We rented a car with Martha and Bill to tour Long Island on
Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
Luke and I have done this 3 other times, but we still like it.
The first stop is always St. Mary’s Church, the oldest
church in Long Island, built in the 1500’s or 1600’s, depending on which guide
book you reference. The grounds have
been cleared since we were last here 2 years ago, but the roof has fallen
in, making it difficult to walk around inside the church. Still, though, a lovely setting.
Here is one of the racing boats owned by the one of the many great
racers on the family islands. There are fierce competitions between the islands each year.
This little church dates only to 1938. I love the door and the tilework.
On to Dean’s Blue Hole,
the world’s deepest blue hole, 632 feet.
It is the location of the world free diving competition event each year. Amazing to see from the surface.
In the capital of Long Island, Clarance Town, we
visited one of our favorite churches, St. Paul’s Anglican, built by Father
Jerome.
We were disappointed to see that a hurricane had taken the
roof off a year or so ago. But, at least
they are working on rebuilding it!
On Monday we headed northward on the island, visiting the ruins
of the Adderly Plantation, near the settlement of Stella Maris. The plantation once raised cotton and
livestock, covering over 2500 acres.
Here is the link to a nice, short article about the plantation. http://www.stellamarisvillage.com/history.html
Next, down the worst road on the island, to Cape Santa Maria
to the Columbus Harbor/Columbus Point memorial.
And I mean the WORST road on the island!
The trip is worth it, though – especially if I’m not
driving! The view from where Christopher
Columbus reportedly entered on his first voyage to the New World is
spectacular. The left side of the
picture is the deep water side. By the way, those deep waters are where we caught our mahi!
The rough channel in the above picture leads to soft
shallows. Very beautiful, too.
That was about it for the day – except for beach combing for
treasures at a couple of little beaches.
Dinner with the crowd from the 3
other boats we are with and then the decision of where to go next. With Smokey’s help and weather forecaster
Chris, we decided to make a break for it and run down to the Jumentos Cays for
a few days. Everyone else stayed behind,
other itineraries in mind. It was a
somewhat brisk sail down to Water Cay.
Our anchorage, secluded and quiet except for the rolling of
the boat from the ocean surge. Water Cay is a
small island about 3 miles long and 100 yds wide, running NE to SW. On
the E side is the ocean, on the W side, the shallow (about 25 ft) banks.
We sheltered on the west side, protected from the ocean waves and
prevailing E wind. That more or less works, as the ocean waves "wrap
around" the ends of these islands, and to a lower height roll across the
back side. You can barely see these waves, but you can feel them. As the
boat points into the wind coming across the island, the wrap around
waves get it from the side. This causes a variable roll of about ±5
degrees. All the time... Oh well,
you can’t have everything…
Treated to a green flash at sundown!
On Wednesday and Thursday we set off in the dinghy to
explore the cay. There are several
beaches and cuts to the ocean, so we have different things to see. Narrow cuts from the banks to the ocean, calm on one side
and wild on the other.
Mangroves in thin water, daring the ocean to come in too
far.
Colorful beaches on Little Water Cay, about 3 miles from our anchorage.
And towering white cliffs, cut out by eons of wave action.
The forecast is for high winds starting Saturday afternoon, lasting until maybe Tuesday. As with many storm fronts, the winds veer around like a clock, coming in from the south, southwest, west, northwest, north, and back again toward the northeast to east, the prevailing wind. There is basically very little shelter from any westerly component winds in the Jumentos, so we left early this morning and came back to Long Island to wait out the winds. It was a nice 45 mile sail (yes, sail!) in about 15 kt winds, broad reach to close reach on various legs with boat speeds up to 7.5 kts -- not bad. We went throught the Comer Channel, that's charted with depths of 5 ft or so at low water. We did it near high tide, with minimum depths of about 3 ft under our keel.
The plan at Thompson Bay is to do laundry, pick up a few fresh groceries, and grab some water for the tanks before the winds pick up on Saturday!
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