Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 Let me back up and show you a couple of photos from Dee and Jenny - thanks for the photos!

This is a beautiful photo of Sojourn under sail on the way from Water Cay to Long Island a few days ago.

 And me trying to find the "hidden path" to the castle ruins.

 

Duane and I near the shrimp hole.

 Back to the current day - off in the morning to see the north side of the island. First stop was at the machine shop to pick up Nicholas's part for his roller furler.  He was pleased with the result and we were soon driving north.

 

All the way to the northern tip of the island (about 30 miles) is the Columbus monument.  A very nice park has been installed there in the past couple of years.

 

Stunning views from the top of the hill.

The actual monument.

Jenny resting on the nice new structure.

We had flown over this area about 10 years ago on one of our flying trips and this structure was not built yet.  Here is what it looked like before with no walkway or stairs.

 Hope it stays this nice.

 More beautiful views.

 

Back to the car, Jenny suggested we continue down a road with a sign that said "ICE COLD BEER".  We did and ended up at another park area.  Beautiful bridge over a mangrove inlet.

A structured pathway lead to this pretty beach.

Back down the pathway towards the bridge.

 

 

 

We walked over to the area of tiki huts that had ICE COLD BEER signs.  These adorable little puppies came out to greet us from under a building. 

 

It looked lovely but unfortunately, no one was around to sell us any of that frosty beverage.

 

Back in the car to see the Cape Santa Maria resort.

 

Just a lovely resort on a beautiful protected beach.

 

We found some shade for a little relaxing.

 

Nicholas and Dee.

 

Jenny walking back to the parking.

 

Next up, close to lunchtime, we drove over bumpy roads into the Stella Maris resort.  Hoping to get lunch at the beach bar there.  We did get menus and decided that about $30 total for a hamburger and fries was a bit too much....told the waiter we were leaving (and why).  We did walk down to the "Nature's Pool" - a dredged out pool.  It's neat but anything but "natural".

Stopped for a couple of photos - brother and sister.

 

And Nicholas and Dee

 

 

 

Back in the car - in search of food now!   We stopped at one place (The Green Leaf? maybe the right name)  We sat down and were promptly ignored.   We asked several times if they were serving lu
nch.....off we went.

Stopped at another roadside place.  A lady was sitting there eating chicken out of a take out box.  We asked her if they were serving lunch.  She replied - "what you want to eat?  I can do some rice".....off we went again!  

We ended up driving back to Max's Conch Shack since we enjoyed it - just about 20 minutes.

We were not disappointed. Excellent service there.

 

My plate - cracked conch, baked mac n'cheese with jalapenos and fried plantains.  Excellent!  (Can't eat like this every day though!!)

 

Tony and Kathy were out touring and we texted them to join us.  Good fun.

 

And finally - Dee won a $200 bet with Nicholas about whether  mañana is a word in Zulu. (Dee was raised with a Zulu maid and heard it often.) Always something cute going on around these folks!

Back to the boats after telling the Skoolz Out crew good-bye as they are heading to Turks and Caicos.   Early night and NOTHING further to eat as I was stuffed still from lunch.