Tag Archives: Long Island

Did I mention the water is beautiful?

There was hardly any wind when we left Clarence Town to head to the northern part of Long Island to spend the night so we had a nice motor boat ride.  No wind didn’t stop this water spout from trying to form though.  It never quite reached the water, but our friends from Ainulindale who were a few days behind us said they saw 2 on their ride over and they did reach the water.  Crazy!

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We got to our anchorage in Calabash Bay and dropped the hook in amazing blue water and then went in to the resort to use their wifi.  A nice day!  Next up….Georgetown.

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Clarence Town

Our first stop in the Bahamas was not only beautiful on the water, it was interesting on land too.  Clarence Town is on Long Island, one of the out islands of the Bahamas.  It is sparsely populated but has a marina, two churches, a post office and a store (which we heard was out of beer!).  We walked around one afternoon to check it out.

Sign touting the many things to see in Clarence Town:

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First church.  While we were taking pictures of this one the pastor came out and invited us inside.  He said that the church was only staffed Christmas to Easter and that he was a volunteer.  He told us a bit about Long Island and the folks who live there.  One interesting story was a kid he picked up Monday night and took home.  First, Long Island is LONG, about 80 miles long.  Second, there are not many cars there so if you don’t have a car you hitch hike.  So the pastor picked up this kid who had stayed late to use the computer at school and missed his bus.  He ended up driving the kid 35 miles home!!!!  And he said he didn’t pass another car on the way there or back.  Imagine being so dedicated to your studies that you would risk having to walk 35 miles home!  Pretty incredible.

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Outside

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Diana on the steps

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Inside from the balcony

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Climbing the rickety steps up the tower

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Tower hit by lightening

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View from the top

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Can you spot Ryan?

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There he is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second church

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On the way back to the dinghy

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Beautiful Bahamas

It is so pretty here!  It’s because the water is so shallow and we always have to be on the lookout for coral but it sure is pretty!  We arrived in Clarence Town to check in and anchored in 8ft of water.  I guess we’ll have to get used to that, but it does make it nice to swim when you can see the bottom.  We dinghy’d around to check out the anchorage and what the guide book calls a blue hole.  It is a deep hole of water in an otherwise shallow area.  We could see the water color change which is cool but since we’re not divers we didn’t get the full effect.

Ryana, Ryan and the crazy blue water.

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From the beach by the blue hole

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This was an interesting sand pile we found; must have been made by a critter that burrows into the sand.

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Ryan’s Family Visit Part 2 – Kayaking, Eating and the Hamptons

It took a little convincing but we got everyone into our fleet of water vehicles (2 hard shell kayaks, an inflatable kayak and an inflatable paddle board) for a trip back to the lagoon. With our motley crew set up we began our journey. It was another really hot day so it felt nice to be close to the water and feel the breeze.

Cindy and McKenna paddling away.

Cindy and McKenna paddling away.

We all made it!

We all made it!

It turns out the beach was great for shell collecting and everyone came away with a great haul. There were really pretty spiral looking shells and McKenna found a rock that looked exactly like a potato!

What do you have?  Wanna trade??

What do you have? Wanna trade??

Nice day for a walk.

Nice day for a walk.

After paddling and splashing around during the day we’d get cleaned up and head to dinner. McKenna tried lots of new foods, even eating an oyster (yuck!).

All ready for some eating!

All ready for some eating!

The lobster.

The lobster.

One of the days we were wandering around we went and looked at the fancy boats and then happened upon a movie night! There were also concerts in the park to enjoy on these warm summer nights.

We told them to tell their friends this was our boat.  LOL!

We told them to tell their friends this was our boat. LOL!

Enjoying one of the concerts.

Enjoying one of the concerts.

What a beautiful night.

What a beautiful night.

 

Taking a break from our routine of swimming we went on a drive to the Hamptons. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Maybe as tourists we didn’t have access to the best parts, but what we found was $30 sandwiches and beaches that you couldn’t use unless you had applied for a beach permit months ago. There were lots and lots of fancy cars driving around though so Ryan got to drool over some of those. We walked around, looked at the fancy shops and in Sag Harbor looked at more fancy boats.

Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor

Taking a break from site seeing.

Taking a break from site seeing.

 

After that brief break it was back to swimming! Even Stanley got in on the act.

Taxi service

Taxi service

 

It was a fun, relaxing visit and we hope to see everyone again soon.

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Ryan’s Family Visit Part 1 – Swimming, Sailing and lots of frozen yogurt

Ryan’s family (Mom – Cindy, Stepdad – Chuck and Niece – McKenna) came out to visit us for 9 nine days in July. We were in Port Jefferson, NY when they arrived and decided to stay there for their entire visit due to the fun town with lots of restaurants, warm water for swimming and the availability of frozen yogurt. The amount of frozen yogurt consumed by 5 people over 9 nine was amazing, but this is vacation right?? 🙂

Right away when they arrived McKenna began what would be a common refrain….”Who wants to swim with me?!?” Since water was so nice we couldn’t resist! We also got out all the water toys to play with as well. There was also a lot of jumping and diving from the boat. Chuck is a good diver and was able to give some pointers to Ryan and McKenna who after some belly flops started to get the hang of it. Of course just jumping off was fun as well.

Flawlessly executed cannon ball!

Flawlessly executed cannon ball!

Swimming away...

Swimming away…

 

Paddling around.

Paddling around.

A dingy ride was taken over to a different part of the Port Jeff harbor to the lagoon. McKenna found the shell of a horse shoe crab and added to her wardrobe!

The latest fashion.  She can totally pull it off!

The latest fashion. She can totally pull it off!

At the lagoon.

At the lagoon.

Since we wanted to show them what the boat could do we tied up our dingy to reserve our mooring ball and went for a day sail. With no destination in mind we followed the winds and had a relaxing day sailing on the Long Island Sound.

Sailing can be so relaxing...

Sailing can be so relaxing…

McKenna feels the need for speed...too bad we are only going 6 knts!

McKenna feels the need for speed…too bad we are only going 6 knts!

 

Sailing away....

Sailing away….

The whole time they were there it was unseasonably hot so a lot of our time was spent trying to stay cool. Swimming helped a lot and so did the occasional rain shower. McKenna and Chuck had a great time dancing around in the rain!

The rain feels so good!

The rain feels so good!

It was fun to have Mckenna on the boat, she sure has a lot of energy and was a swimming machine! She is only 11 years old, but you can see the teenager already starting to emerge.

Too cool for these sunglasses!

Too cool for these sunglasses!

Port Jeff was a nice place to go to dinner in the evenings. The main drag was a short walk from the dingy dock and had many tasty places to go.

Getting ready to go to dinner.

Getting ready to go to dinner.

Full after another amazing dinner and of course some frozen yogurt!

Full after another amazing dinner and of course some frozen yogurt!

More to come….

Our first visitor

Our friend Greg came out for a quick visit over the weekend of July 5th. The first visitor we’ve had to the boat since moving aboard in April! Very exciting! We spent the morning of the 5th making sure the boat was in ship shape and praying nothing would break.  We wanted to greet Greg sitting on our back deck dressed in our fancy clothes drinking wine and pretend that’s what we did all day! By the way, in case you were wondering….It’s not! We had spent the previous few days completing boat chores (Ryan got the water maker working….WOOHOOO), scrubbing the hulls, doing laundry and grocery shopping. The last 2 may sound like simple tasks but when the laundromat is a half mile away and you have no car to carry back groceries its harder than you think. And the water maker was probably a 100 hour chore that Ryan had been working on for months!

Well anyway, Greg arrived in the late afternoon to where we were staying at Port Washington in Long Island. We hadn’t explored the town that much or eaten out (due to all those chores) so we welcomed the chance to go out when Greg arrived. We checked out the tiki bar at one marina, had dinner and then went to Louies for an after dinner drink. Port Washington is a nice town, not a whole lot going on but it’s cute.

Out on the town.

Out on the town.

The next morning we got up and set off on an all day sail to Port Jefferson. It was one of the first days we sailed the whole way to where we going and was a nice change of pace. Usually we were trying to outrun thunder storms or get to a location early to get a good spot. But, on the way to Port Jeff we had a reserved mooring ball and clear weather so it didn’t matter how long it took! We had a nice relaxing day and even sailed down the channel into Port Jeff just because we could!

Greg at the helm.

Greg at the helm.

Men at work.

Men at work.

Harassing my dog...

Harassing my dog…

Greg and Stanley enjoying the best seat in the house.

Greg and Stanley enjoying the best seat in the house.

What a great day for a sail!

What a great day for a sail!

 

Port Jeff is a nice protected harbor and the water looked clear so we decided go swimming! Well, Greg jumped in the water and then Ryan and I came in too. We haven’t been swimming at all yet because the water has been so murky but here I could actually see my toes, so in we went! And the fact that it was a billion degrees outside was also pretty convincing!

Enjoying some time in the water!

Enjoying some time in the water!

 

After some cooling off in the water we went out to explore Port Jeff which is a pretty awesome town! We arrived on a Saturday and the there were tons of people around. We had an amazing dinner at a Spanish restaurant and then wandered back to the boat.

The next day we did a tour of the harbor by dingy and found a small lagoon. There were some bluffs there that you could climb and come out looking at Long Island sound. It was really pretty and Greg even said it was Caribbean-esque. 🙂

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The Caribbean-esque views.

The Caribbean-esque views.

 

We pulled out the paddle board again here and Greg took Stanley for a little ride.

The Stanley taxi.

The Stanley taxi.

It was a fun visit and we hope Greg comes back soon!