Bahamas - Long Island, Salt Pond

One of the main reasons we sailed to Long Island is that Nicholas requires a furling part trimmed on a Metal Lathe, and we were told that a workshop with a Lathe exists in Salt Pond.

So first order of business is find the workshop. I contacted Leslie Harding (242) 465 3437, who runs the workshop and he confirmed he had a Lathe and could assist us.

We dinghied to the Long Island Petroleum jetty, as Leslie had said it was the closest to him, as we needed to walk there

Getting closer we could see a set of stairs on the left hand side, as the jetty was rather high to try climb onto

Dinghy tied and chained to the staircase handrail. We have no idea of how safe the area is in terms of dinghy theft

 

Immediately ashore is the Harding Seafood, where one can buy fresh sea food directly off loaded from fishing boats

Our half mile walk down Queens Highway to find Leslie’s workshop

Bougainvillea is in bloom everywhere

By passing the Tourist Office - it was still closed, as it’s soon after 8am

Leslies workshop - no sign outside. He said walk until you see a workshop with a lot of vehicles outside. Leslie knew exactly what Nicholas required and said he’d have the part shimmed by tomorrow afternoon

Walking back, the Esso Fuel station.. 

Back into the dinghy and our next stop is the Public dock, used by fishing boats and Cruisers

All the Cruisers dinghies tied up. It was quite a low tide and only 1 staircase to climb up to the jetty. Cruisers kindly all move their dinghies to other bollards as that arriving or departing dinghies had access to the staircase

Our aim is to rent a vehicle for sightseeing. The Cruisers books all say Foxes Auto rents vehicles, but we went there and it seems the owner Mr Fox has started a new business from his home which his wife runs, and is directly behind Foxes Auto

Jenny at Seaside Car Rental, quite a well setup with a huge covered shade area for the vehicles to be stored, washed and vacuumed. We rented a large SUV for 2 days, from tomorrow at $85 per day including insurance.

A little further on is the Hillside Food Supply, and I was greatly impressed at the variety of items for sale, from dry to fresh to frozen, as well as a kitchen ware and hardware sections

The road down to the Public Dock

3pm Tiny’s Bar & Grill opens and we’ve not been to a bar or Restuarant in 2 months! We picked Karen’s and Duane up, and zoomed over to Tiny’s jetty

Tiny’s Beach Bar

Duane and Karen, and Cathy and Tony who drove up from Clarence Town where they are in a marina awaiting a weather window to sail to Turks and Caicos

Excellent Rum Punches and late lunch/early dinner. We had a fabulous time

Bahamas - Ragged Islands, Raccoon Cay to Water Cay and onto Thompson Bay, Long Island

We left Raccoon Cay at 7am, Sojourn was a white speck in the distance, she’d left around 6am

We expected some close hauled sailing so stuck one reef in the main and had the full Genoa out.

The day was lovely with sunshine and the Bahamas Blue sea did not fail to delight.

We had a pod of dolphins on our bow for about 15 minutes

We are sailing north along the chain of Ragged Islands, and we bypass islands and rocks constantly

Eventually we caught up with and overtook Sojourn. As we have a longer water-line length, in most conditions we’ll be the faster yacht

Beautiful if slightly windy conditions

Jenny reading

Nicholas on duty

Our evening stop is Water Cay, and we took the southern entrance over a bar with 1.9m of water over the bar. Sojourn went around, both arriving at the same time

Anchor down in Water Cay

Sojourn at anchor

Tuesday was another early day, and we upped anchor at 6.30am to do the run to Thompson Bay / Salt Pond on Long Island. The wind was predicted to be on the nose, and we only hoisted a 3 reefed main for stability

Once again, Sojourn had left earlier than us. Unfortunately they had a breakage of their Main Sheet, causing them to drop their Main, and do the dangerous job of trying to subdue a moving boom to attach ropes and tie it fast. We went past Sojourn with them under motor and hobby horsing in the wind on the nose conditions

Anchor down in Thompson Bay, Long Island. Tomorrow we’ll go ashore to get a repair done and organize a vehicle to sightsee Long Island.

Bahamas - Ragged Islands, Raccoon Cay

We left Hog Cay around mid day on Sunday, after going ashore to collect packages which Maxine had kindly brought from the Mailboat Capt C with our fresh produce which we’d purchased from Super Value in Nassau.

It was a leisurely 10 mile sail to Raccoon Cay, which we’d never been to before and Karen said there was an interesting walk across the island. (Thanks Karen for the photo)

After anchoring we picked up Karen in our dinghy, Duane taking time out on Sojourn.

It was difficult to ‘see’ the Start of the Trail from the dinghy as it was not well marked with either on the beach or in the trees. Eventually we spotted a buoy in a tree and anchored the dinghy to go ashore.

Once through the beach scrub we were immediately at a semi dried Pan

 

Along the Trail Karen and I cut branches as the Trail was quite over-grown and narrow. The walking was tough along sharp volcanic rocks.

Arriving on the windward side, you can see the almost non-existent Trail

Time for drinks and a few moments to catch our breath

Nicholas had spied an interesting looking feature slightly north on the coast so we walked there

We’re going to the area where you can see white water

Numerous Blow Holes along the way, none blowing, but sea water rushing in and out

We got the the area of interest and found it to be a huge rock pool

With waves crashing against the rocks and flooding the pool

The rocks are very sharp to walk on

A lone adult goat watches us from the scrub line

Nicholas decided to go for a swim in the rock pool, and found it quite shallow.

Sitting in the water his flip-flops floated off and here he is grabbing one

Got one

Scrabbling in the water for his other flip flop

The precarious climb out of the pool up the jagged rocks

A floating buoy

I walked around the the northern end of the rock pool for a better view

Quite spectacular

Then it was the long walk back to the dinghy. No sooner had we started walking that my one flip flop broke. Luckily Karen had picked up a RH flip flop as a Trail Marker and even though a bit too big for me, it was better than walking barefoot all the way back. (Thanks Karen for the photo)

Both Karen and I had picked up Flotsam and Jetsam and carted it the mile back to the Start of the Trail to add extra markers so that the Start of the Trail is easier for others to see.

Racoon Cay, with our walk, 2 miles.