A new Eleutheran Experience

March 8, 2011

As the sun was starting to come up, I walked upstairs to a beautiful new day.  I can’t remember the last time I woke up and thought I don’t want to get up today. Oh yes I remember, it was last May when we were sanding, painting and fiberglassing. But for right now every day brings new experiences.  Today we finish our preparations for our cruise to Eleuthera, another new island, a whole new experience.  

An uneventful 42 nautical mile cruise and by 12:15 we had navigated through the shallow sand bar at the entrance of Davis Channel into the harbour of Rock Sound our first stop on Eleuthera Island.  Like George Town harbour in the Exuma’s , Rock Sound is a protected harbour although much shallower than GT. We see some sailboats anchored closer to town but decide to stay further back in 8.5 feet at high tide. 

After lunch we go off in search for the dinghy dock, which no longer exits but we do find a ladder on the fishing pier for boaters. We do our walk about town, visit some stores, find the post office and get another post card off to our grand-daughter Emma. We try to send post cards at every stop we make so that Emma gets some news from us all winter. We meet Alex on our walk about town (we meet him again later at Governor’s Harbour).  Alex  welcomes us to Eleuthera, gives me  a flower bouquet that he has made of local bougainvillea flowers (for a small donation for his aunt who needs a wheelchair) and a hug.

Diane gets flowers from the welcome committee

Next stop Rock Sound Primary School which has about 200 children. We meet Natasha, the principal at the school and promise to return tomorrow with school supplies. She offers to pick us up at the dock but it isn’t really that far. In fact nothing is more than a mile away in any direction. Next we stop at the Ocean Hole that we have read about.  This is a fresh & salt water hole inland from the ocean. It is home to ocean fish who like bread. We forgot to bring bread but we find that someone had left a few loaves on the ground nearby. We quickly discover that they don’t like being fed in the middle of the day. They obviously are well fed because most of the bread just floated away.  It is said that this is a favourite swimming hole during the summer for the locals, although it is much too cold for them to swim in March. Legend has it that someone once placed a shark in the pool as a joke. The town being small, they found out who it was, fined him and made him remove the shark.  He managed to catch the shark and never reoffended.

Rock Sound Ocean Hole (the swimming “Pool”)

Back to the boat with a view of Rock Sound. As you can see it is very flat compared to New Bight on Cat Island.

Thank you for reading our blog and traveling with us. when I started our journey and this blog, I never realized how time consuming it would be but it has been worth it spending the time to relive ours days and sharing it with you. Hope you are enjoying it. Diane

Photos of Eleuthera underwater

We had a wonderful day today playing around in the water. We headed out this morning for 1 1/2 hours and then again in  the afternoon. We caught 2 Rock Crabs and 1 lobster but more important we discovered a great snorkeling site with great visibility and lots of specials sea creatures. This was our first time swimming with the majestic Spotted Eagle Rays this year. Enjoy!

A little angel fish looking at me in the coral

This is an Spotted Eagle Ray (wing span 6 feet)

A starfish sitting on a barrel sponge

Our favorite little fish, a porcupinefish. It looks like it smiles and is very shy. The puff up (double in size) when they get scared. He has such a personality and is so cute.

This is a teddyfish. He's cute too!

Swimming with 'da fish

This is our two crabs. Delicious dinner.

Once upon a Half Moon Cay

March 7, 2011

It was very rolly overnight so we were anxious to be up and away to our next destination - Little San Salvador. Little San Salvador is 15 miles from Cat Island but  is actually quite a ways away from San Salvador but that is because  Cat Island was originally named San Salvador.  Ted was up early and very excited to cruise and arrive at an area where we had been told and read about in the cruising guide to be a very good place to spear lobster. 

This secluded island was purchased in 1997 by Holland American Cruise Lines and turned into an “Out Island Paradise” exclusively for the guests of the cruise ships. The cruise ships are usually only there 2 – 3 days a week and only for the day. But we discovered in the distance the tall stack of the cruise ship and realized we would have visitors for the day. No worries, lots of room for everyone. All of the beaches in the Bahamas are public up to the high water line so even though they own the island the anchorage waters and the beaches are all public property. The cruise ship asks that you anchor to the north of them so we oblige and find a nice spot away from the mammoth beast.  The people from Cat and Eleuthera arrive to work on the island during the day but return home by boat before sunset.  This is good for the surrounding islands because it provides jobs for many people and then that money is spent in their community.

Our first attempts to anchor weren’t successful but they anchor finally caught. The anchor dragged about 50 feet before it finally grabbed. In times like this it is my job is to jump in and snorkeled to the anchor to make sure it is set, tough job but somebody’s got to do it. I check out the underwater neighbourhood while I am at it. I find a beautiful pink shell but it has a hermit crab in it that refuses to let go.

We are entertained by all the activity from the cruise ship. The horse back riding, the makeshift pirate ship bar on the shore, parasailing and all the other activities for the cruise ship people. 

Cruise ship with its tender bringing people to and from shore

Shore facility built by Holland American Cruise Lines

Horseback riders on the beach

We went spearing in the afternoon on the north side of Half Moon Bay but the surf was too strong to do alot of spearing. It was actually difficult to swim against the current even though we were finning like crazy.  The whole north side of the island was littered with coral heads and reefs, some that were  just below the surface and exposed in the troughs of the swells. We very carefully picked our way through this landmine of reef with the dinghy. We did alot of stop and go looking for the dark patches and exposed reefs. We got back to the boat safely with no altercations with the reefs. They cruise ship left at sunset and we had the place to ourselves for the night. We had drinks and a BBQ on the top deck watching the sunset. No internet access and no weather update so we could only pray for another calm night. The crossing from Little San Salvatore to Eleuthera is only 10 miles but we have been told that it can be very nasty with north or east winds.  We have a calm but rolly night in the anchorage. Tomorrow we will be in the safety of Rock Sound. 

A few final photos of Exuma

At anchor in very settled weather

Our evening yoga class - what a view from the hilltop

My aqua fitness class. 

Dinghy through the hole to get from Lake Victoria to George Town harbour

The dinghy dock in George Town

Someone's last dinghy

Others like to decorate their dinghy

Sunset pictures are great but the perfect sunrise picture is a gem!

More of Cat Island

The Heritage was the highlight of Rock Sound but we also spent some time doing a walk about and getting to know the area. You would think that all the Islands are full of fruits and vegetables. Not the case, in fact most of the fruits and vegetables come in on the mail boat from Florida.  We had heard that Cat Island was known for its agriculture. On the way back and forth from The Hermitage we discovered the agricultural parts of New Bight. We passed an area where a man was tending to a controlled burn in the “fields”. The term fields is being loosely used here because they were certainly not farmers fields as we know then but rather a clearing cut in the brush that had cut down and covered in mostly rock.  In the next “field” we spotted something red and discovered 1000’s of cherry tomatoes. And upon further investigation we spotted cabbage and okra. You would probably expect to see them growing in neat little rows with carefully weeded furrow but not here. Here the vegetables are growing everywhere with more rock than soil. We did taste the tomatoes and they were delicious.  Look carefully at the picture below to see the vegetables. Double click to enlarge the picture.

                                                                                  Garden in Rock Sound    
                 

Next stop is the New Bight School where we dropped off books and spent some time talking to the teachers and children here. Few boats drop off books here so we were warmly welcomed and the books received with big smiles. The kids waved goodbye at recess as we pushed the dinghy off the beach behind the school. How many kids get to have their school steps from a beach?

New Bight School grade 2 with some new books from Scolastics Canada

Back to the boat to pick up our bikes for a bicycle tour of the southern part of Cat Island. Our folding bikes are great because they fit in a bag so that we can put them in the dinghy to keep the salt spray off when taking them to shore. We had used our bikes in Florida but his was our first time using our bikes in the Bahamas and what an adventure. We travelled south towards Old Bight. We spotted the sign for “Welcome to Old Bight” and then 300 yards away in the opposite direction is the sign “You are now leaving Old Bight”. It was a quick visit.

We spotted many fruit trees including papaya, banana, sour orange (which is used for conch salad), sapodilla (dilly fruit for short), Yucca, HUGE mango trees filled (that aren’t ripe till August L) and sea grapes.  We spotted and picked fruit along the way and talked to the locals about the various plants and trees.

Big Yucca plant

We took a rough road towards Pilots Harbour and discovered a little restaurant / bar on the water with a spectacular view of the harbour.  We enjoyed a mid afternoon Klick (Bahamian beer) while chatting with the young man at the bar. His grandfather had built the place and now his uncle owned it. He shared with us his memories of the hurricanes and how the harbour has changed. One hurricane silted in the little creek beside the restaurant and took out the pier so now there is not enough water for boats to come into anchor. He didn’t have change for a $20 so he asked us to stop up the road at the gas station to pay his aunt for the beer. When we got there, she was expecting us. We continued on the road back to Old Bight and stopped at the Two Corners Liquor Store for a cold drink. They serve both alcoholic drinks and cold soda drinks. We biked to the little “take-aways” along the beach road where all the fish fry huts are. We had dinner at Chrystal’s take-away. Ted had chicken and I had some sort of fish that I could understand what she said it was. I fed some of my fish to the cats patiently waiting at my feet. 

If I had a restaurant here I would paint it orange too or maybe pink! Ted with Crystal at her take-away.

Grandma Farrah’s place was brightly painted

The view of Grandma Farrah's restaurant from the boat

We picked up delicious coconut bread/cake from another hut which we enjoyed back at the boat. Everyone in town knew we were from the “big power boat”. Maybe it was our shiny red bikes! Everyone was amazed that we had rode from New Bight to Old Bight , which was about 5 miles but they thought that was really far.

March 5^th -  We once again biked to the abandoned road that lead to from the west side to the east side of the island. We biked as far as we could and then left our bikes by a tree and hike up the coral rock trail for another 45 minutes to reach the beach. It was worth the hike because we discovered a beach off the beaten track rarely visited by others. We spent the next four hours picking sea glass (for jewellery and craft) shells and sea beans. With the east winds the surf was too rough to go very far in but we enjoyed our beach walk and never saw another soul all afternoon.

East side of Cat Island. Check the big waves behind me.

Bennett Harbour

March 6^th – Up early to ready the boat for a cruise further up the coast of Cat Island to Bennett Harbour 16 miles away. The clouds threaten rain but no rain while we were anchoring. We took the dinghy up the creek at Bennett Harbour to discover a very small harbour with one Canadian catamaran anchored, whom we later found out is someone from Kingston, Ontario who has built a house near Bennett Harbour. Once in the harbour we found a brand new very impressive government dock and yellow government building but not a soul around and only a very poor beach to bring the dinghy into.  We did not take pictures at Bennett which I now regret. The “NO Loafing” sign was priceless. What else are you going to do in Bennett Harbour but loaf! The local teen agers were playing basketball on the Queens Highway (the main street on very island) in the only shady area of the whole street. It was Sunday so no one was around. We did see 2 guys loafing around (drinking) at the restaurant/bar/store/gas station in town. Like the government dock the recreation centre was brand new.  The school was closed because it was Sunday but the guy at the gas station said he would pick the books we had at the dock and deliver them to the school. He begged us not to leave with the books but to leave them for the kids. By the look of the community they did look like they needed them.  We went back to the boat and dropped off the school books at the dock as promised and headed further north along the coast to check out Arthur’s Town and see if we could get wifi to get a weather update. A previous hurricane had taken out the dock at Arthur’s Town and the rocks looked nasty, so with no beach or dock access we waved to people on the dock and headed back.

Before going back to the boat we dove a few reefs around the boat looking for lobster or conch. No luck but we did find lots of small shells known as sea biscuits but these ones were miniature size and worth keep, except for the fact that they are so fragile. We broke a number of them before we got back to the boat.  

Next stop Little San Salvatore (aka Half Moon Cay)

P.S. I am sitting on the steps in front of the Government Building which is alway pink in the Bahamas (don't you love it!) doing this blog. The service is slow but the view is fantastic.

Living on Cat Island

We are thinking that Cat Island maybe our retirement home once we sell the boat!

I got a job offer to work here at the bar. Ted would be cleaning and cooking conch.

Found a little place although it does need a bit of work.

It's a small town.

Look closely and you will see the Welcome to Old Bight sign in the background! (yes for real)

We loved Cat Island because they have a sense of humor here!

The Hermitage on Cat Island

March 3, 2011

Our morning ritual is to run the generator to charge the boat batteries which keeps all of our refrigeration  and lights working through the day. At the same time we run the water maker and I also run a batch of laundry a few days a week which I hang up on a make shift clothes line on the top deck. I use the dryer just for towels because they end up feeling like scratchy cardboard otherwise. During this time we catch up on our to-do list or plan our cruising. Once this is done then we have the rest of the day to ourselves.  Now that we don’t have the morning net we have 30-45 minutes extra time every day.

Today we dinghy to the beach and walk up to Mount Alvenia (also called Mount or Comer Hill) which is the highest hill in the Bahamas at 206 feet.  This is where Beloved Father Jerome built “The Hermitage” atop of Mount Comer.   The Hermitage is a monument to the faith of one man, Father Jerome (born John Cecil  Hawes). Born in England in 1876, he first became an architect and then an Anglican priest. After the 1908 hurricane, the Anglican Bishop sent this architect/priest to restore the damaged churches. His unique stamp of hurricane-proof stonework with its thick walls and barrel vaulted roofs can be seen in seven churches that he rebuilt on Long Island. After an interim elsewhere as a wagon train driver, a monk, a missionary and a horse breeder, he became a Catholic priest and return to the Bahamas to build Catholic churches.  In 1937 he received permission from the Bishop to retire on Cat Island as a hermit. He built a miniature replica of a European Franciscan Monastery. The entire structure was built with his own hands out of native rock as his retirement home. His humble devotion to God, which carries all the way up the hill through the Stations of the Cross, past the replica of Jesus tomb to his Spartan living quarters and small chapel for private devotions.  He chose a place where he could look east and see the colbalt blue of the Atlantic Ocean and to the west where he could gaze upon the emerald and turquoise waters of the banks. He lived here until his death at age 80. He is buried beneath “The Hermitage” that he so lovely built with his own hands.

As we approached The Hermitage I was unsure what to expect. We had read that you must signal your approach by striking a stone on a piece of scrape metal left hanging off a tree. We did so and we amazed a the amount of detail and care taken in the building of the Stations of the Cross along the hill side and the Hermitage. We are grateful for the Bahamians who continue to care for this treasured place since Father Jerome’s death in 1956. We took about a 100 pictures but pictures do not do this justice.