Long Island, a Tropical History

Deans Blue Hole

On its way to Long Island the 30-year old sailing sloop moves slowly south lifting and settling with the waves. There is no fanfare, no bells, no whistles, no mile markers, nor billboards to welcome as we cross the invisible but well recognized latitude known as the Tropic of Cancer.

Suddenly, in the midst of deep aquamarine waters, I am a middle school student  answering questions about the Tropic of Cancer. The Tropic of Cancer is officially the most northerly latitude where the sun appears directly overhead at noon on June 21. It dissects the Bahamas at 23 degrees north, 26 minutes and 76 degrees west.  It crosses through Little Exuma, Exuma Sound and the shallow banks of the southern Bahamas.  As the line circles the globe, it also  passes through Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and China.  

The seasons at this latitude are not as noticeable as in northern climates.  Weather hovers in the low 70's during winter and low 80's during the summer.  In the Bahamas, the summer season brings humidity, black face gulls and bugs.  Exotic fowers bloom. 

Tropical storms and hurricanes become a dangerous reality for Bahamians living on either side of the invisible line. 

Sponging was once a large industry

Most of Long Island lies below the Tropic of Cancer. Casuarina pines, sea grape, palmetto, and silver top palm cling tenaciously to the sandy and rocky landscape. On the banks side of the island, the shoreline provides beautiful sandy beaches interrupted by shelves of iron rock jutting out of the calm blue waters.  The splashing crystal water echoes under the shelves where schools of  small colorful fish hide in the shade.  

The long 80 nautical mile island is aptly named.  It is seldom more than four nautical miles wide which makes it appear as a long narrow strip of land curving slightly as it rises from the sea.

On the Atlantic side, rocky weathered reefs line many of the beaches.  Light blue aquamarine water of the near shore area turns dark becoming a brilliant royal blue as the waters deepen.  Many of the Atlantic side beaches require a hike across the island.  Paths are carved out by machete through jungle like foliage.  These paths usually include a rocky incline that gives way to sand as one descends to the ocean. Cruisers keep the beach paths marked and open.

Imagine's captain, Ed, hacked through the overgrown foliage clearing Path108, named for the telephone pole number along Queens Highway where the three-quarter mile long twisting and rocky path begins.  

Unfortunately, many of the hard to reach Atlantic side beaches are filled with plastic debris.  Shoes, bottles, lines, headless dolls, buckets, medical waste, wood, and other trash litter the high tide line.  The remote areas make it nearly impossible to clean these particular beach expanses.  

Life on the Island is laid back.  It is easy to hitch a ride from one end of the island to the other. Employment is limited and many of the young move to Nassau to find work. Long Island is one area of the Bahamas where farming is successful.  Not only do the people depend on it for their own use, but much is exported to other Bahamian islands. Sheep and goats are prized and raised on Long Island.  A mutton festival is held each winter on the island.

The island's history is rich with both tragedy and adventure.  The Lucayan Indians  were  probably the earliest inhabitants of this island they called Yuma.  Lucayan artifacts date back to 500 A.D.  The fifteenth century brought Columbus and opened the era of exploration.  The Spanish used the gentle native population as slaves and brought disease that would eventually wipe out the Lucayans.  


The period of 1750 through 1838, is referred to as the Loyalist Period.  Loyal British citizens living in the Americas wanted  no part of the Revolution.  Many  were given land grants from England. They left plantations and homes in the colonies to begin anew in British controlled lands.  Slavery made little difference as the immigrants learned that the rocky soil would not grow the cotton or tobacco that grew prolific in the fertile soils of the American colonies.

By 1900 those who remained on Long Island took up small farming, pineapple growing, sponging, sisal making and salt harvesting.  A 1926 hurricane washed the 10-to-14 foot deep water out of the Salt Pond and Thompson Bay area.  All people could see was sand to the horizon. Locals rushed out to gather stranded fish.  More than 200 died that day when the winds died and the water rushed back before thegatherers could run back to shore. 


Long Island has so much to offer in both history and scenery.  It is home to Deans Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world. It dips down nearly 670 feet opening into a 4000-foot deep underwater canyon. The location is the home of the AIDA free diving championships each year.  Amidst the shallow aquamarine water surrounding it, the blue hole appears as a small dark blue pond surrounded by rocky cliffs and native foliage on one side and a white curving beach with ocean waves lapping the shoreline on the other.  The water is cold in in the hole.  The drop off is dramatic from a couple of feet to nothing.

Long Island is a mix of modern establishments and historic family settlements.  Wild pigs roam the southern end of the island while marinas and resorts bring an influx of  visitors to the northern end.  Acres of abandoned salt ponds left by Diamond Salt Crystal, old churches dating back to the early 1700's, straw making, and regattas all speak about the culture and history of this welcoming and beautiful Island.  Living on a boat not only brings back memories, but can be quite educational.  

Life is a beach

It is mid March and winter has begun to give way to spring.  Gardeners are planning what crops to plant.  Early crocus erupt bright purple or yellow against the drab coat of winter. Spring is on its way. Beach lovers long for the crash of surf, the spray of salt mist,  and the bright rays of sun warming bare shoulders.

As a child, a trip to the beach meant 34th Street in Ocean City, N.J.  It meant sand laced bologna and cheese sandwiches on a corner of a sandy blanket.  After hours of riding  waves on rented blue and yellow rafts, those gritty sandwiches were quite tasty.  The day ended with one trying to find a comfortable position to sleep that didn't aggravate the sunburned face, back and shoulders.

Years later... many years later,  I now spend most days heading for the beach.  Living on a boat in the  Bahamas gives new meaning to the phrase, hitting the beach. Leaving footprints in the sand, frolicking in the surf, and beach combing continue to a major role in beach usage.  But that is only the beginning.

Fellow live a-boards have found many interesting ways to utilize the nearby beaches. Beaches offer nearby land based destinations where one can disembark and stretch the legs.  At the height of the season, February through early March nearly 300 boats anchor along the beaches of Elizabeth Harbor in the Exumas.  Every day there is another beach event.  

Traditional fun volleyball begins at 2:00 p.m. each day.  Early morning yoga draws nearly 30 boaters who spread out their towels, stretch, and breathe as water laps softly in the background.  Overhead, soft needled casuarina trees sway ever so slightly in a light breeze. 

On Thursdays, budding artists learn to watercolor, weave a basket with silver palm or tie decorative knots.  The art on the each group brings amateur and professional artists together.  Nearby, a group of cruisers play dominos. Others learn the game of bridge.  Another day someone might offer a knitting seminar or a session about maximizing solar panel output. One can even learn how to make a conch shell horn.

One morning, a cruiser might announce an open invitation for sundowners on the beach. The rule is to bring a snack to share, boat cards, and a beverage of one's choice.  It might not be as formal as a Chamber of Commerce mixer, but it offers boaters a way to meet fellow cruisers and to exchange information.  On beaches everywhere, cruisers bring in books and compact discs for swapping.  There are sand sculpture events and for the ultimate sand trap, one can even try their skill with beach golf.

At Hog Cay in the Jumentos, sundowners also include a green flash watch that begins as the sun dips into the sea.  If visibility is clear and clouds are absent, cheers go up when the green flash blinks as the sun sets below the horizon.  That is when conch horns begin to sound. Some evenings cruisers get together on the beach for a impromptu jam session.  They bring guitars, banjos, harmonicas and cymbals.  Some bring kazoos. Others have brought bagpipes, or violin.  One boater played the saw.

When in the out islands, cruisers sometimes cook dinner communally on a fire pit fashioned out of rocks.  Each brings food to grill and a covered dish to share.  Following dinner the auxiliary fire pit is used for the trash burn.  Since there is no place to dispose of garbage, all paper and plastic is burned on the beach.  Cans and jars are retained until the boater heads back to civilization. 

Boaters who venture to the far southern Bahamas are a creative group and hold events known as Beach Junk Wars and Beach Olympics. The Atlantic Ocean  beaches are covered with junk; lumber, bamboo, plastic drums, medical waste, nylon rope, old shoes, bottles, and anything that floats can be found along the high tide line.  Hard hats and welding helmets might become wild looking Junkanoo masks.  Coconuts and string turn into to bras. Puppets have been made from doll parts washed ashore and  wind chimes from bamboo and floating seed pods.

Beach Olympics include kayak racing, swimming, and hermit crab racing. Hermit crabs are scavengers and prove easy to gather with a some dinner scraps on the beach.  The nocturnal critters, up to four inches in the shell, have no clue that they will become the next beach Olympic contestant.  Numbered with red fingernail polish, the critters are placed in the center of a large circle.  The winner is the first one out.

The cruisers at Hog Cay have made a bocce ball court on the san d.  Rope tied to an old plastic bread tray found on the beach becomes a zamboni to smooth the sand.  Small plastic floats washed ashore become the balls. A small raised molded strip around the diameter of the float allows for one way rolling. Those who forgo bocce ball can fanny dip in the clear shallow water along the shore.  Boaters bring a drink and sit together in the cooling water at waist level.

On Valentines Day, the residents of nearby Ragged Island host a party on the beach for the cruisers at Hog Cay. During the event, the boaters hold an action of donated items to benefit the all age school on Ragged Island.

Cruisers walk, jog and hike along the Bahamian beaches.  They collect sea glass, sea shells and sea beans.  They haul wood from the beach for the fire pit.  Sometimes they find neat artifacts.  I've found a wooden mortar and pestle.  For cruisers a large part of life centers around the beach.  It serves as a community center, a classroom, a playing field, watering hole and library.  We share stories and make new friends. We celebrate, we console, and we give back. Yes, life is a beach.

Bush medicine

Cuts, colds, an aching head or back often sends the sufferer scurrying to  a nearby drugstore, physician, or in extreme cases to the emergency room of a local hospital. The availability of medical care is not something that most Americans think about in terms of availability.  Americans might complain about the outrageous cost of that same care.  Nonetheless, it is available.

Traveling in some of the more remote areas of the Bahamas this winter, I've learned that many of the sparsely populated islands don't have a full time doctor.  On others, a doctor might fly in once a week or a nurse might be on call.  Over time,  Bahamians living on some of the more remote and underdeveloped islands acquired an important oral knowledge of herbal lore that would become referred to as bush medicine. 

Some of this knowledge came from their African heritage.  Many of the same remedies used during the slavery era in Bahamian history are used today.  Mary Rolle, a grandmother of two and resident of Nassau,  grew up in the settlement of Rolleville on Barratare.  She explained that while growing up her parents treated their children's illness with native plants growing on the island.  

As a child Rolle suffered from asthma which her mother treated with a plant called Life Leaf.  "My mother would beat Life Leaf in a cloth and squeeze out the juice before mixing it with butter and some lemon or lime.  She would heat the mixture and give it to me to drink," Rolle continued. "We didn't have doctors or drugstores."

Rolle now lives in Nassau and has forgotten much of  the natural pharmacology routinely used by her mother so many years ago.  She said that mothers gave their children catnip for worms and white sage for itching .  "We used to remove the thorns from the prickly pear and use the meat to wash our hair," Rolle remembered.

Martha Hanna-Smith hails from the settlement of Delectable Bay on Acklins Island.  She grew up drinking bush teas and had never heard of Lipton or Earl Gray.  
As a young girl, Hanna-Smith took notice that some of the teas she consumed were also used to treat illness.  The Fever Grass tea that she drank with breakfast could also be used to bring down a fever.  Her fascination with bush medicine grew. She would ultimately author the book Bush Medicine in Bahamian Folk Tradition, published in 2005. 

In the book Hanna-Smith tells how her father insisted that his children drink a bitter draught consisting of a half cup of warm water with a few drops of juice from the Aloe plant each morning.

Historically, Aloe has been used in the home for cuts and burns. The healing plant can also be found in many lotions and salves around the house.  Traditional Bahamian bush medicine also uses the plant as a tea to increase appetite, move bowels, help with indigestion and to fight colds.  According to bush medicine practices, heating and applying the gel like juice will help with infected cuts and the pain of sprains.

Hanna-Smith's book lists plants for backache, blisters, blood pressure control, colds, constipation, coughs, diabetes, fever, flu, headaches, and hangovers.  Native Bahamian flora has been used to treat hiccups, heartburn, rashes as well as the childhood illness of measles, mumps and chicken pox. Thistle, Papaya,  Scourge Needle and Mistletoe are offered as a cure for ringworm .  

For increased male virility, Bahamians have relied on teas of  Love Vine, Five Fingers, Gum Elemi,  Striping Back, Sweet Margaret and Wild Pine.  One formula instructs the practitioner to gather all the the above ingredients, boil together and strain, add sugar to taste, some brandy, and evaporated milk.  The brew is then poured into a bottle and steeped for about three weeks.  Once imbibed, it is said to build energy in a man. 

Locals on Ragged Island say that the Love Vine lives up to its name. It is said to prevent sexual weakness.  Bahamians beat the parasitic stringy yellow orange vine and boil it into a strong tea.  A bus driver on Grand Bahama Island, who wished to remain nameless, swears by this remedy.  It seems like a lot of work, but is probably cheaper that the famous purple pill.  Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies are already researching this bush medicine remedy?

One drawback of bush medicine is that the names of plants can vary from island to island.  Hanna-Smith explains in her book that Buttercup is known as Miss William in San Salvador and Three Days Bush on Acklins.  Portions can also vary as a handful of leaves to one could be quite a bit different from one person to another.

For nearly 500 years, bush medicine from an Amerindian and African heritage, played an important role in Bahamian history.  It is a tradition that is fading away as barriers to modern medicine on many of the remote family islands have been removed.

Nassau, on New Providence Island, offers a state of the art modern medical facility that serves the entire Bahamas.  Soon a second hospital, now under construction, will open in Georgetown, Great Exuma.  The new hospital will serve the southern Bahamas, making a shorter trip for those who need treatment for a full spectrum of illness.  Currently, emergencies from the Out Islands are taken by plane or boat to Nassau to the modern medical facility there.  

At one time the quality of life for Bahamians depended on bush medicine.  Pharmaceutical companies around the globe now research some of that knowledge. Wouldn't it be a miracle if  White Sailor's Cap or Snake Root could be synthesized to produce a cure for some types of cancer?  

Rogue dog

It was sometime around noon when the small brown dog went overboard.  No one will ever know whether he jumped off the boat to follow his owner Captain Mike, who was in the dinghy, heading towards town to do some shopping.  Perhaps the excited pooch lost its footing as it trotted back and forth along the deck excitedly barking at a couple of bottle nose dolphins that swim in the harbor.  This day there would be no witnesses to solve the mystery. 

Bandit, the wayward pup, would not be able to climb back onto the boat.  It wasn't a good day for pup, or human, to go swimming in the beautiful aquamarine waters of Elizabeth Harbor, Great Exuma, Bahamas.  North East winds blew a steady 22-knots, with higher gusts, as ominous gray clouds raced across the sky.  Boats, even a couple of hundred yards from the lee shore, bobbed up and down in the anchorages.  White caps skipped across the top of the two-foot chop in the middle of the harbor. Dinghies swayed back and forth attached to the back of the anchored boats.  Not many cruisers would venture out.  It was a good day to work inside the boat, read a book, or watch a movie.  

The pup's floating home just happened to be named, Rogue Dog.  It was a small trawler with blue trim.  On this dismal day, the boat was anchored near town on the windward side of the harbor, not affording much protection from the weather.  Boaters who can't wait for the wind to die down often take the big boat across the one-and-a-half-mile wide harbor if it is necessary to get groceries, propane, water, gasoline, or Internet service.  While there is little protection from North to South winds, it does provide a short, wet and bouncy, dinghy ride into town.

Finishing business in town,  the captain of Rogue Dog approached his winter home. Nearing the big boat he became alarmed when his faithful 20-lb cairn terrier did not come to greet him.  The alarm quickly became a feeling of dread for the elderly captain as calls for his precious four legged friend went unanswered.

When the first call for help came through the VHF radios across the harbor, it was hard to understand the frantic man's  plea for assistance.  "Can someone help? My small brown dog went overboard within the last two hours.  Can someone help me search? Maybe he made it to shore?"the anguished man pleaded. The broken voice  of Captain Mike repeated the call, explaining that he had a dinghy but his vision was poor and he would need someone to look for the dog along the shore.  

Several boaters answered the call.  The captains of Anania and Water Witch boarded their dinghies for the treacherous wet and lumpy ride across the harbor.  One boater suggested that Captain Mike determine a search area by dropping something overboard and watch the direction that wind and waves carried the item.  After a few minutes several other brave cruisers began the long trip across the bumpy harbor to aid in the search.  

Those of us who could not assist sent out thoughts and  prayers for a positive outcome.  After a couple of hours, dinghies began the roughest part of the trip back to their boats.  The VHF radio squawked with inquiries about the dog.  The early news was not good, but boaters were hopeful that the small dog might have been carried down island and made landfall without getting slammed against the jagged iron rock shore line.

Captain Tom from Anania rode with Bandit's elderly master along the shoreline and cays.  On a last trip, a long shot and  an upwind leg, the elderly man,who could not see well,  heard a weak but familiar bark.  As the two men in the dinghy neared the deserted shrub covered  cay, Captain Tom spotted the wet and tired dog.  

Against all odds the rouge dog had paddled against the wind and the waves and made it to the small cay a half mile North and East of  where his misadventure began.  No one ever dreamed that the dog would have paddled against the waves.  It was only a fluke that the two rescuers decided to make the pass upwind of Rogue Dog.

Needless to say, there weren't many dry eyes on Imagine, when at 6:00 p.m., Captain Mike announced on the VHF that Bandit was safe at home, albeit a little wet and tired.  With relief and joy in his voice, he thanked all the cruisers who participated in the search and invited them to his boat when the weather cleared to meet his pup and to share a drink. 

No sooner had Captain Mike finished when the clicking began.  Across the harbor boaters were clicking the talk button on their VHF microphones.  That's a boaters way of saying, good job! As the sun set all was well in Elizabeth Harbor.  I'm betting that one small brown rogue dog was getting some extra loving that night.

It never ceases to amaze me how cruisers reach out to help other cruisers in need.  It is nice to be part of this caring community to know that in an emergency, there are others who come to your aid.