Long Island, Bahamas

We hauled anchor at 7:30 AM on February 12^th and set off from George Town to Thompson Bay on the west side of Long Island. It got a little bumpy over Little Exuma Island, but we turned course to hug the coastline of Hog Cay, which gave us a smooth ride for a few hours. It got bumpy again when we rounded the sandy point at the end of Hog Cay, but after an hour or so, we ended up in the lee of Long Island and the ride smoothed out again. We were anchored in time for our afternoon libations.

We knew the first full day in Thompson Bay, would be rolly because the winds were coming from the west, the exposed side of the anchorage. We also knew they would be clocking NW-N-NE later in the day, which would calm the bay. Despite the bumpy bay in the morning, we decided to go to the Long Island Petroleum fuel dock to top off our diesel tanks. It got a little dicey. The wind and waves were pushing us onto the dock (that just means toward). Getting onto the dock wasn’t a big deal. Dad tossed the bow line to the gentlemen waiting for us, then Dave let the wind and waves slowly push us toward the dock and we tied off the stern. The dock had rub rails and we had fenders out. The real trick was getting Lady off the dock against the wind and waves. Good thing Dave is a very experience captain. We put working turns* on the bow and stern. Dad dropped the bow line, Dave gunned the engines and steered the bow hard away from the dock, I dropped the stern line, and we were away. We returned to the north end of the bay, but tucked in closer to land this time to get more out of the swell. It worked.

*Working turn: For you non-boaters, that means both ends of the line are on the boat with just a loop around the dock post. Just drop one end of the line, let it hit the water and haul it in.

Once we were back at anchor, Dave and I took a wet dinghy ride ashore to do some reconnaissance. The dinghies already tied up at the dock were bouncing in the waves like a bunch of bucking broncos! We added ours to the mix and proceeded ashore. We checked out the well-stocked market, then walked down to the tourist office and got information about rental cars and things to see and do on the island. Before heading back to dinghy, we picked up some locally made sweet treats at the convenience store to enjoy on Lady with our afternoon drinks. But before that event, we picked up my folks and dinghied to the calm beach on the north end of the bay and ended up chatting with a bunch of other cruisers who had arrived while we’d been ashore, including our friends, the Hunters. That was fun, hanging out and chatting with other cruisers.

The following day was Valentine’s and we spent it driving around Long Island doing some sightseeing. We picked up the car in Salt Pond (where the dingy dock is) and started driving south toward Clarence Town. Our first stop was at the tiny, well curated Long Island Museum in Buckley’s Settlement. From there we continued south and stopped at Dean’s Blue Hole, in Dean’s Settlement. It is the second deepest blue hole in the world at about 600 feet. There was a lovely beach with several families hanging out and a few people snorkeling in the blue hole. Dave and I scrambled up to the overlook to take pictures. Breath-taking!

We continued our trek to Clarence Town and stopped at Flyfish Marina’s Lighthouse Point restaurant for a very quick lunch. We asked before ordering if they thought it was feasible to get our meals and still leave in time for our tour at Hamilton Caves about 15 minutes away. It was feasible, and lunch was both yummy and filling. I suspect our service was quick because it turned out the waitress’s uncle is the one who owns the caves. We ate fast, then headed back north to Hamilton Settlement for our 1:30 pm tour of the caves. We made it with 2 minutes to spare!

The caves were awesome! They are currently owned by Leonard Cartwright, who is also the tour guide. He’s in his early 70’s. The caves have been in his family since the 1800’s, when they bought them from the Queen! The caves were first excavated by the Loyalists sometime in the 1700’s. It is believed that the Lucayan’s used them somewhere in 500-700 AD. They gathered and cooked near the front, but also went deeper to seek shelter from storms and hurricanes. To this day, Leonard collects the fine-grained bat guano as fertilizer for his garden. The tour covers the safer, open parts of the cave- no crouching or crawling needed, but he remembers as a child playing hide and seek in all the offshoots. That must have been fun! He’s added a little garden-type area under some natural light holes in the ceiling. He uses it for dinner parties. Clever! Coming upon it is like finding an oasis in the desert. We saw three of the five bat species that inhabit the cave, though I can’t remember their names. One of them is the tiniest bat species at about only ¾” in size. It was an amazing tour, and Leonard was a good storyteller. After our tour we started the trip back to Salt Pond to return the car. We stopped at a little café/department store, a couple of liquor stores (the one in Salt Pond was closed!), and a little gift shop with local-made items mostly (which we didn’t buy). It was a lovely day.

The next day, Dave and I went ashore to explore the local cave that turned out to be right next to the car rental place. It wasn’t as big as Hamilton Caves, but it was still impressive. We even saw some big brown bats. When we were done exploring, we collected Mom & Dad from Lady and returned to shore to have lunch at Sou’ Side Restaurant. It was yummy and friendly. We chatted with a local (a transplant, not a born islander) while we sipped our rum punches and awaited our meals. We picked up a few items at the market before returning to Lady. 

We spent our final day in Thompson Bay anchorage dubbing around with chores, then the following day we headed to the northwest end of the island to anchor just below Cape Santa Maria to stage for a hop to Rum Cay the following day. It was a bit rolly with wrap-around swell from the point, but it was lovely and quiet. Dave, Dad and I decided to dinghy ashore to the beach for a walk. As we approached the nearer beach, we could see the swell was actually crashing onto the beach, so we headed for the beach a little further down. The swell wasn’t crashing ashore, so we approached. Bad idea! The surge may not have been crashing, but it was washing VERY strongly onto the beach. Once caught in that, dinghy was thrust ashore repeatedly. Getting dinghy off the beach and back into the water was a mess. We eventually managed it, but I think it was more luck than our efforts. We returned to Lady a little wiser.  Friday, February 17^th sent us to Rum Cay, east of the north end of Long Island. That is where I will pick up next time. Until then, enjoy the slide show of Long Island, and stay safe and take care of each other!