Bahamas - Thompson Bay, Long Island

Wow what a great place.  There is a really large anchorage here and although shallow, we managed to get pretty far into the north to the edge of the 2 meter deep water to drop the hook.  There is a nice floating dingy dock at Long Island Breeze restaurant and they are very welcoming. The owner, Mike, even runs a VHF net with weather and info for the cruisers.  The restaurant food was not too expensive and we managed to eat several lunches ashore.   

There is a Saturday morning market for some fresh vegetables and baked goods like pumpkin bread and guava rolls.  There are two grocery stores and auto supplies and a few mechanics.  Every one beeps and waves on the road and offers rides.  I found the owner of a SCUBA shop had a garage workshop that rivals mine back home.  He sorted out a broken shower hose by pulling out a good assortment of special fittings and doing a silver solder repair for me.

We did home school, maintenance on the lugger and some varnish work while we were here for about a week.  We had one day of westerly winds that made the anchorage uncomfortable, but mostly it was nice and calm with cool breezes.  One night, the temps dropped to about 75 F and Emily was wearing socks to keep warm!

We heard about some caves near the SCUBA shop, so one day after lunch at Long Island Breeze restaurant, we walked over with two flashlights and a headlamp.  We spoke to owner to access the caves through his property and they were surprisingly large.  We quickly found the entrance and walked in…and in….and in.   

 

The tunnels were winding and must have gone in at least 1000 ft with several side tunnels.  We were enjoying the stalactites and stalagmites until about half way in we saw this fellow coiled up in the dark.   

That was when Kim decided to turn back with Emily in tow. On the way out, they spied this fellow lying on the floor and never stopped to check if it was real or plastic.  

The fearless (clueless) Captain soldered on alone and found the large domed cathedral at the end.  It had to be 50 feet wide and 40 feet tall.

There were bats on the ceiling and several were disturbed by our lights and were dive bombing us (within inches) as we moved through the blackness.  There were hundreds of deep holes in the ceiling and most were filled with bats like little apartments.     

I managed to go back and lure Emily through the entire cave system, but mom decided to stay outside and guard the entrance. 

 

We saw several beautiful formations and saw the tool marks made by others harvesting crystal.  Emily and I looked hard, but never saw any crystals. 

As we neared the exit, we switched off our lights to get the full experience.  

Tomorrow we will head to Georgetown and hopefully find some more kids for Emily.

Tom

Bahamas – Mayaguana and Conception Island

After we got the dingy fixed and lowered the waterline by bringing aboard more groceries, we fueled up and headed just offshore to Isla Palaminos.  They have free moorings here and that made for an easy departure at 4AM for our  night passage to the Bahamas.  

The seas were a little confused for the first day but the next 2 ½ days were calm with the wind and swell directly aft.  Emily Grace likes these conditions and we made fresh water and ice as we slipped by Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, and the Turks and Caicos.  The winds picked up to 25 knots for the last 12 hours and although they were mainly aft, we were happy to find Mayaguana where we had left her back in 2009.

The main anchorage is Abrahams Bay in the south and we got a good refresher course in how to read depths in the water colors.  The safest entry is to the west so we took that one and had to work our way east through 5 miles of shallow water to get near the town.  We watched the light and dark blues and brown patches as we tried to distinguish between water 13 feet, 6 feet and 2 feet deep and the coral bommies (pillars) that lie in our path.  We slowly moved through and recorded a nice electronic breadcrumb trail for our departure.

We chose this island since it was the most eastern island that afforded both Customs and Immigration check in and a Batelco office to buy phone and internet access. Even the guide books note this island as a “settlement” rather than a town and that it just what we found.  Tom went ashore to hand over our $300 fee for cruising the Bahamas, took care of our communication needs and found little reason to step ashore for the remainder of our stay.  We stayed aboard for 5 days there while the strong winds blew offshore.  Kim and Emily snorkeled in the clear water daily and scoured the shoreline for sea beans and rare shells.  After the first couple of nights, the building ocean swell found the anchorage and we rigged a bridle to point our bow into the waves and the roll stopped.

Once the winds died down, we upped anchor and pointed the bow west.  We enjoyed a calm ride and 150 miles later we found Conception Island.

Conception Island is highly regarded as one of the most spectacular island in the Bahamas. The uninhabited island is located on a platform that rises out of the deep ocean 15 miles east of Santa Maria, Long Island. The island has miles of pink sand beaches, gorgeous sandstone cliffs, and an extraordinary abundance of wildlife on the land and in the sea. It is however isolated with not even any cell phone reception or internet (gasp!).

The main island, Booby Cays, and South Rocks are home to an extraordinary number of wildlife species, many of which are threatened or endangered. Long tail tropic birds, sooty terns, oyster catchers, and osprey nest on the island and cays. The center of the island is a large mangrove and creek habitat and an important nursery for fish, sharks, conch, and crawfish. Green turtles forage in the creek, off the southwestern shore, and in the northern bay. The coral reefs and grass flats in the surrounding sea are unusually healthy and are home to an abundance of sea life.  One afternoon Tom was visited by a solitary dolphin swimming around Emily Grace while the girls were enjoying the beach.

 

Based on a recommendation from the crew of Aries Too, we towed our armada of 3 kayaks two miles south to the mangrove creeks that almost fill the center of this island.   

There, we anchored the dingy and the incoming tide carried us and our kayaks into this aquatic nursery.  In the shallow clear water we saw 3 or 4 eagle rays gliding inches below us and dozens of green turtle heads popped up to see who was visiting.  Tom also saw a small (4 ft) nurse shark gliding by.  It was very calm and since we were only hours before sunset, the sun was bright but not too hot.  Bird songs serenaded us while we paddled for more than an hour when the tide changed and flushed us back to the dingy.  We took our portable GPS with us and were glad to have it when we needed to find our way out of the labyrinth of small creeks and passageways. All-in-all a very nice day!

We spent one more day at this nice location.  Kim did some laundry and baking, Emily knocked off some homeschool and Tom rinsed off the kayaks and readied the boat for sea.  Our next stop will be Thompson Bay around the west side of Long Island.  It is only about a 7 hour trip and we hope to find groceries, restaurants and more fellow cruisers.  Come along, dear reader and join us to see what we find.

Tom