Aboard Lady

The Hermitage on Cat Island

Cat Island
February 14th to February 15th, 2009

An early departure from Conception, (by this time there were eighteen boats in Conception's West Bay - so much for my disappointment at TWO other boats a couple of days ago) with light winds, so we mostly motor-sailed to the north-west to Cat Island.

Sooty had been interested in reaching a place for him, but once there, he did his usual trick of disappearing in to the "basement."

Pulling in to The Bight, there were a couple of other boats in front of this charming small village.

We had chosen this location because of the presence of The Hermitage.  We went ashore, and the road to the highest peak in the Bahamas was very close to where we beached the dinghy.

It was not too far to walk up the hill to The Hermitage, the retirement home of Father Jerome, who had built the churches in Clarence Town, and on a lot of other islands.  The "doorbell" is a piece of iron hanging from a tree that you hit with a rock.  No-one was home.

He built all the stations of the cross, this home, his chapel, the catchment area for water.  An amazing project.  Fr. Jerome must have been quite a short person.  Charlie looks like a giant next to his chapel.

Meredith and Dick from Distant Drum came and invited us for dinner.

                                             

Conception Island

Conception Island

February 12th, 2009 to February 14th, 2009

A number of the cruisers, including Charmed and Jay Sea Dee decided to head to the Jumentos/Ragged Island chain.  Even though others assured us that the dept would not be a problem, there were some very thin water places we would have to pass through, so we temporarily parted company and headed north around Cape Santa Maria, and then west to Conception Island.

Conception is part of the Bahamas National Trust, and a Land and Sea Park.  We knew that this remote island did not attract many visitors, there isn't even a ranger station here.  I was a little disappointed when we pulled in to the West Bay anchorage, and found a couple of other yachts already there.  There was plenty of room, so we found our own spot, and soon had the dinghy launched and were walking on the beach.

A lovely dark-hulled Selene 53 trawler that we had previously seen in Thompson Bay, Koan, pulled in to the anchorage.  We knew from our friend Steve Fisher (Prime Time) that this was the infamous Captain Mojito!  On our way back to Lady, we stopped and invited Chris Wells to dinner.  He accepted.  His girl-friend had departed the day before, but Chris came for chicken/tomato/pasta dinner and we all had a splendid time.

The next morning, we were ready to investigate the inland creeks of this island.  There's a bar across the cheek's entrance, and we entered slowly with a rising tide. 

 Once inside we kept turning to the left, and saw a twelve foot blue hole, a dozen or so turtles, each about eighteen inches long, and very fast swimmers, and tried to follow the deeper parts of the channel. 

We beached dinghy before we left and Charlie played with a crab that had also attracted the attention of a local fish.

A walk across the island followed, where there was the usual assortment of plastic trash on the Atlantic shore, and I left Charlie waiting for me as I explored further, found a small cliff with a line, conveniently attached by some previous cruiser (thank you!) climbed it, and took his picture.

Later that day we went snorkeling, and even though the water was cool, we saw a big manta ray before we returned to Lady.

This was the kind of day I signed up for when I started this voyage.
 

Long Island Tour

Long Island, Bahamas

+23° 21' 29.40", -75° 8' 21.00"

Monday February 9th and Tuesday February 10th, 2009

 

The wind continued to blow; the intrepid crews of Charmed, Jay Sea Dee and Lady chartered a couple of steel dinghies (aka rental cars) to tour the island.  We had been advised that car hire is for twenty-four hours, and that a good way to do it is from mid-day one day until mid-day the next.  That way you can tour the north end of the island the first day and the south end the second day, and not have to do it all in one day.  Seemed like a plan. 

 

After getting the cars, we headed as far north as the Queens Highway would take us.  We found a sign that directed us to the Columbus Monument, and started down a trail that was "SO STEEP AND SEMI-IMPROVED" (Charlie), it would be classified as a jeep trail in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  This is where Columbus allegedly ran aground, and is how it was named Cape Santa Maria. We made it out to the monument, where the views were spectacular.

Then lunch at the lovely Cape Santa Maria Resort sustained the group for an afternoon of visiting Stella Maris Marina (the dive shop had closed, permanently), and the resort area where there were spectacular breakers on the beach. Dinner out at a Bahamian restaurant was really good, and not too expensive.

The next day we headed south, and went as far as Clarence Town, where in addition to checking out the marina (of course), the female units of the group had a delightful time at Ena Majors' basket and straw shop.  Ena had brought her wares to the cruise/race party at Island Breeze a few days ago, and we knew that here was an opportunity to shop for gifts to take home.

We also visited St Peter's Church, built by Father Jerome around the turn of the 20th Century.  An interesting church constructed by an architect/builder/priest.  

 

Climbing the tower took me up three separate ladders...I thought that only a person somewhat slender could squeeze up there, but Craig and John took that as a challenge, and had to climb the tower too.

 

He also built the Anglican church, St Paul's, in the same town in a previous life, before he converted to Catholicism.

We had a lovely walk on the beach close to Clarence Town, before searching for the Blue Hole near the community known as Deans.  It was very interesting to see this DEEP (600 ft!) connection to the ocean through eroded limestone.

  We had noticed the local race boats as we drove down, and when we stopped for lunch at the Hot Spot, we met Chris Knowles, one of the local skipper, who has won lots of trophies in the local regattas.

 

Another stop at the museum was also very interesting.  Charlie had a LONG conversation with his new best friend, the curator, about the history and economic development of Long Island.

 

       
 

 

Long Island

Thompson Bay,  Long Island, Bahamas  +23° 21' 29.40", -75° 8' 21.00"

 

Wednesday, Februray 11th, 2009


12 cruisers loaded in to the back of a pick-up truck, and along with the six that were in the front, were taken to a secret beach to look for sea beans and shells.

 

Jodi (Jay Sea Dee), Debbie (Charmed) and I and the rest of us had to look through a lot of plastic trash in order to find shells and treasures.

That evening the awards banquet, each boat providing a dish, was held at Island Breeze Resort in Salt Pond.  It was really nice of the resort to let us do this, we just had to purchase our drinks from them.

 

We didn't win any prizes, other than some water balloons, but we all had a great time.

 

Over the next few days, the wind kept blowing hard, 20 to 25 knots, first from the north-west, then gradually clocking around to the east.  As the song goes, thank God, the Tiki bar was open...Parrots of the Caribbean served great lunches, and it was a great place to dingy to, although very shallow.

 

I'm afraid I'm about to lose connectivity, so I'll post this.  Check out Charmed's blog for additional updates!

Georgetown to Long Island

Long Island,  Bahamas 23 21.49N 075 08.35W

Friday, February 6th, 2009

We spent a very nice week at anchor off Sanddollar Beach in Georgetown.  Lots of cruisers anchored in Elizabeth Harbor, many of them somewhat permanently!

There us a radio net every morning, with cruisers providing weather reports, local businesses informing the cruisers of their services, activities organized by the cruisers - as John from Jay Sea Dee said "camp for baby boomers!"

Some of the cruisers organized a "cruise" to Long Island, which our little group was ready to join.  Weather forecasts made it uncertain as to when we left. Wednesday or Thursday? On Tuesday they announced that the weather would be better for a Thursday cruise.  Wednesday morning they decided that Wednesday was better, so many boats did the 38 mile trip on Wednesday, and a dozen more followed on Thursday.

The course was determined by chart way-points.   Lady was assigned a PHRF handicap number of 96 - we had already lost any chance in this race at the skippers' meeting, according to Charlie.

The boats could start when they were ready - the Race Committee recorded the time each vessel crossed the start line.  We were ready almost as soon as the RC was on station, so at about 0915, Charmed, Sea Star and Lady started the downwind sail.  Jay Sea Dee had moved anchorage a couple of days earlier, and were already five miles further south, so they did not return to start the race, and led the fleet the whole way.  We were pleased with Lady's performance.  Only one catamaran, Windsong, passed us, and we finished about three hours before the last boat did.

Thursday we dingied to the beach, and took a walk along the Queen's Highway.  There was a marine supply store and a grocery store on our way, as well as a small Bahamian restaurant, where we lunched on cheeseburger and grouper burger with Kalik beer. 

The cruise committee had organized a lovely meal that evening at a local Bahamian Thompson Bay Club.  A nautical trivia game between tables kept everyone occupied while we waited for food to be ready.