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The Hermitage

February 26, 2022March 2, 2022ssolsen123 Comments

The late Monsignor John Hawes was an interesting guy. An architect who became a priest. Those skills brought him to the Bahamas the first time to help fix four Anglican churches damaged by the 1908 hurricane season. (The 1908 season is unique; it remains the only season to have two hurricanes before June). He goes on to do a bunch of work all over the world, namely Australia, but early in his 60s, returns to the Bahamas, and settles here to build his last. Known locally as Father Jerome, he first builds four churches on Cat and one on Long Island before spying and buying eight acres on the top of Como Hill. It’s 1940, so after renaming it Mt. Alvernia, he hand-builds his little hermitage and chapel to live his life as a hermit. Think very tiny house, as his “bedroom” was 6-feet square and the “kitchen” 5-feet square, all lovingly built with local stone and mortar. Amazing. But, 206 feet above sea level (which is where we live), so up we go!

We’d been forewarned that it is an uphill climb through the Stations of the Cross with a bit of scrambling at the end.

Truthfully, only one of us had to “scramble.” The other one has stronger legs…

Although it’s impressive, it isn’t nearly as large as it appears from below.

The tiny bedroom is on the right hand side, with the small kitchen in the center near the chapel, and a bell tower on the left.

Todd shimmied into and up the little tower, hoping to ring the bell. Alas, just a couple of low-volume clanks on an old rusty bell.

You can’t really see it for the trees, but the boat is way down there near the telephone tower in the center of the picture. Now that we’ve explored, signed the guest book, and paid our respects, you know what this means, right? Yep, we have to get down the hill to the meandering road for the walk back.

Fortunately, there’s an easier option – a craggy “road” down the other side of the hill. No more Susie-goat scramble!

Naturally, we worked up an appetite. The kind ladies at The Bluebird Restaurant took care of it with a tasty meal. Splendid way to end a hike!

Columbus landed where?

February 24, 2022April 15, 2023ssolsen12Leave a comment

You think you know; I bet not! History alert!
We’ve been remiss in sharing a bit of background related to our most recent destination, Cat Island, so here goes.

As we’ve seen, nearly all of the inhabited islands have the same story. Spanish came, disease and slaving emptied the place, next came the pirates, and when “order” came with the English, we finally get settlers/loyalists around the 1780’s.

Cat Island is no different, except…
Along with about 10 other islands, it was thought to be the first place Columbus landed in the new world! See, when he landed, he called the place San Salvador (Christ the Savior). This was the place, for like 400 years! And then it wasn’t. Boy, what a debate! Who knew? For those history buffs, here’s a link to just one consolidated website (happy reading): Columbus Landfall. In the end, they don’t have the foggiest.

In 1926, the British government just decided for all of us. To accomplish that, they changed the name of this island back to Cat Island and changed a little island south of here that was called Watlings Island to San Salvador! Got it? They just kinda moved history.

And the name Cat Island? “Thought” to be taken from a pirate, Arthur Catt, who used to hang out here. Or so they say…

Despite all that, the Bahamian government describes Cat Island today as one of the least-known inhabited islands in the Bahamas. It resembles a slanted “J” West of its top is a little island called, you guessed it, Little San Salvador! That’s where the huge cruise ship was visiting (Crossing to Cat Island post). Cat island is about 50 miles long and not more 5 miles wide anywhere along its length.

It’s a special island, despite its size. Home to the late Sir Sidney Poitier, the famous prolific actor. We older folks might remember him in movies like, “To Sir, with Love,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night,” or “They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!” So many! Well, he was prematurely born in Miami while his parents were there on business but was Bahamian through and through, as he grew up here on Cat Island, in Arthur’s Town.
Cat Island is also the home of the tallest point in the Bahamas! Mount Alvernia, at 206 feet, and it has a special place perched on top. We are looking at it as we sit at anchor right here in New Bight, but that exploration is for another day. Can we go yet? Come on, Honey. Let’s go!

Hospitality on the Bluff

February 22, 2022April 24, 2022ssolsen122 Comments

Although we enjoyed our anchorage in Orange Creek, we moved south to shelter from the wind behind an area called The Bluff. The rugged coastline here is dotted with fascinating, craggy caves.

After slowly exploring the cave area in the dinghy, it was time to go ashore, as Margaret at the Orange Creek Inn recommended we stop by to see Betty at H&W.

Pretty little coastal home along the way

It wasn’t far by shoe leather express from the jetty to H&W Shopping Center. (Not even enough time for our clothes to dry. Ha!) The store is stocked with a bit of everything – hardware, shoes, clothing, frozen meats. We purchased some local pork and guava jelly. And then our day took an amazing turn…

The proprietress, Betty, chuckled when Susie mentioned sour cream, and asked what else we might be looking for. How about fresh veggies? Betty said her husband could help with cabbage and peppers from their garden and kindly offered to take us to their home and return us to the jetty if we’d wait until 4:30 closing time, only 20 minutes away. Betty’s cousin Julia suggested we wait in the cool breeze on the shady side of the shop while she and Betty swept and locked up for the night. We all then jumped in Betty’s car for the short ride to the garden.

One section of Clifton and Betty’s extensive garden
that meanders through their property
Clifton bringing us a freshly harvested cabbage!
(Clifton certainly deserves the occasional nap in that hammock. This is a really LARGE garden.)

One of their goats had just delivered a baby in the pen at the back of the property. Stepping carefully around the garden plants, we got to see the brand-new kid, about the size of a Chihuahua, so new he’s still sporting the umbilical cord. You may not want to know what nanny goat is up to behind the tree.

Then Julia and Todd used a fruit picker to harvest guava. Cool!

Julia and Betty introduced us to the highly nutritious Morenga/Tree of Life and Sweetsop/Sugar apple fresh from the trees!

After bagging our goodies at the garden shed,

we bade farewell to the well-dressed, coconut-headed scarecrow that valiantly guards the plum tree behind their home,

and Betty and Julia drove us back to the jetty. Todd gallantly waded out to bring the dinghy closer to shore so we wouldn’t need to swim with our bags of veggies held overhead, and we made our return to the SaltyMare waiting near the caves.

Bountiful blessings, indeed! Left to right: Morenga/Tree of Life; Kale – which Clifton convinced Todd to at least try (as opposed to the okra :-); Guava; Tomatoes; Bell peppers; Hot peppers; Sugar apple; and Cabbage.

What an absolutely amazing day! It is impossible to properly thank Clifton, Betty, and Julia for their kindness and generosity. We will never forget our time in their garden, and we will definitely visit again in the future.
Umm, after we make a totally unexpected boat repair. But that’s a tale for another day…

Orange Creek Inn

February 21, 2022February 23, 2022ssolsen122 Comments

After a totally relaxing evening enjoying the sunset with Andrey and Natalia aboard Bella Vita, the only other boat in the area, followed by a good night sleep, it was time to explore some more. We’re always on the hunt for fresh produce, so let’s check out the Orange Creek Inn, Food Store, and Laundromat! Access is during high tide to get past a really large, shifting sandbar in front of the town, so we’d need to move quickly once out of the dinghy in order to get back across said sand bar, while there was enough water to return to the boat. One of those, grab-the-groceries-and-dash sort of situations. It just so happens, the wonderful establishment is owned and operated by Margaret Cleare, with her daughter Shari helping. Wow, it was very neat and organized and very well stocked. We quickly scored some onions, oranges, apples and eggs. And then, we got to chatting. (Imagine that.) I do believe Todd and Shari are two peas in a pod, philosophically speaking. And Miss Margaret, with a great combo of steel and twinkle in her eyes, can tell you all about Cat Island. Alas, we had to dash. Sandbar and all that…
Such fine ladies. We’re sorry we didn’t think to get a group photo. Shari, we’ll be back – looking forward to meeting your new beau! 😉

Time to get back to the boat, stow the goodies, and head south down the island to an area with high terrain to get some wind protection behind Curry Murry Bluff.

Crossing to Cat Island

February 20, 2022February 27, 2022ssolsen12Leave a comment

As if to put an explanation point on our plan to leave the crowd near Black Point and Staniel Cay, a large catamaran came right past our bow, blaring music and ablaze with seemingly every light on the boat, both inside and out, to pick up a mooring ball three spots from us…at 2:45 am. UGH. Really? Smile, and yep, outta here at 0700 is an excellent plan! Just too much fun for us old fuddy duds.
We’d picked up a mooring ball at the marina specifically because it put us near Big Rock Cut for an easy a.m. departure. All that remained was timing the tide due to the swift current in the cut.

The channel winds through several “big rocks”

While looking back at the marina, we heard this poor sailboat radio in to see if someone could “come get him.” Apparently he’d made it this close but lost steerage. The marina said they’d send someone. Hopefully, it’s not too serious and they will soon be back on their way.

Safely through the cut and in the Exuma Sound, we settled in to our 6-7 knot cruise. When crossing large bodies of water most boats use autopilot to “automatically” keep them on a course. Let the boat steer itself. Most still keep a watch on deck. And then there are those that don’t. A few hours in, literally 20+ miles from anything, this guy speeding 30+ knots kept coming at us from a distance. The only two boats for miles and miles. Distance quickly closed and it was clear “no one was at home” over there, as we were on a collision course. Five blasts of our horn to get his attention (Lordy, that thing is loud!) and finally, we see his course change to go blazing by!

Fortunately, our captain keeps watch constantly. So once we settled down and got back to watching the world go by, the “crew” got busy staying busy, as usual.

There was also plenty of time for relaxing, listening to books, a bite of lunch, etc. With the Exuma Sound calm, it was easy to see things floating in the water, like small patches of sargassum seaweed. And is that seagulls just floating out in the middle of nothing? Wait. What the heck? They have two-foot-long tails and deep orange, basically red bills! Not any seagull we’ve ever seen! An internet search (why look at the bird book we brought on board) later, and lo and behold, we discover the aptly named Red-billed Tropicbird. Cool looking pair!

That’s a cruise ship in the distance at Little San Salvador. We zoomed in from about 20 miles away! If we ever decide to visit that island, we’re going have to make sure one of those isn’t parked there. 😉

That sucker’s BIG!

When we left the really deep part of the Exuma Sound, which averages about 5000 feet, the water really quieted down. I mean really, really CALM. Our friends with sails wouldn’t care for it, but for a power boat, it was spectacular cruising.

It was calm enough to take turns kneeling on the bow pulpit, peering down to watch the bottom go by. Look at the corals. Oops, a bottle. Hey, that’s some fisherman’s glove. And we were still in 60′ of water. Fascinating! It just so happens that that’s where Todd was when the fishing line up on the flybridge went ZING and Susie at the helm, hollered,

“Fish on!”

By the time, Todd made it up from the bow, all the way astern to the pole, the line was a-screamin’. Set the hook and lots and lots of reeling in. Something silver jumping and fighting. And lots and lots of reeling in. When the fish was about 50 feet away, Todd, still on the upper deck, exclaimed with despair, “it’s only a barracuda.” Bummer, no fish tonight. But a choice had to be made. Cut the line and add to the lost-tackle price tag for our first fish? Or land the rascal and retrieve our stuff? Susie!? Grab a net, gaff, gloves, pliers and heck maybe the baseball bat because he has lots of ugly teeth! (A little prep would have helped, but we had become complacent due to our lack of fishing luck.)

After the excitement we anchored in the calm waters near Orange Creek at the top of Cat Island. There is a small community here and a long, beautiful beach just waiting to be explored.