Thursday April 7th: Duncan Town

     The winds calmed down to almost nothing during the night and the seas were calm on the Bahama Bank side, a little choppy still on the Atlantic side.  We set off around nine for Duncan Town, the last stop in the Jumentos before Cuba.  The guide books said very little about this settlement except not to expect to resupply anything here.  Fodor’s Guide to the Bahamas does talk about Duncan Town’s intentions to remake itself into a tourist attraction with a new marina in the works.  Edward on Buena Vista had warned us that since the government refused to dredge the harbor, the town would never be very approachable by anything but dinghy.  As we neared the area, we saw a large ship bringing something to the point where a lot of construction was going on.  The new marina perhaps?  Hard to tell.  All we saw were piles of rock and equipment.  We dared not get closer because it was so obviously shallow.  Right now the only access is from the Atlantic side of the island.

Construction in Duncan Town

     There is a narrow, very long dinghy channel that leads to the inner harbor.  We took that way in to town with our dinghy and it proved to be very scenic.  We saw three spotted eagle rays on the way in.  The channel itself is lined with mangroves and piles and piles of conch shells.  We saw many fish, sea stars, and large green turtle in the water.  On shore we spotted a green heron and a coral crab.  The channel opened into a hurricane hole of a harbor with a small government wharf.  

Spotted eagle ray - internet stock photo.

Channel to Duncan Town

     All the government buildings in the Bahamas are painted pink.  At the top of the road leading up from the harbor was the town hall, post office, and other administrative offices, and a plaque that marked a time capsule laid by the 127 residents in the year 2000.  Now there are about 50 people living here.  From the water you can see lots of buildings, but once in town you see many of them are abandoned and falling apart. 

     Goats and cats roam freely, and probably outnumber the inhabitants here.  We walked down one road and then another and came upon a man hanging pounded conch on lines to dry.  He told us a little about conch fishing - never leave dead conch in the water, it scares the live ones away - and said they sent the dried conch meat to Nassau and on to China.  The Chinese will take as many conchs as the Bahamas can send.  Conch harvesting must be the only real business in Duncan Town, judging by the piles of shells everywhere.  

More goats than people here.

Conch is a big business.

     We asked the man if there was anything we should make sure to see in Duncan Town while we were there.  “No.”  He said with a shrug.  I think we saw most of the town, and the two businesses - a restaurant/bar and a building marked ‘Convenience Store’ - were both closed.  Some of the houses sported brand new, brightly colored paint which made a jarring comparison with the rest.  There was a small Anglican church and a ‘Ministry of Education’ building for ‘All Ages’ and what looked to be an abandoned salt farm and roads so overgrown they were no longer passable.  Clearly Duncan Town has fallen on hard times, as our friend Edward on Buena Vista Cay implied.  

     However, they have a cell phone tower, and we made good use of it while we were in the vicinity.  We checked emails, got in touch with everyone important to us, uploaded blogs, and I even got some work done.  We debated staying the night, but the weather forecast told of another strong Norther coming through on the weekend, and there are precious few places to ride those out here in the Jumentos, so we weighed anchor and turned back the way we came.  

      We’d heard that Johnson Cay was pretty place to anchor, and it was only about an hour away so we headed there.  Apparently other boats thought it was a nice place too and they were already in for the night as we approached.  Dan likes to say “There’s always room for Willie” but when we saw their masts rolling back and forth, we changed plans and went to an anchorage in nearby Double Breasted Cay instead.  Not only were we alone, but we had very little swell.  No rolling for us!  We had hash and eggs for supper and watched a spectacular sunset.  Dan saw the green flash from his perch on the cabin top.  I was busy with the camera, and while I got some good shots, I didn’t capture the green flash.