S/V Geru: On the Thorny Path

29 December 2008

We spent just over a week at Cat Island. We stayed a bit longer than we had originally planned waiting for weather - a common pastime on the Thorny Path to the Caribbean. Cat Island is interesting, and it seems that not many cruisers visit here - most head down to George Town instead. During our stay at Cat Island, we didn't see a single other cruising boat (in fact, we didn't see many boats at all, only one or two local motor boats!).

We were anchored just off the settlement of New Bight for most of our stay. Like we had encountered on other Bahamian islands, the town has no obvious town centre; instead, it is spread out along one road which roughly follows the shoreline. The police station and government office are located at one end and the grocery store is at the other, 1.5 miles away. Along the road there are a fair number of houses. They are mostly very small (by our standards) single-story homes. In between the occupied homes there are many ruins of older houses, usually overgrown with bushes and greenery and with the roof missing. It seems that the locals don't bother (can't afford?) tearing down the old homes, so they just build beside the ruins or elsewhere.

Any visit to Cat Island would not be complete without a visit to Father Jerome's hermitage. Father Jerome was a priest/architect who built many of the churches in the Bahamas. His hermitage on Cat Island, which was his retirement home, is the most famous. The hermitage, which is a small building complex with a chapel and living quarters, is built on top of the highest hill in the Bahamas (63m!) with stations of the cross along the steep path leading up to it. What a feat to have built it on the top of this hill without the modern tools we have today!

On our walk up to the hermitage we saw our first Bahamian farm, and it was unlike any other farm we'd ever seen. The farmers had cut down larger trees to about 4-foot tall dried-up slender trunks, and they had left all the rocks in the ground. They simply planted in the small pockets of earth in amongst the rocks. We saw watermelons, tomatoes, corn, and breadfruit growing. During our stay at Cat Island, we met Reverend Johnston, who is a school teacher and a farmer. He spoke of the old days when they would go on horseback to collect bat guano from caves on the island to fertilize the plants. Today they simply buy commercial fertilizer from Nassau. We bought a very tasty and juicy watermelon from Reverend Johnston.

We left Cat Island for Rum Cay on Saturday, December 20th. We left at dawn and arrived just after sunset, anchoring in the dark. It was a long day. We motorsailed the whole way. The wind and waves were just off our bow (i.e. almost from the front), which made for an uncomfortable trip. Things improved during the day as the waves died down a bit.

We spent just over a week at Rum Cay (again waiting for weather), including Christmas. It was really odd being there for Christmas as it did not feel like Christmas at all. There were virtually no decorations, music or even mentioning of Christmas. The island was pretty quiet with only a few people around. Some of the locals were "off island" for the holidays, presumably visiting with relatives and friends. Initially we anchored out in the bay, but after a few days we took a slip in the protected marina as it was pretty rolly in the anchorage with the ocean swell coming in over the reef. Besides, it was Christmas, and so we treated ourselves to the convenience of being at a dock.

While at Rum Cay, we saw our first cruising boat in a long time. 'Zanadu Sea' is a Canadian catamaran with a retired couple on board who are also heading down to the Caribbean islands. We spent Christmas with Cliff and Rosalind enjoying a cruisers' Christmas dinner on the 25th. We did quite well given the limits of the pantry on a cruising boat! It was nice to be with other cruisers for christmas, especially given that when we first arrived at Rum Cay the anchorage was empty, and we thought we'd be spending it alone.

One evening, Ruth saw (Geoff missed it!) the fabled "green flash" at sunset. This is a bit of a rite of passage among cruisers, as it appears to be a rare event and usually requires having sat through many sunsets (where the sun is setting over water from the viewer's perspective) looking for the elusive green flash. We had read that it is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs under specific circumstances, where a reflection of the setting sun appears as a bright green flash on the horizon. Ruth said it looked like the very last bit of the top of the sun suddenly turned bright green for a second or two before it slipped below the horizon.

While we were at Rum Cay, we watched many a cruise ship go by late in the evening. Holland America has a "private" island not far away where their cruise ships anchor for an afternoon and the guests get to enjoy the beach. We also really noticed how many stars you can see when you are away from all the city lights - just amazing!