and drizzles on lime and orange juices. He works at this stand seven days a week “saving every dime” to go to chef school anywhere, he says.  They throw the empty shells away but usually leave the conch tail in the shell which begins to smell.  AJ cleaned out the tail from one shell for me to keep.  After consulting with fellow cruisers the conch will be modified to become Priority’s very own announcer of sundown.

Peace & Plenty is another local bar/restaurant/hotel in George Town that we visited with boating friends for a refreshing drink and lunch.  A good time for all!

We have enjoyed many walks and hikes on Stocking Island. Here we captured a Kodak moment on an ocean beach. We met our good friends, Reto & Sally on La Danza, back at Emerald Bay before we all moved on here to George Town. Pat and Dave aboard Ten Years After are anchored next to us in the harbor.  We also found some coral reefs with colorful fish out in the Harbor and an impressive cave on the ocean side one day when it was pretty calm. We explored all around Crab Cay and Red Shanks by dinghy. George Town has been fun but the winds are calming down as we plan to sail on to Long Island.

Anchored in Elizabeth Harbor, east of George Town

George Town is a destination for many cruisers and a re-provisioning stopover for those passing through.  Either way the harbor is a long anchorage between Great Exuma and Stocking Island east of town. Priority arrived on Jan. 5th and is anchored just west of Hamburger Beach off Stocking Island.  About 125 boats total are anchored in the harbor.  Beautiful weather, nice breezes, white sandy beaches, five shades of blue water and everyone is welcoming to us “newbies”.  Getting connected to internet on the anchored boat is a hit or miss event so we are finally taking the computer into George Town to get connected.  Priority has the sun shining on it's white hull in the light blue water.

Stocking Island has some private home sites but mostly uninhabited.  Visitors are allowed to hike and climb the many trails from our harbor anchorage across to the ocean beaches. We climbed to the monument on the highest point of Stocking Island which is a well traveled path.

Flip Flop Beach is one of several uniquely decorated and named gathering places along the harbor shore.  A sundowner gathering of 50 or so cruisers met here to share some snacks, meet old friends and make new ones on Friday night.  Cruisers have created these meeting places which are all connected by hiking trails and they maintain them each year when they return for the winter.

The less traveled trails are our favorite ones to explore.  The ocean pounds hard against the shore to create the cave like cliffs and more challenging trails. 

Jungle like surrounding of palms and hardy bushes create some shady trails.

Beautiful beaches are found on both the ocean and harbor shores of Stocking Island.

We travel by dinghy across the harbor to George Town to visit the Exuma Market which is well stocked with reasonable priced items considering everything gets here by boat from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  The other smaller cay markets we have visited get stock by mailboat from Nassau so their inventory is much more limited. George Town is also a popular cruiser stop for its free R/O water (reverse/osmosis) compliments of Exuma Market.  Usually we must pay 40-50 cents/gal for fresh water so free water even if you can only get it in 5 gal. containers at a time is a treat.  Our dinghy goes through the arch in this photo to enter shallow Lake Victoria to tie up at Exuma Market’s dock to visit town and fill our water jugs.  Another cruiser delight is that you can drop off bagged trash to a dumpster- usually you must pay to dispose of trash.  

We will continue to explore George Town and surrounding areas for now.

Holed Up at Emerald Bay Marina

Bahama warm - we took one more long hike to find a view of Dotham Cut before leaving Black Point on Dec. 30th.  Coming back into the settlement we met Sharon Taylor weaving the long 5-6" wide strips in front of her house in the shade of a tree.   She explained that she has been weaving since she was old enough to remember and the woven strips were measured and sold by the fathom (6ft).  She said the three settlements of Staniel Cay, Black Point and Farmers Cay have always been self-sufficient fishing and farming communities.  The men fished and the people at home grew food to eat and wove strips.  Then the fish and weaving were taken to sell in Nassau.  She said the "young ones" go to school on the island through 8th grade in an all age 4 room school house.  If they continue their education, they go to live in Nassau or the states for high school. Sharon was, of course, happy for children to continue their education but as a mother, heartbroken, to see them go away.  She said the ones who leave usually do not return to live on the island.  Being aware of our interest in weaving, Sharon timidly offered to show us baskets she had woven which she kept in the house on top of a cabinet. They were beautiful and now we have a new basket on board.

After a quiet New Years Eve anchored off Little Farmers Cay,  we sailed out of Farmers Cut and had a beautiful sail down Exuma Sound.  Jay captured a moment on video so you could sail along with us. He says the cup in the cupholder probably shows the motion and sea state the best at the end of the clip. With forecasted west and north winds of 30kts for Tues/Wed we decided to look for protection in Emerald Bay Marina just north of George Town.

This is the breakwater and buoys to guide us into the Marina.  The six red and green buoys marking this entrance were more buoys than we have seen since leaving Florida. Buoys are difficult to maintain and keep lighted so there are few in the Bahamas. We depend on our GPS and electronic and paper charts.

The shore is either a beautiful sandy white beach or a rocky shelf or cliff like the carved out entrance to Emerald Bay.  You can see the marina behind me.

Emerald Bay is a beautiful marina facility that is not completed.  Our dock is not yet wired for electricity.  Therefore, it is undesirable for most boaters who want to plug in, but cheaper to rent for folks like us since we could charge our boat batteries with our solar panels and Honda generator if needed. 

Being in one secluded place for four days has given us a chance to renew friends and meet new ones.  The marina commons building was perfect for potluck dinners, sundowners and a chance to discuss charts. We even had dinner one night on Dave & Paula's 75' motor yacht from Key West.  John and his young son, Tyler, brought fresh coconut (white chunks on the white plate) they had just cracked from coconuts blown down in the marina during the winds.

We are really on vacation here at Emerald Bay.  We are spoiled with an internet connection, free laundry, nice showers, DVDs to borrow and a book exchange plus this beautiful building to use. Thursday we leave to travel south to explore George Town on Great Exuma Island.