The wind was from the east so the sea was beautiful. We both had a dip in one of the large pools created by the rocks and beach. It was a great start to the year. Then we went and watched the C class races in the Harbour from the fishermen’s area. It was so cool to see these C class boats. Each had 4-5 crew, they are similar to the Bermuda Fitted Dingy but smaller. Each boat was pushed to its limit, just amazing to watch. The Warrior won.

We spent the following few days trying to sort out an air card to get some type of of Internet doing this meant spending hours for 2 days in the Internet shack with Julius. I did manage to update the site but still it was like being back at work, groan! The end result was we still couldn’t get Internet.

We had an excellent barbeque evening out at Peace and Plenty with Al and Sue. The food was amazing, Mac and cheese and coleslaw both were spicy and the best ever, plus Mai Mai grilled to perfection. It was a very good night, fun, laughs, music and entertainment.

Saturday the 5th we rented bikes with Al.

What an experience! I am now sympathetic towards all tourists that spend a day on the back of a rental bike on rough roads. Wow it is a real work out just to stay on the back and after several hours the old hips feel displaced. Saying that we had a blast!

Literally we went from one end to the other, covered 80 odd miles and managed to see everything on the tourist map. Our first destination was Little Exuma, we visited the salt ponds and salt tower, and the plantation ruins and stopped at Ma’s bakery and met Ma. She apparently had visited Bermuda when she won Employee of the Year at the Bahamas Princess. What a precious older person. We ate lunch at her bar and restaurant which was fish beans and rice and veg.

Then off we zoomed to explore Grand Exuma Island. We drove to the furthest northern point and visited the boat builders and actually met the gent that built the Warrior that was the C class boat that we had seen win on New Years Day.

 

Unfortunately on our last bend in the road back Al skidded on the gravel that was in the road and had a deck/crash. Luckily he wasn’t badly hurt, but before we knew it loads of locals had come to help him. He hastily got on the bike and off we went to the closest bar to clean him up.

That took all of 2 minutes but by the time we had returned the bikes about 10 minutes later the bike renter had been told of Al’s skid. Such is small island life. (He wasn’t charged for it as the bike was already damaged)

We set sail for Long Island on Monday January 7th at 7:00am from Sand Dollar where we had moved to on the Sunday. It was one of those fast sailing days, the boat at 20 – 30 degrees heeled over. I find it uncomfortable, as even getting to the head is a major operation for me. I literally have to walk on the side of the inside of the boat and then use the head at a crazy angle. Anyway too much info.

We arrived by 3:00 pm and were anchored in Thompson Bay just south of the Tropic of Cancer. Long Island is stunning! “It is located 160 miles southeast of Nassau. The 230 square mile island is only four miles at its widest point, but an uninterrupted 80-mile stretch of contrasting coastline gives Long Island it’s name. Crossed by the Tropic of Cancer, Long Island has the Gulf Stream warming the ocean in the winter and cooling trade winds in the summer. The population is approximately 3,500 persons.

Long Island

is characterized by high cliffs in the north, wide, shallow, sandy beaches, historic plantation ruins, native caves and Spanish churches. It is the most contrasting of the Bahamas Islands with secluded coves of the Atlantic shore giving way to countless tranquil bays on the Caribbean side. ” Made up of 35 quaint villages and farming “towns” Long Island has a reputation for being one of the friendliest Bahamas Islands.

We were pleased to meet up with our friends on Carpe Diem and we were part of a group of a dozen cruising boats in Thompson Bay most of which we had met and were friends.

On our first day we set off exploring a bay on the Atlantic coast with Ted. The Atlantic coast is extremely beautiful with the white cliffs and rock formations. Unfortunately there is a mountain of rubbish, mainly plastic, which the Atlantic has thrown up on the shoreline. The sea has regurgitated mans waste.  It really illustrated to me how far off track man has come to let the sea become a dumping ground. The 3 of us had an excellent hike along the shoreline and returned to The Breeze, which is a small Hotel in Salt Cay, to have a lunch.

The following day Leta arranged for most of the cruisers to meet in the bay to go for a hike. We set off through the trees, down a path, along a road, turning left a telephone pole 108, into the bush and along another path to the Atlantic Shoreline.

Wow! What a beautiful beach it came out to. Again the pile of trash did detract from the natural beauty. However most of the cruisers we travel with are beach comers, as I am and they were very happy to sift through all of the seaweed and trash looking for the treasures they seek. Most of them highly value sea beans and sea glass; one was looking for the small plastic balls from hair bobbles while my main interest is shells. John headed off with the majority towards the south while Roland signaled for me to go with him and Leta.

We cut through the bushes to the neighboring bay, which again was stunningly beautiful. From there we crossed two bays and then climbed a cliff, (they are both in their 70s but are more agile and fit than many half their age), down the other side of the cliffs we continued to further bays. I had an amazing time, it was just a great hike and the scenery was, as I said, stunning. Plus I was able to find a glass ball, a huge beautiful triton and dozens of shells and sea beans.

However, meanwhile apparently John was in a stew as I was missing and neither he, nor anyone else of the other 12 he was with knew where I had gone or whom I was with. Then Cil suggested that I might be with Leta and Roland and that he would help John look for me. We finally all met up when we were nearly back on our original beach. John was very concerned and next time I’ll be sure to let him know when I go off. All in all I had a brilliant time. From there we went to a local bar and had a lovely fish sandwich returning to the boat just in time to meet Ted to go ashore again for laundry, Internet and dinner at the Breeze.

During our following days we managed to stock up, as the supply boat arrived, have some excellent walks and enjoy some more social gatherings, one of which was on Aeeshah.

For our last couple of days we rented a car with Ted. As we could only get it at 1:30 pm it meant we had it for an afternoon and a morning. We visited the southern end of the island starting with the Spanish church, St Mary’s, which is thought to have been built by the Spanish in the 1700s, and then the museum. The museum specialized in the local culture, which was just so similar to my Bermudian heritage. They build kites as we do, the children’s games were the same, and most of the foods like the preparation of the cassava and shark were practically the same. There were pieces I recognized from my childhood like the food safe and large aluminum pans. The people are also very similar to St David islanders or like my Nana’s family from Somerset Bermuda. I found it fascinating in the museum.

We then attempted to visit the Salt Ponds, which the Diamond Salt Company had until a short time ago, but as time was short we visited Clarence Town instead. This again is a small fishing and agricultural community, small as in one shop a few bars and churches. The next morning we set out at 7:00 to tour. Our first destination was at the southern end of Long Island where Cil told us the beach was covered with sponges.

Well he was correct; the recent weather had brought many sponges ashore. We walked the beautiful beach, John and Ted collecting sponges while I was focused on shells. A lovely hour or so was spent wandering the beach.

Then it was on to the Dean’s Blue Hole. This is the blue hole where the free divers have recently set a record of diving 200 odd feet. The whole area is spectacular; it is a large beautiful bay with the blue hole tucked in the corner. The free divers, from Blue Vertical were there practicing their free diving, which sort of messed my photo up. John timed one free diver and she was down for 2 minutes 30 seconds, not long as she was just a trainee.

We had several interesting evenings on Long Island. One was spent at local bar where the tourist rep Travina was going to cook us a dinner. Well we all had a great happy hour and then found out that for one reason or another there was no special dinner and settled for what they could find for us, ours was fish sandwiches. Another evening spent at the Breeze having pizza and then a fire by the dock with our famous Ted playing and singing for us all. Excellent singer, great guy! We love you Ted!

Jumentos or Ragged Islands

We had decided to go with Roland and Leta, on Kokomo, Ted on Mekeyah and Cil and Cecilia on Carpe Deim south to the Jumentos or Ragged Islands as they are called by some. They are the most southerly of the Bahamas Islands and are described as an unpopulated wilderness with only one tiny settlement. It is and area of self-reliance where help may be non-existent or days away.

The first leg took us from Long Island to Flamingo Cay leaving at 6:30 finally arriving nine and a half hours later. We sailed most of the way, the seas were around 5 foot swells with the wind averaging 15 knots. John and I jumped in and swam to shore once we had arrived. (Days later I saw why that is not such a clever idea)

The following day we spent exploring the island by hiking, snorkeling and beach combing. One area was excellent for snorkeling and was beautiful above water too. I saw eagle and manta rays, the others saw a giant turtle, plus we found a number of conch. Above water there were ospreys nesting on the little islets in the bay. The conch we kept for Leta to make conch salad and fritters.

We moved on to Raccoon Cay, which was an eight-hour sail away. It was an excellent sail of 6 knots the whole way on a beam reach. The day was just brilliant.

When we arrived the others got together to clean conch, I walked the beach as it makes me sad to see the killing of anything. I know it’s ridiculous as I found a good number of the conch but I didn’t want to see them slain. John saved a few of the shells for me. While walking the beach I saw a black tipped reef shark in the shallows the first I had seen here. There were a few other cruisers in the bay already and that evening there was trash burning and light hors dorves on the beach.

What everyone does is saves the cans and bottles for the real trash when in a settlement, the biodegradable goes over-board and the rest get burnt. It was a good gathering of just over a dozen boats. The following day was spent exploring Raccoon starting with a beach and rock hike. As mentioned everyone in our group has a special interest in the trash piled on the beaches. We have been taught that you use walking sticks made of bamboo, found on the beach of course, used for walking and digging in the piles of debris along the shoreline.

Leta and Roland are pros when it comes to hunting sea beans, fans and bits of wood for centerpieces and jewelry. I hunt the shells of which I have found bundles of beauties. John just strides ahead with Cil. Ted looks for everything for all of us and occasionally finds a shell he likes. It was a great hike after which we spent the afternoon John and I just exploring the bays. We had an excellent meal on board Kokomo of conch fritters made by Leta, conch salad made by Cil and tomato salad by yours truly. We had noticed what we thought was a huge remora under the boat, John thought shark, but we deceived it must have been a remora as it was bright blue.

Our next Cay was Double Breasted just an hour away. John and I were reluctant to go there as we had the impression from the charts that it was a small anchorage and as most of the boats were going there, we wondered if there would be room. It turned out to be a huge anchorage in beautiful bays between several scenic cays. Just a lovely area. However as the day went on we started noticing sharks around the boat. Huge black tipped reef sharks that would cruise around and around the boat. If you throw anything in or splash the water they get all excited and dart around looking for the source. Now I realized why jumping in the water when you arrive at an anchorage is NOT a smart idea and will not be repeated.

Several days were spent at Double Breasted, we went lobster diving, John got 3, we walked miles and miles of shoreline and explored all over. As mentioned one can find absolutely everything along the shoreline. If it has been made we have found it…….including a BOMB….. a Cruise Missile!!! No kidding lying right there with all its warnings and of course John wanted to get real close and poke with it. We also found an enormous cave, which took, up an entire headland. John climbed down and dug around inside to see what he could find. We are really getting into this beach combing. I bring back so many beautiful shells and will soon need to decide what to do with them all. (We left the Cruise Missile where it was; we had no need for it.)

Hog Cay

On writing this now we have been here in the Jumentos for 11 days. The last 5 have been in Hog Cay, which is the main camp for the few cruisers that visit this lost end of the Bahamas Islands. It seems like the edge of the world, as it is so undeveloped and wild. There are as many as 2 dozen cruisers in the area, most of then having years of experience and just a few of us newbies.

The regulars have built a very cool recreational area. It consists of a Tiki hut with benches, 2 fire pits, one for trash and one for grilling. The whole structure is made of bamboo, wood and items salvaged from the shoreline. They have made pathways around the cay that are marked by the debris found along the shore each having a different theme. For example one trail is all flip-flops another has toys while another is plastic containers. Those are just a few examples of the marked trails. We have walked the beaches, cliffs, vistas and interior of Hog. It is a truly beautiful paradise, which few get to see. The only sad part is again the amount of debris littering the shoreline, BUT the cruisers here walk the shore and dig through the mounds of rubbish looking for all the treasures to be found. Anything that could be used is used at camp. Leta and most of the ladies look for the special sea beans like the Hamburger, Monkey Face and the Mary bean. Everyone hunts for sea glass and shells. The men especially look for the perfect size buoys for their game of Bachy Ball by the Tiki Hut. We all hunt any useful objects. I have found a perfect sea cushion from another boat and a large red thermos that was as good as from a shop. I’ve even seen John trying to salvage the seal from a fridge to see if he could use it on our fridge, alas it was not salvageable. I mentioned to him” if the guys from work could only see you now”.

The walk and beach combing usually happens early every morning and we normally go with Leta, Roland and Ted. All of the guys here love to go “fishing” the usual prey is lobster and here it is spear fishing the lobster. The women usually snorkel while the guys do the hunting. Or sit in the dingy while they ” hunt” as the sharks are unreal!!! I have had just one close encounter with a black tip reef shark and upon seeing it managed to propel myself into the dingy by one kick of my fins. Some of the men do go line fishing and then share out their catch.

We also have a supply of lobster from a local fellow called Monkey Man. He lives in Duncan Town, which is on the neighboring cay Ragged Island. There are only 50 odd people that live there. There are 12 school children taught by a couple from Guyana. 6 of those children are from one family.

The women cruisers here are all very involved in different crafts. Leta taught basket weaving in the shade of the Tiki hut one afternoon. She also makes beautiful sea bean jewelry. Most of the other ladies make jewelry from the sea glass and or shells. Arlene Off of Blue Heaven makes the most amazing rugs. She designs the rug, dyes the wool, spins it and then makes the most amazing rugs the likes of which I have never seen. Then Pam on Jubilee makes Valentine boxes. These are 3D pictures made from seashells. Most of the shells she gets by snorkeling everyday along the shoreline. Some of pictures are made using sea urchin spines and are just bigger than an inch. They are made with such detail using the smallest of shells and are exquisite!  I have never seen such amazing work. Plus she makes beautiful jewelry. Overall such a very talented bunch!

On about our second day we felt a need to get some much-needed fresh produce. We headed in to Duncan Town. This entailed traveling down the coast to Ragged Island to a 2-mile dingy channel through the mangroves. The settlement was very basic with a great main road that has recently been built for the very few vehicles that can be seen occasionally driving along. Once there we walked to the BTC office to try to get some more minutes for the phone and to seek help for our failed air card. Then we asked the BTC man when the grocery would be open. He said his dad was out fishing soooooo maybe 1pm. We patiently waited 3 hours and when finally his Dad still had not appeared Cullin, the BTC guy let us in the grocery store. Our lunch consisted of 530 calories of junk food each, according to Ted’s calculations, as we had only chips, corn curls and soda to eat for lunch as the bar & restaurant was not open. (I had less as I had water not soda) then it was back to the boat. (We weren’t able to pay for our purchases, as Cullin didn’t know what to charge us so we have to return one day to pay for our few groceries)

The latest front came in with a blast of expected wind of up to 30+ knots and a day of unexpected rain showers. Rain is very rare in this part of the Bahamas as it is dry and rugged.

We watched from the boat as one of the local Boston whalers sped up the shoreline to the beach. He had 2 excited dogs with him. Off the boat they leapt, he threw the anchor ashore, while the dogs disappeared into the brush. Not long after could be heard the sounds of yapping dogs, a few whistles and shouts followed by BANG!! Of a shotgun. The guy was out hunting the islands goat population. This continued for much of the day. John and I headed for a walk towards the northern end when we knew he had left that area. There we met Barry and Susan who told us that Ed was on the north beach when the local fellow and his dogs had trapped a goat and he saw him shoot it. I personally felt disgusted by the whole experience. However most of the guys didn’t see what was wrong with hunting goats.

The blustery, showery weather continued so it was boat chores and hikes as snorkeling was not appealing in those conditions.  We also have another trash burn evening with heavy hors d’œuvres, which turned out to be side dishes. One evening it was a 4:30pm cook out and side dishes, which was basically an excellent potluck, and you grill your own meat. It was excellent. Great food and excellent company plus you are back by 7:30pm.  Hans off of Lucky Touch grilled some 30 of the 600 German sausages that he had made, they were amazing.

Just as we were running out of all fresh fruit and eggs Maxine who has the store on Ragged Island returned from Nassau and brought what she had in her shop out to Hog for all the cruisers to have a shopping spree. There was great excitement and anticipation! She arrived with the groceries, a master carpenter and a few boatloads of timber and building supplies. She had decided to build a hut for the locals and cruisers to use at their get togethers. So the day was spent getting a few supplies and the guys digging a foundation plus helping to fix Monkey Mans outboard. I was able to get 9 limes, 5 oranges, some eggs, 2 onions, 2 carrots and 3 grapefruit plenty till Long Island.

On our last evening we had drinks aboard Kokomo and said a sad farewell to Leta and Roland who we have been near or with since we left Marathon. Followed by Ted cooking us an amazing lobster dish on board Aeeshah. Ted has been a real source of entertainment; we have shared so many good laughs together.

Finally we had a weather window on Tuesday January 29th we said our good byes to many of the 25 cruisers at Hog Cay and began our return to Long Island where we will prepare to depart the Bahamas for the Turks and Caicos followed by Dominican Republic. Our passage back started with a blustery sail averaging 6 knots to Buena Vista Cay. There we rode the dingy into the island in the afternoon and walked the shore towards dwelling where apparently lived a lone man. We found he wasn’t home so set off along the beach, found a path to the far shore and went exploring. We found the other shoreline to be the most rugged we have seen to date. It is wildly beautiful but very inhospitable. It too bears huge piles of man’s waste upon its shores.

The next leg of our return took us to Water Cay. The trip was a fast boisterous sail not what was expected, but we arrived in 6 hours averaging a good 6 knots. However the jib tore

due to the high winds. Water Cay looked to be very beautiful but we had no time to explore.

The final day of our return took us across the Comer Channel, a boring stretch  of very shallow water. Arriving at Long Island by the end of the month just in time to call Kate on her birthday. January was a fabulous month!!

“People are opportunities. The gift is in the interaction and the connection with another person, whether it lasts forever or not.”  – Colleen Seifert

“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.”  – Salma Hayek

 

A bit of Feb news: one of our fellow cruisers had his boat filmed for the Bahamas Super Bowl add. Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKVLTy4I9A