Long Island

We arrived in Long Island on the early afternoon of February 9th, as planned. We anchored in Thompson's Bay outside of Salt Pond (that's the name of the town there). After leaving the crowded area of Georgetown, the huge bay with less than a dozen boats was a welcome sight. We settled in, made ourselves dinner, and sat and enjoyed the quiet. We figured out where the nearest dinghy dock was and where to offload our trash. Then we proceeded to enjoy ourselves.

Cruising isn't always about what you get to do and experience, sometimes its about what you see. As we were all sitting around, suddenly a small winged creature flew into the boat (about the size of a small bird). Fortunately for us, this has happened on 2-3 other occasions. Florida doesn't have anything on the size of the insects here in the Bahamas (which is saying a lot since Florida's sizes absolutely dwarf what we were used to seeing in Texas). The first time it happened, there was much screaming and diving for cover - since we weren't sure whether a bird or a bat had just flown in. Turns out, it was a giant moth. It goes by a few different names; Money Bat, Bat Moth, or Black Witch Moth. Of course, despite it's name, it's not a bat. It has been named such because of its large size and fluttering flight, which is a lot like a bat. In fact, I've actually seen smaller bats that this moth! It's wing span was easily 4 inches. Like I said, we had seen its like before, so we knew what it was. However, it still creeped us out. It's a nocturnal insect, but it's drawn to light. So it came flying in, freaking us all out. Having dealt with it a few times before, we knew what to do. We turned all the lights off inside the boat, and shined a light in the cockpit. After awhile, the moth fluttered out (mind you, there was still squealing and mad dashes to duck under the table while it fluttered around).

Saturday mornings in Salt Pond brings the Farmer's Market. This worked out really well in our favor. We met a few people and managed to pick up a Long Island visitor's guide. The visitor's guide was really handy as it showed a map of the whole island and things to do. The only downside to Long Island is that it's really long (duh), for walking anyway. The whole island is 80 miles from the north point to the south end. The things to do are scattered across the island. So, we decided to do something we haven't done yet in the Bahamas so far - rent a car!

There was a car rental place just up the road from the dinghy dock, and while slightly expensive (as everything is here in the Bahamas), they had a vehicle for us to rent. Now for those of you who don't know, here in the Bahamas they drive on the wrong (or rather left) side of the rode. As there is just one long highway that runs from the north side to the south side of the island, driving is still fairly easy - even for those of us used to driving on the correct (or rather right) side of the road ;-)

Our first stop was to get breakfast at a department store (wait...what?). Yes, a department store called "Everything Under the Sun" also serves breakfast and lunch in their back cafe. It honestly was the only place we could find that served breakfast. So we partook of their waffles and bacon special. Then we were off to our first destination: Hamilton's Cave

Hamilton's Cave is the largest underground cave system in the Bahamas. It was also one of the homes of the Lucayan Indians, who lived there in about 500 AD. The cave has recovered the biggest Lucayan artifact findings in history (back in 1935). The cave has parts that have never even been explored. We met our cave guide who took just the four of us inside for a tour. With flashlights in hand, we set out exploring. We saw several species of bats, and a few different species of land crabs. There were also various other insects including ground wasps and very large roaches (the roaches love the bat guano). We saw writing left by other explorers (some believed to be part of Christopher Columbus' group), as well as cave writing and sculptures believed to have been left by the Lucayans. We went into parts of the cave that were so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face (that is, without your flashlight). Obviously there were lots of stalagmites and stalactites (as with any cave), but some of the larger ones have been given names since they depict the objects they're named for. The pictures below don't remotely do the place justice.

After spending a good hour or so cave exploring, we headed off to Dean's Blue Hole. Getting to Dean's Blue Hole proved interesting as things aren't really marked or advertised here in the Bahamas. So, we turned off onto the private road that had a sign for it hoping we were heading the right way. Fortunately, at about the point we thought we'd turned wrong (due to the fact that we had gone a long way out into the middle of nowhere), we saw another small sign pointing us in the right direction. Once we started driving on sand, we figured we must be close. Eventually we arrived. Dean's Blue Hole is said to be the world's deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below sea level.  It's also thought to be the second deepest blue hole in the world, second to only the gigantic sinkhole in China. It's 663 ft deep and teaming with sea life. The kids spent a long time snorkeling in it while we watched from the beach.

So far, everything we had done had been on the south side of Long Island. Now it was time to go to the north side. Which meant a long drive ahead of us (the speed limit on the road was only 20 mph, most people - including us - did more like 40 mph). We figured on our way we would pick up something to drink and maybe some ice cream. Well, maybe not. We did eventually find some drinks in a convenient store, but the only ice cream we found was with a bar that wasn't open yet. Weird things in these remote places! The kids dozed in the backseat while we meandered our way north enjoying the scenery. 

We were looking for a restroom stop when we found one of our destinations. We had wanted to visit the secluded beach on Cape Santa Maria Beach. We turned onto a dirt road that had a lot of cars coming out of it (we figured with so many cars coming from somewhere, there had to be something there). We found a resort that let us use their restroom, and we also found the beach. Cape Santa Maria Beach was named after one of Christopher Columbus' ships. It's supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Unfortunately, the beach was for the resort only. So it was off back to the main road to continue on. We almost missed the lonely sign to our next and last destination: Columbus Monument.

We thought the road to Dean's Blue Hole was remote, it paled in comparison to the road to the monument. The only type of road I can think of to describe it as is those steep rocky fire roads in New Mexico and Colorado. It's a good thing our rental car was old and scratched up, because we definitely added some more scratches to it! However, while the road was truly awful, the views we were rewarded with were worth it. Columbus' Monument was erected as a tribute to the arrival of Christopher Columbus on October 17th, 1492. It's next to Columbus Harbour/Columbus Point which is a mile long, protected, shallow inner bay reportedly entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World. The views were spectacular. We hiked up to the top and looked out over the cliffs onto the harbor. As usual, the pictures do not do the place justice.

The last bit of the mile long rocky road.

Our kids looking over the cliff.
(The Admiral almost had a heart attack!)

The Columbus Monument itself.

Spectacular views of the harbor:

After our bumpy ride back to the main road, it was time to head home. We took the long drive back and decided to stop for dinner at a little place called Tiny's Hurricane Hole. It's a little restaurant sitting on a beach overlooking Thompson's Bay. They also have a few bungalows and laundry facilities. We coordinated our laundry for the next day while we were there. It was dark when we drove up to return our rental car. We took the short walk back to the dinghy and headed to the boat. We didn't realize we would be out so late, so had neglected to leave any lights on in the boat (or even our anchor light). Fortunately, our son had keen eyesight to find the boat floating in the dark. We all slept well after a fun day of sightseeing. Needless to say, a side trip to Long Island had definitely been worth it.

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