Cloud Messenger

We survived the wind driven chop that caused a rolling, bouncing anchorage at New Bight, Cat Island. So we were glad to move on to Fernandez Bay where we were more protected and the boat lay calmly in the water. This bay curves gently up to the powdery sand beach of an old established resort, Fernandez Bay resort. The resort is beautiful and most of the staff were wonderful. They have an honor bar, fully stocked, you write down what drinks you have then pay when your stay is over. The gift shop is also self-serve! I admire the trust and am not surprised that it works well for them. We met many of the regular guests and it seems a huge amount of their business is from returning customers. Some have been coming for literally years. The food is very good and two mornings we came in to have the sumptuous breakfast buffet. We rented a car and traveled the length of the island on the first day checking out all it had to offer. The people were friendly everywhere we went. The second day with the rental car just Laura and I went out and we spent the entire day stocking up on food from all the different little grocery stores. When we leave this island our plans are to go to the Land and Sea Park where there are no services, including no groceries at all. So now was our last chance for many weeks. Each little store has a slightly different selection of goods. One might have a good selection of fresh tomatoes while another is the place to get fresh baked bread. You have to search out all that each little enterprise has to offer. We found two restaurants, both run by hard-working Jamaican women, that we loved: Yardie's and Coconuts. We stocked up on conch salad at one and Jamacian paddies at the other. The paddies are meat turnovers filled with beef and exotic Jamaican spices. Marlene at Coconuts gave us locally grown sour oranges to include when we make our own conch salad on the boat so that it will taste as good as the native salad. Apparently that is the secret ingredient. She was so happy with us because when saved her run away conch. When we arrived Laura ordered cracked conch for lunch. But Marlene said she had all her conch in a bag in the ocean behind her shop and they had gotten away, so no conch today. Well Laura and I came to the rescue. We quickly grabbed our snorkeling gear out of the rental car and headed down to the water's edge. We spent half an hour and retrieved almost the entire batch of runaway conch. Thankfully they are very slow moving so they hadn't gotten far. We were heroes! We ate a huge amount of extremely fresh cracked conch. When we finally had our car filled to the brim with all our supplies we returned to the boat and began the laborious process of lugging all our purchases from the car to the dinghy to the boat. We spent a busy evening on our respective boats trying to find the space to put all the new goods away. The next morning we returned the car and then spent a leisurely afternoon snorkeling some rocky points not far from the boats. This was the first time I did a swim through snorkel. There was a cave like spot where I could dive under on one side and holding my breath emerge on the other side of the rock. Dozens and dozens of tiny tropical fish take refuge inside the rocky cave and it was a beautiful underwater experience. Also in this area was a remarkable amount of hermit crabs in abandoned juvenile conch shells. Laura and I dove down over and over to get an up close view of their little crabby pinchers hanging out of the shells and shoveling minute food particles into their tiny waiting mouths. Also really cool was the super tiny jelly fish swimming freely through the water. At first I just thought they were small bits of algae floating along but the miniature pulsing of one little jelly caught my eye. Then I looked closely at all the little specks and each one was a contracting, flowing, swimming creature. Fascinating and beautiful.

The next day we would be headed out to the next stop. Only twenty miles or so up the coast was the next bonefishing creek and the guys were intent on seeing if it could possibly be as great as the last. Cat Island was surely proving to be a great spot for bonefishing. The flats were pristine expanses of clear, shallow bonefish havens. David and Jason had story after story of huge bonefish and large schools. Each day they were returning to the boat with sunburned happy faces and fish tales to astound and amuse us. We anchored next in Bennett's Harbour. We had all driven past here just days before in the rental car but it seems like a whole other country when you arrive by sailboat. We shall see what this area has to offer, more watery beauty I am sure.