Field Trip!
15 March 2013 | Long Island, Bahamas
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The local tourist office and Mike at Island Breeze, worked together with the cruisers rally from Georgetown to put together a bus tour of the local sights! About 80 of us cruisers squished into two children’s school buses (ah memories of field trips of old, the ruffian behind constantly kicking the seat, the smell of sour thermoses) and did the town.
First stop, the oldest loyalist church in Long Island. Old. Falling down. Then, our Wildman tour guide/diving instructor/drummer/stand up comedian showed us the sights, talked about politics, on the 20 minute drive to the Long Island Museum. This is a beautiful pink house where the history of the island is discussed with historical artifacts. There were also examples of local artisans plat and shell work in their gift store. The best was a tasting of bush teas- many of the ones that we had heard about from Cordell during his Georgetown lecture a couple weeks ago. Some were tasty, some were not, but all promised to cure whatever ails you from high blood pressure to acid reflux to increased “virility.” Modern medicine did not come to the Bahamas until the late 1950’s so there is a rich tradition of herbal holistic cures here. Fascinating!
But the very best was yet to come. We stopped at Dean’s Blue Hole near Clarence Town, which is supposedly the deepest in the world (663 feet!) , and is where they have most of the free diving competitions The woman’s current champion lives on a sailboat here in the harbor and travels quite a bit teaching and competing. The reigning men’s champ was actually at the blue hole practicing.. There are two diving platforms where they set up. He had an amazingly wiry physique- and his deepest dive is recorded at 409 feet. Holy Guacamole! I cant even fathom (ho ho) that. Lee and I snorkled over from the beach, and it was thrilling to see the pure white bottom gently descend and then suddenly, WHAM! The bottom dropped out ane we were gazing into immensely blue and deep hole. When you are used to being able to see the bottom of the sea bed, as is true throughout the Exuma Banks, it is quite something!
On a personal note, one the greatest parts of the trip for us was sitting across the bus aisle from none other than Nigel Calder ( who has written most of the major crusing bibles and THE bible on diesel maintenance and repair, which has saved our sorry behinds more than once!) He and his wife are out sailing the isles for a with their brother Chris. We tried not to pester our heroes with too many questions, and really were thrilled to spend part of the day with them. Wow.
Finished up the day visiting the St. Jerome St. Paul’s church in Clarence Town. It is a wonderfully simple, perfectly proportioned building complete with two bell towers accessible by steep, incredibly narrow and somewhat rickety ladders. The view was breathtaking and altogether worth it. A great day.