Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in the Allard’s wake! Hopefully there will be more letters in the weeks ahead.

Letter # 5

Hello everyone:
Once again we’ve had to send two Letters in close succession, to take advantage of the good internet connection at this marina. This is likely to be the last Letter for a couple of weeks.

Our report from Long Island continues.

Barbara and I both grew up on Long Island, the one in New York, which is 120 miles long and has a current population of 7.8 million.

The other Long Island, the one where we are at the moment, is in the Bahamas. It is 80 miles long, has a population of 3,500 people and there is not one traffic light on the entire island.


Once we entered the waters towards the southern end of Long Island, we had a small milestone event: we crossed the Tropic of Cancer. This sign on Long Island shows the location of the line, and once south of it, we were officially in tropical waters.

Jerome Hawes was born in 1876, and studied for five years at the Royal Institute of British Architecture. He then undertook studies at the Lincoln Theological College, became Father Jerome, an Anglican priest, and in 1910 designed this church on a hill above Clarence Town on Long Island. He later went to Rome, studied for three more years to become a Catholic priest, and then in 1939 designed the Catholic church on the far hill, to the right rear of the photo. Local sources say that the Catholic church was not completed until 1946. Both churches were strongly built to survive the frequent hurricanes; they still stand proudly over the town.

Father Jerome’s Catholic church.

While we were looking at the Anglican church, the woman on the left came up to me and allowed us to go inside. She is a member of the congregation. She was also excited to show us her new home, and gave us directions to get there. Her name is Sandra Dean, and her husband is Jeremiah.

This is their new home, which sits on a beautiful hill overlooking the harbor and the ocean. They gave us a tour and we found it to be simply furnished and filled with beautiful breezes from the sea. This house was built to replace their prior one which was destroyed in a hurricane.

We stopped at the Glinton School in the northern part of Long Island, to drop off some school supplies. We met the principal, Ruth Smith, on the left, and her assistant Claudette Adderley. They gave us the warmest welcome.

No visit to a school is complete without some pictures of the children. The Bahamian educational system is excellent, the children are well disciplined, and many go on to higher education. There are 34 students enrolled at this school, and some of them are shown here and below.




One of the teachers, Tangela Bain.

We met Stanley Pinder, a farmer on Long Island. He gave us some of his beautiful just-picked peppers. He’s over 80 years of age, and has lived on the island his entire life, save for a few years in the U.S. as a farm worker. Long Island is one of the few Bahamian islands which has a flourishing agricultural industry. In fact, they grow enough produce to export it to other Bahamian islands.

A Bahamian “fast food” restaurant. Regular menu items would be chicken or ribs, mac and cheese, beans and rice, all served in a square styrofoam lidded box. These places do a good lunch business.

Alfred, who with his wife operates this small bake shop. We bought loaves of white bread, some cinnamon buns and a delicious piece of lemon cake.

It’s likely that a combination of old age and a hurricane or two destroyed this church. The Bahamians are a religious people – even the smallest of towns have at least one or two churches.

At the French restaurant, Chez Pierre. A fine lunch, good wine and a great companion.

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, now in ruins, reported to have been built by the Spanish in the late 17th century. Hopefully, it will someday be restored.

We collect Bahamian baskets, first of all because we like them, but more importantly because the Bahamians who make them are skilled artisans who carry on a trade which may not last forever. Over the years we have visited Ena Majors’ shop in Clarence Town, where she showcases high quality baskets made by local people. Our friends and us bought the ones on the counter.

Ena Majors. She is 82 years of age.

Long Island is the home of Dean’s Blue Hole, a spectacular 660’ deep hole, reputed to be the deepest in the world. It is supposedly connected to the ocean at its bottom.
This is the site of yearly competitions with participants from all over the world, to see who can set a record by going down the deepest while holding their breath, without SCUBA, or any other devices. Some of the contestants reach 250+ feet. The white raft in the middle has a line which the divers use to guide them. It is an extremely dangerous sport. On the rock to the left of the picture, surrounded by three cherubs, is a plaque listing the people who have died while diving here. The cause their deaths, simply stated, is blacking out from lack of oxygen.
My task is to send Letters, not to make judgments.

We went looking for the delicious pineapples which are grown on Long Island, but it was a bit early in the season. In Turnbull, we met Leroy Gibson while he was walking along a road, and the conversation turned from pineapples to other subjects. He liked to verbally joust, and when I eventually asked to take his picture, he said: “I never want my picture taken, but you can take it.” This is the result.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR1279.

Life can be difficult in the Bahamas. Fishing is one of the main ways to earn a living. This fisherman’s boat, Lady Max, dragged her anchor, and came to rest in shallow water. It will be difficult to salvage the boat, and his livelihood.

There was one day where the sun poked out for a couple of hours, and we were rewarded with this view. Look carefully at the name of the boat.

Hopefully this rainbow is a sign that better weather is on the way. When that happens, we can head north again, back through the Exumas.

Warm regards-
Greg and Barbara
Copyright, Greg Allard