What A Wonderful World

Thompson Bay     

We'll be in Thompson Bay for a few days waiting for an upcoming blow to pass. Today we rented a car along with Kelly and Richard (Untethered) and explored the southern end of Long Island. It was already a beautiful day when we arrived onshore at 10:00. While Kelly picked up the car from Mr. Fox, I visited with the locals and admired all the flowers along the street. 

Our first stop was the tourism office where we picked up a map and Dawn gave us a few must-see highlights. She enthusiastically shared her story and asked each of us for ours. Long Island is 80 miles long, so even traveling half of it meant that we needed to get moving. A single road runs down the middle of the island so navigation was easy. We stopped at a few gift/souvenir stores along the way. In each we were greeted by such friendly folks and it was difficult to pull ourselves away to continue down the road. The island is dotted by many small communities. Each is identified by a sign and usually contains a church. The Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Hamilton was quite picturesque. Our first destination was Dean's Blue Hole in Clarence Town. As we crested the hill, we all took pictures of the beautiful scene that was before us.   

A short walk led us to a beautiful white sand beach with crystal clear water. Although this view is impressive, Barry and I knew the view from the top was immensely better. We scampered up the limestone trail to a flat spot in the rock overlooking the basin. 

From the high vantage point we were able to take in the whole scene. Dean's Blue Hole is enclosed on three sides by rock, and on the fourth side by a turquoise lagoon. The dark area in the center is the blue hole. This is the third-deepest blue hole in the world, dropping to a depth of 663 feet. The white rectangle in the center is a platform anchored in place.

With the view from the top properly documented, it was time to put on the mask and fins and see what was happening in the water. A large school of fish greeted me, Kelly, and Richard as we entered the water. Only the sun's rays penetrated the dark blue of the hole. On our fist pass, Kelly and I surveyed the perimeter of the cove. 

Baby fish were hanging tight to the edge of the platform. There were good number of fish present with most of them staying just above the dark drop-off. 

After a few laps, Kelly and I moved out into the lagoon where grasses grew in the sand. There were more fish, but the most impressive thing we saw swimming by was a four foot ray. As I made my way back to shore in the foot-deep water, I enjoyed the simple beauty of the sea grasses growing in the rippled sandy bottom. Although super excited from our time in the water, we had to move on. We dried off, changed clothes, and tried to get as much sand off of us as possible before getting back into the car. 

On the way out, we stopped in front of a group of coconut palms. The boys went into the scrub and harvested several large coconuts which they deposited in the trunk. We continued into Clarence Town proper, past the stately St. Paul Anglican Church. Our next stop was Lighthouse Point Restaurant at Flying Fish Marina. This area is a hotspot for sport fishing and diving excursions. We were all hungry for our 3:00 lunch, but took a few moments to admire the scenery of the Atlantic coastline lined by a rugged reef. All of our meals were wonderful and the staff was again exceptionally and genuinely friendly. 

It was after 5:00 when we hit the road again with much more still to see. The "Welcome to Long Island" sign was positioned just before the road up to the Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church. The church's twin towers reach for the sky from atop the highest hill. We were pleasantly surprised to find the doors open and went in to admire the simple elegance of the sanctuary. The sun was dropping in the sky as we descended its impressive entry steps.

We still had not reached our southern-most destination so onward we went. We stopped and stalked a lone flamingo wading in the roadside shallows. On a long desolate stretch of road we passed a lady walking alone. We stopped and gave her a ride to her home and had a wonderful chat along the way. Her resilience and strength are so impressive. We passed through a small herd of free-range goats and stopped to get a closer look. One of the oddest sightings was a group of large crabs crossing the road. The creatures took a fighting position before scurrying off to the shoulder. At 6:15 we reached the end of the road, turned right, and stopped at Gordon's. Inside we again were fortunate to meet wonderful people -- the two proprietors and a German couple on a sailboat anchored just off the beach.

The white clouds were orderly claiming their position for the day's swan song. After enjoying a beverage, I went out to the sand to watch as the sun moved behind the clouds.  

The colors of the evening capped off a wonderful day. We returned to Thompson Bay in the dark, parked the rental car, and made our way back to the dinghy dock. As we crossed the anchorage, the deep black sky was the ultimate background for the bright stars. We identified the constellations above, then found our anchor lights from the dozens of boats sitting still in the calm waters. "We saw trees of green, red flowers too. We saw skies of blue and clouds of white; the bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights. The colors of the rainbow were so pretty in the sky and so were the faces of people passing by." With those sentiments adapted from Louis Armstrong in my head, I'll close this day's report by saying, "What A Wonderful World."