February 26 - March 4, 2023
This week I saw more spectacular scenery, talked to strangers, and attempted to conquer one of my fears (Spoiler alert: I failed).
Sunday, February 26
I’ve missed a fair amount of church in the last few weeks, so I really wanted to go to something called ‘Beach Church’, which is completely volunteer led and is held on a beach over by the Chat N Chill. Paul wasn’t interested in attending, but he was more than willing to take me to the beach for church. I thought it would be fun to SUP back to the boat, so we strapped it to the dinghy and I left it on the beach when I disembarked, and Pau took the dinghy back to the Kya Anne to tackle some boat products.
Beach church was nice- everyone was super friendly and it was very laid-back. I wasn’t feeling particularly social, so I departed pretty quickly after the service, and began the leisurely paddle back to the boat (about a mile away).
On the way back to the boat, as I was gazing into the water, I saw the biggest starfish I have ever seen—the color of a magnificent orange sunset. When I made it back to the boat and told Paul about it, we loaded our snorkel and fins into the dinghy and went back to the area where I had seen it. It only took a few minutes to get there by dinghy and after a little bit of searching, I found it again.
Paul wasn’t interested in snorkeling, but he cheerfully motored around in the dinghy at low speeds while I snorkeled nearby. Starfish, sand dollars and other underwater marvels glittered in the clear waters. Times like these make me wish I had a fancy waterproof GoPro for underwater photos. But instead I have to store these moments away in my memory.
After a while, I clambered back into the dinghy and we headed back to the Kya Anne.
Later, we had a close call when we were almost attacked by pirates. 
Monday, February 27
This morning, we pulled anchor and left Stocking Island, heading East to Long Island. It’s about a 4-hour run, and we were able to hoist sails, though they did not add much to our speed. The water is so clear and blue that I could clearly see giant starfish alongside us on the ocean floor. Our depth has ranged from a dozen feet to 50-60 feet, depending on where we were on the water.
Paul tried his hand at fishing while we sailed, but the only fish consistently biting were barracudas.
We’ve passed many other boats on the water, and I am sometimes awed by the giant luxury yachts we’ve seen. Yet,for all the glitz and glamour of these mega-yachts, I enjoy life here on the Kya Anne and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
We arrived and anchored in Alligator Bay for the night – there were NO other boats anywhere around us or even within visibility. After more than a week of seeing ‘sticks’ in every direction, it was an odd feeling to be so isolated. I jumped in for a brief swim, then paddled the SUP towards a small beach that had a couple homes directly behind it. I didn’t land there (it was too rocky), opting instead to make a slow turn and leisurely paddled back to the boat
Paul offered to buy me dinner at the nearby resort, so after I dried off and changed clothes, we hopped in the dinghy and headed out. Unfortunately, dinner didn’t go as planned- we couldn’t find the dockside restaurant he wanted to go to– so we ended up turning around and going back to the boat for dinner and watched a movie (The Accountant (yes, again!)) before calling it a night.
Tuesday, February 28
We pulled anchor and headed north this morning, cruising north along Long Island until we arrived in Calabash Bay, where we anchored just outside the Cape Santa Maria Resort.
We have a small list of places to explore on Long Island and will try to rent a car for part of our time here.
Places on Long Island that we hope to explore:
- Hamilton’s Cave in Deadman’s Cay (I read a lot of great reviews about the caves and Leonard Cartwright, whose family has owned the property for over 160 years. I am looking forward to exploring the caverns- I read that the tunnels are large, easy to walk through and full of with stalactites and stalagmites, carvings and bats.
- Columbus Point & Monument
- Dean’s Blue Hole – a great snorkeling spot
I’ll keep you posted!
Wednesday, March 1st
We rented a car today, and with our temporary set of wheels, Paul and I set out for a day of adventure. We stopped for lunch at The Forest 2, a tiny roadside restaurant on the Queens Highway, Deadman’s Cay, Long Island. We relaxed at the picnic tables outside and each enjoyed a tasty cheeseburger, fries and ginger ale before continuing on to the southern part of Long Island.
We stopped at the end of the road of the Queen’s Highway at Gordon’s Beach, where Paul enjoyed a beer at Gordon’s Beach Bar & Grill while I spent about 40-45 minutes walking the beach.
My laugh out loud moment came when I returned to the bar, where I found Paul drinking a beer. He looked at me innocently, and swore it was his first beer, at which point the other patrons of the bar promptly threw him under the bus and ratted him out. 🚌 We all enjoyed a good laugh at Paul’s expense while he looked equal parts sheepish and outraged at their betrayal.
After his impromptu beer break, we made an attempt to locate a nearby cave we heard about- our only success was in scratching the heck out of the rental car (🙊).
Later, we popped over to Dean’s Hole and watched other intrepid jumpers leap into it. I didn’t have the courage to swim, let alone jump off the cliff into the water. Someday I hope to conquer, even temporarily, my fear of heights and do a jump into a Blue Hole. There are a lot of them around the Bahamas, so keep your fingers crossed. 🤞🏽 After our Blue Hole stop, we tried to search for an old catholic church we had heard about, but only found ruins. Still, it was a day of adventure, and we returned to the boat tired but pleased with the day.
Thursday, March 2nd
We left the boat by 8:00 a.m. and started our morning by driving North to Columbus Point & Monument, where we wandered for a bit, looking at the monument and spectacular views.
Afterwards, we stopped for a photo at the Tropic of Cancer meridian sign. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23˚5′ N latitude of the Equator. It is known as the most northerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon- an event which occurs on the June solstice, when the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun at its maximum extent.
It sounds underwhelming when you read it, but it felt photo worthy at the moment. 🤷🏽♀️
Later, we drove to an old abandoned church so we could hike through the brush on a well-marked trail to a place called the Shrimp Hole, a small grotto known for the tiny red shrimp that inhabit it. I think our friends Monica and Jason recommended that we seek it out.
Fortunately, it was not hard to find the church, and the path to the shrimp hole was marked with lots of red arrow to guide us.
Once there, I swam briefly in the Shrimp Hole- it was a bit intimidating (remember, it was a dark, watery cave with limited visibility once I got in), but the water felt good, and it was very cool to see. Paul declined to get in.
After my dip in the Shrimp Hole, we hiked back to the church and explored it for a bit. When I was (mostly) dry, we decided to head out to see if we could arrange a tour of the Hamilton’s Cave. Hamilton’s Cave is privately owned and on private property, so it required that we meet with (and pay) the owner, Leonard Hamilton. It’s a small community and there is not much in the way of privacy.
So, we popped over to Leonard’s house and met his wife Louise. Leonard happily took us on a tour of the caves, and we followed him to the caves, where he shared its history as we walked in the caves.
His family had purchased the property in 1847, and Leo bought it from his grand uncle in 1980.
Though it boasted five species of bats, we saw only four (all except the brown bat).
Lunch at Lloyd’s spirts bar & grill at 1 pm
After my dip in the Shrimp Hole, we walked back the abandoned and derelict hotel, explored it a little, headed south again, this time stopping at the home of Leonard and Louise Cartwright. Leonard owns the property where Hamilton’s cave is located (in Deadman’s Cay). It is believed to be the largest-known cave system on Long Island, stretching for miles underground. His family has owned the property since 1847 (over 175 years), and he bought it in 1980 from his great uncle. Leonard charged $15/pp to take us on a tour of the caverns. It was money well spent because exploring the various caverns was very, very cool. The tunnels were large, easy to walk through and full of stalactites and stalagmites, carvings and five different species of bats (though we only saw four of them- the brown bat did not make an appearance for us). We spent about an hour there, thanked Leonard for his time (and the tour) and headed off to our next adventure.
After leaving Hamilton’s Cave, we stopped for lunch at Lloyd’s Spirits Bar & Grill around 1:00 pm. There were only two other customers in the bar and when lunch was over, I stopped at the restroom and the other woman from the bar was there as well, washing her hands. When I exited the lavatory and started washing my hands, she took one look at me and asked, “You’re on a boat?”
Her query led to a conversation that extended from the restroom back into the restaurant and out to the parking lot, where she introduced us to her friend Georgie, a local islander. She was also a cruiser, hailing from New Hampshire, and had single-handed her 36’ Sabre from New Hampshire all the way down to the Bahamas- a trek she makes annually. (yeah I’m impressed!)
We parted company and Paul and I decided to head back to Dean’s Blue Hole, which was another five minutes down the road. I wanted to walk on the beach before swimming, so we spent some time scoping out the beach for conch and sand dollars. I scored three conch shells.
Once we returned to the Blue Hole beachfront, we stripped down to our suits quickly, put on snorkels (and I put on fins) and made the plunge. Unfortunately, circumstance made it a brief swim.
Dean’s Blue Hole might have been a lovely snorkeling spot, but there was as much litter in the water as we had seen on the shores. It was disappointing.
The amount of litter on the beach was off-putting experience, but it was even harder to enjoy the swim when I found myself constantly pushing plastic and other detritus out of the way. After a few minutes, I ended up gathering a bunch of plastic and detritus in the water and swimming to shore to throw it away. It dampened my enthusiasm for the experience. Ugh. Sometimes, people disappoint me.
Our brief swim at Dean’s Blue Hole was the last big adventure on Long isand, and after leaving there, we turned in the rental car and headed back to boat for the day.
Friday, March 3rd
I’ve been researching the various places in the Bahamas and I read that Conception Island/National Park (east of the Exuma Cays, south of Cat Island and North of Rum Cay) is where the endangered green turtle lays its eggs on the shores of this island. I also read that the site of one of the most unusual and beautiful scuba diving sites in the Bahamas. I stumbled across either a blog post or a facebook post that said there were hundreds of reefs to snorkel or dive. All those things meant that Conception Island National Park was a ‘must see‘ for us. We decided to head that way, hoping to see squid, dolphins and stingrays.
We pulled anchor, leaving Long Island for the shores of Conception Island. We left late morning for what would be a two hour jaunt in five foot seas (with 12 second troughs). Sails were up and we peaked at 9.4 knots, while consistently averaging about 6 knots. It was a lovely run to the island.
Once we arrived in the late morning, I did all the things. First, I launched the SUP for an active paddle to shore- the current and wind were doing their best to move me in a direction I did NOT want to go, so I worked for every inch of control on the water. Once I landed in the beach, I walked all the way to the end of the little island, stopping to chat briefly with another beach walker. It turned out that he had been anchored in a little cove just slightly north of where we were, and I recalled seeing his houseboat, along with a couple catamarans from the car when Paul and I had been been traversing the island earlier.
His name was Pat, and he shared that he was from Long Island, New York. Pat had also left Long Island (Bahamas) just a few hours before us.
As we chatted, I shared that I was in a massive transition, having left most of my previous life – job, home, friends and community – back in Alaska. I still hadn’t decide where I wanted to live or what my next career would be. He shared that he had made a similar transition about three years prior. After leaving his job at Citibank several years ago, he had bought a dilapidated 70’ boat from a scrapyard and painstakingly restored it over three seasons. As he slowly restored the boat, he started running small, inexpensive charters for anyone who was interested. Then, as the boat slowly returned to its former high-end state, he started catering to high-end Executive level clients, focusing mostly on Wall Street professionals. He was charging $6-7,000 for three hour excursions, and he said Wall Street folks were happy to pay his fees. All businesses have overhead, of course, and he said that it was an expensive business to run – noting that his slip fees averaged about $12,000/month. After running that very successful charter business for years, he sold that business three years ago and had come to Bahamas to recharge. He bought a houseboat there on Long Island from a company that was closing its doors, and moved it to a peaceful anchorage in Joseph’s Cay. He said he began spending six months a year on the Islands, and the other six months back in New York, up near the Hamptons, where he had purchased a smaller, 36’ vessel and was continuing to do charter operations on a smaller scale for the high-end Hampton visitors and vacationers. It was fascinating to hear how he transitioned from a high-end corporate life in New York to this completely different life, and it offered some perspective (and hope) for what my future might hold.
After swapping stories, he continued down the beach heading to the same area I had just returned from, and I returned to the paddle board and leisurely paddled my way back to the boat. Paul took a nap while I did some writing and listened to music with my headphones on. When he woke up and looked over the side, he discovered a stingray swimming around the boat. With no prompting, I promptly put on my fins and snorkel, and hopped in, spending some time shadowing the ray from above. After a while, I swam leisurely to shore and walked to the southern end of the beach, stopping to talk to a woman. She was from New York and she and her husband were exploring the Bahamas before crossing over to the D.R. (Dominican Republic). She and her husband had been anchored out in Conception Bay for about four days, and she said we had arrived after many other boats had left, clearing out the anchorage around us. I asked if they had done any snorkeling, and she nodded. She said she had been disappointed by her snorkeling experience, which was surprising to me. I told her we had come to Conception specifically because we heard the snorkeling and sea life was fantastic. She said that she had heard the same thing and that while the coral and sea fans were lovely, she was disappointed by the limited fish species she had seen. We spent a few minute talking about the challenges and joys of boat life, then her husband returned, and I excused myself to continue my beach walk.
By the time I swam back to the boat, Paul had stated dinner, and we enjoyed a peaceful evening on steak, potatoes and vegetables, and ended the evening with another Marvel movie (Thor: The Dark World, which Paul had never seen), before retiring for the evening.
Saturday, March 4th
We were both up early and had breakfast by 7:30. Afterwards, we pulled anchor and were underway again, with sails up, heading to Cat Island. We left around 8:00 a.m. and Paul had his fishing pole in its holder, trolling for mahi, tuna or whatever else might be good eating for us. By 8:45, he had caught and filleted his first catch of the day, a little tuna that was more than enough to be dinner for the both of us. I decline to reel or clean, but did help rinse the deck, so that counts for earning my supper, right?
Watching Paul clean the fish made me think about Bhree R. Our English class had a “How-To” demonstration day, and every student had to demonstrate a task or skill. Many students opted for easy projects, like demonstrating the mixing of different recipes,, then serving (pre-made) finished products to the class (cupcakes, muffins, gazpacho soup, etc.). Not Bhree – she brought in a salmon that she had thawed from the deep freezer, and demonstrated in front fo the whole class “how to clean a fish”. (That was back in the day when you could bring a knife to school and not be instantly expelled.)
By 9:00 a.m., his pole was back in the water, I was manning the helm (while writing this) and he was cleaning his tuna in the kitchen.
Its an all-day run to Cat Island- 40 miles, which is at least 8 hours for us, though it will take longer since we put sails up and have to adjust our course to get good wind for sailing. The sun is shining and wind and the water feel glorious- it’s another day in paradise.
Dinner was fish tacos, tonight’s movie was The Grey Man.
