beach

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The Long and short of it

The short story is that Long Island is a worthy place to spend some R&R time and in settled weather you’ve got many coves and bays to call your own or share with only a handful of like-minded folk. You can just pop over from George Town or make it a stop on your way down to the Raggeds or Jumentos. If you’ve ventured out to Conception or Rum Cay and the ocean begins to act up, you can tuck into Thompson Bay in a short day’s travel time.

Thompson Bay, LI- temporarily "cat cove"

Thompson Bay, LI- temporarily “cat cove”

The long version- ok don’t cringe this might be interesting- happens when you not only hop around in your boat but you also rent a car and tour the island.  More than once we’d heard about cruisers doing that because so many of the towns, ruins, blue holes and historic sites are not reachable any other way. We kinda raised our eyebrows at that thought; however, it quickly landed on our must do list.

First though, we spent three days sightseeing by boat then came back to Thompson Bay to ride out the stalled/quasi stationary  front that would push 15-25kt winds- 30kt tops, down to the lower central Bahamas (George Town area, Long Island).

Days 1 & 2: turned out to be a perfect sailing day with low winds but just enough to move us along at 5kts. We’d read and been told about Joe’s Sound, described this way in the Explorer Charts; “beautiful creek, protected in any weather with no swell. Tricky entrance, very narrow. Best to check entrance by dinghy first.”  We knew the mangrove-lined creek with oodles of “dry at LW” areas was a great spot but the rock lined entrance looked very skinny on the chart and we are 23ft wide. Why not anchor behind Hog Cay, a private island ½ mile south. First, let me ask; if you owned that island wouldn’t you want to change the name? Especially since it is quite lovely.

Looking at Hog Cay as we approach.

Looking at Hog Cay as we approach.

That afternoon on a rising tide we explored the creek, which lies along the east side of Galliot Cay, in Ms Bunting who as usual proved to be adept at not going aground in a foot of water. Saw a smaller ray that, like the other small ones we’ve seen, swims away very fast, in contrast to the larger guys who don’t give a hoot you are near.

Chart view of our dinghy tour- starts at "A" by Hog Cay, up the east side of Galliot, cutting over then down

Chart view of our dinghy tour- starts at “A” by Hog Cay, up the east side of Galliot, cutting over then down

 Our tour took us about seven miles: up the creek- almost needed those paddles, under the just-wide-enough-for-a-dinghy bridge,

The tiny bridge on Galliot Cay at head of creek

The tiny bridge on Galliot Cay at head of creek

through Hoosie Harbor (who comes up with these names?),  past Cape Santa Maria Club, down through Calabash Bay where we surfed the large swells/surge that come in from the Atlantic, around Rocky Point (a very clever name!) and then we approached the creek entrance from the outside. Boy was it rocky, and while deep right in the middle, you had to make a quick turn left up the creek.

The narrow entrance from Joes Sound into the creek

The narrow entrance from Joes Sound into the creek

Would the mothership fit? Maybe. Would we ever try? Nope, not when we had a beautiful spot off the white sandy beach with awesome sunset views.

Sunset view from Hog Cay looking west from our stern

Sunset view from Hog Cay looking west from our stern

Not to mention the most crystal clear water ever, silky white sandy bottom and a beach we could walk that, don’t tell anyone, is loaded with sunrise tellins. In two trips in we picked up at least 50 full sets, plus on the first trip in when I lifted the dinghy anchor up, a tellin was wedged in between the flukes.

Our swinging happy anchor chain makes sand drawings

Our swinging happy anchor chain makes sand drawings

We liked the spot so much that we spent day 2 here since the wind would be low- like 5kts. Russ did his best imitation of The Lobster Hunter, but it’s hard to hunt them when they aren’t there!!   Rain threatened from afar; the colors of water and sky made for an irresistible photo op.

Distant dark clouds skim by us

Distant dark clouds skim by us

Day 3: we began the 23 mile trip back to Thompson Bay, stopping for 2 hours at Simms and anchoring for the night in Millers Bay.  Good thing Simms wasn’t our night stop; the bottom was either very hard or just a skim coat of sand over rock and Mr. Rocna did not dig in at all. Just wait ‘til we get him home and sharpen that tip! We water-taxied in (yes, just a fancy term for the dinghy) and walked down the Queen’s Highway to check things out. I notice people are friendlier on Long Island, waving, tooting the horn, saying hello and even offering a ride.

The ruins of a wooden church made for a good photo op; then we looked at each other and said, “wood?” All we generally see south of New Providence is cement, rarely wood.  Figure that the church was so old that trees were plentiful then and would make a lovely church.

Looking inside wooden church ruins. Almost looks staged the way the altar leans just so.

Looking inside wooden church ruins. Almost looks staged the way the altar leans just so.

A couple of other small structures (houses?) along the road, were also built from wood.  Met Mr. Simms, owner of the Blue Chip Restaurant, with several goats just hangin’ out nearby.

and you are looking at me, why?

and you are looking at me, why?

The freight boat was in- shiny and red it looked like a newer model of the kind the improved gov’t docks were built to accommodate. Anchor up and off we went motor-sailing with the jib for a bit, past Morris with its beautiful crescent sandy beach to drop the hook in Millers Bay. Why here you ask? Millers Bay is a smaller version of Morris and even cats can’t get too close in. But it has the one thing those others places do not: Chez Pierre.  That’s right, an award-winning French-Italian restaurant with a Caribbean flair right on the beach. The six rental bungalows keep Chef Pierre and his sous-chef busy in the kitchen and help ensure patrons for meals. Knowing you have business is a good thing here, where most restaurants don’t know for certain how many meals they will serve: maybe 10 maybe only 2.

Chez Pierre- beach side Millers Bay

Chez Pierre- beach side Millers Bay

 After getting the anchor set (somewhat better than at Simms) we went in to check out the place and put our name in for dinner.  A quick beach walk turned up precious few trinkets and the beach around the point didn’t hold much more. By luck, or perhaps design, today was our day to take a shower- what? You take one every day? For shame. Hey at least we have a shower stall, many boats do not. The evening was calm and about 75 degrees; the perfect night to dine out, via dinghy and traipse along the beach to the restaurant. 

Open air dining on the beach- perfect for a sun dress

Open air dining on the beach- perfect for a sun dress

Inside a dimly lit Chez Pierre

Inside a dimly lit Chez Pierre

Our meals were delicious and the portions just right so you could finish your meal and not feel like a stuffed pig. We took so many pictures that Chef Pierre became convinced we were going to steal all his ideas, ambiance and menus.

Tomorrow: back to Thompson Bay to wait out the next round of mega winds.

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Hey, how about some North in the wind?

The typical winter prevailing winds in the Exumas are easterly to ESE, except during a frontal passage when the wind clocks around over the course of a few days. But nine days and counting, of E to ESE is a new one on us and made for a large bundle of boats at Blackpoint; Big Major too presumably. 15kts or less would not be a problem but when the wind kicks up to 20kts and more, the waves dance up to 5-8ft and traveling south just plain rots.
We used the time to do all our laundry- visitors note that clean sheets will be available :-), caught up on the blog and other online stuff and waited, waited for the Captain C to bring in food to the market. One evening, while I was taking a shower (this mentioned to explain the lack of a photo) a local came by in his skiff loaded with…… lobster! Russ negotiated a reduced sticker price for three and before you could say “coconut bread” the tails were off and deveined, using an antenna.
SandiBeach moved over closer to us; mostly because we had more wind and fetch protection and we spent time swapping stories. We traded a piece of Russ’s famous herb focaccia bread for brownies and a small bag of Bahamian peas accompanied by how to make peas and rice.
Lorraine’s is more than an internet café, it’s the place to meet other cruisers and talk “whatever”. A couple of boats were cruising with kids and boy I sure give them credit; 4 people on a monohull. The kids attended school during their time at Blackpoint. All the students go home for the one hour lunch break; the school looks just big enough for classrooms and no more.

The all-ages BlackPoint school

The all-ages BlackPoint school

Thursday was the BIG day. At 12:45 the Captain C arrived and by 2pm at least 15 of us had gathered near Adderley’s waiting for the boxes to be brought in via pickup truck. The system is simple; there is no system! Once the boxes were in and opened up, we were invited in and controlled chaos ensued. Cruisers are reasonably polite adults- mostly. What fresh food didn’t I need? Consult a list? If did that, all the things I wanted would be scooped up by the time I read the darn thing. I was lucky, my take was good: 2 dzn eggs, a head of iceburg (when was the last time I bought that?), a bag of carrots and celery, one tomato, a large cucumber, two limes, 3 bananas and some staples from the shelves. All for $33 which I thought wasn’t too pricey. Lemons are not as common as limes, but hey we can make do. The next day we stopped in and nothing fresh remained except limes and tomatoes. Wow- if only the store had ordered twice as much.

The line to pay for our prized purchases at the market.

The line to pay for our prized purchases at the market.

Our big haul for the day was Mom’s bread. Lorraine’s mom bakes four kinds: coconut, wheat, cinnamon/raisin and banana. For $6/loaf it’s a deal. The loaves are large and relatively heavy. We scooped up a coconut and a cinn/raisin. The coconut is fabulous; the filling homemade by Mom who has to grate fresh coconut then boil it with a sweetener to make this distinctively Bahamian coconut paste used in breads and other pastries

Mom (Lorraine's mom) bags up our cinn/raisin bread.

Mom (Lorraine’s mom) bags up our cinn/raisin bread.

. Our French toast the next morning was soooooooo delicious. I made the egg mixture with coconut rum and just a bit of nutmeg. Used cinn/raisin for French toast the day after and that was really good too. The bread’s consistency is perfect for awesome French toast.

Our Bahamian foods: coconut and raisin breads, the peas and a lobster tail.

Our Bahamian foods: coconut and raisin breads, the peas and a lobster tail.

Saturday was moving day; all of 4 miles, motoring so we could charge the batteries and make hot water for showers. Time to dump the holding tank too, not something you do in a harbor. Although we know that boats do it, so we seldom run the watermaker in a harbor. And now for the weather (WX) which was consuming way too much time and energy, but at least we had access to several sources, unlike last year. Around 8am on CH12 we hear the WX report from Staniel Cay. We also use Weather Underground, Wind Alert and the Bahamas Met office, which we get on the iPhone via apps when cell service is decent. Monday was looking like the best day, meaning best chance to sail in ENE winds and waves in Exuma Sound hopefully less than 5ft. This was a one day window in an otherwise very long stretch of “no-north”. The interesting aspect of “waiting for weather” is listening to the thoughts, ideas and wishes of other cruisers, most of whom are sailors, as we all judge the reports and figure out what’s best.
Sunday we enjoyed a brisk sail of nine miles down to Big Farmers Cay. The chart showed a good spot off a sandy beach- protected of course from SE winds-that was a mile away from Galliot Cut should we decide to leave Monday for George Town. Beach combing is always a top priority and this spot proved out better than it looked. We found lots of broken young conch shells and I gathered up all the really nice pink pieces. Found a creek at the far end of the beach, nearly dry at low with really interesting water marks left in the sand. Lots of good driftwood there too, most of which I left for someone else.

The dry creek bed looks like snow.

The dry creek bed looks like snow.

A massive cairn on the beach at Big Farmers Cay.

A massive cairn on the beach at Big Farmers Cay.

The evening’s big question was, “go or no go?” come Monday. It’ll be alright, come Monday I’ll be holding on tight. Sorry, got lost in a Buffett tune for a minute.