Saturday, February 1, 2025

Columbus Monument, Beach Walk, and Sundowner at Cape Santa Maria


Calabash Bay, Long Island – 9 kilometres walking, 7 miles in dinghy, 100 metres snorkelled

It would have been hard to top the action-packed roster of events over the past couple of days, so we didn’t even try. I started the day by dropping a clothespin off the boat into the water, so strapped on a mask and dove down to grab it. I had absolutely no doubt I would find it, as yesterday I had dropped a clamshell fitting I was trying to attach to the front of the boat, and swam down to find not only the fitting, but also the tiny screw I had also dropped. Now that’s something that would likely not be possible in the murk and muck of Lake Ontario.


We waited for high tide then took the dinghy into Hoosie Harbour, barely squeaking over the low spots, kicking up sand from the dinghy engine, then followed the channel to the small fisherman’s dock, where a circling ray was looking for handouts. There, we tied the dinghy then began the long walk to the Columbus/Lucayan monument, which was a few kilometres on what seemed to be the nicest and least used road on Long Island as we didn’t see a single vehicle the entire time, and the round trip took nearly two hours through moist 26 degree heat and cloudless skies. The monument was on top of a hill, reached by very new looking stairs and railings, with strategically places benches for a breather. Incredible 360 degree views awaited us, looking out to the angry Atlantic and back in towards the peaceful and flat blue lagoon.


By the time we returned to the dinghy, everybody was hot, tired, and annoyed, and it didn’t help that we hadn’t bothered to bring along sunscreen, water, and were short one hat. But any complaining there may have been was instantly eradicated when we met a group of German cruisers on their way to the monument, and one of the ladies had a fresh infant strapped to her body, no hat, and was wearing a tank top. I’ll take my baby well done please.


Our original plan was to take the dinghy through a long mangrove channel which circumnavigated Galliot Cay, but after hitting ground several times and pushing against a strong outgoing current, we accepted that we had missed the high tide window and returned to the boat via our original path, seeing a Bahamian guide with customers in a boat catching a bonefish in the shallows along the way.


We had picked up a tube of marine glue a few days before to reattach one of the soft flooring panels on the swim platform, and there was some left, so we spent a while gluing things on the boat – some countertop laminate that had become detached, some flooring in the cabin that had been lifting, then I spent a good thirty minutes with paper towels, toothpicks, and my breath clearing out the glue from the little screw on applicator, something I’d never do at home as I’d be tossing it straight into the garbage, but with the luxury of time….why not?

I went out on a solo snorkelling mission, hoping to get a lobster or two and some fish. I dinghy’d west out to the large bank of coral reefs encircling the harbour. The water was rough as hell as the east wind had plenty of space to build up from land and the fetch had created large waves. To make it worse, there was ocean swell coming in from the north, creating a real mess of superstacked water. I snorkelled around for a while, but didn’t see the quantity or diversity of fish we saw the day before and not a single lobster. Even if I had found a lobster, the currents created by the waves were strong and throwing everything around underwater so it would have been impossible to keep still. I returned to the dinghy, which was being severely bounced around, and motored back to the shoreline and further south to Joe’s Sound, which had reefs indicated on the chart. Sadly, these were all rock with little coral and few fish so I gave up and returned to the boat, empty handed, but still in one piece.


To finish off our trip to Long Island, we went into the Cape Santa Maria Resort for happy hour, bur first took a long and slow walk down the pristine beach which stretched for over a mile. The sand here had a hard packed surface, which was great for walking on, but was still incredibly soft and you could easily dig a hole with your toes. We walked less than half the beach to a section of rock where people had created inukshuks and various stackings, creating a dreamy scene against the backdrop of pine trees and the protected, flat waters with sailboats bobbing around in the harbour. Stella created an artful stack then we just sat there for a while on the natural rock benches, looking out at the water, saying nothing, thinking our thoughts.

After a Kalik, two virgin frozen pina coladas, a spectacular sunset, and a small tray of complimentary conch fritters in the cozy and cool resort bar, we returned to the boat, vacuumed up all the leftovers for dinner, and had an early night in preparation for our sail back to Georgetown tomorrow.

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