Tuesday Jan 17, 2023 - Long Island (Day 2)

 

Another nice weather day today. Deb and I are on shore and Erick and Hannah stayed on the boat last night. Today we pick up a rental car and start touring the island, which is 80 miles long. We actually have the car for two days, and then on Thursday morning Erick and Hannah will drop us off at the airport, return the car and then get back on their boat to sail to Georgetown for the next batch of people coming down.

Cereal for breakfast and then a walk up the road to the car place (Fox), but by then Erick and Hannah had already picked up the car and met us halfway. The plan is to tour the north end of the island today and then tour the south end tomorrow,

First stop Adderley’s Plantation ruins. This is the ruin site of the original English folks who raised cotton, beef, and sheep starting back in 1790. Slave power built these stone buildings now overgrown. There is a trail out through the ruins. We returned via the beach and then stopped at a store for a drink and got “pops”, which are simply plastic cups filled with juice of a few kinds and then frozen. Fifty cents of satisfaction. We next stopped at a little shop that sold various gifts and picked up some local made grass woven baskets. Very nice lady running the shop (Debbie).

Next stop Christopher Columbus monument at the very tip of the north end of the island. Nobody really knows which islands he stopped at (San Salvador is the most probable) but a lot of islands claim it. Built in 2020, it has new stairs, railing, and a monument. Looks like a government job for tourism (we went there, didn’t we!?)

Next stop Santa Maria Beach Resort to get some lunch. They were having some “kitchen crisis” so we walked up and down their beautiful boardwalk, one of the nicest beaches down here. Back to the kitchen but still no lunch, so we bought a coconut off a couple workers there who were trimming the trees and drank the coconut water to hold us off until we found lunch.

We saw a sign for cold beer at the Sunset Bar and Grill where what I assume was the owner and his buddy were working on a car out front. They could serve cold beer but no food (had to get the car fixed first). So we ended up at an even nicer place called the Stella Maris Bar and Grill which was right on top of a rocky beach with waves crashing in. Burgers and a quesadilla, then we walked down a boardwalk to the waves below and Erna’s Nature Pool, which was a rectangular hole drilled and blasted out of rock. Probably so your kid wouldn’t get swept away.

Met a couple from Long Island who flew down from Jupiter, Florida (winter home). They knew Greenport, NY and might send some friends to East End Charters this summer.

Then we took some back roads down the east coast to some not quite developed plots of land. It seems you can buy land here fairly cheap.

Then back to Salt Pond where Erick & Hannah made a quick trip back to the boat to get some leftovers for dinner tonight. Deb stopped at the store to get a few things. Erick and Hannah returned with laundry and rum punch. Cocktails of course. We warmed up the leftover moussaka, added a lettuce-less raw veggie salad (mail boat comes tomorrow with lettuce) and steamed broccoli (one of few veggies at the store which still looked like a vegetable). 

E&H back to the boat and D&M made microwave popcorn and finished watching the movie we fell asleep watching last night.