Sailing Dreams

After almost 5 weeks at Emerald Bay, nearly everything on Dreams is back to working order; new anemometer, new generator voltage regulator and new shorepower cable connectors. Hooray!
Underway before 0800, on February 25th, we decided it was time to head north, and so we dropped anchor that evening at New Bight on Cat Island. Just above the colorful anchorage is Mount Alvernia, which is the highest point (206 feet) in the Bahamas. The highlight of our visit was the hike up Mount Alvernia to the site of "The Hermitage", a tiny Catholic monastery built by the hand of architect, John Hawes (also known as Father Jerome) in the late 1930s. Our approach to The Hermitage was adorned by the 14 Stations of the Cross, carved roughly from the rocks, situated every 20 feet or so, up the steep hillside. Although the site has no electricity or running water, Father Jerome lived in this primitive hermitage, complete with bell tower and private chapel until his death in the 1950s. The hermitage is still owned by the Catholic Church, Diocese of the Bahamas.
Unfortunately, a cold front forced us to stay at Cat Island, far longer than we had wanted--nearly two weeks! There were several days when we couldn't even get off the boat, so we were relegated to doing 50 laps around the Cat as our only exercise. We finally got underway again on March 9th, and we anchored that evening at Half Moon Cay, Little San Salvador, a private island resort owned by Holland America Cruise Line. The cruise ship was just departing as we arrived, so we had the entire beach to ourselves. We enjoyed exploring the quaint little cabanas, and pirate ship replica. The next day, we enjoyed a great sail to Rock Sound, Eleuthera, a huge and well protected anchorage. After a full day of provisioning and boat maintenance, we set sail early in the morning for the beautiful white sands of Alabaster Bay. The place was just gorgeous, offering refreshing waters and great shelling.
Underway the next morning, we headed north to the amazing Current Cut, which is an extremely narrow cut interspersed with dangerous coral-heads through Eleuthera's northwest end. We timed our passage for just after slack tide, allowing us to visually navigate Current Cut at a speed of nearly 11 knots! Whew!
Next stop, the isolated, but well-protected Royal Island Harbor. No frills, and didn't even get off the boat, but we stayed safely tucked in during the Norther' that dropped record snow in the Northeast U.S. in mid-March. After two nights hosting Happy Hour and dinners with our fellow cruisers, we were off to the Spanish Wells, whose name is derived from an early explorer who found fresh water there.