Great Exuma, Bahamas

Monday February 3rd we arrived into Emerald Bay Marina on the island of  Great Exuma.
Great Exuma is the largest cay/island in the Exuma chain.  It is 37 miles long and connects via a bridge to Little Exuma Island.  Little Exuma is only 12 square miles in total.  Georgetown, the capital of the Exuma district, is here on Great Exuma.  It was founded in 1783 and today has about 1,437 residents.

There have been fairly gusty winds predicted for over a week, so we decided to get comfortable at the marina and do some exploring of Great Exuma.  To help achieve this, we rented a car for 48 hours.  Our first outing took us north of the marina and to Coco Plum Beach and Shoreline Restaurant & Bar for lunch.

Pengi reminding us to "Keep Left"! (They drive on the wrong side of the road here)

Pengi at Shoreline having lunch and a sip of my Gumbay Smash.

Me on the beach at Shoreline

As we drove around, we noticed how beautiful the beaches and water are.  Unfortunately the local houses and businesses around the Bahamas are not kept up very well.  This may be due to multiple reasons, it just makes me kind of sad to see all the abandoned and under-kept places in such a beautiful place.  It seems like everything is either unfinished, abandoned, or damaged.

Some examples of what is common throughout the islands

How in the HECK did this happen?  How does one get a dented silo?  Was it dented when put up?

At any rate, I thought it only fair to show both the beautiful things we have seen as well as the average living conditions around the islands.  Now on to more fun stuff.

On the second day we had the car, we headed all the way to the south end of Great Exuma and across the bridge connecting it to Little Exuma Island.

Bridge between Great Exuma and Little Exuma

There is a beach on Little Exuma located at 23 degree 27 minutes north latitude.  This is the Tropic of Cancer.  During the summer solstice in June, the earth tilts with the North Pole tilting 23 degrees 27 minutes toward the sun.  This puts the sun directly overhead during this time.  For those not into astronomy, essentially it means once at or below this latitude you are officially in the tropics.

Pengi at Tropic of Cancer Beach

View out onto the beach

Captain Keith used his GPS to draw an official line

Not far from the Tropic of Cancer Beach are several salt ponds.  The story of salt is about as old as civilization itself.  Humans have had a taste for salt since ancient times.  In addition to loving the taste, the use of salt was also essential in the days before refrigeration for preserving meat.  So important was this white, grainy, substance that ancient Romans payed their soldiers with it, thus the word "salary".  

The Bahamas have some unique geology and climate conditions that are conducive to large salt ponds.  These became sources for large quantities of salt by the 1500-1600's.  The Great Salina salt pods on Little Exuma are one example.  At the height of production this area is said to have produced 10,000 pounds of salt annually.  

The ponds on Little Exuma are no longer used today.  There are, however, salt works still in the Bahamas.  Well known company Morton's Salt has its operations on Inagua Island, Bahamas.  There is a 30 foot salt beacon that was erected on the cliffs just above the salt ponds in Little Exuma to signal ships coming in where to head to pick up there loads of salt.  The plaques on the site say the beacon was built in the late 1700's.

Salt Beacon on cliffs of Little Exuma

View from atop the cliffs out over the ocean

View back into the salt pond.  The dark linear shadows you might be able to see are walls built to make sluice boxes to hold the salt for drying.  Slaves working the salt ponds had a very difficult life.  In addition to long hours in intense heat, they suffered horrible soars from long term contact with the salt that could not heal with continued exposure to the caustic environment in which they worked.  The slaves also suffered early vision loss due to the intense sunlight and reflection off the white salt.

There were several prominent Loyalist families that came to the Bahamas to set up plantations.  One such family was the Kelsall's.   The Kelsall family came from South Carolina to the Bahamas to start a plantation.  They grew cotton and sold salt from the salt ponds in this area.  John Kelsall became a prominent politician in the Bahamas.  He was chosen to the House of Assembly in Nassau in 1794, and shortly thereafter became a member of the Governor's Council in Nassau.  At the time of his death he was Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty.

Part of the Kelsall plantation buildings are still visible.  They are very overgrown and not preserved, but part of the slave quarters and a kitchen building are still visible in the overgrowth.  There were also several tombs on the property at one time, however, it is now too overgrown to find them.

Remaining structures on part of the Kelsall estate

You can just make out the old chimney through the bushes

From the salt pond and Kelsall estate ruins we traveled back across the bridge onto Great Exuma.  Now we were in search of more ruins.  Back in the late 1700's another prominent English family came to the Bahamas.  The British crown granted Englishman, Denys Rolle, some 80,000 acres of land in Florida near St. Augustine.  Rolle built a two story mansion and other support building such as blacksmith shop, church, stables, barns, and cabins for workers.  Originally he brought with him from England, about 300 workers down on their luck, to work the plantation.  It did not take long however, for these people to go AWOL once in the New World.  This forced him to purchase slaves to work the plantation.  By 1783 the American Revolution was over and Florida was given back to the Spanish crown.  Loyalists (those loyal to England) had to leave and Rolle decided to move his family and cotton business to the Bahamas.  He was granted 7,000 acres on Great Exuma.  He brought cotton seeds and his slaves to the island and built 5 plantations.  Over the years he became the largest slave owner in the Bahamas.

Upon his death in 1793 the plantation passed to his son John, who did not fancy the Bahamian lifestyle and stayed in England managing the business from there.  In 1834 England outlawed slave ownership and the plantation system would come to an end.  John Rolle freed his 376 slaves and gave them the plantation lands on Great Exuma.  They took the Rolle family name and to this day many locals retain the surname Rolle.  There are also three towns on Great Exuma named after the family, Roole Town, Rolleville, and Stevenson.  Because son John did not come to the Bahamas, he is believed to have employed a manager for his plantations.  Alexander McKay is believed to have been the manager for a period during the late 1700's.  His wife Ann (only 26 years old) and infant son died in November of 1792 and Alexander passed in 1794.  There graves are located in a walled family plot in the southern part of Great Exuma.

Ann McKay's Tomb

Ann McKay, her infant son, and Alexander's tombs from left to right

Once all our educational exploring was complete, we headed into Georgetown to do some errands.  Marine supply store, grocery store, liquor store, post office and butcher.  Of all things, when we went into the meat store, we met the owner who had spent several years living in Carlisle, PA.  It is truly a small world.

Butcher shop where we picked up some steaks and met the owner with connections to Carlisle, PA

The weather looks like we may be on Great Exuma for almost another week due to windy conditions.  We will see how things play out.