Emily Grace: 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.