Cat Island is a good sized island which has the honour of having the highest point in the Bahamas - Mount Alvernia, a whopping 206 feet above sea level! It is home to the Hermitage, the last church built by the beloved Father Jerome, and his final resting place. John Cecil Hawes aka Father Jerome was born in England in 1876 and was first an architect then an Anglican priest. He was sent to help restore the churches which were destroyed by a hurricane in 1908. His trademark was hurricane-proof stonework with thick walls and barrel-vaulted roofs and can be seen in restored churches throughout the Bahamas. He returned to Cat Island in 1937, as a Catholic priest and built the beautiful Hermitage. It is entirely made of stone and only large enough for one person...amazing that anyone could live in such spartan conditions.
We spent a couple lovely nights there at New Bight, and on Easter Sunday we were awakened by a sunrise parade and church service. The sounds of singing, clapping and music were accompanied by the roosters crowing and dogs barking! It was quite an event!
Bad weather forced us to move to a marina called Hawks Nest, on Cat Island and we spent a couple of pleasant days there, sitting in the bar looking out at the big waves! It was pricey though, so we didn't eat at the restuarant, instead we had a dinner party with Night Hawk and Blue (a big catarmaran) which was infinitely more fun!!
After the weather passed, we headed on northbound to Little San Salvador, a small island which has, as its claim to fame, a cruise ship stop! The island is apparently owned by Holland-America and cruise ships regularly stop there for the day at Half Moon Bay so the passengers can swim, tan, go horseback riding on the beach, go parasailing etc etc etc. It was a riot to watch the beach come alive as boatloads of passengers made their way to shore. The dog nearly lost his mind when he saw all the horses! I think he thinks they are big dogs and he wants to play!
As we moved north from Little San Salvadore, we arrived at Eleuthera, a large island at the far eastern part of the Bahamas. It is a lovely and varied island and we spent several days at Rock Sound where we had access to good grocery shopping, a great restaurant (Sammy's Place) and a pavillion where the cruisers could hold a happy hour and socialize. There were probably 20 - 30 boats in the anchorage, as many people were doing the same thing as us, leaving George Town and heading north to the Abacos before ultimately heading home.
From Rock Sound we moved up the island to Governor's Harbour, where Larry and I first cruised about 20 years ago when I learned to sail!!! I have to confess I don't remember a thing about Governors Harbour from that long ago, so it was fun to explore the town a bit. We got water, by hauling it in 6 gallon jerrycans from the town office all the way back to the boat! A huge job, skillfully done by Larry and Graham. (so glad I'm a weakling!)
On to Alabaster Bay, a lovely clean bay where Larry and Graham enjoyed teasing the dog as they dove off the boat time and again! We call Beau our "man overboard alarm" because he barks and barks whenever someone jumps off!
As we moved on up Eleuthera Island, we had to traverse "Current Cut" which is as the name indicates, a small cut between islands which has a very strong current particularly at the peak of ebbing or flodding tide. You have to time your passage properly or you will find yourself going nowhere fast! Or worse, if your boat isn't fast, you could be pushed backwards! We went through as the tide was still ebbing out and were going over 10 knots with the help of the current! Wahoo! Our top speed is usually about 7 knots. Anyway, we made it through no problem, but one of the boats behind us was not so lucky and he went aground as the area around the cut gets quite shallow in places. You really have to watch yourself and the charts! Fortunately, the boat that went aground was able to get off and get through with only a bruised ego.
We stopped for the night at Royal Island, where 20 years ago, on that same cruise and learn trip Larry and I were on, we spent a wild night partying with the other boats in our group and eating fresh lobster and fish given to us by a local fisherman at Spanish Wells (nearby). It is a small anchorage, very protected from the winds. Things have changed there now though, and they are building condos or some such thing and they won't even let you on shore! Not very friendly or welcoming to be sure! We had to sneak the dog ashore for a pee!
Next morning we headed out to cross the ocean and get to the Abacos. Its a trip of about 50 miles and we had good winds, but big ocean swells which made the trip uncomfortable for me. I ended up sleeping quite a bit of the way! There were quite a few other boats making the crossing at the same time and we all kept in radio contact. Susan, on Night Hawk caught a big Mahi Mahi - her first and she was as proud as a peacock! With good reason too - it was a good 3.5 ft long!
Our trip took a bit longer than expected because the ocean swells were breaking across the gaps in the islands at Little Harbour and it wasn't safe to go through them. We had to travel up a bit farther to the northern gap, and there it was not too bad, if a bit scarey. Anyway, we all made it through safe and sound and dropped anchor at Lynyard Cay for the night. Pooped but happy!
We took the next couple days to work our way up to Marsh Harbor, one of the major city's in the Abacos. They have everything you can imagine there - even a "real" grocery store! and most of the pay phones work too! There were big winds coming and the anchorage at Marsh Harbour provides good holding and protection, so it was predictably crowded there!
We finally met up with Jock's Lodge, after not seeing them since around New Year's. It was so great to spend time with Jan and Iain again. Windsong was up in Hope Town, so we would have to wait a few days to see Ted and Alice. In the meantime, we party'ed at the Jib Room with Night Hawk, Sapphire, Restless, Tilt and we danced and watched the limbo guy do his thing! A good time was had by all!
When the winds improved, we all headed to Great Guana Cay where we met up with Windsong and had a fantastic dinner on board our sister Whitby! There were 10 on board, plus the dog, and we still had room to move around!
Next day, the winds were up again, and we had to leave Great Guana Cay as we were being pushed ashore, so we headed back to Marsh Harbor, only about an hours' sail away. We had serious business to attend to while at Marsh Harbour - Clare's latest shipment of course material was fedexed to us there, and we had to work on the financing for the NEW HOUSE IN PENETANG!! yup, the deal is done, and we will be in our new house in June!
Larry and Clare took the opportunity to go scuba diving with a dive boat, and had a good time checking out the coral reefs that are everywhere in the Bahamas. Thankfully, they didn't see any sharks!
We headed back to Great Guana Cay, where it is less crowded and access to the ocean side of the island is easy. The beaches there are absolutely amazing! The surf was still way up from the strong winds, and watching the waves crashing on the shore was something else! I sure wouldn't want to be out in those breakers! The dog had a wonderful time on the beach, cavorting, rolling in the sand (we've nicknamed him Sandy) and chasing birds.
There are a couple of resorts/restaurants on the island, and they welcome cruisers there. Nippers resort and restaurant faces the ocean, and sits high above the beach offering a great view of those crashing waves. It is particularly enjoyable to drink a "Nipper" (rum punch) while doing this! Ask Clare about "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!" Grabbers resort and restaurant is on Fishers Bay,on the other side of the island, which is where we were anchored. Their beach is better for swimming etc, and is where we brought Beau for his walkies. The "Grabber" rum punch was by far superior, in my humble opinion, and thus I had a few! They also had great food, so we had a big dinner with several other boats there on "Italian Night". Their lasagne was amazing!!
We spent 3 nights there at Great Guana Cay while we waited for the right sea conditions to go to Green Turtle Cay, which requires going out the Loggerhead Channel into the Atlantic Ocean, around Whale Cay and back in to the Sea of Abaco through the Whale Cay Channel. While this sounds simple, the rapid shallowing of the ocean from "supa deep" to 20 or 30 ft, combined with reefs make for big breakers and huge waves if the seas are still up. This can be very dangerous, so the prudent sailor waits until the conditions are right before attempting this passage. Thats what we did, and we had a safe passage, along with lots of other cruisers who were waiting for the same thing!
We treated ourselves to a marina, the Green Turtle Club, so that we could get fuel and water in preparation for our trip back to the States. Our trip was drawing to a close. As always we met some new cruisers and enjoyed getting to know them. We had a good meal in the restaurant, spend an afternoon sunbathing by the pool (where Beau jumped ship and found us, so we made him go for a swim to get the salt water off him!), did laundry and used the internet as much as possible! We have really been surprised at the difficulty we've had in getting decent signal here.
Jocks Lodge, Windsong and Night Hawk arrived a couple days after us and we all got together as much as possible as we knew we would be saying goodbye soon. We rented golf carts and went to the little town of New Plymouth to explore and buy a few groceries (stock up on cheap rum!). Graham got to drive the golf cart a bit, which was the highlight of his day! He's a good driver! Clare, who will be 16 in a few days could not be enticed to try it out! Young Drivers of Canada will be waiting for her in the next while!
Of course we had happy hour on the boat with the gang on our last night together. It was bittersweet since we were not heading to the same destination in the States. Windsong presented me with the "Bubba" award for putting up with Larry and the kids for a year! A nice big bottle of "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" rum!! I will think of them often! I love those guys!
Next morning we headed off to Allans Pensacola Cay with Hawkeye, who was planning to make the crossing at least to Beaufort with us. We had a great sail and made good time. It is an uninhabited island and offers pretty good protection from most winds. We had a good night there and were up in good time the next morning to make the trip to Great Sale Cay, about 35 miles away. We had another good sail, with a bunch of boats with the same plan, and arrived in the afternoon. When we arrived, there were only a couple of boats in the anchorage, but by sundown, there were about 20 boats, all getting ready to make the crossing to the States, albeit to different parts.
We had been chatting with various boats to see if there were any who were planning to go as far north as Norfolk, which was Larry's hope. He felt that we could take advantage of the gulf stream to get us as far north as possible to avoid the Intracoastal Waterway and make the trip shorter. Hawkeye and several others were looking at Charleston SC or Beaufort NC, which meant that we would be on the same course for awhile. The weather window was right, and so early in the morning on April 25 we set sail for the USA!
