Long Island Continued

The "Mail Boat" which is ferry and supply boat as well arrived, but sat at anchor by us until high tide before moving in to the dock.


Here is the mail boat the next day after being mostly unloaded.
Thursday Bob and Jim went off "hunting and gathering" again and Mindy and I sat by the pool at Long Island Breeze. Here is photo of the pool with the Pretty Penny in the backbround.


Long Island Breeze Pool with Pretty Penny in the background


Mindy and I enjoying the beach


Bob beachcombing with Pretty Penny off shore in background

Jim had caught a Barracuda and used that for bait fishing off the back of the boat. He managed to catch a Nurse Shark. Here are photos of the shark. Nurse Shark are not good eating and are not dangerous. We let it go, but it was fun to catch.


Nurse Shark in the water


Norse Shark

Anybody hungry? You won't be if you eat a meal prepared by Trafinna at the Thompson Bay Inn. Cost was $15.00 per person! Great Bahamian Fare


Meal at Thompson Bay Inn


Sunset Fishing

Jim and Mindy left at 6:30 in the morning heading to Deadman's Cay Airport, then to Nassau, and back home. We enjoyed their company and will miss them.

Sunday night was exciting. We had heard that the shuttle was set to go off at 7:43 Sunday night, so we were on deck watching the NE sky. Shortly after it took off, we saw this cloud formation light up in the sky. What a thrill! It lasted about 20 minutes.

Long Island - South Side

Tuesday we took a drive South on the island. Here are some of the photos we took of this area.


Cute well-decorated home we found on the island


This is called "White Cliffs" on the charts, but the locals it "Chimney Rock."


Mindy by the White Rocks on Atlantic side


Manmade tidal pool


This is a Bahamian racing sloop under construction


Inside view of the racing sloop


Inside of the Catholic Church built in late 1800's.


View of harbor from tower of the Catholic Church


View of another direction


View taken by Jim from the tower of the Catholic Church of Bob, Mindy, and me


View of the Catholic Church from the front


View of front of the Anglican Church built in 1848 by the same man who later converted to Catholocism and built the Catholic Church

Wednesday we moved the boat to a different anchorage shown on the charts whcih looked like there would be some reefs and areas where Jim could explore for spear fishing. However, the charts lied, we were not able to find a sandy bottom in which to anchor safely, so we left and headed back to Thompson Bay where we anchored. Will have more photos later of when Jim caught a nurse shark! (This was an exciting catch, but not good fish to eat, so it was let go.)

Exploring Long Island - North Half

My daughter Mindy and her husband Jim arrived last Saturday. We are anchored in Thompson Bay off of a "boater friendly" new resort, Long Island Breeze Resort. We can get showers and laundry done here and access the island via their dinghy dock. They even have a swimming pool we can use!

Mindy and Jim flew into Nassau and took Bahamas Air to Long Island. It was a 20 passenger plane. They came by cab from the airport to the Long Island Breeze Resort where we were waiting. Saturday night, the resort had a dance that we came in for. The place was jumping till after 1:30 when I finally fell asleep on the boat. We could hear the band very well from the boat.

Sunday, just about everything is closed in the Bahamas, so we just hung out and cruised around by dinghy a little. We took the dinghy over to a cave by the shore and explored it. Got some nice photos.


Sign leading to the cave


Hole in top of cave near entrance with a precarious rock


Another view of the hole in the ceiling of the cave with trees growing through it


View of the inside of the cave


Inside cave

Monday and Tuesday we rented a car and toured the North half of Long Island on Monday and the South half on Tuesday. A very pleasant two days. I have a ton of great photos to post. I will post the North pics today and the South is I get back to the Internet later this week. We will be moving the boat tomorrow morning to a location where we won't have Internet for a few days. We will return back to our current position in time for Jim and Mindy to leave next Sunday.


Boats in the Stella Maris Marina


Solo Sailor leaving the Stella Maris Marina on catamaran


Stella Maris Resort Ocean Walk


Tidal Pool at Stella Maris


Stella Maris Beach


Bob, Jim and Mindy beachcombing the Stella Maris beach


Cape Santa Maria - a luxury resort

We stopped at the ruins of an old plantation called the Adderly Plantation and walked the mile to get there.


Mindy in front of the building we think was the kitchen of the plantation


Gigantic termite nest


Mindy by the ruins


Me by the ruins

WE stopped for dinner at the Blue Chip. This place was highly recommended by boaters who told us to "come hungry." There were goats and chickens running around outside. Mario made us a family style dinner of cracked conch, Bahamian chicken, grouper fingers, peas and rice, coleslaw, and plantains. What a meal! I was just glad that goat wasn't on the menu


Blue Chip Goat


Chicken at the Blue Chip


Rooster - wish I had the sound to go with this one.

When we finally got back to the boat, we made it for this nice sunset.


It was a perfect day

George Town to Long Island

We made the crossing with about 10 sailboats and arrived at Thompson’s Bay mid afternoon on Tuesday. We found that we had made the crossing with the folks from Southern Cross, Dennis and Karen, whom we had met in Vero Beach and seen at several other spots in the Bahamas. They are from Canada. They invited us to join them for a cocktail hour at 4:30 on their boat along with friends from two other boats. They are all from the same yacht club in Canada. It was a great evening.

Once we reached George Town, we no longer have TV till we get back North of George Town again. So we are all starved for news and a good movie. So, Wednesday night, we decided to have a movie night on our boat. So there were 9 of us watching that silly movie "Captain Ron." We all had a great time laughing at some of the all time great lines, only funny to other boaters.


Nikki, Bob, Dennis, Margaret, and Wayne on "Movie Night"

Friday night, the local club called Long Island Breeze hosted a fun cocktail hour on their lover deck. The couple, Janet and Mike, have built a great place that will eventually have 8 houses with rooms for rent. It will be a great resort when it is all done. They have one guest house with 4 rooms available now, and are looking for people to invest. Anyone with a little extra cash that wants a piece of paradise?


View of the Pretty Penny from the deck of the Long Island Breeze Club


Folks from Pretty Penny, Nice Butt, Southern Cross, and Windswept, minus Bob on Windswept who took the photo!


One crowded dinghy dock


Deck of Long Island Breeze


Another gorgeous sunset

We are expecting my daughter Mindy, and son-in-law Jim later this afternoon for a weeks stay. We have had winds in the 20 to 30 knot range and temps in the high 60's. It is supposed to improve, both winds and temps in the next day for two. We expect to rent a car for a couple of the days of their visit to explore the island and then move the boat to a nice fishing/beach site so we can enjoy the sun and Jim can catch our dinner.

Big Major to George Town

We sat out a blow tucked behind Big Major with a large number of other boats. We had spent some lovely afternoons visiting with friends on a beach on Big Major = away from the swimming pigs. One evening Pirate and a couple of other boats had a bonfire on the beach. It was a little chilly that evening. Bob made some great vegetable beef soup to warm us all up and Janie had the makings of S’mores. It was a lovely evening.

Friday night, there was a happy hour and band for dancing at Club Thunderball. We went with Janie and Jim and heard a local band playing Jimmie Buffet music. The place had a nice turnout. We heard that it was the bands first public appearance. We had a fun time dancing to the music with the expats, natives, and other boaters.
The window opened finally on Saturday the 28th for us to leave Big Major and head toward George Town. It was a calm lovely day to be cruising the lea side of the Exumas. Jim and Janie on Pirate decided to also make the trip with us. We decided to anchor at Musha Cay, the Cay owned by David Copperfield where he runs a wonderful resort for the rich and famous. We went with Jim and Janie in their large dinghy to explore the islands nearby. We found some beautiful locations where we might anchor when passing this way again. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone we thought might be famous.


Pirate anchored next to us at Musha Cay


Boats at anchor in Elizabeth Harbor

Sunday morning we were underway at 7 AM and heading out Rudder Cut on the Exuma Sound side of the islands. This can be pretty tricky, so you want to make this when the weather and water are calm. It was a little rougher than the trip we made last year, but overall tolerable. I spent the day working on a cross stitch birth announcement for our newest grandchild born on February 26, Joshua Andrew Kingsbury. We can’t want to see him on our trip home. We were happy to hear that mother and grandson were both doing well.


Beautiful red sail on Windswept


Entering Elizabeth Harbor by Monument Beach

We arrived Sunday about 2 PM and anchored off the only marina in George Town. We put the dinghy in the water and headed in to town looking to do some shopping. Unfortunately, all the stores were closed, so shopping had to be delayed until Monday. We did find Rita-Kay and Clay on Carleigh there at the dock and had a chance to catch up with them a little. We also got to spend some time with Dee and Ed off Sea Fox X.

The rest of Sunday, I did laundry at the marina Laundromat. What a challenge that was. Out of 14 washers, they had about 4 working. Two worked just by pushing in the coin slot without coins. Of the 14 dryers, there were 5 working. One of the ones I use I had to hold the door closed the entire 45 minutes so it would work! They could really use an appliance repairman here. Bob spent the time I was at the laundry, ferrying water from the faucet at the Exuma Market dock, 10 gallons a trip to the boat.

Monday we got up early and were at the market at 8:15. We pretty much had the market to ourselves, so it was easy getting around. We got our groceries and headed back to the boat and unloaded, then headed back in. I took the computer to a little hut where they have stations for about 5 people to use the Internet at a time. I got caught up on email, while Bob walked to the second supermarket to see if they had any of the items on our list that we were not able to get at the Exuma Market.
We also finally had the chance to deliver the school supplies for the Seven Seas Cruising Association “Bahamas Project.” We walked to the primary grade school at 9:45 and met with the principal. We agreed to have the books at a water sports dock next to the school at 10:30 and she would meet us there with some of the bigger children to carry the books boxes to the school. Bob and I had to hi tail it to make that time. We loaded the 20 boxes into the dinghy and headed back in to George Town. I have some photos of the process of the kids carrying the boxes. We have enjoyed meeting every child. There cannot be any sweeter, courteous, children anywhere else in the world. We hope to participate in this project next year as well.


Students are arriving


Students carrying the books


Principal on right



Later in the day, I met up with Janie and we were “shopping” in the straw market and a couple of little stores that have t-shirts and other souvenirs. Janie had purchased a fake so she could clean some beaches while she was here. Here is a photo of Bob and Janie doing their best imitation of the famour painting "American Gothic" by Grant Wood. If you think their expression is funny, you should have seen Jim's expression when he saw that Janie bought a rake!


Bob and Janie as "American Gothic"





Monday night we said goodbye to Sea Fox X, Carleigh, and Pirate, and left Tuesday morning for Long Island. We may or may not catch up with them again this trip, but will try to. We needed to leave for Long Island because we had a weather window and we have my daughter, Mindy and her husband Jim, arriving at Long Island on Saturday for a week’s visit.