Saturday, January 30, 2016

Long Island Days - I

To say that we were pleased to be "somewhere else" would be a gross understatement.  I'm not sure I will ever be able to leave this lifestyle and go back to days that are so one-like-the-other...

Not only was the view outside my window a new one... It had to go and be THIS!!!  I think we're going to like it here!

Thompson Bay is a new anchorage for us. We've been to Long Island before, but anchored further north.


Dramatic view of DL and Kelley Nicole
Long Island was hit hard recently by Hurricane Joaquin this past October and we hope to donate a few things to the cause and maybe help with the continuing cleanup effort.  Bright and early we went ashore to scope it out.

The dinghy dock provided (as they often do) a bit of a challenge... It was recently rebuilt by Cruisers.  This is not the official "Government Dock" but one that is a bit closer to town and is graciously offered to us for our use.

It's a very short walk up the street to the Queen's Highway where we made a right turn to go in search of the local weekly farmer's market.

The hours are 8 am to noon on Saturdays but when we arrived the sellers were already packing up to leave.  There was a funeral on the island and the locals were closing up shop to attend.

The offerings were meager at best with things like local art, honey, locally grown melons and greens... nothing we really needed.


We left them to their business and backtracked to find Sou' Side Bar and Grill.  It was early still but we had left the boat without eating breakfast in hope of finding some baked goods at the market...

Now my stomach was objecting strongly to this mistreatment so finding food was foremost in our plan...

We bellied-up-to-the-bar and ordered grouper fingers and fries (Grouper Snack) and some water.  I took advantage of the free wi-fi to do an iPad backup while Bruce watched tennis on TV....

Now fortified and imminent feinting spells averted... we continued on up the street with renewed vigor.

We visited the tiny but well-stocked liquor store to check prices and see if they had any of that pink drink we saw at the bar...

We bought one, Sands pink grapefruit for my sundowner later...

Notice the guy in the blue hat?  He was in every store we visited... I think he was following us...

A stop at the grocery store netted us a few essentials and some home-made carrot cake... Wish we had found this for breakfast!

Art at the counter.
Pressing on, we found a surprisingly comprehensive stock of marine supplies just up the road.  While Bruce shopped, I chatted with the lady behind the counter about snorkeling at Dean's Blue Hole.  Some fellow Cruisers had been warned off of snorkeling there as it is deadly dangerous.  I was curious to know why the locals would have been so adamantly against what was a wonderful experience for us during our last visit.

She told me of the several deaths that had occurred there, but all were easily avoidable events for us and it renewed my excitement for taking Jerry and Sally there later this week.

We paid for our purchases and as we were leaving, the guy in the blue hat came in the door.  We were just asking about renting a car and the man offered us a ride to the rental place.  People are so nice here!

So add hitchhiking to our list of accomplishments for the day!  We hopped into the back of the truck and were whisked away to the rental place.  It was the home of a woman and we were glad to be shown the way or we would never have found the place on our own...

We arranged for a car for Monday.

The lady told us we could cut through her back yard on our way back to the dinghy dock... What a view.

The clouds were thick but the winds were light making the Bay nice and flat.

Jerry and Sally were on their way.  We spent the afternoon napping and when I woke up I checked their SPOT tracker...only to find them already HERE!!

My Sands Ping Grapefruit tasted like beer and Hibiscus flowers
Guess I should have looked out the window instead!  We invited them over for sundowners and made our plans...  It looks like we will be here for a few days as weather doesn't look favorable for leaving Long Island later in the week...

4 comments:

  1. I'm catching up on your posts ... wow, I've missed a lot! I've been keeping up on your Facebook page, but finally reading the details of your adventures. Sounds great ... looking forward to hearing about Puerto Rico and beyond!

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    1. We are watching weather for making our way to the DR presently. We plan on spending some time there before continuing on to Puerto Rico. We are now in the last place before we continue on to places we've never been before and it's getting pretty exciting. Will have limited wi-fi soon so I'm trying to get it all posted before we go. Nervous!!!

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  2. Good luck and enjoy it! We loved the area of Puerto Plata and Luperon that we visited in the Dominican Republic. The people were great too! If you happen to stay in Luperon, look up Johnny & Kathay of Putula's. They cater to the cruising community and live near the marina. Great people!

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    1. At present time we are planning on cruising around the west coast of Hispaniola and doing the south coast of the DR. Unless weather says differently, that's our plan. Maybe we will visit Luperon by car!

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