Day 240 Monday, February 17th A car tour of the south
of Long Island
Yes we wake up to another beautiful day although somewhat
breezy. The winds are out of the East
North East at around 20 knots but Thompson Bay is a perfect location for this
wind direction. We get the day going
early, coffee and a listen to the Chris Parker Weather show.
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| Sue and Dave of Sans Cles c/w buns |
After the weather Dave and Sue are coming over to complete
the planning/organization for the car rental.
At 8:30 they are over and we are sitting down enjoying the fresh cinnamon
buns Sue baked complete with icing and a coffee of freshly ground coffee. We give Fox Garage a call and make
arrangements to pick up the car at the government dock at 1 pm. The next big question is do we head to the
north or south of the island today. We
decide we will seek some advice from Mike the owner of Island Breeze so will
head in around noon to give us some time to talk to him. We also decide that as the winds are to stay
high that we will move the boats closer to the shore of Long Island to make the
dinghy trip a little better as we can ride in the lee of the island longer. We shuffle the boats in to shore, pack our
stuff and have a quick lunch. Today’s
lunch was again excellent and is fish tacos, made with our Mahi Mahi catch of
last week.
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| Inside the family van already for the trip |
Noon finds us at Island Breeze, Sue and Dave head into to
find Mike, owner of Island Breeze, and Julie and Dawson heads over to the
Ministry of Tourism building just up the road to seek some advice. Right at 1:00 our car shows up just after we
get our info, you have to like the timing.
We are in a 1997 Honda Odyssey Van, we ask how many cars they have and
the answer is 6 with all of them being rented.
To us it looks like the Odyssey is the family vehicle and with the high
demand for vehicles it is put into the rental fleet. Based on the advice from Mike and people at
the Bahamian Tourism we head south on our 1st car adventure in the
Bahamas.
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| Julie, Sue and Dave overlooking the Atlantic |
Driving in the Bahamas is on the right so as Sue is English
she gets the nod at driving. After about
10 minutes of driving we decide to take the next road which heads off to the
Atlantic shore. The next road leads to a
partially developed vacation home estate.
These are quite common in the Bahamas, someone has a dream, raises some
cash, gets a road and maybe 1 or two house and a couple more started and that
is it. We notice goat droppings at the
stop so we move into a game of “spot the goat” with the winner getting 3
dollars in prize money. The game is on
for about 10 mins making for an exciting 5 miles with Dave being the 1st
to spot a goat. He is a natural at the
game.
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| View from partial finished vacation home |
We now figure it is time to take a drive to the the West
side of the island and head down a likely looking road, which featured a sign
for the Seaside Bar and Grill. We arrive
to find that the Seaside Bar and Grill is a deck over the water with sitting
for 10. We enjoy a nice cold Kalik with
the owners Jerry and his sister Karen. The
West part of the island is all bonefish country, featuring shallows up to a
mile off shore.
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| Jerry bar and grill, bone fishing boat on left |
Unfortunately Jerry asks
if any of us know computers and Dawson makes the mistake of offering up Dave
who was in IT in his earlier life. Sorry
Dave. Dave spends this stop trying to
get the volume on Jerry’s computer working while we enjoy the view and get some
local knowledge from Jerry and Karen.
Based on their advice, we plan our next two stops, the local Museum in
Dunmore followed by the blue hole at Dean.
The museum is good, similar to so many “local” museums we
have been to.
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| Julie and Sue at Dunmore Museum |
From Dunmore it is only a
short drive to Deans Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world at 673
feet. It is definitely worth the
stop. Dawson and Dave take a swim. Unfortunately none of us brought a diving mask. The hole is
about 300’ in diameter and is in a bay off the Atlantic, well sheltered
from the open ocean. There is a diving platform in the center of the hole which
is currently in use as there is a film shoot underway. Dawson talks to one of the divers and finds
out she is a world record holder in free diving as well as 3 time US national
Champion. She also points out a fellow
on the platform who is the current world record holder. Free diving is one of the extreme sports
where the competitors have taken something fun, diving for lobsters etc, to the
extreme in our humble opinion. They now
have competitions where you ride a steel weight as deep as possible take a tag
(which gives the depth you obtain) and then come back to surface where you have
to answer a skill testing question and do a physical act like touch your
nose. Doesn't sound like fun to me. On the east side of the hole we spot a rope
ladder that allows you to climb to the rim of the hole for a jump. Dawson 1
st tries it but gives up thinking that he will get badly scrathed by the limestone, but Dave makes the climb so peer pressure forces Dawson up, without injury. The view down on the blue hole is particularly good and the jump even better.
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| Looking east across Dean Blue Hole |
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| Dive platform, individual on left is the world record holder |
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| Dawson climbing up rim of Blue Hole |
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| Dave at rim taking in the view |
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| Dawson in mid Jump |
After our swim we head back to the car for the drive to our
next stop, the Spires of Church of Sts. Peter and Paul located in Clarence Town. Here you are allowed to climb to the top of
twin towers of the church which overlooks the Clarence Town harbour. It is an excellent stop; the spires are about
4’ in diameter with 3 wooden ladders leading to the top viewing platform. The view from the top is excellent with the
platform allowing you to walk around a full 360 degrees. Julie and Sue head up one spire and Dave and
Dawson up the other.
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| View of Sts Peter and Paul Church |
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| Julie and Sue at top of the girl's spire |
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| View from top of spire |
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| Dave and Dawson on Boys spire note that the cross is missing |
After this exhilarating stop it is time for a beer so we
head over to the harbour. Our 1st
choice is a stop at the Rowdy Boy Bar and Grill but after a quick peek inside
we head over to the marina for a beer
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| The bar with a great name, but we still ended up at the marina |
overlooking the harbour. It is a good choice as we meet another set of
cruisers who are at anchor in the harbour and get some info on the local
services and anchorages. Some excitement
had happened here about 5 days before, with two boats suffering lighting
strikes during the passages of the cold front.
We had watched the lighting from George Town and had heard on the Chris
Parker show about the hits but it is sad to hear the story first hand. The boat we are talking to did not get hit
but was anchored next to the boats which were hit. Neither of the boats hit were holed by the
strike but they did lose all their electronics and suffer major damage to their
electrical systems. This is the risk of traveling
around with your own 60’ lighting rod.
It is now getting to be late and we get back in the car for
the last 20 mile drive to the south end of the island. The south part of the island is much poorer than
what we had seen previously with a number of ruins and shacks en route. All of a sudden we are at the end of the road
as the road just ends at a set of steps.
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| End of the road |
Dave jumps out and runs over to the end of the road and picks up the stop sign which is laying on the ground for the next group of tourists. There is access to the West Beach which provides an excellent spot to watch the sun go down. The beach has been prepared for visitors having a gazebo, a cooking area, seating and some recently planted palm trees, a good stop for sundowners on the South Island tour.
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| Sunset at the south end of Long Island |
From here it is back north, we are now on the look out for a
spot for dinner. We are looking for a
good local restaurant and we find it at Max Conch Salad Bar and Grill. We enjoy an excellent meal of Conch, Grouper
and Plantain. Max comes over to ensure
we are well taken care of and we get the history of the restaurant. Max describes how it all started. He use to be a fisherman and whenever they were
stuck in an anchorage due to weather, the crew would gather the conch and he
would prepare the salad for the crew, and one fellow told him he should open a
conch salad bar, he describes it as a hobby gone bad. From 4 chairs serving beers and conch salad
he now has about 50 seats and offers a full menu.
We are finished dinner around 8 and it is time to get back
to the boat.
By 8:30 we are in the
dinghies heading out to the fleet of anchored sailboats. We both pick out our boats without issues (in
the dark it can be challenging) and are on-board by 9.
A cup of coffee, a view of the days pictures and we are in
bed by 10.
An Excellent day of Adventure
Cheers
Dawson and Julie
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