We are still in George Town. The weather has been decidedly uncooperative for the first half of March. The anchorage has been so rough that for five days we haven’t even launched the dinghy. On the plus side, that’s a good time to get the taxes done. And, finally the boat gets a good fresh water wash down. Between blows there are still activities to entice us off the boat. We stay through the conclusion of regatta, going to the Bahamian vs. Cruisers softball game. We discover our side is playing the Bahama’s national championship team, and the results are nothing short of pathetic. The twelve year old on their team can outplay anyone on ours, and all the cheating and treachery devised on our part still leaves us way behind – good thing the score board isn’t working. It’s all in fun, though, and raises some money for the Family Island Regatta. We attend the final regatta dance and awards ceremony on the beach. The Seven Seas Cruising Association sponsors a lunch at the St. Francis Resort that draws almost 90 people. One of the cruisers, a professional musician, provides a several hour long performance on the deck at Chat and Chill at sunset – a postcard beautiful setting with outstanding music. We will look him up in Charleston when we get back to the States.
George Town is sponsoring the Bahamian Music and Cultural Festival on our last weekend so we hop the water taxi to town with about 15 other cruisers. We stop at the festival grounds but nothing much is happening – just a few stands with food and displays of native crafts and art work. It is worth mentioning that my meager basket making pales in comparison to what the natives produce. We then proceed to the Peace and Plenty Hotel, a long time George Town establishment, for a buffet dinner on their deck overlooking the harbor and a night of Rake and Scrape music. Rake and Scrape is a Bahamian tradition and consists of a metal saw scraped by some sort of tool, a deep bass goat-skin drum, usually (but not tonight) a wash tub bass, assorted electric guitars, and a keyboard. It’s loud, lively, and very danceable. Most of the music seems Caribbean in nature, but we laugh when we hear John Denver’s “West Virginia” – seems a bit out of context. We stop again at the festival grounds on the way back to the water taxi and find that Gospel Night is well underway. It’s a bit more crowded and definitely loud and upbeat, but the real crowds will come on Friday and Saturday nights to hear groups from all over the country.
But it is finally time to leave. Goodbyes are being said as many of the boats head out to return as fast as possible to the States. The sentiments remind us of the day before summer break during our college years as people try to match up destinations and make promises to get together at some point during the summer months.
Our weather guru says the second half of March will be much more benign so we head southeast in a rally (low key race) with almost thirty other boats to Long Island. While some of the rally participants are heading down to the Caribbean, this is the furthest south we will venture this year. At the beginning of the trip we motor between many reefs but once out in the open water we set sail in perfect conditions. The actual race begins at a GPS waypoint, and we then reach about twelve miles to the entrance to Thompson Bay. Just inside the bay and one tack away is the committee boat, a motor catamaran which is taking finishes. We get a great windshift approaching the finish and are able to tack sooner. We skim by the committee boat as they stare wide eyed at our gutsy finish.
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| Our eye popping finish as photographed by the committee boat |
The rally has a number of activities planned. The first evening we all head to an isolated beach in the bay for drinks and snacks.
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| Happy hour on the beach at Thompson Bay |
The next day features lunch at the Thompson Bay Inn, a traditional Bahamian restaurant. In between time, Burt is helping the race committee figure results on a spread sheet – with so many different types of cruising boats it isn’t an easy task. By the next evening the results have been tabulated, and we all head to the Long Island Breeze Resort for the awards dinner and closing dance. It’s a lovely location with a huge deck overlooking the bay and anchorage.
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| Burt surveys the deck at Long Island Breeze before the party begins |
Surprise, surprise – our wild finish has garnered us two awards: first place in the A fleet and the now coveted Grey Poupon award (a relabeled jar of Grey Poupon mustard) for the boat finishing so close to the committee boat that they could easily hand off the mustard. We all have a good laugh, but we are also very proud of our finish in our first race with Exuberant - we had some good competition. As an outcome of our racing performance and Burt’s spreadsheet ability, Burt is now on the race committee for next year’s regatta. The evening concludes with several hours of dancing under the stars.
But the fun isn’t over yet. The winds have picked up, and we’re staying at Long Island for another couple of days. Long Island is indeed long (70 miles) and narrow. Spread out over its length are many small settlements linked by one paved road. The sparse population numbers somewhere around 3500. While still relatively barren, the island has some agriculture, and we see several groves of banana trees. We take a bus trip to the southern end of the island on a school bus. We first stop at the ruins of a church built in the 1500’s by Spanish missionaries and later restored by the Anglican Church.
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| Church ruins on Long Island |
A little further is the Long Island Museum where we hear the history of how residents lived in such a remote location. Reflecting the sense of out island living, we discover that telephone and electrical service were introduced to the island only in 1996. Now cell phones, internet, and satellite TV keep everyone connected. We head down to Clarence Town, a settlement on the eastern shore of the island, famous for the two churches built by Father Jerome in the 1930’s – 40’s. Father Jerome was originally an Anglican priest who had studied architecture prior to the priesthood. He traveled the islands building churches and ministering to the remote communities. During this time, he built the Anglican church in Clarence Town. After leaving the Bahamas he traveled to Rome and there converted to Catholicism. Upon returning to Long Island, he built a Roman Catholic Church on an adjacent hilltop.
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| St. Peter's Church in Clarence Town |
We take time to visit this church and even climb the narrow bell town to a spectacular view over the ocean. Our final stop is Dean’s Blue Hole on the ocean side. This is considered to be the deepest blue hole in the world and is the site of a training facility for free diving run by an Olympic Gold medalist.
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| Blue Hole color code - white is ankle deep, dark blue is 663 ft. deep |
We are short on time as the bus has to get back to pick up school children, so we get a quick peek, but we will return on some future visit to snorkel the area.
The next day we rent a car with another couple to explore the northern end of the island. Our first stop is at the Adderley Plantation ruins, the best preserved plantation ruins in the Bahamas. The main house was situated on top of a hill and surrounded by numerous outbuildings.
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| Part of the manor house built in the late 1700's |
The plantation covered 2500 acres stretching from the ocean to the bay. Even with slaves, it was hard to make a success of such an enterprise and, like most other plantations, it devolved into subsistence farming. At the very northern tip of the island we hike a long track to some bluffs overlooking the ocean and a shallow bay.
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| White cliffs just below the Columbus Monument |
At the peak is a monument to Christopher Columbus who stopped here when the Santa Maria ran aground on the nearby reefs.
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| The Columbus Monument that commemorates his arrival at this spot in October 1492 |
Thus, the point is known as Cape Santa Maria. We need a little sustenance after such an arduous hike, so we stop at Cape Santa Maria Resort overlooking Calabash Bay for lunch. This is a five star but out of the way establishment. The food and view are outstanding.
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| View of the resort from a sand bar in Calabash Bay |
Our final stop is at the Stella Maris resort overlooking the ocean. It’s not quite as glitzy as our lunch stop, but it has the special charm of a more traditional resort. There are swimming pools sprinkled all over the landscaped grounds with some villas having their own private pools. Our favorite site, though, is the pool and bar perched over the breaking surf and the boardwalk from there winding along the cliffs to a salt water pool carved into the rocky shore. With the strong winds and huge waves it is nothing short of spectacular.
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| The view of the ocean from Stella Maris resort - the natural pool is in the lower left |
The next day we make a last dash to the grocery here in Thompson Bay, hike over the island to the ocean side to check out the waves, and make more farewells to the friends we have made on this adventure. Everyone is headed in different directions tomorrow as the weather will be milder for the next couple of days. We have several scenarios for the coming days, all dependent on the strength of the next cold front coming through. As always, our plans are totally dependent on our recently unpredictable weather.
