We were surprised to see our friends Vic and Gigi on Gigi’s Island, and Buck and Vicki on Victoria Gaye when we returned to Long Island. We had not seen them since we left the Staniel area as they stayed there for a while after we moved south.
This was their first time to visit Long Island, so were anxious to rent a car and do some exploring. Vic is an excellent photographer, so he was looking forward to getting some new photos.
Sign by the car rental office.
Vic taking a photo of me taking a photo of him.
We said temporary good byes to My Sharona and Mystic Moon in the morning as they left for George Town ahead of us while there was a nice window to cross.
We went out exploring, and serving as tour guides some of the time, with Vic and Gigi and Buck and Vicki. We headed south the first day and had our usual lunch at Max’s Conch Bar where you can watch Max do his magic making his famous conch salad.
Gigi and Vic at Max's Conch Bar
Buck and Vicki at Max's Conch Bar
Max making his famous conch salad
Behind Max's Conch Bar, there is what appeared to be a Putt-Putt course at one time. Max said he built it, but it never caught on with the kids on the island. He said he also did it so he would have less grass to mow. What he ended up with were lots of obstacles to go around while mowing!
We also went to Clarence Town and visited the two old churches built by the same priest. The two churches are St. Paul’s Church which is Anglican, and when he converted to Catholicism and became Father Jerome, he built St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Both overlook the ocean and a deep water port where there is a marina, mostly used by large fishing boats. Both churches were built in the mid 1800's and are still in use.
St. Peter's Catholic Church
Interior of St. Peter's Catholic Church
Alm's Box for the Poor
Stained Glass window at St. Peters
View of Clarence Town harbor from the church tower taken by Buck
When you reach a certain point in the tower, you have to go farther by this ladder which Buck said was not really attached. Only our son-in-law has had the nerve to go all the way to the top of the tower.
Entrance to St. Paul's Anglican Church built in 1847. The entrance has an addition that houses bathrooms now.
Pulpit at St. Paul's
We always stop at Ena’s Straw Market, a small building filled with her handmade straw articles, including purses, placemats, and baskets of all sizes. This time, Ena was not there, but Henry, her husband was sitting out front and took our money for our purchases.
We stopped at a sound side beach to look for shells and sea beans. Bob and Gigi are searching through the flotsom.
We came back to our boats and cleaned up for dinner at the Long Island Breeze that night where Mike and Jackie served us wonderful dinners. We all watched the sunset from the second floor porch and caught a “green flash.” The Long Island Breeze had booked a local band called “The Untouchables” and Bob and I stayed to dance and hear the band.
Dinner at the Long Island Breeze - Vic and Gigi, Bob and Penny, and Vicki and Buck - don't we clean up nice!
Sunset from the second level of the Breeze
Another Penny dancing with a local friend at the Breeze. The band was called the Unstoppables.
The next morning Vic and Gigi, and Buck and Vicki, headed out to explore the north end of the island while we hung back and did some much needed laundry and email checking. While we were at the Breeze, we watched the mast being stepped on the Bahamian Sloop Rufff Justice.
That evening, we went with them to a little resort called Chez Pierre for dinner. Pierre is a French Canadian Chef and prepared wonderful meals. Buck and Vicki had the Gorgonzola Salad to share. Vicki was awed by the size of the salad. They each had ordered a full entrée as well and were totally stuffed when dinner was over, as were we all.
Vicki amazed by the size of the Gorgonzola Salad
Sunday morning we went with Gigi’s Island and Victoria Gaye, to Dean’s Blue Hole which is over 660 feet deep. It is also part of the 8th Largest Underwater Cavern. It is home to Freediving Competitions this time of year and the divers were scheduled to dive that morning. They let spectators snorkel out and hand around a square piped area to watch what can be seen of the dives. Many of the divers have a set routine of mind and body preparation before they dive that includes meditation, yoga, and deep breathing.
The Blue Hole
Vic went up on the cliff that surrounds about half of the hole, while Gigi, Bob and Buck snorkeled out to the white pipe to watch. Chicken that I am, I stayed on shore to watch.
Vic on the hill taking photos.
Vicki and Buck in center of photo watching in the spectator area.
When the divers come up, they must go through a set routine of removing their nose clip, breathing, removing their face mask, and giving an OK sign in that order for the dive to count. Several of the divers passed out and a couple of the divers had a hard time coming back to “reality” of the surface. Safety personnel were on had yelling at them to breath. They are not supposed to touch the divers until it is clear that they are in real trouble. It is important to not however, that although there was one medical assistant there, there was ambulance or hospital on the island should the need arise.
William Trubridge, a New Zealander who holds the world record, was there that day, but only did a “practice” dive that day. His world record was achieved last year when he reached 95 meters without fins. He made it look so simple compared to their other divers that day. It is quite interesting to watch, even though most of the dive cannot be watched. These divers have zero body fat.
That evening, we had been invited to have cocktails at Fairhaven, a new home being built by Americans Jon and Penny from Ohio. This is the second home they have built on the island. It is smaller than the first one and a better retirement home. It overlooks Thompson Bay and has “million dollar views” from their wraparound porch. They were so gracious to ask us to come visit and we loved seeing their new home.
View of Thompson Bay from Fairhaven - what a view!
View of the Thompson Bay anchorage from Fairhaven.
Jon and Gigi enjoying the evening and hearing about the building of Fairhaven.
Monday Vic and Buck returned the car and we spent most of the day on the boat catching up with the blog and email. That evening we went with Gigi’s Island and Victoria Gaye for their first (and our 4th this year) Bahamian meal at Tryphena’s Thompson Bay Inn.
Tryphena was left the building by her father who had let it go into disrepair. She has been slowly improving the building and bringing it back to it’s earlier state. Tryphena also does shell work and makes lovely table arrangements, candy dishes, picture frames, card holders, etc. She showed me her shell cleaning process last time I was there.
Tryphena explaining the food laid out on the table for the guests. Behind her is a table with some of her shell work.
The shell work arrangement I purchased from Tryphena - now to get it home safely!
She soaks shells covered in sea growth like Trumpeter shells in Sno Bowl (toilet bowl cleaner) and then in water and cleans the sea growth off with a toothbrush. I tried the process on the boat for some small saw tooth and whelk shells and made quite a mess. The small shells started to dissolve in the stuff. Guess I will wait till I get home to mess with this again to clean any more.
We had all planned to hang out at Long Island till the weekend and then cross back over to George Town for the Family Island Regatta next week, but listening to Chris Parker’s weather announcement convinced us all that we had better make our crossing on Tuesday instead. It was sad to say good bye to our new and old friends on Long Island till next year.
What we do a lot - catch up with the news on and email at the Breeze. Here are Buck and Vicki doing just that.
View of the Breeze from the water.
Good Night from Long Island
We were all underway by 8:45 the next morning for an uneventful trip back to George Town.
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