Long Island, Exuma side trip

Called “Yuma” by the original Lucayan Indian inhabitants, then renamed “Fernandina” by Columbus, and finally Long Island by an unknown sailor because of its length, Long Island is almost 90 miles but only 4 miles at its widest point. The Tropic of Cancer passes directly through the northern part of the island. The population today is about 3000, many of whom are descendants of former African slaves that came in with the Loyalists in 1790. The island produces most of the “mutton” (sheep and goat meat) used in restaurants and kitchens in the Bahamas today. Salt was once in big production here and old salt factory ruins still exist.

We had a marvelous sail from Georgetown to Long Island and anchored at Salt Pond where we were able to rent a car to explore the island. Our first stop was Cartwrights Cave in the village of Hamiltons. This is a cave on private land which was purchased by the Cartwright family from the Bahamian government in the 1870s. Back then, they grew cotton and farmed the land. Today the cotton fields are gone, but descendant Leonard Cartwright gives tours through the cave on the land.

Cartwrights is a colossal 3000 foot long cave that was occupied by the Lucayan Indians in about 500 AD. Artifacts were found and Leonard still has them in his possession since neither the government nor the local museum show interest in them. Leonard led an excellent tour through parts of the cave telling both historical facts and anecdotes of his own. He knows every nook and cranny of the cave from playing hide and seek in it when he was young. Except for a couple low “bend down and watch your head” spots, the ceiling was high and the path quite wide. The floor of the cave is dry dirt, but it is a living cave with some dripping visible. There were also several places where you could see the outside through holes some 10-15 feet above.

Leonard’s brother has done a couple carvings in the limestone.

Patterns and new holes being made by slow drips.

Bats inhabit the cave and were in these little ceiling holes.

Our next destination was Dean’s Blue Hole, the 2^nd deepest Blue Hole in the world at 633-feet deep. China has the claim for #1 at over 900-feet deep. There is a lovely beach where several families were enjoying the sand and warm water. The water rather suddenly deepens, so this is one of the few places in the Bahamas we’ve seen signs warning visitors of the dangers.

View from the top of the cliff next to the Blue Hole.

The white platform in the hole is for divers. The Guiness book world record for free diving was made at Dean’s Blue Hole in 2008, and when we were there we watched one man practice – no fins, no mask, no scuba gear.

Driving on south, we went to Clarence Town, capital of Long Island. Two of Father Jerome’s churches are here (more on Father Jerome was in the Cat Island blog). The most prominent is St. Peter & Paul’s Catholic Church. Unfortunately, it was closed so we could not go up in the bell towers to see the 360-degree view, but the keyhole in one of the doors allowed a picture to the interior.

After lunch at Rowdy Boys, we headed back to Salt Pond stopping at the oldest church on the island. It is possible that this is 17^th century Spanish, but we were also told it could be late 1800s which would have been British.

We moved up to the north end of the island for our last two days doing a bit of snorkeling, looking for and finding lobster for dinner, and doing some exploring by dinghy. Long Island was a great side trip from George Town.

We headed back to George Town in time for their 34^th Annual Regatta. The Regatta event we participated in was the 4-man team sand sculpture contest. What fun! After about two hours of work, Ryan, Renee, Tom and I had made a catamaran in the sand which won first prize for most detailed. And the prize was a bottle of rum!

Another fun sculpture was an octopus enoying local Kalik beer with each arm. 

At sunset throughout the anchorages at George Town, it is common to hear the sound of a conch being blown. Tom has had a conch for several years and so he filed a hole for the mouth piece and we join the music at sunset.  I tried to download a video of this, but it wouldn't work so just imagine about 15 seconds of a deep conch sound. It is awesome!