Just trying to catch up on our little life afloat since leaving “land-o-flamingos.” Aka Mayaguana. After leaving our flamingo friends, we made the 124-mile overnight sail to Clarence Town, Long Island.
My. Favorite. Island. Of. All. Time. Enough said.
What is it about Long Island that I love so much? Well, let me tell ya.
It is perfect. Period. ;))
No, but seriously the small bits of this gorgeous island we have seen have been amazing. Good people. Gorgeous beaches. Perfect water. Vibrant wildlife. Comfortable anchorages. The list goes on and on. There’s just something extra special about Long Island.
Our sail to this picture-perfect paradise was rather uneventful. Just the way we like it. Five-ish foot following seas and 15 to 20 knot winds. We made the sail in about 23 hours and dropped anchor in the main Clarence Town harbor. We had a few people ask us about this particular anchorage seeing as it’s on the east side of the island and (by the looks of it on the charts) seems like it could go either way in terms of protection.
Well, this was our second stay in the anchorage (you might recall the first time we stayed here we sorta got adopted by dolphins) and it was great once again! This anchorage is actually protected by a series of cays (Strachan, Clem, and Salt Pond), making it a really neat spot to stay! There are more than a handful of gorgeous beaches to visit by dinghy, a miniature blue hole (as we like to call it), tons and tons of sea turtles, interesting beach finds on some of the ocean facing shorelines, and again some of the prettiest water you could imagine.
Jer, Oliver, and I spent one morning exploring the area on a little dinghy adventure of our own…swinging around all of the different beaches in the area. (Oliver loves when we decide it’s beach + dinghy day!) We saw at least 10 turtles and several huge rays! I snagged a dead sand dollar at one beach and a few other cute shells on another. Gotta love this easy breezy cruiser lifestyle, eh?
Oh and a quick side story on that cool little sand dollar we found…I somehow ended up leaving the sand dollar wrapped in a beach towel and totally forgot about it only to later accidentally wash the towel + sand dollar combo (in an actual washing machine). Whoopsie! But guess what???? It survived the heavy duty cleaning cycle!!! Can you believe it? I’ve had plenty of sand dollars flat out crumble in my hand, so for this one to survive after rocking and rolling with a full load of laundry is insane. I was shocked!
Anyhoo, we spent the rest of our time in C-town, Long Island attending to a few boat chores. Jereme took apart our wheel-mounted auto pilot and gave it a thorough once over and cleaning to make sure it continues to serve our needs (I think we would both prefer to not have to hand steer ourselves back to Florida).
We also dinghied over to the Flying Fish Marina to grab a few beers and wifi before saying see ya later to this pretty spot in paradise.