This is a long update.
Our visit to Long Island as previous years was great.
We really like Long Island. The people are so nice. We (Mike and Kathy from Sapphire)
rented a car; our first stop was the ATM. Only two places in the Bahamas have ATM’s, Long Island
and George Town. While waiting to get into the ATM we met Emma Wells (a native). Emma
is an elderly women, she had a dress on, a nice floppy hat and paten leather shoes. While talking with
her she asked us if we wanted to go to her farm and get some vegetables. We said sure, so we followed her
to the farm. We discovered as Emma backed out of the bank that she was a little shaky with the driving so we did not follow
too closely. We traveled down the main road for a bit and then headed towards the airport (Deadman’s
Cay); we drove right beside the runway and then turned down into the weeds. Emma had a truck and we were
driving a car, she was flying down this dirt patch. Steve did his best to keep up. Once
we got to the farm, Emma reaches into the back of the truck and pulls out the machete. No fear, there were
four of us and only one of her. Wew! We walked down a rocky road and into the woods
(my favorite place to be, NOT) Emma lead us right to a banana tree. Emma rears back with the machete and
starts to chop down a whole portion of the banana tree. I did not know that you didn’t just cut down
the bananas. Nope! Emma cut a large portion of the tree down. We
ended up getting bananas, cabbage, tomatoes, green onions and carrots. Quite a lot of stuff, when we asked
her what we owed her she said $16 we handed her a twenty. Emma explained where she lived and told us to
come back. I am certain we will.
We went to the blue hole, Liquor Store (mostly for the entertaining ladies that
work there), grocery store, marine store (to replace my lure that is stuck in that huge tuna’s mouth), Max’s Conch
Stand and Long Island Breeze. Michael and Jackie at Long Island Breeze are very nice and very helpful.
Max’s Conch Stand is a must. It is
right on the main road and has the best Conch Salad I have ever had. Max makes his salad a little different.
Most Conch Salads are made with green pepper, onion, tomatoes, lime juice, orange juice and conch. What
makes Max’s Conch Salad different is he puts in celery, apple and only uses sour oranges along with the normal stuff
(green pepper, onion, and tomatoes). It is so good.
While sitting at the Conch Stand I noticed a bucket of sour oranges and I also noticed a little store beside the
conch stand. I went into the store and did not see any sour oranges so I asked the lady working there if
she had any sour oranges. She explained to me they were supposed to have come in yesterday but we did not
get any. I then asked if she knew where I could get any. Finally she said how many do
you need. I went for the low number three or four. She said okay goes around the building
and I will meet you there. She led me to a sour orange tree. I picked three oranges
plus she wanted me to have a bread fruit. So I took it as well. She had to explain to
me how to cook a bread fruit though I never got the chance because Steve thought it was bad and did not keep it.
Next time I will have to keep the bread fruit with me until I can cook it. She
wanted to give me everything but I would not hear of it. The people are so nice.
We got to Flamingo Cay (Jumentos) on Wednesday Jan 13. Motored
most of the way. Stayed one night and Thursday we sailed all the way to Buenavista Cay. The
wind was blowing 22 knots, we had a couple of gusts that were somewhere in the thirties (possibly higher). We
had to reef the main. Naturally those gusts toss things around below on the boat. A
potato flew out of the vegetable holder and hit the hot water handle on the galley sink, unknowingly ran water for a while.
Glad we have the water maker. New plan: turn the water pressure off when underway.
Once the anchor was down at Buenavista Cay, Steve and I got our snorkel gear on
and went hunting. It turned out pretty good we got two Lobsters and a nice fish. Dinner
with Sapphire on Fine Lion!
Left Buenavista on Friday,
it was a good day to sail...saves money. We ended up at Raccoon Cay. Spent five days
at Raccoon Cay. It took a day or so but Steve got into the swing of hunting with his spear.
He speared many lobsters, Hog fish and Trigger fish. He has been very successful this year.
Went to a few beach parties one to burn trash (no where to take trash in the Jumentos) and one just to visit with other
boats. Veranda (Christy and Bill), Kokomo (Leta and Roland) and Sapphire. One
day we took a long walk to the other side of the Island. It can be very interesting taking walks on these
islands; they consist of sand and razor rock. The razor rock is just as it sounds, very sharp.
Not walking in flip flops.
Wednesday Jan 20 we went to Johnson Cay six miles from Raccoon Cay (long
trip). Johnson Cay is a neat area it is small anchorage only three boats could be in the anchorage comfortably.
We were there the first night with Sapphire and the second night Kokomo joined us. Again Steve speared
a lobster and a Hog fish.
Sapphire left us on Friday for Water Cay and on Saturday on to Long Island.
The outboard for their car (dingy) was not working. Cannot get to far from your boat if you do not
feel comfortable that your car will start. Steve and I are having separation anxiety; we have been traveling
with Sapphire for three months and have enjoyed every day of it. Maybe they rigged their dingy motor to
get away from us….. hum. We will either catch up with them in Long Island or back down here
in the Jumentos in Feb.
Friday morning Fine Lion went on
to Hog Cay. We went into Duncan Town (62 miles from Cuba). Had lunch at Sheila’s
Fisherman’s Lounge. Made a quick stop at Maxine’s grocery Store. Not much
to choose from. We really do not need much of anything except some fresh vegetables, not much luck at Maxine’s.
Sat. Jan 23 Steve and I went hunting. The
water was murky and there were two sharks around the reef. Normally not a big deal, most sharks are
not interested in humans, unless the water is murky and they are unsure what you are. So out of the
water. We stopped at a beach that was out of the way and I hit pay dirt with the Hamburger Sea Beans, I
found 15 on that beach. That is good and bad. Now I must do something with them.
I did sand and polish a few of them and they turned out pretty good.
We left Hog Cay Saturday afternoon and went
back to Raccoon Cay. We got the anchor set and went around to three other boats in the anchorage.
We have never met any of the people in the anchorage but did discover that one guy is a little crazy. One
guy was cleaning fish, not so strange. One guy was from Copper Mountain in CO, just wanted to say hello.
The third man was taking the fish heads from guy number one and attaching it to some line (rope) and dragging it behind
his dingy (using a bucket as his bobber) trying to catch one of two Hammerhead Sharks now cruising around Raccoon Cay anchorage.
The larger of the two sharks went right under our dingy as we were heading back to our boat. Now
that scared me. The Hammerhead was every bit as big as our eleven foot dingy. It
was very entertaining to watch this man try to catch the sharks. A few times the shark was just dragging
him around in his dingy. It was exactly like jaws. All you could see was the fin above
the water chasing the fish head. The shark would drag him around just long enough to straighten the hook
and take the fish head with him. The fisherman was bummed out he could not catch the shark and eat him
(for a month). I am glad I was able to see this take place but will be just fine if I never see it again.
Needless to say I will not be doing the afternoon swim I like to do before a shower in the anchorage. I
will have to go close to shore to swim.
Sunday morning
I was sitting out in the cockpit weaving (making a basket, no laughing) and I hear this loud pop. I look
at the trawler anchored a bit away from us and black smoke is billowing out of the boat. I got Steve to
come into the cockpit to see the smoke. Steve grabbed the bucket, got in the dingy and blasted over to
the boat. Thank goodness he did, the man could not get into his cabin to get his own bucket or fire extinguisher.
Steve filled the bucket and handed it up to the man on deck, who was in his birthday suit. I do
believe he was just in shock and totally unaware of what he did not have on. It appears that his boat will
be okay, he had done something with a battery cable which ended up burning up. All his other batteries
and generator appear to be fine. He is very lucky. Some carpet burned, a plastic bucket
with parts in it burned and some wood got charred. The cats are okay…. Meow!
We
ended up getting more conch at Raccoon Cay but nothing else. Stayed at Raccoon until Jan 27 and on to Buenavista
the 28th then on to Water Cay the 29th. We stayed at Water Cay two nights, it was
full moon on one of the nights we were there and I wish we could have gotten a picture to share with you. It
was beautiful, hard to explain.
We are now back at
Thompson Bay in Long Island. When we got here in Jan 31 there were five boats in the anchorage, now there
are close to 50 boats. The race from Georgetown (GT) to Thompson Bay was Feb 1st
so a lot of boats came over from GT. The VHF radio is extremely busy as the GT people like to organize
things and are talking on the radio all the time. Not so quiet when a bunch of boats are around.
We
will stay in Long Island until after the Super Bowl. We all have jobs at Long Island Breeze to prepare
for the party. One job is to move a big screen TV from the upstairs of Long Island Breeze to the main floor,
Steve is in charge of setting up the point pool board for the game. You do know this means Steve will be
in charge of speaking and if you have not seen Steve with a microphone in his hands you have missed a very entertaining event.
I will let you know in the next update. I am hoping New Orleans wins the Super Bowl.
“Who Dat” Unsure if I can actually say that without the NFL trying to charge me a fee
or arrest me since the NFL seems to think they own that statement. What will it come to next…
We all own our own statements…. Amazing.
Captain’s Note:
Normally when you anchor
the wind and waves come at the bow and you ride just fine. Down here occasionally you get a surge that
brings the waves into the side of the boat. This can cause a very uncomfortable situation.
You just roll from side to side. When this happens, you can rig a “side
bridle”. That puts the anchor more of less on the side of the boat and then you can pin t the bow
into the waves for a comfortable ride. You have the wind on your side, but the waves are on the bow.
A cool technique. You will also see some pictures of Hogfish. They are fantastic
fish…great taste and texture. They are rarely caught on a line and are only caught by spearing them.
I had some luck with a few of them as you can see. Right now we have a freezer full of lobster,
fish, and conch. In fact, we have to take a break from hunting to make room in the freezer.
Eat your heart out!
Until Next time
Kim and Steve
