Our trip is coming to an end with only enough time to visit one more island in the Southern Bahamas before we have to head North for home. Cat Island will be the last island to visit and our friends Michael and Deb from Sterna (Catamaran in the picture) will be cruising with us as they are heading back home as well. It will be great to have them as a cruising buddy!
We left George Town crossing the Exuma Sound for Cat Island with another frontal approaching and with that will come more bad weather for the next couple of days. We did get sail most of the way until about an hour outside of Cat Island when the rain hit hard and stayed with us for the next two days! Imagine being on a boat with temperatures in the 80's, all hatches and port windows closed and there's no air conditioning. Yikes!!
When we arrived I noticed there was a lot of water pooling on the galley floor just in front of the stove. John looked for the source of the leak and feared that it was coming from behind the stove. Not what you want to hear especially when you're at a remote island with no marina nearby. As soon as we anchored John and Evan's first project was to take out the stove and pull off the wall panels behind the oven to find and hopefully fix the leak. They were successful and now all they had to do is put it back together again. You can imagine how worried I was seeing all the parts and tools scattered around the galley having thoughts of what life was going to be like without a stove. They did manage to put everything back together with only a couple of screws left over.
It poured nonstop for the next day and half before we finally got a break in the weather. Not a moment too soon either because the boat natives were getting restless and needed to go ashore. This is the most rain we have encountered since we've been in the Bahamas. Good thing we're on the Ark.
The chart book said that Cat Island is a stepping stone for cruisers heading farther south. Cat Island is fifty miles long and narrow with little development apart from small settlements and abandoned houses running along the west coast. Our first anchorage was in the middle of the island at New Bight.
Michael and Deb rented a car the day after all the rain stopped and took everyone for a tour of the island. Michael, Deb and John are in the dinghy heading for the dinghy dock with our boats in the background (Sterna on the left and Wicked on the right). It was wonderful to get off the boat after being stuck there for two days. We drove North to the end of the island and made several stops along the way to check out the resorts.
There's only one road on the island running North and South with most of the settlements along the Western side. The first stop had to be the Hermitage which was built on the highest point in all of the Bahamas, right in the middle of Cat Island, at 206 feet above sea level.
At the top of the hill is a site that was built by Father Jerome, a famed architect and builder of two Clarence Town churches on Long Island. The Hermitage and the place he called Mount Alvernia is a must see for the views.
We worked up an appetite after all the climbing and stopped for lunch at Fernandez Bay Resort. We met the wife of the owner who had been coming to Cat Island for 40 years and chatted about island life. The resort overlooked a beautiful bay, the food was good, the people were nice and internet was free (big deciding factor) so we're planning to return for an overnight anchor the next day.
We ended our tour in Orange Creek at a place called Shannas Cove Resort. The Northern part of the island is hilly and the resort had a magnificent view of the hills on one side and the water on the other. We met the owner who was also our server and learned that he and his wife were from Germany. They had been on the island for five years and developing their beautiful resort for the past two.
Michael and Deb left for Little San Salvador without us because we decided to stay for another night at Fernandez Bay to catch up on a few things using their free internet. We are really missing our wifi antenna which shorted out during all the rain. Now we have to go ashore to get good internet which is a real bummer.
We left Cat Island for Little San Salvador around 7:30 am the next day and just about an hour into the trip Evan caught a fish not sure what kind because we couldn't locate it on our fish chart. Much to our surprise when Evan pulled the fish out of the water the tail was missing! Something big took it off while the fish was still on the line!
At first we thought it was a shark until the guys starting catching big Barracudas one right after another with each one bigger than the last.
Barracudas are one of the scariest looking fish especially with their big teeth that are razor sharp! I'm not interested in snorkeling or diving in these waters knowing what kind of fish we caught that's for sure.
We were sailing to Little San Salvador when a school of dolphin joined us getting so close to the boat you could see their eyes looking back at you. They stayed with us for about 15-20 minutes all the while they seem to be playing with the boat. Darting away then swimming back, speeding up and criss crossing each other directly at the front of the bow moving just fast enough to miss hitting the boat! So amazing to watch! Evan was testing out his GoPro camera at the time and captured the dolphins on video sailing with the boat.
The Inkley's - Captain John and Robin (aka Wicked Witch)
About:
John has been sailing since he was seven in the UK. After college he spent time as a Charter Skipper in the Mediterranean.
Robin was introduced to sailing after meeting John. Together they spent three years sailing a Columbia 36 on the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, MD. [...]
Evan turned 21 in September of this year and is a Sophomore in college.
Owen is 19 and just completed high school. He is taking a year off before starting college.
We are all certified PADI divers and the guys love to fish!
The boat is located at Solomons Island, MD and we'll be blogging about our cruising experiences on the Chesapeake with family and friends.
S/V Wicked Witch - the hull was designed by Bruce Farr & Associates, long-standing specialists in racing yachts combined with substantial design input from [...]
The Moorings, a world leader in providing yacht charters. The boat is perfect for us with four cabins (two doubles and two queen size berths) with independent head compartments, a crew cabin in the bow, complete galley with refrigerator, freezer, gimballed oven-cooker. Nice and comfy conditions!
Started the trip back home on June 25, 2012 up the ICW at Charleston, SC. Had to take a detour back out to the Atlantic Ocean to Norfolk and entered the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Final destination Solomons Island, MD on July 2, 2012.
February 8, 2012
Spanish Wells, Eleuthera is known for lobster - 75 percent of the nation's annual production is exported to markets worldwide from here.
Our first overnight stay on the boat and away from the slip was in Key Biscayne, FL. Beautiful area and John was finally able to get the boat out and see how she would hold up.