Say hello to Long Island!

And beyond a doubt……this is NOT Long Island, NY.

Regatta Park

After a few days of cleaning Nati up from the month in the Ragged Islands we took a brisk sailing window over to Long Island for a few days.  We have only anchored off the north shore once last year and we understand the island has a lot to offer for boaters.  So, off at sunrise with a few other boats: including Pandora and Ariel.  The straight upwind motor out the channel was, like normal a bumpy, wet slog for a half of mile.  Then we turned to starboard and off we go………..top speed was 11.5kts going off a wave and Nati was thoroughly covered with salt at the end of the 30nm sail.  By early afternoon we pulled into Thompson Bay and it is a large anchorage with protection from the NW - SE so we will have a week to explore all the sites.  The bay itself has a few businesses nearby and the settlement, Salt Pond used to deal with the business of making salt…..imagine that!

St Joseph's Anglican Church

Hardings Supply Center & Grocery

Dinghy landing at Long Island Breeze

A useable well nearby

Nati looking good!

Since we wanted to see more anchorages here we then proceeded to go up the coast 20nm  to Joes Sound.  Again we had a good sail up the coast and anchored to the lee of Hog Cay (yep, another Hog Cay) in nothing but white sand.  Should have taken a picture of the anchor buried in nothing but white powder.  It was a good thing the holding was good since the wind was howling all night but we didn't budge.  The next morning Bob (sv Pandora) and I dinked over to a reef behind us to try to find some shells or fish.  Didn't see much but the reef is a  nice one and we will try our luck there again.  We did see some cool fish and it was my first "Scrawled filefish" as noted in the picture.

Joes Sound looking from outside …it is ALL ROCK!

These boats are in the Sound not sitting on sand.

The entrance to Joes Sound…..very scary!!

We love our underwater camera

Look close to see the filefish!

So after a nice morning we decided to sail back to Thompson Bay and had another great sail.  Top speed was 9.0kts, upwind at 55 degrees!  Nati loved the wind angle and seas and we made the 20 miles in nothing flat!!

sv Pandora…..looking good!

Right now we are going to rent a car tomorrow to check out some of the islands attractions.  Part 2 will follow soon………