Long Island - Calabash Bay

Another beautiful day and another stunning beach greeted us we were up early and ready to explore by 9am.

This has been the most perfect beach so far

We sat under the Casuarina trees 

When I say stunning beach I mean one of the most beautiful pristine beaches I think we will ever see, in fact I did read in the touristy info that this beach was voted in the top ten must visit beaches in the world !!!.  We didn't know this until later when I was googling to see what else there was to do on the Island.

We dinged over and had a swim then sat in the shade under the casuarina trees marveling at the view.

Where we had stopped was just down from the resort, the fine white sand was silky soft, the water crystal clear and a hundred shades of blue, the water temperature is just right, refreshing in the warmth of the sun, all our way down from Canada we have been running away from the cold heading south to get warm now as we get further south it's just going to get even warmer, soon we will probably be complaining that it's too hot, but right now the air temperature and the water temperatures are just perfect.  

Gotta get that toe shot in

Looking back towards the resort

Before we landed on the perfect beach we had taken a ride to the north edge of the bay from Adriana we could see there was a boarded up house, so we popped over to have a look, not much to see just another abandoned building, there are so many of them, so many buildings just left to be destroyed by the elements.  I'm not sure if they have all been damaged by hurricanes or just abandoned maybe their up keep is too expensive or difficult in this climate, it's nearly always windy, this is wintertime and the sun is harsh plus the lack of access to building supplies, everything, everything has to be either brought in by boat or flown into the islands.  We have noticed so many buildings have been started but don't get further than the foundations or one or two exterior walls then left to decay, the timbers rot which means that what is left will have to be knocked down and completely restarted

The beaches are starting to get rockier with less places to land the dingy

Quite different landscapes than the previous Islands

After our walk and swim we headed back to Adriana for some lunch and a rest, our friends on Seamlessly and Yellowbird are arriving later today.

Tuesday 19th February 2020

The gang were back together again and to celebrate we decided to make the most of happy hour at the resort. 

Together we had an exploration walk and a lovely swim,  when we had enquired earlier in the day about the bar and restaurant the receptionist had said, “feel free to use our facilities” so after our swim we all had lovely freshwater showers (we would have taken soap if we had known) 

The little Gazebos with freshwater showers

A second swim later in the day 

The happy hour included $5 Kaliks and $7.50 rum cocktails - I’ll just add the price we had been paying in George Town for the local Kalik beer was $5 so much more expensive at the resort.  The rum punch was delicious and quite strong... Bahamian rum with coconut rum mixed with pineapple & orange juice, plus free conch fritters (balls of battered deep fried conch) served with a spicy mayonnaise sauce.  The paying guests at the table next to us received about four platefuls to our one, we then treated ourselves to pizza and had to dingy home in the dark which is always an adventure, way out of my comfort zone.

With another calm day forecast and the wind shifting in our favor, slightly westerly, the three boats exited Santa Maria harbour Yellowbird at first light, then seamlessly motoring and on Adriana we managed to sail the whole way. 

Under sail

We did pass Yelowbird but it makes for great photos 

How do I describe this trip of 11 nautical miles, sailing along the coast of Long Island we plotted our route as near to shore as was practical, off shore but not so far that we lost sight of land, the trip was stunningly beautiful - again!!   With the crystal clear water and all the shades of blue, the bottom was visible the whole way, the water we were in was sooo shallow, 2mt on average but shallowing out to 0.8mt a good part of the way with a few scary spots showing as low as 0.4mt. 

The orange dots are coral heads

I was on coral head watch but the thing was, we were sailing and what exactly would we do if we had to stop to avoid a coral head you can’t just throw the boat into reverse when the sails are up.

It was quite a stressful passage but exhilarating and beautiful.  This must be a popular route as the only coral heads we saw were well charted, thank goodness. 

Salt Pond, Thompson Bay -  Long Island

Our new home for a few days, there is another strong wind front coming through.

We have been throwing out the fishing line,  still with no luck and on our visit to land we stopped in at the marine store and picked up a cedar plug.  We had been told to buy one of these fishing lures early on but decided to wait until we had tried the lures (or lost the lures) we already had before spending more money, hopefully now we have the recommended gear our luck will change.

Salt pond is very cruiser friendly the diesel, petrol and propane are so much cheaper than anywhere else we have seen in The Bahamas. There is a large  well stocked reasonably priced supermarket and the tiki bar sells its Kaliks for $4 each...

As recommended on active captain the six of us decided to hire a car and have a drive around the island, what a fun day Craig was nominated to drive, they drive on the left, same as Australia so an obvious choice.  We were able to hire a six seater van for $100 we had a couple of things on our to see list but no set plan, just a road trip, we were hoping to do one end of the island to the other but starting in the middle we didn’t quite make it back up to Stella Maris, the North end of the island, but we did get to the very southern end where we stopped and had a swim at Gordon’s beach .

What can I say 

Again we were passing so many run down and broken houses, lots of goats and sheep, glimpses of the beautiful blue waters on the bay side. The vegetation is scrubby and not very pretty.  We passed a huge number of churches so many for such a small island, on this island they grow bananas and other vegetables that they sell to other islands they use holes built up with stones then filled with compost to create fertile soil. 

This was funny Craig stopped the car to go and collect what he thought was salt but it was a foamy substance not salt 

By midday everyone was starving so we called into the Lighthouse Restaurant at the Flying Fish Marina, it looked rather upmarket for us cruisers but for once Craig was not disappointed with his meal, he declared the fish tacos delicious, the fish they used was Wahu one of the species we are hoping to catch with our new lure. The views were beautiful out to the sound.

Our next stop was Dean's Blue Hole, a natural deep hole  located on the Sound side it is the world's second deepest, after the Dragon Hole in the South China Sea, with a depth of 202m

It is surrounded by a beautiful powder white beach and a gentle slope before the hole plummets downwards.

This is also where the Vertical Blue Free Diving Competition is held every year. Competitors, film crews, and spectators travel from all around the world just to witness the male or female free diver that can dive the deepest into the blue hole. 

Just as we arrived the heavens opened up and the rain pelted down, Kevin and I made a dash for the van as we were not braving the unknown creatures that could be lurking in the deep dark water hole. Apparently it was warmer in the sea water than out.

Other stops we made included a craft stall selling handmade, straw bags, hats placemats, polished conch shells and sea sponges, a great hardware store, the marine store, supermarket and of course a $4 beer to end the day. 

The day before we left Georgetown our water maker had blown a pressure gauge a phone call to the manufacturer (in Trinidad) and Craig was reassured that the water maker would be ok if he bypassed the gauge by plugging it with a cap and they would post a replacement one out to us.... easier said than done.

Another cruiser let Craig look through his box of spares and yay he had a cap we could use.

So we are now trying to organise how to get the replacement part that was sent by the manufacturer (still under warranty) to Fort Lauderdale where it was going to be flown out to us in George Town.  We actually left knowing the part was on its way but had someone organised to pick it up, that was until the aeroplane developed engine problems and the weekly delivery was cancelled. Nothing is ever easy..... Ill let you know how we go.

There was another cold front coming through with high winds, rain and slightly cooler temperatures. I went for a walk on one of the days before it hit, while Craig stayed on board Adriana setting up our Iridium Go -  this is what we will use for receiving weather reports when we are offshore or not able to access internet. 

As Craig had missed out on going ashore before the front hit he ended up not getting off the boat for 4 days !! so on the fifth we braved the wet dingy ride and did a huge long walk to a pretty beach where we all had a swim.

After a hot treck through the scrub we were rewarded 

The view without the scrub

What it really looked like 

This is typical of the surrounding environment

The beaches surrounding Thompson Bay are rocky and there was no where else to tie up the dingy other than at Tiny's Hurricane Hole so we were able to have a cold beer and some wings as a treat on the way back.

Beers on the deck at Tiny's Hurricane Hole

The view from the deck looking to the dingy dock at Tiny's

Spending time with Yellowbird and Seamlessly we were also joined by Dan and Nawal with their silky terrier Zeuss aboard Breakaway. On our last night we were treated to a huge feed of Grouper (a local fish) that seamlessly had on board that they brought over to us and Craig whipped up a feast.

The girls getting a cooking lesson from Craig

Zeuss modelling his Bodyglove rashie

We are now planning one more island stop before leaving the Bahamas and heading on to Dominican Republic.