Sailing Skylark: Cat Island and North

March 25 - Pocket GRIB (a sweet weather I-Phone app) and Chris Parker's forecast told of a big cold front passing through the Bahamas associated with the Nor'easter passing New England. This meant some strong winds and squalls were coming our way, clocking west, north to east. Since Conception is out in the ocean without any secure protected harbor, we needed to get moving to a better anchorage, the closest being over 25 miles away on Cat Island. We departed Conception Island at 0500 to get settled at New Bight behind BonefishPoint before the severe weather hit. Sailing once again at astronomical twilight with the moon and stars guiding our way was lovely, I love the sailing in the dark anticipating the rising sun. "Kuivato" is actually a Hopi Indian term for the ritual of greeting the morning sun. As we rounded the south end of Cat Island dark clouds greeted us with stronger winds, rain, thunder, and lightning. We briefly considered ducking into a nearby marina ($$$$) but decided to press on the final 10 miles to the anchorage, a bit fearful that a 55 foot aluminum mast is a possible target for a lightning strike which would likely fry all the electronics on Kuivato. As a precautionary measure we disconnected all our devices from 12 volt power outlets and turned the batteries off. We made it into New Bight and tucked as close to shore a possible to try to get out of the west swell but we still spent the rest of the day and night rocking and a rolling in 30+ knot winds until the wind went north the next morning. We then moved to the east end of the Harbor to be closer to town and the 20-25 knot east winds that were settling in for the next three days.

We took the dinghy into the beach and hiked up to Mt. Alvernia, the highest hill in the Bahamas at 206 ft. At the summit, the Rev. Father Jerome (AKA, John Cecil Hawes) built his retirement retreat in the 1930s, known as the Hermitage. Father Jerome, an Englishman, and trained architect and sculptor, was originally sent to the Bahamas to repair and build churches after the 1908 hurricane. Numerous churches on Cat and Long islands are tributes to his work. When he retired, he built a mini monastery out of local stone on top of this hill and lived there until his death in 1956. He sounds like quite a remarkable man. Once again, as we ascended the rough stone steps built by Father Jerome, we were the only ones at the site, despite the fact that this is considered one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Bahamas.

The Hermitage on Cat Island

March 27 - After another onboard gourmet breakfast, we blasted up the west coast of Cat Island in 25 knot winds at boat speeds topping 9 knots. We were planning on going to Arthur's Town near the north end of the island; however, since we were making such good time we decided to journey on towards Eluthera Island by sailing to Little San Salvadore Island. In 1997 Little San Salvador Island was purchased in buy the Holland American Cruise Line for $6 million and the once remote and unspoiled cruising destination was made private and parts of the island were turned into a playground and faux Bahamian village for cruise ship passengers. While upon arrival we were aghast at the appearance of the once pristine bay cluttered with cheesy cruise line amusement park buildings, we were happy no cruise ships were in port with jet skis and parasailing speed boats buzzing all over. We read that the ships and their hordes were usually gone by 1600 and that you could anchor off the beach while there were no guests present. We just don't get the whole cruise ship scene and these fake cruise stops.