We have been exploring Cat Island & anchored off New Bight. We explored by foot & walked up to Mount Alvernia, the highest hill in the Bahamas. We visted the Hermitage, the retirement home of Father Jerome, aka John Cecil Hawes. He built & restored churches on Long Island (we visited one there) & Benedictine monastery in Nassau.
He was born in England 1876 & became an architect. Later an Anglican priest. After 1908 hurricane in the Bahamas, he came to restore churches. In 1937, he built the Hermitage by himself, taking 7 years to complete.

For the next 2 days, we rented a car with s/v Stephanie Dawn, & toured the North & South ends of the island. Felt really strange to be in a car after 7 months on a boat plus they drive on the opposite side of the road. We met some interesting people, visited planation ruins, various beaches & snorkeled. National Geographic was staying at the south end of the island known as Greenwood & were filming & studying mating of sharks. Nice reefs at this end of the island, but waters were not calm enough for us to snorkel. Besides, I was not going in the water with Nat'l Geo out there with the sharks!

We will continue sailing up the North end of Cat Island, cross over to Little San Salvador, aka Half Moon Cay. It was renamed Half Moon because cruise ships use the West Bay for the beautiful beaches. We then plan on sailing up to Eleuthera Island.