2024 Exumas Bahamas: Black Point Rally at Long Beach

 16 March 2024

Today's official activities did not start today until 2:00 which was more beach games until the raffle and dinner at the beach at 5:00. Given that we had free time, we decided to take the bicycles and go for an island tour. Renting a golf cart would have allowed us to explore more back roads, but at a $75 per ?? we decided to bring out bikes to the dock and tour that way.

We have loaded the bikes into our dinghy a few times, so that part was a repeat of prior performances. I was not at all sure, how, when we got to the docks, we would get the bikes up the ladder to the deck. They are folded and not too heavy, but not so light we can toss them around. Clark said not to worry; we'd figure it out.

Fortunately, when we got to the government dock, the tide was mostly up, so we only had a few rungs to climb, so I climbed up and Clark lifted the bikes up to me once I got on the dock. In short order, we unfolded the bikes, donned our helmets, and were on our way to explore.

The terrain here is rolling hills. I was glad my bike has 6 gears as I sped down hills and crawled up them. I am used to Marathon where it is flat. Going up hill in the hot sun, I had to get off and walk a couple of times. Usually, however, I could get up enough speed going downhill that the momentum carried me up the next hill.

These are the sights we saw as we toured on our bikes.

Today was sloop race day.
Here's a sloop!

Being without Google Maps, makes it interesting. Clark had a photo of a map and did the best he could to navigate the island.

We went out to the point, near where we first anchored, and saw a boat out there.

It was hot biking in the sun. I asked Clark for a rest several times. We had plenty of pretty things to look at as I caught my breath.

Dead end at a small inlet with a few boats

As we passed the wall of white shown below, I asked Clark if we were by chance at the White Cliffs of Dover!

Beach Access -- >

We passed a beach where a dog was having a lovely time romping in the water. He was loving it!!!

We had seen a portion of the island, when Clark came up with the idea of stopping for lunch at the Emerald Sunset restaurant. When we arrived there just after 12:00, we were the only patrons there. I was not even sure it was open. We had the pick of seats, and Clark chose one near the windows and a stiff breeze.

We placed our order, and then shortly afterwards, a hoard of people walked in. Knowing that was not a real possibility, I asked Clark if a cruise ship had landed. "Close", he said, "a tour boat is docked out here." So, even though we arrived earlier than them, we had to wait for our food until they were served as the buffet food had to be brought out before ours could be.

The manager came over as we ate our food and explained why we had to wait. We said, "No worries", as we had already figured it out. When in the Bahamas, be prepared to wait!

Menu 

We were told to bring plenty of cash with us. We paid for our lunch with cash, and got some Bahamas money back in change.

After lunch it was time to continue on our island tour.

Just after we got underway, with Clark well in the lead, a boy no more than 4 years old  stepped into my path, put his hand up, and said, "STOP"! I did. He had his lunch with him in a box, and he was eating it with his hands which were covered in BBQ sauce. His shirt and pants were icky with BBQ sauce as well. 

He asked me if he could ride my bike. Horrified by the BBQ sauce and not sure of what he said, I said, "No thank you!" If he was offering me his lunch, I had no interest. If he wanted to ride my bike, I had less interest. He responded with a delightful pout. He said, "I know how to ride. I have a bike."

When I told him my bike was "tricky", he told me that he could "pop one" on it if I let him. 

Once again I said no and told him I had to go catch my husband. For once I was glad that Clark was 100 feet in front of me. I peddled away as fast as I could to get away from his pleading eyes. 

When Clark goes exploring, he wants to see everything possible. We followed a road out past the generating plant. I thought we would turn around at the end of the paved road, but Clark had other ideas. I bounced over the rocks and ruts until we got to a Y in the road.

Pavement ends here.
Be prepared to be jostled.

Clark said if we went down one of these side roads, we could find a beach. Instead, we found a lot of rocks and rough terrain as we explored. The place where we were walking around had buildings under construction. The one local working there seemed to have no issue with our roaming around the property.

Clark found the beach, but I did not tromp over there to take a look. I took his word for it.

Later, we took the road to the airport where we found two planes. This area is remote and I wondered how folks get to and from their planes. I did see a sign for 24-hour taxi service at the restaurant, so that is a possibility.

We saw a lot of partially completed construction work. Many appeared to have been abandoned midstream.

When our tour was over and we prepared to climb back into the dinghy with our bicycles, we saw four sharks at the dock.

Shark next to our dinghy

Once back on the boat, we had a couple of hours to kill before tonight's festivities. I read for a while. When I looked up, Clark was napping. Thinking that a good idea, I dosed off as well. Around 4:00 we started getting ready to go to Long Beach once again for more fun. This time we decided to take the dinghy with the engine and walk to the venue from there.

We set up our chairs and some other folks joined us. A dog named "Felicia" sat next to me. She reminds me of my dog friend Cali.

"Felicia" unhappy her master went to get food
and left her behind

The big event of the weekend - the Raffle - took place tonight. Before the raffle, an award was given to a local athlete for her prowess in sports.

Award & Raffle Time

As we enjoyed the company and the gathering, we saw the sunset over the harbor.

When the tide went out, it left a lot of dinghies high and dry. The report came in today that we had 97 boats in the anchorage. Someone counted them! Not all of those dinghies were at the beach, but there were plenty of them there just the same.

Clark and I went for a long walk. When we returned, we saw a mob scene at the covered pavilion. Some announcement was being made, but I did not hear what it was.

At one point the band played the limbo. Boaters played with the local kids showing them how to do various things. The man below is demonstrating something though I do not know what it is. 

Another look at the sunset and boats sitting in low-to-no water.

I was beyond ready to leave, but Clark decided he was hungry and so that I did not have to cook something, he went to buy a hamburger. He was gone a long time. He got the burger first. By the time he found the right line and got up to pay for it, he had finished eating it.

As soon as he came back, we packed up our chairs and bags and left to walk back to the dinghy dock. It was full dark, and I was glad Clark had suggested bringing a light with us. The dock had no lighting. When we got there, we found others struggling with their dinghy lines to leave. Clark managed to pull our dinghy up to the ladder and climb down so I could hand him the chairs and bags. I then gave him the light so I could see the ladder to climb down. 

We made it "home" unscathed and tired from a long day. Clark decided to play an episode of Remington Steele that we have on DVD. I fell asleep in the middle, but Clark filled me in on who had done the murder.