Oct. 12, 1492...

Columbus, sailing the ocean blue, landed here, October 12, 1492 at approximately 2 AM. Several other Bahamian out islands claim first landing. In fact, historically,  the name San Salvador has been applied to other islands such as Cat island. The present San Salvador, however, is the only one where artifacts tied into Columbus' journey were found - according to historians.

After staying a day and a half to reprovision, he left for Rum Cay, also taking along 6 Luycan indians to prove to his Spanish sponsors that at he had found a new world and a new source of slaves... nice guy...

We, howevever, on Feb. 15, 2010, landed on a slightly different world

Here we are, sitting in the small harbor of the Riding Rock Marina, the only one in San Salvador. A few 100 yards off the harbor entrance, the water is a few 1000 ft deep, and depending on the wind, Atlantic swells get into the harbor. Our first location in the harbor was behind Faring, Ken and Heather's catamaran. The Latitudes pushed and pulled, straining her mooring lines, collapsing her fenders with the swell so much that we requested and moved to the four point docking arangement on the other side of the basin.

It's 35 miles from Rum Cay to San Salvador. Before we left Rum Cay, friends Cathy & Howie & we set out on a hunt to find NASCAR at Daytona on Sunday.  It took a couple of tries but the four of us ended up back at Kays for most of the race.  She was the only place in town that could get FOX.  Yeah, Kay!!!

The trip from Rum to San Salvador was not a bad trip, west into the Atlantic.  We saw ships this trip, as the Crooked Island Passage past San Salvador is busy with ship traffic.  This ocean going tug was pulling the largest barge we've ever seen. It's the size of a regular cargo ship.  It's actually a low cost, fewer safety regulations version of a container ship. That's one loooong tow line.

Yesterday we took a walk through town after arriving.  San Salvador is a more populated island than many we've seen lately, about 1100 people.  About 300 work at the Club Med here. In the 50's & 60's the island had both US Navy bases and a Coast Guard base.  They were a tremendous boom to the island. Now, the Navy base is a private enterprise and the Coast Guard base has been turned into the island high school.  Most of the folks now live on the protected leeward (away from the wind) side of the island.  There is one gas station on the island.  He has his "building" and 2 pumps.  Diesel is $4.50/gallon.

Next we found the Christopher Columbus museum.  This set of buildings was supposed to house artifacts, Luycan relics, etc.  Unfortunately, the buildings are empty and falling down.

We rented a car with Heather & Ken today and "did" the island--- one long road around the entire island.  Can't get lost (good thing!!)

We walked a deserted beach on the Atlantic side.  A lot of trash but sadly, no shells.  None.  They must get completely destroyed by the ocean before they hit the beach.  We did see this big guy - he seemed stunned to see us, uncertain of where to run to hide.  Very large, about 8 inches across.

Next, to the wonderful lighthouse.  This is one of 3 lighthouses in the Bahamas that are still manually run.  Amazing! 

                          

The gracefully tapered 72 foot high light house was built by the British in in 1887, complete with extra glass panes that have never been used.

It is a living technology history that appears to be virtually unhanged for the last 123 years!



We met with lighthouse keeper Lightfoot who gave us a great tour and explained that the turning mechanism that makes the light go around must be rewound every 2 hours during dark.  Great job, huh!  But it beats being a policeman in Nassau - that's what Lightfoot did before he was shot on the job.  He likes his last 22 years of being a lighthouse keeper a LOT better!

                                          

He's standing by two kerosene containers (top) that are pressurized from the manually pumped up air tanks beneath them to provide high pressure kerosene to the kerosene vapor burning mantle that is the light source. The mantle, seen atop the pipe like structure below, is about double the size of a Colemen Lantern mantle, needs to be replaced about one per week, and, with the help to the awsome Fresnel lense, generates enough light for a nineteen mile beam.

The lense is truely amazing. We've clambered through quite a few light houses in the past 2 years, but none have been as special as this.

Looking up through the man sized access hole at the base of the lense, you can see two bulls eye lenses close together, on each side of the massive lense (about 6 ft tall). The whole lense is not symetrical, like all the others we've seen, but rather clam shaped, with the two bulls eye lenses on each side. As the lense turns, this produces a double beam, perceived as 2 quick flashes, from each side of the lense, ten seconds appart, identifying the beacon for ships at sea. 

The whole massive glass lense assembly floats on Mercury! This liquid metal provides a low friction bearing. Once in a while, the lense is jacked up, and the Mercury cleaned out. We asked about safety precautions -- "yes, of course ----".

The whole thing turns with a clockwork mechanism, driven by a weight that is pulled up to the base of the lense platform.

                             

As mentioned before, the windward side of the island has several desterted settlements.  After the salt pond business died out, folks moved to the more protected leeward side.  The windward side doesn't even have electrical poles.

On our way back towards the marina, we had a couple of bird sightings.  First, a flock of stilts, sitting in a salt pond.  We startled them  - they were beautiful in flight.

We were also able to finally identify the little hawk type birds that we've seen here and in Rum Cay - Kestrels.  Very small, cute, and certainly not afraid of us.  We see them everywhere.

Back to the leeward side and the offical site of Columbus' first landing.

It IS pretty amazing to realize that you are standing where he may have actually landed 500 years ago.  I never thought, in my American Histrory classes, that I'd ever be here.  I'm so lucky.

We've dropped off the car and retired back to the boat for the night.  Unless the weather forecast changes, we'll leave tomorrow (Wednesday) to return to Rum Cay. We will be only using that as a stopping place, not going into the marina, but anchoring out (i.e. -- no internet). Next for a couple of days would be Conception Island, an unpopulated island that has protected sea and wild life.  Then back to either Long Island or Georgetown for mostly water and to hopefully meet friends Dee & Dave from our travels last year.  Maybe  another boat we know, too, for a hopeful jaunt back down the Jumentos.  But...sailing plans are the most subject to change!