Long Island

 We came to Long Island on Friday Feb 9th and we're planning on leaving tomorrow (Feb 18th.)

We spent most of the time here in Thompson Bay, just off the town of Salt Pond, but we did manage a quick trip up to Conception Island, with stops along the way in Miller Bay and Calabash Bay, both up the coast from here on Long Island.  

Sunday, Feb 11 our friends Eddie and Gail on SEAQUEL suggested we have an early Valentine's dinner at Chez Pierre in Miller Bay.  This is a gourmet restaurant right on the beach. We had to pre-order our meals when we made the reservations.  The anchorage in that Bay isn't well protected, and the surf and rocks make it difficult to land a dinghy on the beach.  We ended up anchoring our dinghies offshore and wading through thigh-high surf to the beach.  Fortunately Pierre has a very relaxed dress code; he even requested we remove our sandals to keep the sand out of the restaurant.  Chez Pierre's is a one man operation.  There's a full bar, but it's a DIY operation.  Pierre seats you, confirms your order, makes a note of what you are drinking, and heads to the kitchen.  We were the only customers until we were nearly finished with our meal, then another couple came in and were seated.  The food was outstanding.  

The next day we made a run for Conception Island, but the open sea passage was a little too rough, so we turned back to Calabash Bay on the north end of Long Island.  Dan and I snorkeled for about an hour, and Eddie and Gail spent some relaxing time on the beach.  We got to Conception Island on Tuesday the 13th, when the weather would give us ine nice day to be there before cranking up the wind again. 

Conception Island is a National Park, known for its coral reefs.  Eddie and Gail have been there before and were saddened by the lack of fish and vibrant coral.  It's true there weren't many fish, but the coral heads themselves were quite unique to look at even if they weren't bright with color.  Eddie and Gail did see lemon sharks.  We saw a giant lobster walking nonchalantly along the sand.

Wednesday morning we were up at dawn (which is about 0630) to get back to Long Island.  We went all the way to Thompson Bay for the good shelter there and were surprised to find nearly 30 other boats there.  There had been only eight of us when we'd left for our short trek north.  

We had a couple of uneventful days just puttering around the boat, catching up on housekeeping and maintenance.  Friday the four of us went to Tiny's Hurricane Hole for a late lunch and ended up teaming up against a group of women for a game of Jenga.  We had a fun time.  

Today we rented a car and set off to explore the southern end of Long Island.  Our first stop was the largest cave in the Bahamas, where our guide Leonard Cartwright led us through the walkable passages, telling us a little about the indigenous Caribb tribe of Lucayans who had left behind artifacts.  He pointed out bats and spiders and a very tiny frog as he led us from one cavern to another.  Next we snorkeled Dean's Blue Hole, the second deepest blue hole in the world.  After a picnic lunch on the beach, we visited the harbor of Clarence Town at the far end of the island to admire the views from the Flying Fish Marina and from the top of the steps of Sts Peter and Paul church which is perched on a hill overlooking the town.  We finished our sightseeing with a stop at the Shrimp Hole, a small shallow cave where red shrimp live in the brine at its entrance.  

Tomorrow we're heading back to the Georgetown area.  We're expecting about a week of strong N-NW winds and that's probably the best place to be for that. Hopefully when that calms down we'll be able to start making our way up toward Eleuthera.  We decided to scrap the Ragged Islands - the weather is just not cooperating to head there.