Monday, May 15, 2017

Driving Long Island


White Pepper is anchored at Salt Pond, Long Island waiting on gentler winds. We are perfectly comfortable in these protected waters but have a lot of time on our hands.

One day we choose to tag along with our friends Ron and Linda from Escape from Reality on a rented car excursion.

Long Island is 90 miles long and we certainly could not see it all in one day. After some discussion we headed north for the Columbus Monument on Cape Santa Maria. Columbus may have anchored under the white bluffs of this modest cliff. From his log book he certainly seemed to have visited Long Island and cruised the its coast before being blown over to French Wells on Crooked Island. In order to commemorate the event in 1492 and maybe encourage more tourism, the Bahamians have erected a monument atop Cape Santa Maria on the northern most tip of Long Island.

Alert readers will remember the Columbus Monument from a picture in the previous post. The monument is barely visible from sea. Thus we were unprepared for the awesome beauty of the place. Pictures can tell the tale better than words.

Columbus Bay

Columbus Monument

View to the South from the Monument

For lunch we visited the Stella Maris Resort which is about 15 miles south down the Queen's Highway. By the way the Queen's Highway is the only highway on the island. Stella Maris is routinely described in guide books as world class and 5 star, but it seemed a bit threadbare to my eye. We did have a lovely lunch there.



Easily the number one attraction on Long Island is Dean's Blue Hole—the site of the world's record for free diving. The blue hole is part of a beautiful bay that comes off of the Atlantic. The bay and beach are attractive in their own right, but the blue hole engenders a different feeling altogether. Although only 80 x 120 across on the surface it goes down for 680 feet—the equivalent of a 40 story building. Also it has claimed a number of lives due to accidents and dare deviltry.

                                                               Dean's Blue Hole

Finally we finished up a great day with a couple of beers and conch fritters at Max' Conch House and Bar in Deadman's Cay.



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