The last few days of March finally take on more lamb-like characteristics after what has been a windy month, and we again leave George Town to begin the trek north. Almost sixty miles to the northeast lays the southern point of Cat Island, and we enjoy a docile motorsail through mild ocean swells. Our destination is New Bight, a rarely visited settlement with some interesting history. Only a couple of boats are anchored in this huge bay, and we see few people and even fewer cars as we walk the streets. Cat Island is a decidedly quiet place. Right inland from our boat are the ruins of a Catholic church, the last built by Father Jerome who was mentioned in the blog about Long Island. The community is holding a fundraiser in a month to finance restoration of the building.
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| Church in ruins at New Bight |
Just down the street are the ruins of the manor house from the Armbrister Plantation, dating from around 1760. The Armbristers were loyalists who settled and farmed the southern portion of Cat Island and some of their descendents still live in the area.
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| The remains of the Armbrister Manor |
The next morning we hike up the 206 vertical feet of Mt. Alverna, the highest spot in the Bahamas and the location of the Hermitage. After Father Jerome retired from the priesthood, he was given permission to construct a hermitage at this location. In 1940 he began building it entirely on his own, modeling the project on a miniaturization of a Franciscan monastery. The results are a treat for those who make the long hike. Up the steep peak, you pass the Stations of the Cross, carved into the surrounding rock. At the top is a chapel sized for one person with an adjacent bell tower, small living quarters attached by a classic colonnade, and nearby very clever catchment system and pump house for a fresh water cistern. The view to both the sound on the west and the ocean on the east is breathtaking. It is indeed a very spiritual place.
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| Father Jerome's Hermitage |
We sail a few miles further north to Fernandez Bay, home to two different resorts. Again, this is off the beaten track. A small landing strip nearby for private airplanes provides most of the guests for these resorts. We meet one couple who has flown their single engine plane from Iowa all the way to Trinidad, stopping at resorts such as these each night. The setting is beautiful – a long crescent beach with cottages inland and a meandering creek at the southern end. We take the dinghy into the creek and find small sharks and turtles amongst the mini mangrove islands. That night we treat ourselves to dinner at the larger resort, enjoying the happy hour on the stone patio followed by a gourmet candlelight dinner accompanied by tasteful, live guitar music and a full moon rising over the bay.
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| A dinner setting just doesn't get any better than this |
Interestingly, the young proprietor of this resort is a direct descendent of the Armbrister family. The woman who runs the nearby, smaller resort is from Medina, Ohio.
We could stay in Fernandez Bay for days, but with time limits looming, we motor in glassy water beyond the north end of Cat Island to Little San Salvador Island and Half Moon Bay. If you have ever taken a Holland America or Norwegian Lines cruise in the Bahamas, you have probably stopped here. At the western end of the bay, cruisers are welcomed to anchor, but the remainder of the island is reserved for cruise ship passengers. They arrive on these ocean behemoths early in the morning and are ferried to shore for a day of playing on the beach, jet skiing, para-gliding, horseback riding, eating, dancing, shopping, and probably a zillion other activities that don’t come to mind, all set in a facsimile of a Bahamian village. It is a bit mind boggling for those of us who have been experiencing the Bahamas in a bit more authentic way. A similar facility owned by the Princess Cruise Line exists about 15 miles further north at the southern tip of Eluthera.
And it’s off to Eluthera we go, stopping in the southern portion at Rock Sound. In this protected bay we find a large group of cruisers, many of whom we have met along the way. And, who do we run into but Dorene and George Menke who we had met in Sandusky seven years ago before when they left to cruise.
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| A Sandusky reunion |
Since we will have several days of windy weather that keeps us in port, we choose to rent a car with another couple to explore the island by land. Eluthera is different from the other islands we have visited. It has rolling hills that have more vegetation and trees. It is an island with an agricultural heritage and famous for their pineapples which, sadly, are not in season. The settlements along the way are a bit more prosperous and well kept. There are several gated residential areas, one of which is popular with the British Royal Family. We stop in Governor’s Harbor, the first capital of the Bahamas, and home to some very attractive historical buildings.
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| The library at Governor's Harbor - the second largest in the Bahamas |
At the north end of the island we find the Glass Window, a natural feature where the ocean has almost broken through the island to the bay side. A road bridge has been built over the breach, but it is easy to understand why it is sometimes closed when the ocean “rages”.
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| Water rushes past the remains of the old bridge |
Our final stop is a bit further where we hop a ferry over to Harbor Island, a mix of high end resorts, loyalist cottages, and a native settlement.
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| School girls walking past historic Loyalist cottages on Harbor Island |
The ocean side sports a world famous three mile long pink sand beach, and we stop for lunch at a resort perched on the bluffs above the beach.
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| Lunch overlooking the pink sand beach of Harbor Island |
Afterwards, we marvel at the huge yachts docked in the marina while Burt heads off to find the cottage he stayed in over 40 years ago when the island was far less developed.
Back in Rock Sound, several of the cruisers have organized a lunch at Rosie’s Nort’side, a small restaurant on a high bluff overlooking the ocean. Rosie is the sole owner, cook, waitress, bottle washer, and taxi driver for the establishment. The traditional Bahamian fare is quite good, the view is priceless, and it is a joy to have an opportunity to chat with such an enterprising woman. Her husband died just after they had purchased the property, but next door she has built several attractive modern villas for rent, and she proudly announces that in a few weeks her youngest of six children will graduate from the US Merchant Marine Academy. The other five have also received college educations at universities around the world. We work off lunch exploring this rarely accessed ocean side beach.
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| Working off lunch at Rosie's beach |
It is a few days shy of Easter, and this is the weekend for the Eluthera Homecoming, a time when non-residents with family ties to the island return for several days of festivals. We are anchored off Pascal’s Restaurant and find the lure of nightly Happy Hours irresistible with the discounted drinks and free gourmet appetizers. We learn Pascal went to culinary school in New York City and Iceland – what a combination! Out of guilt (we claim), we join several other couples for a full fledged dinner there that is an outstanding example of Caribbean fusion cuisine. Meanwhile, Rock Sound is getting pretty lively. Bands and DJ’s have the crowds dancing in the streets till early morning. A poorly timed rain storm cancels the Jankanoo Rush Out, but we still have fireworks the following evening. During the day, we bike to the inland Blue Hole Park where we meet a family from Fort Lauderdale. The father emigrated from Rock Sound to the US almost twenty years ago, but brings his family back every year for Homecoming so his children can maintain a sense of their heritage.
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| One of Rock Sound's famous blue holes |
Homecoming is over, the wind has slackened, and we see a mass exodus of boats from Rock Sound heading north. We overnight at Alabaster Bay with a dozen others along a crescent, sand rimmed bay anchored by a small resort. The next morning we make another hop, timing our passage for slack tide through the challenging Current Cut, and head over to Royal Island for the night’s anchorage. Again we are joined by a number of other boats planning the 65 mile crossing over to the Abacos, leaving early the next morning. We would love to explore this area which is centered in the unique town of Spanish Wells, but that will have to wait for another year as the weather window for heading to the Abacos is closing fast.
