We like Cat Island. It’s isolated enough (never saw but our two boats the entire time we’ve been here this trip) yet has the necessities. Like an honor bar at Fernandez Bay. Honor bars are common here – grab your own beer, make your own drink, keep a tab, and pay when you’re done. And what a view! Here is our Latitudes sitting at anchor in the harbor, a mere 7 nautical miles from our previous stop at New Bight.
Wind and squalls predicted from the SW, W and NW for the next few days left us with few options for anchorages here at Cat. We ended up going about 25 miles from Fernandez to Alligator Point. This point of land extends from the island’s west side to offer some protection from the SW. When the wind went further to the west we moved north across a 7 mile bay to Orange Creek, another point of land exteninng to the west that offered some protection from winds from the west and north west. That little bit of land gave us some protection from the winds and ocean swells. You can see the tip of land behind me - with just another endless, deserted, beautiful beach!
Luke put out an “anchor bridle”, a set of 2 extra lines that attach to the anchor chain, essentially enabling us to anchor the boat pointed between 30 and 90 degrees off the wind. These lines allow us to force Latitudes to always face into the swells rather than the wind. That keeps us from rocking and rolling as much – without this help, the boat just rocks wildly from side to side when the waves and swells slap us on the side. It helped tremendously.
We arrived on Sunday – surprisingly, the little grocery store was open until 1. That gave us time to scoot over to the government dock, leave our dinghies, and pick up a few supplies. In general cruisers like to help support the local economy in settlements by buying a few groceries, maybe some straw work, eating out, having a beer or two at the local bar, etc. We appreciate the ability to cruise these beautiful waters in another country and the generosity of the local folks in allowing us to use their docks, throw away our garbage, fill our tanks with their limited reverse osmosis water, and wander their wonderful beaches.
There is also a mangrove creek that runs beside town. Very beautiful, but very shallow. Even at high tide we could not get very far up the creek. Apparently it’s a really popular place for bonefishing. Wish we could have tried!
We didn’t do any of town, but went to the long, deserted beach. It was great for shelling (to follow!) and assorted animal stuff. Like this big, dead puffer fish--- he’d been dead a little too long.
And this bird beak. Kind of interesting. I think it’s an American Oystercatcher.
How about this crab? Look how different his pinchers are. We don't know what type crab it is. I need to look this up when I have time and internet service.
The entrance to the dock is shallow, too, even at high tide. Looks great, lots of water, huh?
But look at low tide --- this is sand flats where the water used to be, with the town of Orange Creek in the background.
Caught in the small tidal stream that Luke is standing over where about 6 starfish. I don’t know what they are – can’t find them in any of my books. But they are beautifully marked.
Monday the winds howled and the boat rocked. We stayed aboard and did difficult things like reading and knitting.
Tuesday was calm and beautiful. Back into town where the kind folks at the store found a customer who would give us a ride to Arthurs Town, about 3 miles south. Arthurs Town is the government center of Cat Island. The island high school is there, a complex across from the ball field. $ 1000 fine for littering! They mean it – this was a clean town.
A disappointment is the government dock. Government docks are meant to allow mail boats (who also bring in groceries), fishing boats, cruising boats, etc, to land safely at the town. This is a sad pier – no one could land safely here. Pilings are broken off, the concrete pier has crumbling, and the water is so rough that a cruiser could never land his dinghy here. With improved ground transportation on the islands, a few, centralized ,upgraded government docks support the island, with some local town government docks falling into disuse and disrepair.
There are more Loyalist ruins here than we’ve seen in any other location. Lots and lots of them, including this one that has a plaque over the door “Erected in appreciation. Rendered to Cat Island by Sir Harold Christie”.
And even the Loyalists needed the ol’ outhouses!
We found this monument – no inscriptions, etc, but I think it’s to recognize the fact that THIS island was actually Columbus’ first landing in the new world…there is no end to that controversy… For a period of time, present day Cat Island was named San Salvador - reflecting the belief that Columbus landed here.
It was lunchtime and we were hungry. Finding a cute little waterfront bar (open since 6 a.m.) was easy, but finding food was different. The bar owner was great – he called around until he found someone who would make us lunch. We ended up at the Cookie House - fish and fries were all he had to offer for lunch – but there were yummy. The owner gave us a real lowdown on the crooked politics of the islands – the kind you expect to find especially in a second/third world country. Things like building commissioners wanting debilitatingly huge sums for themselves, in advance, for approving new constructions or renovations. It was sad. He also generously gave us a ride back to Orange Creek after our lunch. The people here are virtually always kind, helpful, and genuinely nice.
Next stop, Rock Sound, Eluthra, about 63 nm (nautical miles) from Orange Creek, light winds, motoring, calm seas. perfect for fishing. On part of our route, we followed the edge of "the bridge", a 60 to 70 ft deep ridge between Little San Salvador Island and Eluthra, bordered by 1000 ft + deep abyss on each side. We know that the best place to catch fish is along the “walls”, the sharp drops of sea depths. It doesn’t always work. But it did this time! Something snagged the line – almost too much for me to reel in. Then the line got a lot lighter and I figured I’d lost it. But no, it kept diving and pulling, just without as much force. It still took a bit but I got it to the boat, brought it alongside for Luke to gaff, and we realized just why it got easier – Mr. Shark again. But this time he left us most of the large King Mackerel, taking only the tail section. Luke did his usual great fillet job out on the deck – what was left was still over 32” long, a little more than half of the fish. I fine tuned Luke’s big slabs into enough large fillets for over a dozen meals. We had the first piece last night and it was wonderful – white meat that is dry and not oily.
Today is Thursday. We left the boat fairly early to do errands - leave laundry to be done (yeah!!!), groceries, liquor store, garbage, and a walk. The groceries here on Eluthera Island are "interesting". For the most part, things are cheaper than any of the other islands we've visited, probably because of the closer promimity to civilization, like Nassau. But then you get things like the 2/$1 bottles of plain seltzer --- $2.59/bottle. Nope, didn't buy any. or a crossword puzzle book. Plainly marked $1.99 with a local sticker of $9.95. You are right - that is still there, too. Oh, well, at least the essentials are mostly reasonable.
The shell of the day! Luke’s favorite, the Sunrise Tellin. Tellins are beautiful, long, thin, highly glossed shells, with richly colored valves. We see a variety of colors, mostly pinks and yellows, but also mixtures with ranges of greens to reddish browns, too. These bivalves are burrowers, living in coral sand from the intertidal zone to 20 fathoms or more. They really prefer areas where there is a steady renewal of oxygen. We see a lot of them in this area, but this big 3” fellow is one of the most vivid.
Tomorrow we'll try to walk to the east side of the island. If the winds hold as promised, we'll leave for yet another anchorage in beautiful Eluthera island.
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