Visit to Long Island

We had seventeen sailboats arrive from George Town on Long Island as part of a cruiser’s race. Forty boats had been expected, but many apparently decided that they did not want to tack all the way (because they were going into the wind most of the way) and did not come.

Several events were planned for the cruisers’s while they were in Long Island. One night there was a banquet at the Thompson Bay Inn by Trifinna. She held it in the courtyard instead of inside and a great time was had by all. All cruisers in the area were invited, so we attended as well. Trifinna puts on a great Bahamian food spread as you can see from the photos.

 

The folks on Nocturne and their guests aboard from Australia won third place in the rally. Because they were leaving the next day, they received their award at Trifinnis dinner instead.

 

The fine spread Trifinna put out for the group.

The next day, they had arranged for a bus tour from 9 to 2. Rather strange hours until you realize that it was on a school bus and the bus needed to bet back to take the kids home from school. We didn’t go on the trip because we will be renting a car when our friends arrive later in the month and we have done a pretty extensive exploration of the island in past years as well.

That night the they held the awards dinner at the Long Island Breeze. Ron, (the music man and organizer of the rally), was the disc jockey for the evening and played all our favorite oldies. Everybody was up dancing and having a great time. Mike, co-owner of the Breeze, said that this was the Breeze’s first “Conga line.” Jackie, the other co-owner was taking photos and we had her up on the bar dancing!
(It was also the first time Jackie danced on the bar!) What a great time.

 

Bob and I in our "St. Patty's Day Green" at the Rally Dinner at Long Island Breeze

 

Sunset from the deck of the Breeze

 

Sharon and Jim off Insatiable took Third Place in the sailing cat class

 

Rally Dinner Dance

 

Jackie, one of the co-owners of the Breeze dancing on the bar!

 

Bob took this picture of the "Super Moon" as seen in Long island

 

Pretty Penny and Outlandish (think it should be named "Off-landish" instead) taken from the Long Island Regatta site

Saturday, the Royal Nassau Police Band (actually not all, but a portion of the whole band), came to Long Island and did a “parade” and show. You have to understand that I use the term “parade” loosely. They did not block the main north/south road on the island, but a short one block road off that road. So that meant that they marched a block toward the water, turned around, marched back, turned around, marched back several times for an hour show.

 

The Royal Nassau Police Band

 

Band doing a turnaround maneuver

 

Trombone player in the band.

 

Drummers doing a routine where they pass their sticks while keeping the beats.

 

Late afternoon photo from the regatta site.

 

Little boys having a rock skipping contest. (Notice - no video games.)

 

Local woman dancing with the Band Soloist.

Following the parade, a smaller subset of the group known as their “Pop Band” did a presentation on an old basketball court. Most of the islanders turned out, as well as all the cruisers in the anchorage for the show. They did a fundraiser by selling steak, chicken, or rib dinners to all in attendance. A moon bounce was set up for the kids making it a great family outing as well. Several of the local Bahamians just could not resist the mood and danced their heart away providing us with a great floor show as well!

Sunday is a very quiet day on Long Island as the groceries close by 10:30 and the natives are all in church for the morning. Church buses travel up and down the island picking up their parishioners who do not have cars and taking them to church. The Long Island Breeze is closed as well on Sunday and Monday, giving Mike and Jackie a needed rest (although they still have guests in the cottages to take care of.) The Breeze has one building with an apartment on the top floor with two bedrooms, two units downstairs and now a new one story building with four units that seem to be booked pretty steadily. Mike and Jackie have said it is proving to be a good money-maker.

One thing we have noticed this year is some long awaited infrastructure improvements have been done, or are in the process of being completed. The government dock next to the Breeze had finally reached a point last year that it was unusable and the mailboat no longer made a stop there. They instead went to the dock at Simms, even though they had just built a new building across the street to house the material that came in until it was picked up. Most folks have to have someone ready on the dock to receive goods. There does not seem to be any theft of material left on the dock, but if it is produce or frozen items, picking up immediately is critical. Mike told us that even though the mailboat has freezers on board, they don’t use them, except to just hold the cold and frozen foods!

So now Salt Pond on Long Island has a new government dock. There is still some work to be done, along with some dredging before mailboats can use it. The Rowdy Boys Construction Company did the work and “Rowdy” is their last name.

George Town has signed a contract for a new government dock, repair of the bridge from Greater Exuma to Little Exuma (this bridge has been down to one lane for years now), and a by-pass road around George Town. Interestingly, the projects on Exuma are to be done completely by a Chinese company. The Chinese are also building a new resort on Nassau, proposed to be as big, or bigger than Atlantis on Paradise Island.

George Town is also getting a sewage plant, something they have not had and are requiring all boaters staying for the winter, to use their pump-out boat for the first time this year. Also, George Town has started a recycling program for metal and glass. Not sure what their plans are for recycling as there is no facility on island to handle it.

Sunday, we saw the exodus of most of the sailing boats that came for the rally as they head back to George Town before winds pick up on Monday. We had moved down in front of the Breeze away from main anchorage so we could make water (that part of the anchorage has fine silt that clogs the filters of watermakers). In the process, we had tried to move to reset our anchor and found that the port engine would not re-start and Bob has determined that we need a new starter. Our mechanic and his wife, Annie, jumped through hoops to get a starter to G & G Shipping before Thursday so that it would make the boat to Long Island expected to arrive on Tuesday this week. Removing the old one was quite a challenge for Bob and he is not looking forward to installing the new one. So, until we have a new starter, we are going to be anchored off the Long Island Breeze.

 

Sunset off the Pretty Penny

 

Our better sunset picture - everything goes better with wine!

 

Late afternoon photo of the Long Island Breeze - our view until the starter is replaced and our "home away from home."

George Town to Long Island

The Cruiser’s Regatta proceeded with numerous events. We competed in the Texas Hold’em Tournament, but did not win any prize. We dressed up in our “poker” outfits for the event, but did not even win the costume contest!

 

Bob and Penny in our poker outfits. I had made earrings out of some dice beads and they were very popular.

Bob met up with a former Navy buddy, Carl, and it turned out they came in almost matching shirts. Bob’s cards were sew on his shirt, while Carl’s were cards he added.

 

Bob and Carl in their almost matching shirts.

 

Pam was the winner of the contest.

 

We were really crammed into one large room for the game. I don't know what we would have done if we needed to get out fast.

We also formed a team with Ed and Dee off Sea Fox X and competed in the Trivial Pursuit game. With 16 tables, we came in 4th, which was respectable, but did not win us a flag or booze. I won a St. Francis Resort ball cap for one of the silly prizes – someone wearing dolphins and could get to the person with the hat to be given away the fastest! I beat Bob there (I was wearing earrings with dolphins and Bob had them on his hat!)

One of the activities during the regatta is a "fun" softball game with cruisers making up one team and Bahamians making up another. The Bahamians always win. The referee, always a cruiser, makes up some of the silliest rules to give the cruisers a chance. Rules made up included that the Bahamians had to use the other end of the bat, running backwards between bases, etc.

 

Sue off Nice and Easy trying to get the team spirit a boost.

 

Cruisers Team Photo

 

The referees taking a "flask" break.

 

Our friend Sharon on My Sharona at bat.

The “in-harbor” race was swapped with the “around the island race” days due to weather. We sat up on top the boat and watched the in-harbor race. There were several races classifications, including one for sailing cats. The new boat, Penelope that was recently built by St. Francis Yachts (connected with St. Francis Resorts on Stroking Island, also raced. Given that she is my namesake, I had to root for her. One of her crew, was a man that worked at Palm Bay Resort and was a friend of the owner of St. Francis Resort pulled his arm out its socket following the in-harbor race. Luckily for him, there was an orthopedist (retired) in the harbor that was able to put it back in the socket. When that happened to our friend Sharon on My Sharon a couple of years ago, she had to pay to be med-evaced to the Nassau Hospital to get it reset. (That is why we have medical evacuation insurance this year).

 

Penelope, the new St. Francis sailing cat in the in-harbor race.

The day the around the island race was held, the winds were quite strong, but it was held anyway. Several boats had planned to leave that day and begin their trip back north, and ended up returning because it was too rough for them. I give the cruisers credit. Not one of the boats in the race returned to harbor and gave up the race. Last year there was similar weather and one of the boats had their mast break in half, this year only one boat reported any problems and it was a torn mast.
We walked over to the beach on Stocking Island to see the boats during the race.

 

Windsurfer off Stocking Island during the race.

 

Windsurfer's kite

 

Windsurfer and sailboats in the race

 

Sunburst, yellow catamaran in the race. This boat won the catamaran class.

 

Sailing catamarans - neck and neck

 

Cruiser's dog loving the surf (standard poodle)

There is a terrific new restaurant on the west side of Great Exuma Island. It is called Catch a Fire. You want to arrive there in time to see the sunset. It overlooks the shallow, bone fishing side of the island. A couple from Great Britain is building it and it is still under construction, but they opened the restaurant and bar on Christmas and are doing a great job.

After sunset, they light up candles and tiki torches all over the restaurant which is completely outdoors. It is certainly the peaceful side of the island as the water is too shallow for boats of any size. They will be building and selling some houses on the property and also some bungalows to rent out. We went with Ed and Dee from Sea Fox and their friends Don and Darlene who have been visiting from Canada. It was a great evening.

 

Bob and Penny with view from Catch a Fire Restaurant

 

Don and Darlene at Catch a Fire

 

Ed and Dee at Catch a Fire

 

Infinity pool at Catch a Fire

 

Bob at Catch a Fire

 

Penny at Catch a Fire

 

The "fire" we caught at Catch a Fire

Bob has been listening to the weather more carefully as we need to be in Long Island by the 27th (when our friends arrive) and we need a good weather window to make the crossing. It only takes 4 hours, but we still prefer cruising in calm water. We had been noticing that the window was starting to appear to be closing. Friday morning Bob said we had to leave today. I was scheduled to display my crafts in the cruiser’s craft show and was happy Bob said we could stay for that. We would miss the final party of the regatta Friday night and the variety show on Saturday night.
I had a lot of interest in my items, especially my painted board that I have painted George Town scenes on. We will see if I get any orders from the show. I enjoyed seeing some of the other boaters crafts. One lady does beautiful hooked rugs, one makes terrific baskets, one knits beautiful items, another woman makes beautiful sea glass jewelry and many displayed watercolors hanging them from lines strung up between the trees.

 

My craft display

 

Other crafters displays

 

Beautiful mermaid rug made by a boater.

We left right after lunch and found the waters quite calm, but the skies grey and with occasional misting to light rain all the way. We are looking forward to seeing Jackie and Mike, partners who own Long Island Breeze Resort on Long Island.
We arrived late afternoon, but still with plenty of light to be able to see to anchor. There are about 40 boats here now, but that will increase quite a bit if the planned rally of sailboats coming from George Town early in the week happens according to plan.

Long Island overall is so much quieter than George Town. It is the longest, narrowest islands in the Bahamas, thus belaying its name. We went in on Saturday and found Mike at the bar as usual providing libations to the numerous cruisers in to do their laundry, use the Internet, have lunch, or sun themselves on the deck. They have built a new building since last year to house guests. They have one large two story building that has a two bedroom apartment on the top floor, with two smaller apartments downstairs and now they have a one story with 4 units as well. Mike says that those 4 units are getting a high booking rate since it was built. Two of those units face the water. We were happy to hear they getting a good return on their investment for the building. We didn’t see Jackie as she was up in Nassau tending to a broken VHF radio and getting other supplies.

Mike still gives the morning news at 8:30 with a weather report. In past years, Don on Molly Hawk provided the weather. Don and his wife Betsy have been coming to Long Island for around 25 years – since before they had full electric power on the island! Unfortunately, this year they were unable to come because Betsy’s mother has been very ill. We miss hearing Don and seeing them at the Breeze.

If long Island is quiet, Sunday on Long Island is quieter. The two grocery stores that service the island, both are here in Salt Pond, open from 8 to 11. Even the gasoline station closes by noon on Sunday. All Bahamians are off attending their church of choice, except for the few Seventh Day Adventists. One of those owns the only Laundromat on the island and you can find that open on Sunday – but not on Saturday.

We invited Volt and Sandy off Amber Isle for dinner. We had met them a couple of years ago and seem to cross paths regularly.

Monday, 17 of the cruisers went to the Thompson Bay Inn for one of Trifinna’s Bahamian Buffets. She had spare ribs, curried chicken, fried grouper, cracked conch and cracked lobster, cole slaw, peas and rice, as well as white rice, and potato salad, all for $18! Her price has gone up a little this year due to rising food prices. We caught up with Houston and Gail on Blew Moon. Houston was submariner and knew Bob, so they had a great time talking about old times. They were heading out the next day for Conception Island, so we were glad they came and we had a chance to spend some time with them.

 

Trifinna's grandson who was collecting money to go with his "winning" team to compete on Eleuthra.

 

Trifinni explaining all the food on the table.

Tuesday, we were expecting a large group of sail boaters coming from George Town to the anchorage as part of a rally. So we thought we had better get our laundry done at the Long Island Breeze while we still could. So we moved the boat over in front of the Breeze and went in for lunch, some Internet time and to get the laundry done.

We will be at Long Island through the first week in April at least. Then we hope that our friends on My Sharona arrive with some other people all on Selene boats and go with them to Acklins or the Jumentos for about 10 days. We spend some time in the Jumentos last year, but have not spent any time visiting Acklins or its neighbor, Crocked Island.