Exploring Long Island
12 April 2018 | Cape Santa Maria, Long Island
Firstly we can report that Rowdy Boys was not at all rowdy; we were the only customers but a good meal was had, washed down by the fine local beer (Kalik).
We stopped in the anchorage at Clarence Town for an extra day to explore the island by hire car. We had been sailing for quite a few days, so it was good to take a break and do something different. Lots to report.
There is one main road which runs the 100-mile length of the island. Our first stop was the Hamilton Caves, the second largest cave system in the Bahamas, where the owner, Leonard, showed us round - very impressive stalactites, stalagmites and bats, and well worth the stop. Then we took a drive up the Queen's Highway for a cracked conch lunch - it tastes like a cross between lobster and calamari, and pronounced 'conk' here. Very tasty.
Then a meander around some of the very exclusive beach-side lots on the shallow west coast, where people have been building beautiful beach houses. Looks divine but feels a touch lacking things to do, perhaps with the exception of going to church. Never have we seen such a high density of churches per capita, all well maintained and beautifully painted. Long Island is bisected by the Tropic of Cancer, and we crossed it twice. On the way home we had a swim at Dean's Blue Hole. This is a vertical hole just at the edge of the sea that drops down through the limestone to over 200m in depth. It is slightly un-nerving to swim over the edge from the pale green of the standing depth white coral sand, and be suddenly over the centre of the deep blue hole. The day finished with a sun-downer at the Flying Fish Marina, and then watching the bull sharks and tiger sharks coming in, hoping to be fed at the marina fish-gutting station.
Some excitement this morning when we discovered our anchor chain had snagged a water-logged tree on the seabed. It took a bit of shifting - using a long rope and the buoy-stabber - but shift it eventually did, and all was well.
Today we sailed round the north of Long Island and anchored just south of Cape Santa Maria. The water is turquoise blue, the sand white and the place is deserted. We have now left the Tropics and will head over towards Great Exuma and on to the Exuma Cays. The swimming pigs are getting closer!