I’m guessing that when you think of Long Island, you don’t think of the Bahamas. I didn’t either until we discovered the one down here. I like this one better than the one up in the frigid state of NY. We came here as part of a “rally” of about 40 boats that had been over in Georgetown.
Long Island as you might guess is long (by Bahama’s standards). The really big islands (long and fat) get the name “great” or “grand” in front of them. For example, Great Exuma or Grand Bahama Islands, and my personal favorite – Great Guana (conjures up an image). Long Island is about 80 miles long but is only four miles wide at its widest points so it really is long. It’s long enough to be great or grand, but I think too skinny hence it is only named long. The population is about 3000 and, interestingly, has a racial and political divide where the south historically was peopled by white settlers and the north by black settlers. That boundary is not very obvious today, although politically the north and south areas still vote differently. As far as we know this pattern of settlement is not common here. That being said, there is no detectable racial tension or class distinction.
The Other Long Island Expressway
The schools here are the best in the Bahamas which may be a positive legacy left by Diamond Crystal Salt Co which used to be the major employer. The work involved filling and harvesting the many salt ponds here. They invested heavily in the people, the schools and the whole community. Unfortunately they could not compete with the mining of salt in areas where deposits existed in the ground and they closed up shop on the island in the 1980s.
This is the first place where we have taken advantage of organized tours since we started our journey. There were lots of activities offered as part of the rally. We did a couple of all day bus tours, although the transportation was not exactly what we pictured. The conveyance was a very, very, very old school bus. We assumed that this bus had been retired from school service since it was on its last legs - none of the windows worked, the transmission didn’t seem to understand it’s job well, there were holes in the floor and overall it was, to put it nicely, ready for the old school bus pasture. However, about half way through the day it emerged that the bus had to leave us for a time to pick the kids up from school. Yikes!
The first rally event was a cave dinner the day we got here. There was standing room only on the bus and something about being on a school bus had everyone in a field trip mood and singing kid’s songs, especially the French Canadians – they must sing a lot in elementary school because they all seemed to know the songs and belted them out with gusto. The USA group tried to get 3 or 4 songs going at the same time when we tried to “trump” the Canadians. We were soundly beaten.
The cave dinner pretty much sucked. All the pieces were there for a great time. Spectacular venue, live band, freshly cooked food, and interesting people to talk to. Working against this was too many people, very dim lighting and hard to see, seat yourself chaos, a bon fire inside the cave (smoke everywhere), loud music and 50% more people than seats. The food was pretty good though. Being a cave, the floor was very uneven and rocky. Even sober it was hard to walk without bumping into people and tripping on rocks. Since few were sober it was pretty amusing to watch. We ended up sitting outside the cave which was disappointing at first, but as people kept coming out to join us and telling us we had the best seat in the house since it was hot and smoky in the cave, we felt a little better.
Inside the cave:
Things improved dramatically from there. The island tours were fun and interesting. We saw Dean’s Blue Hole (663 feet deep) where the world free diving championships are often held and where the current world record was set. A blue hole is a hole in the sea bed that goes way, way deep. Typically they have an opening in the sea floor some distance from shore, but this one apparently does not which makes it ideal for free diving because there are no tidal currents to affect the results. Mary Beth went swimming in the hole while I hiked around the cliffs surrounding it.
We also saw some historical churches and learned about the devastation of Long Island by Hurricane Joachim which hit the island with winds over 200mph in 2015 with very little warning. It’s hard to imagine the devastation from winds of that magnitude, and the damage is still very evident. Our guide said many people left the island after a series of damaging hurricanes over the last decade and they probably won’t come back. Many people simply do not have the means to rebuild from the devastation.
St Mary's church built in 1600s:
Catholic and Anglican Churches built by Father Jerome in Clarencetown:
The best part of the tour was the caves where we got to explore three large caves. The biggest, Hamilton Cave, was large enough to require a guide. Our guide Leonard grew up here playing in the caves and Hamilton was his favorite (his family owns the property this one is on). It is a spectacular cave, and in the US would have a roped off path and lights, but here it was open and the only lights were our flashlights. This is a much better way to explore a cave because it is very mysterious and much more of an adventure. For as long as people have been on Long Island they have sheltered in Hamilton Cave during hurricanes. There is a lot of evidence of long-term habitation of the caves, particularly Hamilton, by the original inhabitants of the Island – the Lucayan people. These are the people whom Columbus found in the Bahamas when he came here. They apparently welcomed him and his crew and in return got smallpox and carted off in slavery. And we wonder why other countries sometimes don’t trust white people. Look for more on the Lucayan’s in a future post.
We also stopped to see a Class A race boat being built. These boats are built with local woods by craftsman who have learned the art from relatives and mentors. Most of the tools are traditional with a few simple power tools employed to speed the work a bit, but it looked like all the power tools were things that most of us have in our tools at home. The traditional Bahama race boats are simple deep-draft keel boats made entirely from wood. Class A is the biggest with class B and C boats being very similar in appearance, design and construction but smaller. These boats go all over the Bahamas to compete in regattas (NASCAR for sailboats). Unlike sailboat races in the US, it is a contact sport here which made it a hoot to watch. I don’t think much money is at stake in these races, but it is very prestigious to win them. The overall winner at the end of the season is the champion for that year.
Cork trees are used for the curved ribs inside the boat:
We had several other odd stops along the way. One was at a store/bar that was also having a bake sale and two for one drinks (just for us I think).
We also stopped at a dig site where remains of three Lucayans were found last year and had an archaeologist in our group provide all sorts of info. When our driver told us our next stop was at a political campaign office so he could show off the tourism he was in charge of, we all inwardly groaned. This was one of MB’s favorite stops though. The young politician came onto the bus and spoke to us about their politics on the island and answered questions. He was clearly well educated, well-spoken and had a certain presence. Turns out he is the only lawyer and only mortician on the island along with a bunch of other things!
Another activity was the conch races. There was much secrecy around what they exactly would be, but we paid our $5 (for a children's charity on the island) and signed up. Conchs are rather slimey creatures and aren't known for their fast swimming so we were curious about how they would be raced. The participants sit on a bench backwards with their conch on a string behind them. At the whistle, you roll the string around a stick as fast as you can to pull the conch towards you (yes, the conch shells are empty). One of our friends made the finals!
We will remember Long Island fondly. It’s the only island we have been to where there are more churches than bars! In fact, as I write this we’re back in Thompson Bay, Long Island due to weather combined with more engine trouble – more on that later too. I guess the good news is that we know we get into an anchorage under sail and drop the anchor when we need to.