During our 3 day stay at Clarence Town, there was quite a bit of wind which was pushing us away from the dock. Except for the squeaking dock lines, this seemed like a good thing until we realized that the boat was too far away from the dock to get off with a huge step or mighty leap. So we finally lassoed a piling and winched the boat in so we could disembark.
Once again, we rented a car for the day and drove the entire length of Long Island (appropriately named) . One can’t get lost here since there is only ONE main road, running the length of the island. At the north end, we drove over a dirt road full of ruts to …..ANOTHER Columbus monument. It seems that Columbus ships landed here. In fact the north point of the island is named Cape Santa Maria after one of Columbus ships which went aground here on the outlying coral reef. Knowing that we had to sail around that same cape the next day, we took note of how far out the reef extended.
On the drive north, we stopped at a tiny farmer’s market to buy some homegrown tomatoes. We also discovered an excellent small chandlery where we picked up some marine wire for one of Dave’s boat projects.
Provisioning for groceries was a challenge throughout the Bahamas. We found several stores with quite a bit on the shelves but the PRICES were crazy high. A box of crackers for $8. A small bag of cookies for $5. We wondered how the Bahamians were able to buy things, but I guess they don’t buy such packaged goods.
While we were driving along the main….and only…..road on Long Island, we saw a sign at a church: “Souse 7 am Saturday”. We weren’t sure what a “souse” was so we pulled into the parking lot to ask some members standing around about this event. It seemed odd to have a drinking party (which is what we thought “souse” was) at 7 am at a church. The members assured us that a “souse” was a large breakfast with lots of fish, chicken etc. It was a fund raising event for a local school.
Another attraction on Long Island are the many lovely small churches. It seems that Father Jerome, an Anglican priest, turned Roman Catholic, good architect, built several of these small churches. The largest church sits on a hill with a panoramic view over the entire south side of the island.
For lunch we enjoyed local conch dishes at the highly recommended Max’s Conch Bar. We shared an excellent fresh conch salad and crack conch dinner (“Crack” means fried – not the opioid version). Other cruisers were there too and we gained a lot of local knowledge about anchorages in the Bahamas over some cold beer and conch.
That night there was “fish fry” held on the commercial pier in town, close to our marina. The crowd grew as the evening progressed along with the sound from the DJ speakers. This loud music along with the Bahamian accent made ordering food at the barbeque stand a challenge. After several attempts to learn what was available, Dave thought he had ordered one barbeque chicken and one barbeque pork --- oh wait, pork is all gone. How about shrimp? Wait, shrimp is all gone. Well, just give us what you have! Two dinners of chicken were produced along with rice and beans and “macaroni salad” which is really macaroni and cheese in a square block like lasagna. Actually all VERY TASTY!
After returning to the boat from the fish fry, Dave discovered our boat keys were missing. We searched the car floor, the parking lot and finally drove back to the fish fry to search that dirt parking lot. Dave asked at the food stall and was told that someone had found a set of keys and turned them in to the DJ. Keys retrieved – nice to be in an honest community!
After two nights at the marina in Clarencetown marina, we sailed around the infamous Cape Santa Maria to Calabash Bay for a peaceful night at anchor. The coral heads and reefs were scattered around but we were starting to gain some expertise at recognizing the water colors. Linda would stand on the bow with a set of headsets spotting the darker patches to avoid. Sometimes the dark patches “moved” which meant it was a cloud shadow and not a coral reef.