Off to Long Island. No, Not Long Giland.

We left Georgetown with our Halyard still in time-out, not sure it can be trusted yet, so we motor sailed with the headsail (it still has our trust) into the out islands of the Bahamas. We went past the south end of the Exuma chain, and past Hog Cay and Sandy Key. Things are definitely getting more remote as we head farther south, as we only saw two houses on Hog Cay, and Sandy Cay is mostly a giant sandbar. We sailed over miles of sandbars, the water changing depth from fifteen feet to ten feet. We went past white cliffs of limestone and coral, waves crashing against them, trying to return them to the sea. There were sea turtles and sea birds of every imagined kind, making some very strange sounds too. The water is so clear and aqua blue that is really cannot be described. We turned southeast and tacked across the last 15 miles into Long Island and dropped anchor in a beautiful anchorage called Salt Pond. It is on the west side of Long Island Bahamas. Now don't get all crazy here, we didn't somehow transport ourselves to New York. That is Long Giland. This is Long Island Bahamas, a one hundred mile long island that is only about 4 miles wide, and has a grand total of 2400 people. That means that you could put every single person on Long Island into a high school football stadium in most towns in the United States. The island is a geological wonder, having high vistas, cliffs and caves, the deepest blue hole in the world, flamingos and salt flats, unspoiled beaches and the most welcoming people you could ever imagine. This is what we have come to the Bahamas to experience, and finally our hard work has paid off, we are here at last.

The water is so clear and in places remarkably shallow, that it is like sailing the boat in a giant swimming pool. We might not be able to transport ourselves to New York, but Joyce has learned the ancient art of levitation from an old Indian Guru we met. Here she has the dingy floating a full five feet off the water! SIM-SIM-SARABIM!!! And bingo, up it goes!

The boat really needs a wash down, after weeks of travel and not a drop of rain, the poor girl has taken to protecting herself from the sun by coating herself in salt. The ocean spray has coated everything with salt, and it is really slippery. We have taken advantage of this salt, we eat our morning eggs outside, and just dip the suckers on the boat for a second. Yum.

Now that we are here, the first order of business is to call up our old friends Steve and his wife Cathy. We have known them for years, they moved to Long Island about 4 years ago, returning Cathy to her childhood home island. They have a cool house on top of a hill, where you can see the Atlantic ocean to the east, and the Carribean to the West. Cathy and her sisters grew up here, before life took most of them away for a while. But life is a wheel, round and true... and sometimes it makes it full circle, finding yourself back at the start to see what the next turn will bring. Steve and Cathy are back on Long Island, smart enough to see how the wheel turned back toward their real home. Cathy's mother is still here after all these years, a gracious woman always smiling, always welcoming a big hug. Cathy has one sister still on the Island, Jeannette, and her husband Neil. And another sister that we know in Florida is coming home soon, Lisa and her husband David are finishing a new home very soon. So we are on Long Island, and we got people! It good to have people, and we got 'em. Ever come here, let me know. We fix ya' up good, mon. Steve fixed us up good with a ride, his Jeep was ready to roll, and we took him up on that one. Thanks a lot, now we are free to roam around the island. Yesterday, we all decided to go to a little island called Guana Cay by the locals. It is not the official Guana Cay located in the Exumas, just a rugged little island about 10 acres or so in size, that can be accessed by canoe. So with a dog and some snacks, we paddled out the island to check it out. It is on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island, and it is a rocky island that is probably sixty feet tall at the top. It is surrounded by gin clear water, waves crashing on it's ocean side, and a gentle sandy beach on the other side.

Our friends, Steve and Cathy