BAHAMAS - LONG CAY, CROOKED ISLAND AND SAN SALVADOR

First a little about why we're in France. Before deciding to go sailing, Delana lived in Aix-en-Provence, France for nearly 10 years. She learned to speak fluent French there, created a life for herself and made some very good friends. So, our plan was to live on the boat eight months of the year and then freeload off family/friends for two months in France and two in the US. Not bad huh? That worked in 2018, 2019, but in 2020 Covid prevented us from going to France at all, and the uncertainty this year limited our visit to just one month. Hopefully in 2022 we can get back to our eight/two/two program. As far as Aix-en-Provence goes it's well south of Paris and only 20 or so miles north of Marseilles and the Mediterranean Sea. The site where Aix is now located has been occupied since 121 BC and it was a Roman colony at one time. It's a beautiful city with tons of charm and character. It is dominated by  17th/18th century architecture and is a center for art and education. 

 

This is the exterior of the building Delana's very good and very generous friends allow us to stay when we're here. It was built in 1748. 

This is the living room. All very cool and right in the heart of the historic village center.

Within a three minute walk from the front door are vegetable and flower markets;

the clothing market on the Cours Mirabeau;

sidewalk cafes;

great food,

art museums;

narrow maze-like streets and passages;

street musicians; 

many plazas; 

grand churches and cathedrals;

historic cemeteries;

various monuments;

a lot of fountains;

of course wine; and much much more.

                                       

OK, back to the Bahamas. The red dots shows all the places we've anchored and the circled area is what's covered in this blog.

                             

After Ragged Cay our next destination was Long Cay, which is about 80 NM due east of Ragged. But since the prevailing wind is from the east going that direction is often difficult. However, the winds let up for us and we left Ragged just before sunrise so we could arrive at Long Cay before dark later that day. On the way we saw several sharks do 180’s to check if we had hooked a fish. Seeing that we hadn’t, they would then just swim off. The deep sea fisherman call having their hooked fish eaten by a shark, being “sharked”. It happens quite often.

Long Cay, along with Crooked Island and Acklins Island, make up an atoll called the Acklins. On Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the New World in 1492 he named Long Cay Fortune Island because he found a conch pearl there. The main town on the Cay is Albert Town which is now largely a ghost town. There’s also an abandoned salt operation nearby. In its heyday the Cay served as the administrative headquarters for the atoll, it had the first jail in the Bahamas and was a major trading post for the sponge and salt industries as well as a port of call for several steamship lines. It once had 4,000 residents, but in 2010 its population was only 29, and when we visited there were just five residents and three of them were off island. Even with so few people, the Cay has a cell tower, water making plant and a ferry service that takes people to Crooked Island where they can take flights or boats to other islands. The north side has perfectly clear water and perfectly white sand. On the south shore flamingos feed in the shallow lagoon that makes up the middle of the atoll. 

                             

Almost all of the buildings we saw were fully or partially destroyed. In the foreground is an old cistern where water collected from roofs is piped into and then stored. Many of them are still in use.

                             

This is historic St. David & St. Augustine's Anglican Church. It was built in the late 1700’s. 

Services are held in the restored portion, but probably not very often. 

The church grounds include a small cemetery containing the graves of British loyalists who left the States during/following the American Revolutionary War.

After harvesting conch, this gentleman tenderizes them by beating them on a concrete block with a small club. Instead of the block and club method, Delana uses a pressure cooker. 

To preserve the meat, he then hangs the beaten conch out to dry. That five gallon bucker was full of the ones he hadn't gotten to yet.

We’ve seen plenty of white PVC water lines laying on the ground, but this was the first time we’ve seen extension cords used to electrify homes.

Delana is actually multi-tasking here. On our way from Long Cay to Crooked Island she dragged the main halyard behind the boat to take the twists out, while at the same time filled up various glass bottles with sea water and then dropping them into the ocean. The latter reduces the amount of waste the islands have to deal with (they don’t recycle), doesn’t harm the environment and provides habitat for little sea creatures. We only do it when we’re in over 1000’ of water.

The more we move east the prettier the water seems to be. Only a mile or so separates the northeast end of Long Cay and the southwest end of Crooked Island. Crooked, like much of the Bahamas was settled by British Loyalists during/following the American Revolutionary War. When they fled the States they brought their slaves with them to build and operate cotton plantations. However, between the lack of soil, little rain, diseases, pests and finally the abolition of slavery, the cotton industry died. Most of the British then went back to England, leaving their former slaves behind. Today 90% of the Bahamian population are descendants of those former slaves.

Crooked Island has the second highest point in the Bahamas (155’), it housed the Bahamas’ first general post office and has a population around 250. The residents make their living by fishing, subsistence farming, working for the government, catering to bone fisherman and exporting cascarilla bark. The bark is used in the manufacture of incense, sachets, potpourris, liquor (Campari) and tobacco flavorings. It’s also used as a therapeutic aromatic bitter tonic for the treatment of various stomach ailments. 

Here’s our rental car being filled up. 

Just like all the other inhabited islands, almost everything arrives and leaves via mailboat.

And again, just like the other islands there are a lot of abandoned buildings. These aren’t that old, but many date back to the 1700’s.

This is a sea island cotton plant and most likely a descendent of cotton that was on one of the 18^th century plantations.

I didn’t have my good camera with me and had to use my phone, so these are pretty lousy photos. 

Anyway they’re of pink flamingos. Some are more pink that others. We just happened to run across these but we heard that elsewhere on the island large flocks can be found. That would be cool to see.

With the younger generations leaving these islands for better opportunities and the older people leaving or dying, I think that in many cases the vegetation will eventually just take the islands over.

We had a family style lunch with a couple bone fisherman. The owner of the restaurant rented us her car for the day. Her and Delana also shared there baking skills.

This little harbor, where we parked our dinghy, was cut out of solid coral. What a job.

As we left Crooked Island we sailed past Bird Rock lighthouse. It’s located on a very small cay, was built between 1866 and 1876, is 112’ tall and has no doubt survived many storms.

The east winds returned and we had a great overnight sail NNE to San Salvador Island. We even had to trim the sails so we’d slow down and not arrive before dawn. It was a beautiful night. Actually, ever since our rough passage from Florida to Bimini we’ve had really nice weather and cooperating winds. 

I really wanted to sail to San Salvador for several reasons including its historical significance the fact that so few people do sail there. But also because my parents, along with three other couples, flew to San Salvador from Humboldt, Iowa in the mid-70's. Out of the eight who went on that trip only one is still with us. 

After much debate, San Salvador was officially recognized as Christopher Columbus’ first landfall in the New World, which was on October 12, 1492. There are four separate monuments marking the ‘exact’ spot where he came ashore. However, it’s generally believed that the actual landfall was at Long Bay. It is commemorated by a simple white stone cross. That’s where we also made our landfall. Columbus named the island San Salvador or ‘Holy Savior’. The Island is actually the exposed peak of a submerged mountain that rises 15,000 feet from the ocean floor. It’s only 12 miles long and 5 miles wide and has a population of around 2,000, which is half of what it had before Covid. It has miles of pristine beaches, inland lakes and surrounding reefs in a beautiful sea. The reefs provide habitat for hundreds of fish species and offer many snorkeling/diving opportunities. As a result, San Salvador’s main industry was tourism and hopefully that will come back. 

Once anchored, we dinghied in to shore and enjoyed this Sunday with many of the locals.

We rented a car to check out the island. There’s one main road that circles the island, as well as others leading off to residential and resort developments that just never came to fruition.  Again, the vegetation is taking over.

In the 1680’s San Salvador was taken over by the British buccaneer George Watling who renamed the island Watling’s Island after himself. It was not until 1926 that the island’s name was restored to San Salvador. These ruins and a few others are what’s left of “Watling’s Castle”.

In the mid-1800’s, the insurance company Lloyds of London began complaining to the British Government that the lack of light houses in the Bahamas was causing unnecessary ship wrecks. Though it wasn’t popular with the thriving ship salvaging industry which was able to legally plunder a wrecked ship as soon as it was abandoned by the captain and crew, the Dixon Hill lighthouse was one of nine lighthouses built throughout the Bahamas. The Dixon Hill light was completed in 1886. The lighthouse sits on top of 172’ tall Dixon Hill, the structure itself is 92’ tall and is visible 19 miles away. 

The machinery that turns the light looks pretty original,

though a compact florescent bulb has replaced the kerosene fueled mantle. During the day they put curtains around the light so that sunlight going through the lens won’t catch something on fire. 

This is the view from the lighthouse looking to the northeast.

John and Mary Dixon, who the hill and lighthouse are named after, are buried on the lighthouse grounds.

These middle and high school kids are on their way home from school.

On its way to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, the Olympic Torch was brought to San Salvador. This monument, which has seen its better days, commemorates that honor.

Again, cemeteries are often on the best real estate.

This is the island’s museum. It, along with many other buildings, was significantly damaged by Hurricane Joaquin in 2015.

While many of the other buildings have or are in the process of being repaired, it doesn’t look like the museum's been touched.

This is the major intersection in Cockburn Town, the island’s capital-population 200. It’s located on the mellow west coast. The east coast is completely exposed to the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean, so is all about crashing waves on a rocky shore. 

Not only was the anchorage beautiful and convenient, this is the first and only time we saw the underside of the white Tropicbirds so distinctly reflect the color of the water that they really appeared to be aqua blue. It was really cool to see.

While getting our propane tanks filled I noticed a lot of flies gathering around the tank’s valve. The guy told me that flies are attracted to propane. I never knew that. He went on to explain how helpful that can be when looking for propane leaks. 

Right across from the San Salvador International Airport is this bar. We stopped there several times and were always the only tourists. We were told that even though the Island has a long history of being hit by hurricanes, including Lili in 1996, Floyd in 1999 and Joaquin in 2015, Covid has perhaps done the most damage. It has caused the closure of the large Club Med, several smaller resorts, dive/snorkel businesses, restaurants, stores, etc.

Dominos is the game in the Bahamas.

The next blog will be the last one about the Bahamas. It will include Conception Island which has the most amazing water yet. I'll probably throw in a few photos from France and Spain

too.