February 2009
For the first time this year we decided to explore Long Island in more detail and sailed to Calabash Bay in the north via Hawks Nest Point on Cat Island. This is a reef protected stunning beach with deep water right up to the edge. In unsettled weather you can roll a lot and you need easterly winds anyway. After a night at anchor we worked through the shallows to the south and anchored in Thompson Bay which is a good centre for exploration and car hire.
The anchorage in the Bay is fine white mud and water makers need a 5 micron filter. The local population is less tourist based and they are welcoming and helpful. Shopping is cheaper than Georgetown if a little less specialised. The shape of the Bay allows for shelter from all except the southwest and you can sit through most fronts with little problem unless they are strong.

The rather stark Columbus Monument
The Catholic church at Clarence Town

With our friends from Moondance, Merlin and Onward we hired a minibus to tour the island. Going south we visited Clarence Town on the Atlantic side and visited the two churches designed by Father Jerome. He was an inhabitant of Cat Island and originally an Anglican. Later he converted to Roman Catholicism and in each era he built a church here. The latter is prettier and better maintained - a similar situation to other RC churches here. The inside of this church was plain and modern but the effect was somehow appropriate to the island.
To the south we searched for the ruins of Lord Dunmore’s plantation. There are numerous pasture walls, some stone gateposts and even part of the ‘Castle’. Finding this meant a perilous hike over rough limestone, through spiders’ webs and thorns. Little remains now but the twin chimney structure. It was very much smaller than would be expected from the grand title of castle!

Small stained glass window
The altar
Tina from Merlin climbing the double chimney at Lord Dunmore's Castle
A fireplace in one small room making up about half the castle, now shared with Aloe plants
Spiders and webs obstructed the path to the castle, this spider about two inches across
The blue hole in the corner of Turtle Cove
Free divers practising in the blue hole with mermaid fins
Waves breaking at the entrance to Turtle Cove

At Turtle Cove on the Atlantic coast is a huge blue hole tucked in a sheltered corner of the bay. It goes straight down some 600 feet and has a connection to the ocean as well. The site is used for championship free diving and we saw some of the US team training here.
There is a platform with a pulley system and the divers use weights and special fins that make them look like mermaids. They have no SCUBA equipment and can get down several hundred feet on a single breath. It is a dangerous sport for obvious reasons.
Back at the northern tip of the island we trekked out on a rough road to view the monument to Christopher Columbus and ‘The gentle, peaceful and happy aboriginal people of Long Island the Lucayans‘.
It has to be said that the monument itself was nothing very special but afterwards we had a splendid dinner at the Cape Santa Maria Resort by Calabash Bay

Previous Page

Return to Index