2024 Bahamas: Welcome to Long Island

26 March 2024
Dingy Exploration

Today we thought about renting a car to tour Long Island, which according to Wikipedia is approximately 80 miles long and 4 miles wide; however, we could not reach the car rental place yesterday to place a reservation. I suggested we do a get-the-lay-of-the-land tour today by dinghy / foot and try for a car tomorrow. 

The weather was pretty near perfect for looking around the surrounding area. Fluffy clouds dotted the sunny sky with a cool breezed to keep us comfortable. I took the pictures while Clark drove the dinghy.

I love the colorful houses here and found one with every building on the property in blue to match the water.

Our friends on Bagus told us to stop at the private dock to tie up and walk into town. As we followed the shoreline we were not sure which place they had meant, so we dinghied over to a sailboat anchored nearby, introduced ourselves, and asked directions. 

We had a lovely chat before making our way to the recommended dock. The owner of the dock had two rules 1) don't block the ladder and 2) don't lock your boat to the dock. 

After looking at a variety of coral and rocks for the past few days, I was happy to see that the street we walked up had very pretty flowers growing there. 

When we got to the end of the lane, we set off on foot heading south planning to visit the chandlery the folks on the sailboat told us about. It turned out to be close to a 1/2 mile down the road. The posted speed limit showed 20 mph, but the cars whizzed by at way higher speeds. 

"Basil Fox Close"
street with private dock for dinghy use

Yeah! Right!

The road passed over rolling hills. Other than fearing the speeding cars, it was a pleasant walk.

We passed by the site of the Farmers Market,

where we saw a great view of the anchorage.

The tree shown below, and some others like it elsewhere on the island, stand out as good landmarks as they seem to be the tallest objects on Long Island.

We passed the "Apostolic Church of Acts" along the way to the chandlery. I am not familiar with that church.

We found the chandlery, but as with everywhere else we have checked, they did not sell the replacement cap screw Clark needs for the anchor windless.

After looking around a bit, we left to stroll back to the car rental place and the market. We had been told that if we found the walk too taxing, we could put a thumb out and hitchhike. As it turned out, no thumb was required. A woman saw us walking to town and offered to give us a ride to the food store. I thanked her but declined the offer as I need the exercise.

Looking up and down the road, this is what we could see in either direction.

Clark walking along side of road

Before going to the market, we stopped at Fox Auto, where we thought we could reserve a rental car, and found out we had to go next door for that. Fox Auto did car maintenance. 

Seaside Car Rental had the prettiest scenery I have ever see for a car rental facility.

Clark walking onto car rental property

The house and gardens on the property had nice landscaping. We had a bit of time to enjoy it as we could not find anyone on the property at the car rental facility or at the home to offer assistance. We tried calling the two phone numbers we had and could hear the phone ringing in the building behind us, but no one answered.

We hung around hoping someone would appear. After a while we left and walked to the market to do our shopping. I found McVities biscuits, which I loved as a kid, so I bought myself a treat! After shopping we walked back to the car rental place and found it still deserted. 

Finally. I suggested we walk back around to the Fox Auto place and inquire there where we might find some help. The woman at the front desk had the cell phone number for the car rentals. Clark called that number and had success reaching someone who said they had taken a drive to the airport and would be back in about 30 minutes. Clark gave our boat name as a means of making a reservation and said we would come back tomorrow for the car.

After that we walked back to the dinghy for the ride back to the boat. Clark took the long way "home"!

We had seen a restaurant on our walk to the chandlery, and as we passed by on the dinghy, we came in for a look on the waterfront side of things. As we approached, a woman walked down to the docks to tell us the restaurant was closed today. I had figured as much with all the umbrellas folded down, but it was nice of her to come talk to us. We said we would try to come back on Thursday, and she seemed pleased.

From there, we passed by more colorful buildings. One of which, on the right below, turned out to be a restaurant that was open for lunch. As it was only 11:30, and thinking we would be back on SD soon, I declined Clark's offer that we eat there for lunch. Had I known it would be almost 2:00 before we got back to the boat, I would have said, "YES!".

Restaurant near the Government dock

Government dock

Colorful "Welcome to Long Island"
sign and buildings

Fuel dock

The folks on the sailboat told us the water getting to the fuel dock is shallow. Clark took some readings on depth from the dinghy and found the water shallow before and after the dock. If we can come in and exit sideways, we would be fine bringing "Sunset Delight" over for fuel!

We saw lots of miscellaneous islands around the harbour of a variety of sizes.

We passed by this nicely manicured property.

And we saw a launch ramp where a pickup was parked with a boat trailer.

We saw the house below in a remote location - far from town and other buildings.

Eventually we turned in the direction to take us back to "Sunset Delight". Thank goodness I used the restroom at the Chandlery hours before, or I would have been extremely uncomfortable about now.

On the way back to our boat, we could see something black in the water off in the distance. We guessed it was a barge, but eventually we figured out it used to be a barge. It was charred to a crisp with a sunken boat in front. Clark thought perhaps it caught fire near town and was towed here to get it away from causing damage to others. 

We passed a boat named "Southern Comfort" anchored in all her glory with her trawling wings spread wide.

The windmills on "Kingfisher" were whirring away generating power for the boat shown below.

At this point I was so close to "Sunset Delight" I started dreaming about the food I would be eating. Then we passed a sailboat and Clark said, "Hey! We know that boat!" It was "Sea Biscuit" that traveled "with" us from Georgetown yesterday. The owner was at the stern cleaning his boat, so Clark had to stop and say hello. 

S/V "Sea Biscuit"

I am not sure how long we hung on to the stern of their boat and chatted with them from our dinghy, but at 1:40, I looked at my watch and said, "Clark, take me home and feed me!" It only took one additional, "feed me" to get him to relent and actually shove off to head back to our boat. 

After lunch, I finished my current novel and downloaded the following four books in the series. After reading 3 of the 7 volumes, I am hooked and need to keep going to the end. I use Kindle Unlimited, so I try to make the most of it.

Clark fell asleep this afternoon reading his "Nature of Boats" book. I told him it would put me out in less than 5 minutes. I guess it worked well for him too. He brought us back to "Sunset Delight" in the dinghy earlier today at such a slow speed that the rocking was soothing. I heard him yawn and begged him not to fall asleep at the wheel. His getting up at 6:30 every day for the weather report takes its toll.