Blog 10 – Cat Island, Little San Salvador and Eleuthera
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| Derek relaxing at Hawks Nest Resort |
Entering Hawk’s Nest Creek for the first time had us
slightly nervous. Our depth sounder has been misbehaving lately and the channel
markers were not where our plotter indicated the channel to be.
Our departure from Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma Island
at dawn gave us the whole day to
cross to Cat Island.
Two days later we were on the hook, still looking at Hawk’s
Nest Resort, where we decided to tie-up because of the deteriorating forecast.
The unfavourable forecast which sent the three of us into
the marina failed to bring bad weather. We lunched with the owners, swam in the
pool and walked the beaches. Most importantly we rented a van, with which we
travelled most of the island, taking in many of the sights.
We left the Resort access road at a mere 25 miles per hour. The
road was a mess of swoops and potholes. Fortunately the roads improved
somewhat, and before long we had arrived on the south end of the island.
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| Church at Devil's Point |
We read information from brochures and cruising guides to
each-other as we travelled, taking turns as the tour guide. It was revealed
that the island is named, not after any feline shape, but for Arthur Cat, an
English pirate who used the island as his base.
The road led us to our first stop on the lawn of a church with the ironic name: the Christian
Church of Devil’s Point.
At our next stop we inspected the ruin of the Deveaux plantation house. Colonel
Andrew Deveaux was a Loyalist expatriot from South Carolina, who successfully
drove a Spanish occupying force from the Bahamas. Many Loyalist families
repatriated to the Bahamas from Florida after the Treaty of Versailles caused
the return of Florida to Spain. For a few years the Loyalist plantations
flourished. By the year 1800, they had used up the soil nutrients and suffered
devastating crop failures due to insects. The remains of Deveaux’s plantation
house still stand after all these years.
Nearby, the remains of a Masonic Hall
erected only 37 years ago appear not so different from the older structure.
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| Remains of the Masonic Lodge |
One
of our cruising guides alluded to pink coral beaches and so, we made our way to
Greenwood Resort, located on the east side of the island. I failed to perceive
much ‘pinkness’ but the sandy stretches of beach were stunningLunch
was available for drop-ins, and we had a great chat with the owner and his
son’s friend, both from Berlin. If Cat Island can be described as off the
beaten path, then one can describe Greenwood Resort as the remotest tourism
destination on that island. In a word it is a ‘getaway’.
After lunch we backtracked to Baintown and the Deep South,
where I took photos of the ruins of Anglican churches erected by John Cecil
Hawes, an architect-turned-Anglican priest, who was sent to Long Island by church
administrators to rebuild seven churches which had been ravaged by hurricanes.
After a sabbatical, Hawes arrived back in the Bahamas in 1937 as a Roman
Catholic priest now known as Father Jerome. After rebuilding the St Augustine
monastery in Nassau and building more churches throughout the Bahamas, he built
his retirement home on Cat Island at Comer Hill, the highest point in the
Bahamas. We just HAD to go there! We
entered through a stone arch at the base of the hill and saw lizards and snakes
as we climbed past the stations of the cross to his Hermitage. The rooms are
Spartan and very small in scale. 
His
last construction project was the holy redeemer church at New Bight, no longer
in use but recently restored and cleaned by islanders.
As we drove northward we inspected several small harbours as
prospective hideouts from bad weather. One which looked like ideal protection
from west winds was Bennet Harbour. It met all requirements until we looked behind
us into the mangroves along the eastern shore of the ‘sheltered’ creek. A 35
foot sloop, still in full rig, was sitting atop the mangroves, her anchor line
still leading beneath the surface to deep water.
We surmised that there is a really bad
‘surge’ problem here, because the only direct wind into the anchorage is from
the NNW, and this alone should not blow any boat due eastward, where the
mangroves are, much less place the boat atop them.
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| sloop in the mangroves at Bennet Harbour |
At Knowles we found the only bank on the island and had ‘limited’
success in using the ATM in its lobby. Whew!
We returned to Hawk’s Nest marina and checked out the next
day – suffering a 15% charge for using the credit card!!!! Grrrrr!!!!
Perhaps ‘Vultures Nest’ would be a more appropriate name! We made our
way northward, past the Bight to return to Knowles. Now Or Never went to the
Bight while both Tekla Bramble and ourselves needed to return to the bank to
greet a real teller. After some serious grocery shopping at the very
well-stocked store which adjoins the bank we returned aboard to plan the next
leg of our trip.
We set our sights on Pigeon Cay. It might better be described
as a peninsula, rather than a Cay. The beach is beautiful and the anchorage
secure.
During the motor-sail northward to Pigeon Cay we developed a
serious engine problem which forced us to complete the trip under sail alone.
Susan called out that the cabin was filling with smoke. Quickly shutting the
engine down, I was preparing to trade places with her so that I could fight a
fire, when she called out an all-clear. She had taken a peek into the engine
space and advised that there were no flames and that the smoke was more like
steam – having a white colour and no particular smell.
Perry ( Tekla Bramble )and I spent the next
morning investigating possible causes for what was clearly a lot of crankcase
pressure. It had blown the dipstick out of the engine and blown about a quart
of oil all over the engine compartment. I was still contemplating a possible
cause a week later as I sat at anchor in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. Our sailing skills
and our rigging were tested fully to get there. The sail from Cat Island had
been brisk.
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| Tekla Bramble goosewinged |
We arrived at Little San Salvador Island from Cat Island in
mid-afternoon and joined Perry and Irene aboard Tekla Bramble to watch as
cruise passengers from the Carnival Pride rode horses in the
water at the beach.
We have been told by others that they found the island,
also known by the name ‘Half-Moon Cay’ by the cruise ship industry, as the
prettiest of all of the Bahama Islands. However, after a near sleepless night
of rolling from side-to-side in our bunk while at anchor, we were ready to
leave ASAP. As the sun came up we left under full main and reefed genoa, for the
42 naut trip to Rock Sound. The winds were ‘brisk’ and the substantial swell
caused us to sail somewhat away from our destination for one part of the trip.
Even so we were at the mouth of Davis Channel outside Rock Sound after only 6
hours. This was a ‘sleigh ride’.
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| horses on the beach |
We had planned to use the engine to negotiate the final 10
miles. Alas. There was no cooperation from the engine and so we tacked our way
to the anchorage.
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| rock sound harbour |
“Panacea, Panacea, Panacea – this is Tekla Bramble“ came the
welcome radio call on channel 68 as we anchored astern of them. What followed
was an invitation to dinner. We had been contemplating simply dropping into bed
with couple of fig-newton bars, we were so tired.
With renewed vigour we flaked and gasketed the mainsail,
launched the dinghy and installed the outboard and its fuel tank. Susan threw
together some food and nimbly contributions. Of course we also brought along some
of the ‘demon rum’ and... into the dinghy we jumped. A pleasant hour or two
later, we dropped into our bunk. The boat was NOT rolling us from one side of
the bed to the other as it had done last night. It was as if we were on a
concrete foundation, we were so stable.
But tonight we were in for something just a little
different.
The music began and ramped-up swiftly to a roar. In
ignorance we had anchored directly in front of the main concourse for the
community Easter Homecoming celebration. And the music was LOUD! And some of the music was not very ’tuneful’ either. It seems
to be a blend of reggae and rap. It kept us awake for at least a minute, and
perhaps even two minutes.
And we slept-in the next morning too!
After performing a few of the ‘daily’ boat repairs, we
picked-up Perry and Irene and went ashore to explore the community. We were all
hungry, so our first mission was to find Sammy’s Place, a restaurant reputed to
have good food and reasonable prices. The lunch was leisurely. We were ravenous
and so would have enjoyed a less
leisurely dining experience, had it been up to us. When it did arrive, the
Breakfast Club sandwich was excellent. The rest of the day disappeared with
grocery shopping, boat repairs and as the sun dipped, to hanging out with
fellow cruisers at the homecoming celebrations. The four of us spent the social
hour with couples from Maine, Halifax, LeHavre (NS) and from Biaritz, France.
As we sat near the shore telling tales - a guy started
cracking conch on the rocks nearby and I idly comment to Perry that I had been
told that the ‘trimmings’ from conch cracking is said to make great fish bait.
The guy overhead me and offered me all of the trimmings that I might care to
take. I shared a beer with ‘Conch Albert’ AKA ‘Anthony and gave him a $ tip. I
remembered the conch trimmings 14 hours later, at least 2 lbs of it, in a
plastic bag still in the tender (we slept-in again – it must be the frantic pace). We have bait for the rest of the
trip now, ziplok’d and stowed in the freezer. But Whew!...the tender needed a
good wash!
Another day passes with some touristy behavior. We visited
the ‘Ocean Hole’ and watched a church youth group diving in wearing bright
green life vests. While eating ice cream we wandered aimlessly along side-streets
until we came to a small bar/grocery with a cat laying in the entry. We entered
and were greeted by an old man who exchanged a friendly grip with me and asked
how he could serve us. Wiltshire Edwards went out of his way to make us feel
welcome, serving us cool drinks. As he slowly shuffled around the place he
repeatedly apologised for not ‘being ready’ for us.
Moving on we drifted through the back streets of Rock
Harbour, which holds the distinction of being Eleuthra’s largest community.
Again being somewhat thirsty, we decided to ‘scope-out’ the Wild Orchid, a
classy restaurant with its own dock and dockside bar. We lingered there before
walking in the direction of our tender, stopping at a craft store. I noticed a
biographical sketch of a lady named Bourne on one of the shelves. On enquiring,
I was told that the lady is the aunt of our salesperson, and that the lady is
away with her husband, who is teaching school on an Indian Reserve in
Alberta.
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| entrance to wild orchid |
We returned to Tekla Bramble where we enjoyed a great dinner prepared by Irene (with Sailor
Sue’s contributions). After a movie which the magic of Robin Williams could not
SAVE (‘Nine Months’ _ Meh!), Sue and I learned a new card game. ‘Blackout’ has
some – but not all - of the bidding process of bridge. We played hand after
hand and staggered off to bed well after midnight. Our latest by far!
Despite the late night, I was still able to muster Sailor
Sue on the foredeck at noon to re-splice the main anchor cable. Such a pair of
silly sailors we are too! The 20 knot winds arriving from the East gave the
splice a solid test. Merit badges for the whole crew! The rest of the day passed
with Sue cleaning the interior while I read Nigel Calder’s thoughts on
everything from marine refrigeration, to rigging, to our latest concern –
namely excessive crankcase pressure. The book had a few insights. We’ll see if
any lead to a solution.
Easter Sunday and we are still
anchored in Rock Sound. In the ten days since we left Great Exuma we have put
on some miles.
Our cruising companions have gone shopping. Susan and I have
decided to ‘splice the main brace’, while listening to Dave Brubeck’s Greatest
Hits (we can sing every word and hum every note at this stage of the voyage),
and soaking our feet in warm soapy water.
Sweet Luxury!
