The Adventures of Little Rosie

CAT ISLAND

(posted from Gilligans Island (really!!), Puerto Rico)

After ten days we had had enough of Georgetown, so early the morning of Saturday, Jan. 30th we set sail NNE for Cat Island.  We had a nice wind on the beam and sailed with jib and mizzen – jib and jigger for you sailors.  The seas were a bit lumpier than we would have preferred, but we persevered and made it to Old Bight, Cat Island after about eight hours of sailing.

We visited the town of Old Bight the next day.  It was a long walk into town from the beach and little was open because it was Sunday.  We looked through a couple old abandoned churches and had a cold drink and snack at the Don’t Pass By Inn.

The next day we made the short trip to New Bight and anchored off the town with a few other boats.  You can’t visit New Bight without hearing the story of Father Jerome.

The Bahamas has many old churches built by Father Jerome.  He started as an Anglican priest and later returned to the Bahamas as a Catholic priest.  Churches he built can be found around the Exumas, but many are abandoned or have fallen into disrepair.  Father Jerome built his retirement home, the Hermitage, on Comer Hill.  This is the highest point in the Bahamas and it overlooks New Bight and Exuma Sound to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

The Hermitage, New Bight, Cat Island

We hiked up to the Hermitage.  The trail up is very steep and along the way Father Jerome placed the stations of the cross.  They are quite amazing. 

Jackie and the Hermitage. Yes, it's that small.

From below the Hermitage looks quite impressive, but once on top of the hill you see that it is very small.  It has a small chapel, a bell tower, a bedroom, a kitchen, and another small room.

LONG ISLAND

On Feb 3 we headed South-Southeast for Long Island.  There was some weather coming so we tucked into Joe’s Sound.  This is essentially a creek with a very narrow entrance.  There are the remains of a sailboat keel on the rocks next to the entrance as a reminder that it’s a tricky pass.  We got in without any problems and anchored, but we didn’t like being so close to the wall behind a house.  After much checking the depth with a lead line from the dinghy we finally found a spot that we thought would work.  It did, but we barely fit.

The entrance to Joe's sound. Yes, it's as small as it looks.

Anchored in Joe's Sound

We wanted to leave the day after the storm, but the west wind had kicked up the sound and the waves were crashing into the mouth of Joe’s Sound.  There was no way we could get out.  We waited for the next day and then motored down to Thompson Bay, Long Island where we met up with Mark and Michelle on Reach.  We anchored in an area in the southern part of the bay called Salt Pond.  It’s a small settlement with a grocery store, a gas station, and the Island Breeze Resort.  Although Island Breeze rents rooms and has a resturant, they cater to cruisers.  They have a nice dinghy dock, laundry facilities, a book exchange, internet, trash bins, and showers. Mike, the proprieter, runs a cruisers net each morning. Down the road is another grocery, a marine store, and a couple more resturaunts

Later we moved to the north end of the bay with most of the other cruisers.  We found lots of people there that we had met in previous anchorages.  It was almost like a reunion.

The big excitment while we were there was Muttonfest – a festival where the locals sold handicrafts, displayed various livestock, played music, and sold food.  Strangely enough, we couldn’t get any mutton at the booths.  Evidently they didn’t bring much and it sold out quickly.  The catchphrase for the festival was “Mutton or nutton” and that’s what we got – nutton.

We had been watching the fronts march through the Bahamas and continue south, preventing the easterly trade winds from developing.  Our next planned stop was to the east, so we wanted to catch one of these fronts and ride it as far as we could. The pattern seemed to be continueing, so we contacted my brother, Dave, and had him fly down to crew with us on the passage.  He was able to get time off work, found a good air fare, and headed for the Bahamas.  We rented a car to tour the island and picked him up at the airport.  All we needed was the next front to come through.

Next – the big cruise.

This entry was posted on February 27, 2010 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.