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Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas February, 2003 On Friday, February 21st, we sailed from Rum Cay to Clarence Town, Long Island. It was kind of a bumpy ride, but not bad. We anchored out Friday night near Clarence Town where we experienced about 25-30 knot winds....pretty rocky night but not as rocky as Port Nelson near Rum Cay. Anyway, Saturday mid-afternoon our anchor line parted which means we were set adrift (not a good thing) with the winds still blowing about 25-30 knots. Apparently, the winds were strong enough to cause chafing to occur through the chafe guard and anchor rode (also not a good thing). Luckily, we were on board and able to set our second anchor (it's a Fortress) very quickly. Sunday, Rankin found our original anchor and marked it with an orange fender but when we went to retrieve it our engine wouldn't start (boy, good thing that didn't happen Saturday). So then we went about troubleshooting our engine problem and narrowed it down to the starter. Though things seemed to be going wrong one after the other ... things worked out great!! Monday, we spoke to a local Bahamian fisherman (Ken) and he put us in touch with a local mechanic (Andrew). They came aboard the boat, took out the starter, cleaned it up a bit and installed it the next day. We held our breath for a minute or ten, and started the engine ... everything worked great. It cost a very small sum and a couple of precious beers (Budweiser ... so far we haven't met many Bahamians that drink the local beer which is Kalik, funny huh!!) We ended up spending several hours talking with Andrew, Ken and some of their friends and having a few cocktails. It was a great time and we are very thankful for the kindness of these two gentlemen. After the boat was fixed, Rankin lassoed the orange fender and we retrieved and reattached our original anchor. Then we decided to head to the marina and we spent the next couple of days exploring Long Island.
Long Island is 60 miles from North to South and less than 2 miles wide (no we didn't bike this island). We rented a car and drove around the island looking for plantation ruins. We didn't find the ruins, but we did find the boatyard which is located in Mangrove Bush. The boatyard still builds wooden sailing vessels used exclusively for racing regattas. Mac, a local man, gave us a basic understanding of these wooden sailing vessels and showed us a 28 foot handcrafted beauty called "Legend". Though this vessel is only 28 feet long, it has a 61 foot mast with canvas sails and multiple booms to swap out based on wind conditions. On these particular sailing vessels, the booms are much longer than the vessel itself ... wish I could remember the exact length of the boom but at this point anything I'd write would be a guess. To continue, everything on the boat including sails and rigging must be made, maintained and repaired by a Bahamian national to participate in the sailing regattas. The reason for this criteria is to maintain the traditional boat building craft in the Bahamian islands. The boats are quite beautiful and below are photos though I don't think the pictures do justice to the craft.
We also had a quick opportunity to visit one of the local churches on the island. Below you will find a picture of St. Paul's Anglican Church. It was designed by Father Jerome .... yes, that's right Father Jerome. He also designed the St. Peter's Catholic Church on the island after his conversion to Catholicism. They are both very majestic churches and worth the visit.
Once we finished our exploration of Long Island, we decided that Crooked Island would be our next visit. Take a look at French Wells on Crooked Island -- March, 2003.
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