Back into the land of nice winds
31 March 2007 | New Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas
Jim Lea
This is a picture of The Hermitage built by Father Jerome here on Cat Island.
I just noticed that in my last posting, I forgot to change the date. It was actually written on March 23th, not the 25th. But here we are in Cat Island. Today is Saturday, March 31. We left Simms on Thursday morning at 7 am to cross over to Cat Island. We were in company with two other boats, Osprey and Syrena. Winds were actually quite light as we hoisted anchor off Simms, so we set full sail, fully expecting that the wind would rise and we would be reefing, but at that stage, full sail was very comfortable, and we still motor-sailed as we headed the last 10 miles up the coast of Long Island towards Cape Santa Maria and the 30 mile crossing to Cat Island. As we expected, nearing the Cape, the swell began to make itself felt about five miles below the cape, and the winds gradually rose at the same time. So by the time we reached the cape, we had two reefs in both the main and jib and had shut the engine down. And also as expected, the swells were still in the 8' range. But they were a good interval (time between them) of about 8 seconds, so they were not uncomfortable. The wind continued to rise, and probably averaged about 18 knots, just ahead of our beam. So we had excellent sailing conditions and crossed the gap of 30 miles with an average speed of 7.3 knots, excellent sailing for us. As we approached Hawks Nest Point, the south-western tip of Cat Island, the wind died, and we were just able to drift past it into the bay behind the point. But as we cleared the point, the winds strengthened again, this time up to about 20 knots, and we had to harden up for the last ten miles to New Bight. In three long tacks we were in our anchorage, and dropped the anchor at just after 4 pm, a distance of 55 miles. An excellent day of sailing, and good to be moving again. After a full day of sailing, we just stayed put on board and had the remains of the Spaghetti Bolognese from two nights ago. Then yesterday (Friday) we went ashore to explore New Bight. Our first objective was The Hermitage, Father Jerome's last home. I have written about Father Jerome before. Trained in England as an architect, he first came to the Bahamas in the early 20th century as an Anglican priest to rebuild the churches destroyed in hurricanes. There are about a dozen churches he built at that time on Cat and Long Islands. Then her converted to Catholicism and built some more, the most beautiful of which is St Pauls in Clarence Town. But at the end of his life, he decided to become a hermit and built a "hermitage" (and this required the bishop's official approval and all that stuff) on the highest point of land in the Bahamas, Mt Alvernia, just behind New Bight. So we hiked up to see it. He died in the 1950's and it has been empty but maintained by the local catholic church ever since. Built by him alone, it is a very impressive sight. I took lots of pictures and will post them whenever I get a chance. But it was a very extraordinary site. His small chapel has just one pew, and he was truly alone up there. Coming down, we walked around the "village" and up the road to the store, then back. There is a bakery, just in someone's home, so we bought some corn bread and a loaf of whole wheat bread. Then back to the boat for lunch. There is a "Fish Fry" in New bight. A Fish Fry is a series of restaurants, but not the normal type of restaurant, along the beach. A Fish Fry restaurant is just a shack, probably no more than 15' square, and just a take out. They have a very limited menu, usually fish (the type is what they caught today), stwe chicken, or ribs, all with cole slaw and rice & beans. And there are usually a bunch of them. Here in New Bight there are about six of them. Then there are tables where you can eat. Oh yes, also beer. By yesterday afternoon there were seven boats anchored here. So we all decided to go in to the fish fry for dinner. It was really fun. We had, of course, fish, fresh snapper, and Kailke, the Bahamian beer. Next to the fish fry is the New Bight boat club, which hosts the Bahamas largest regatta in June each year. They race a few different classes of Bahamian sloops, and these are not just old fishing boats. On Long Island we went in to look at one under construction. All are wooden, and the finish is so smooth and highly finished that we first thought it was fibreglass. All spars are wood (They are gaff-rigged sloops with a huge mainsail), and sails must be canvass. No dacron allowed. But last night it was just a bar with music that went until 3 am. We weren't there that long, but we did hear it as we were anchored just off it. That about covers the sights and sounds of New Bight, so today we will be heading north to the northern tip of the island, to a place called Orange Creek. The wind is down, so it will be a quiet sail of about 30 miles.