Long Island, Bahama February 6-9, 2009

Long Island, Bahama February 6-9, 2009

In my last entry I wrote about the George Town to Long Island sailing race and the events. When the weather refused to turn off the fan for awhile we decided that there were lots of fun things we could do on Long Island while waiting for a weather window to go either east to Rum Cay and Conception or south to the Jumentos.

Long Island is around 60 miles long and in some parts as much as four miles (mostly less) across from bayside to ocean side. The eastern coastline on the Atlantic Ocean side is made up of beaches, rocky outcroppings, wooded area, a few small settlements, and the Capital town of Clarence Town with its open roadstead harbor. It’s a wild exposed shoreline with a few poor anchorages and two marinas. The western coast on Exuma Sound, where we were anchored at Thompson’s Bay, contains the more sheltered bays, miles of salt water flats and snug harbors, fishing camps, two resorts and two marinas. There are at least two options to fly onto Long Island, Deadman’s Cay and Stella Maris Resort. The travel brochures of Santa Maria and Stella Maris sound as if the diving, snorkeling or fishing would be excellent at the right time of year.


Windsong and Sea Star took our dinghies ashore to search out the caves that were mentioned in our guide book. Two were within walking distance of Thompson Bay where we were anchored with perhaps thirty boats. The day was really warm, so we grabbed water, our VHF radio, put on socks and shoes for the first time in ages and set off to find the first cave “past the auto place 65 paces then walk down a path to the left about 200 feet.” We missed the path on the first pass, but found the trail to the opening of the cave on the second. Personally, I don’t like closed spaces, especially dark ones, but Jamie and Dan were thrilled with the stalagmite and stalactite limestone formations as we trained our beams up and down the walls to see the shapes and discover the size of the rooms.

 It didn’t seem too bad to me; I could see the entry light and the end light, so I also went in. The ceiling was of varied heights, but at around 8 feet high we looked up and were greeted with the sight of little tiny mouse–like brown, furry bats suspended just above us from sides of rocky crevices. Jamie was beginning to take pictures so I got up my courage to continue on in and try shooting a few pics, too. Looking up was bad enough, but knowing I was standing under bats and had bat guano on my feet took some getting used to. Of course the flash woke up the creatures and now we were farther into the cave. A few of them left the ceiling then many were flying around our heads. After our initial reticence and surprise , Dan and I just scooted under the bats and went toward the light. Jamie loves exploring caves and he went deeper to see if there were more chambers. It was a fun explore. Here was a wild place with no one collecting tickets outside!

We explored two more caves the next day. The Salt Pond Cave was higher and wider than the first cave but went in deeper with uneven, narrow, rocky pathways with large holes underfoot and damp, dripping walls on either side. I didn’t want to go on into the darker recesses, but didn’t want to stay and wait alone either, so I forced myself to follow the thin beam of my flashlight after the others. It was well worth the trip in for the adventure.

This cave had a different species of bat hanging above our heads and in the bat mess on the floor were 2” insects we decided were cockroaches, scurrying along out of the light beam. Everybody cringed at the sight of them. The ceiling in the entry area and even farther in was very tall, with some light coming in from the domed ceiling. After the first chamber the paths were slippery and narrowed down quite a bit. Craig from Charmed suggested we all turn off our lights- and we did for a few seconds. We could hear the eerie squeak or chirp, chirp of the awakened bats and feel the air move when they flew by our heads. Again a fun experience, I thought, as I rushed to get the heck out!

Next we got back in the dinghies for a trip to discover something more to my liking. After a quick stop at the boats to wash and change shoes to sandals we were looking along the beach shore line for the Parrots of the Caribbean bar and grill for lunch. The open air restaurant has a dredged narrow canal just wide enough for two dinghies side by side but there were four dinghies to land, so out into the water I jump and pull the boat forward to make room.

 A tasty fish lunch was had by all and plans made for car rentals to explore Long Island and get needed provisions the next day. One of the couples suggested we get our 24 hour rental from 12PM to 12PM the next day. This proved to be an excellent idea as we could travel south one day and north the next. We picked up the car we would share with Windsong, at Fox’s Auto and headed south.

The one road running the length of the island is called the Queen’s Highway, a two lane road passing the small communities named with tiny roadside signs -Simms, Old Neils, Wemyss, and on to Stella Maris with Jamie trying to remember to drive on the left hand side of the road. Stella Maris Resort offers a dive operation with pool and dive classes and a protected marina. Unfortunately the shop was closed as it was winter. Dan was looking for some equipment and a repair, but no luck. We drove up to the resort for lunch where I had excellent conch chowder and climbed the observation tower.

 After lunch we explored the resort property’s cave. Since the resort has installed electricity in the cave and has parties in it, it didn’t hold the same intrigue as the other caves-but we did see some more bats. Further down the road we turned left on a dirt road where a sign read Ruins. We stopped to walk the remains of a 200 year old Loyalist plantation, Adderley Plantation, located mostly on the bayside from just above the salt flats to the top of a small hill. There were the ruins of some of the main buildings all carved from limestone blocks. The crop grown there was cotton, though it would seem impossible to grow anything in the limestone, rocky soil in the searing heat.

On down the road toward the northeast point of the island lies Cape Santa Maria and Calabash Bay. Jamie was looking for the Christopher Columbus monument at Cape Santa Maria. On the left was a sign “Monument”, so he turned onto the dirt road to follow the sign. The road was an adventure in our rented Cavalier. As careful as he was the car did not have the clearance to be on that hilly, windy, narrow, rock strewn and steep terrain. After following the road for about 5 miles or more at 5MPH we arrived at the Cape. Climbing the last 200 feet to the monument and gazing at the incredible vista was aided by a chain railing.

 Looking north you see the confluence, on that day dark blue and turbulent , of the Atlantic Ocean with the lighter blue and turquoise water of Exuma Sound and the obvious rocky and reef areas. You are able to see the protected bay encircled by tall rocks with caves cut by the force of the swirling water. We did see two snorkelers emerge from the water in the bay, but the day was cold. I don’t think they would have been very comfortable without wetsuits. In something less than another hour we were back on the main road.

Traveling to the end of the road, we stopped, crossed a small concrete bridge over a mangrove creek and walked up a little path to another beach. We beach combed on a fantastically lovely beach on the ocean side. The wind kept us from going in for a swim but we walked for awhile, turning over the sea weed to see what could be found. Unfortunately, lots of what was to be seen in the sea weed was plastic washed up from trash thrown in the water from who knows where as that beach is wide open to the ocean side.

 I won’t dwell on it, only know that from our experiences in these quite remote areas that plastics are overwhelming the natural flotsam of beaches. Instead of eye-pleasing subtle browns made by water on wet sand and the lines of brown, yellow and green sea weeds, there are the garish colors of globs, bits, scraps and barrels of man-made discarded plastics, orange and blue string fishnets, shoes, flip-flops, water bottles, gas cans and oil bottles contrast with the violent blues and greens of the Caribbean waters.

Our supper that evening was at Washington’s Restaurant, a recommendation from Mike at Island Breeze, and an excellent one for well prepared Bahamian food.

The next day our trip south took us to Clarence Town to Ida’s Straw Store and somewhat beyond, but not far enough we heard later, to see the flamingos at the south end of the island. I did a little food and household shopping on the way back to Thompson Bay. I was actually able to buy needed bed pillows at a small home furnishing store in Pinders and Dan bought the one dive weight in another small convenience store.

 After lunch at Sou’ Side, we returned the car. The rest of the day was spent in grocery shopping and lugging food to the dinghy, then onto the boat and putting it all away, followed by laundry at Island Breeze Resort, where we also had access to internet. We were able to purchase diesel at a fair price at Esso Petroleum at the dockside pump and not have to carry jerry jugs.

There was so much to do at Long Island we barely scratched the surface. The George Town cruisers are spreading out to this pleasant island of good restaurants and friendly, helpful people as George Town becomes too crowded for some.