Tag: Caves

Long Island, Bahamas

We hauled anchor at 7:30 AM on February 12th 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 17th 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!

Rock Sound via South Palmetto Point

Settle in; this one’s a bit lengthy…

Our last morning at Governor’s Harbor we went ashore early to avail ourselves of the laundromat to wash our sheets. We can and have washed them aboard Indigo Lady, but it’s challenging, so we hold out for laundromats when we can. Going ashore also afforded us the opportunity to get some gas for dingy, a couple of bottles of wine for Dave, a coffee from Da Perk for me, and some cinnamon rolls from the local bakery. We were back on Lady and underway by 10:30 am, enjoying those fresh and still warm cinnamon rolls!

It was a quick trip to anchor off South Palmetto Point, a stop I wanted to make because I’d heard about the amazing Island Farm with fresh produce, honey, jams & jellies, baked goods, etc. We were just preparing to go ashore to the Farm when @sailingseadragon dingied over to say hello. We’d met them back in Alabaster Bay. They were heading to Rock Sound. We arranged to meet up there the following day and spend some time together. Dave and I went ashore and walked the mile to Island Farm. We missed out on the baked goods, but we stocked up on fresh produce, including locally grown bananas, plus local honey, cheese and fresh salami. We also sprung for a Bahamian rum cake, commercially baked, but at least in the Bahamas. 

About 6:00 am the following morning, we woke to a few mosquitoes buzzing around our heads. After swatting a couple of them, we decided it was best to just get up and get underway for Rock Sound, though earlier than we’d planned. As soon as Dave got to the salon, he discovered that our magnetic screen door had blown open along 5” or so, which is what let in the mosquitoes. Dang! 

We had a quick breakfast of fresh, local sugarloaf pineapple that we’d bought in Governor’s Harbor, along with half each of the third cinnamon bun we’d bought there as well the morning we left. Double yum! We were underway by 7am. This was a longer, 23 nm trip, so I had a few hours to get ahead on blog entries and periodically go cabin to cabin rousting and killing mosquitoes. By the end of the evening we’d collectively killed about 3 dozen of the blighters, at least half of which had already bitten one of us.

At one point about halfway through our trip, a fish hit the line Dave had out trawling, but it got off before he could see what it was. We told ourselves it was just a barracuda, which we would have thrown back anyway. About a mile from the anchorage, in about 10 feet of water, we hit another fish. This time Dave landed a 25” black grouper! He dispatched it and put it in the bucket to clean after we’d anchored a few minutes later. Our new friends on Sea Dragon had passed us as the fish hit. As soon as our anchor was down, their nine-year-old son was on the radio excitedly hailing us to find out what we’d caught and how we’d caught it. He loves fishing and is learning how to spear fish this season. We invited them over for drinks and snacks for later in the afternoon. Dean and Sarah came over for some adult time, leaving the kids on board for some solo time of their own. We had a lovely chat for 3 or so hours and then they left for the very short dingy ride back to their boat and kids. 

We went ashore shortly after breakfast the next morning and headed about three quarter of a mile south to Cathedral Cave, also known locally as Spider Cave. The local nickname of Spider Cave is due to the numerous webs stuck to the rocks. They reminded me of Halloween decorations. The cave itself has lots of openings in the ‘ceiling’ allowing in sufficient light from above to not require flashlights. It was fun to poke around the nooks and crannies in this spacious cave. Lots of tree roots reached down from above seeking the cave’s floor. There were also lots of bats, lots more than we’d seen in Hatchet Bay Cave. This also meant lots of bat guano in some places, so we had to be careful where we put our hands. There are, of course, pictures and video of the caves and bats in the slide show below. 

We walked back into town looking for a place for lunch. Rock Sound Harbor is a large, well-protected harbor about 1.75 miles wide and 4 miles long. Their public dock is huge and new with at least a dozen ladders to climb up. Impressive. There is an airport at the north end of the harbor. So I expected there to be more in town, but there wasn’t much, which surprised both of us. Most of the stores and restaurants mentioned in our 8-year-old chart books no longer exist. Not sure what happened over those 8 years, but there’s not much here anymore. If the shiny new public and government docks are any sign, perhaps the town is working on building itself up again.

We had heard about Wild Orchid’s, however, through the Bahamas Land & Sea Facebook group, and that’s where we ended up for lunch. They are extremely boater friendly with both street side and dock side signs welcoming boaters. They let cruisers tie up to their dingy dock and even drop off their garbage. Lunch was really good, too, and the staff friendly. It was slow, only one other couple there. The bartender noticed a dingy drifting off and once she established it didn’t belong to either couple present, she drove Dave down to the town dock where our dingy was tied, and Dave zipped out to tow it to and tie it off to Wild Orchid’s dock. Great teamwork! Later in the afternoon the owners of the dingy stopped by to thank us with a bottle of wine.

We returned to Lady to pick up our snorkel gear, then headed back to shore to visit the famed Ocean Hole. It was green, and not a healthy green. But we bought a few slices of bread to feed the fish and I got in the water with the camera to document it. Then Dave came in and we swam for about 5 minutes before deciding there was nothing to see because (a) the fish hang out where they get fed, and (b) the visibility was abysmal. We later found out the hole used to be crystal clear and a place locals hung out on the weekends to swim and play in the park on the south end. I fear the feeding of the fish to draw in tourists was the demise of the ocean hole. So sad. Before heading back to Lady, we dingied around the ample harbor looking for the in-water, small blue holes (ranging from 24’ to 45’ or so) we’d seen on the charts and stopped to snorkel at one. That one was shallow enough to almost see bottom, but the visibility wasn’t great. Still, we felt cleaner after the swim in the green hole.

The next morning I made a final shopping list and we headed to Wild Orchid’s dingy dock to drop off garbage and walk to the supermarket for a final provisioning run. We were followed by a dog we’d met the prior day. He actually followed us all the way to the market, waited for us while we were inside, and followed us all the way back to our dingy. Dave had given him a small piece of bread the prior day when we were feeding the fish. No wonder the pooch followed us. 

Later that afternoon Dean, Sarah and the kids from Sea Dragon joined us aboard Lady for drinks and homemade pizzas. They brough cookies for dessert. We talked nonstop for several hours, adults and kids alike, with our evening winding down on the tramps gazing at the stars with an astronomy lesson from Dave. Alas, the following day we would part ways, but have been keeping in touch through texting and social media. 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again (and again, and again), but one of the most enjoyable parts of cruising for me is meeting other cruisers. Dave and I both love spending time with other adventurers of all ages and backgrounds, who are each exploring this world from the sea. Our time together may be brief, but each meeting leaves and indelible imprint on our lives- a new friendship, a new perspective, a new way to think about life aboard, or life in general. To each of you who have touched our lives while cruising and who may be reading this now- thank you!

Thus concludes our exploration of Eleuthera. From Rock Sound we headed to the northern Exumas for some diving until it’s time to head back to Great Harbor Cay at the end of June. I will start to tell you about this part of our adventure next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.