Tuesday - Wednesday March 29 & 30th: Back to Long Island

     We planned to go South, toward the Jumentos/Ragged Islands.  I sent around emails warning friends and family that we would most likely be away from a cell tower for awhile.  However, when we crossed over to Kidd’s Cove to do a last minute top off of fuel, water, and groceries, Dan admitted he thought the weather might be more favorable for a cross back over to Long Island.  We were toying with cruising all the way down to Great Inagua, where we’d read hundreds of flamingoes came to eat shrimp in the salt ponds around the Morton Salt factory.  It would be easier to begin this run from Long Island.  It would entail a few lengthy (for us) passages through open waters, and there could be stops along the way in Crooked, Acklin, and Mayaguana Islands.  So we changed plans, which turned out to be a good idea anyway, as the Exuma Market in George Town was all but empty of supplies.  The gas station ran out of gasoline too, just before we were able to get some.  No worries, we thought, we would find these things in Long Island.  We were able to get water and diesel.

     We set off about noon.  We tried our hand at fishing on the way over, but once again the fish eluded us.  This time, though, they made off with two of our lures.  

We got to Salt Pond in Thompson Bay about six pm.  The anchorage seemed divided into two camps - mono hulls to the North, and catamarans around the dinghy dock.  We broke tradition and dropped hook in with the catamarans.  No one seemed to mind.

     Wednesday we launched the dinghy and set off to snorkel.  We’ve snorkeled this harbor several times in the last few months, so we chose a new spot - some very shallow islands to the South.  When we come to a small island like that, we usually snorkel the perimeter, but as we started around the first island, we soon found ourselves in about a foot of water and had to back track.  The next island proved a little  better, and turned out to be much more interesting.  These are limestone islands; their edges are jagged and deeply undercut.  The small holes, caves, and ledges are great places for fish and lobster to hide.  An assortment of fish of all sizes were all around, and we saw several very large lobsters sitting deep in the recesses underwater.  We made our way slowly along the West side of this particular island observing and calling out to each other to point something out.  Dan was towing the dinghy along as we swam, and he didn’t see the large nurse shark that swam leisurely alongside.  He did hear the noise I made - a kind of squeak, he said - when I saw it.  Unconcerned with either of us, it passed alongside us, closer to the jagged edges of the island, and was gone.  Nurse sharks aren’t known to be aggressive at all, but it’s still a bit of a shock to have one swim by so close.

Internet stock photo of a nurse shark.

     At the end of our excursion, Dan brought out the Hawaiian sling and speared a lobster, a spider crab, and a lion fish and tossed them all the dinghy and we set off back for the Willie Dawes before that nurse shark (or any other shark) noticed that we were hunting.  Dan ate the shellfish for lunch; we tossed the lion fish back, but only after it was dead.  Doing our part to help rid the Caribbean of that non-indigenous species.

Internet stock photo of a lion fish.

     After lunch we went ashore for a walk to get a few things - new lures and a few groceries.  The town of Salt Pond is not very big, and we probably walked the length of it, as last time we hadn’t seen much to the South.  We walked perhaps a mile down to the government dock where the mail boat was unloading supplies for the island.  Right next to it was a large home-made looking vessel whose port of call was Addison, ME.  Curious, we approached and a guy sporting a shirt that said “I was a pirate before pirates were cool” came out to great us.  The boat no longer had a Maine connection, he told us.  The boat still sported that hailing port but cruised mostly in the Bahamas, doing missionary work.  Currently they had a high school group of Seventh Day Adventists aboard, spreading the Good Word and helping in the post-hurricane rebuild.   We left them to their business and walked back down Queen’s highway to complete our business.

     Stocked with new lures and groceries, we settled down to a meal of hamburgers on the grills and hand cut fries.  (Have I mentioned how good Dan is at making french fries?)  We noticed storm clouds gathering and took time to haul the dinghy and stow everything.  It was a good storm drill.  When the squall came through later that night, we were prepared for it and did little more than watch it out the pilot house windows to make sure all was well, not just with us, but with the boats around us.  We’d set up the water collection system too (a hose draining the water that pools in the dinghy cover) so in the morning we would have enough rainwater to do a small hand-laundry.  It was a little stuffy in the cabin with all the hatches and most of the portholes closed, but we were snug and dry and perfectly safe during the thunderstorm.