Day 254, Monday March 3rd - A visit to Arthur Town

Day 254, Monday March 3^rd -   A visit to Arthur Town

We awake to a very common day off of the settlement named Cove.  We listen to the Chris Parker show and we both agree that our plan of heading up to Arthur Town is a good one.  The winds are predicted to switch to the South East overnight so our stop at Arthur Town will only be a day stop.  We will move further down the coast for the night as it offers more protection from the south.

Panorama of downtown Arthurtown

It is about a 16 mile run up the coast to Arthur Town all of which was under power, there is very little wind.  It is too bad that we could not have averaged out the two days, oh well we have not had too many motoring days.  We arrive at Arthur town around 11 and drop the hook just off of the town.  The shore line is all iron shore (rock shore as opposed to beach) so we have to dinghy to the southend where there is a small beach.  There is still a surge along the coast so we have a fair bit of action landing.  Julie tries to exit the dinghy but makes the jump just as a wave is coming in.  She does not get her trailing leg free and oof she is down in the surf.  This is the first mishap with the dinghy.  (boy it was a dirty look Julie gave Dawson as she thought he had pulled the boat up vs. the wave moving the boat).  Back out to the boat we go for a change of clothes.

Julie is changed and ready to try landing again so we head back in, this time we check up to the north end of town but although there is a small beach it is too small to allow us to get the dinghy out of the surf.  So we are back to the place of the great dunking.  This time we both make it to shore relatively dry and we set to explore Arthur Town and to photograph our friend Caroline’s childhood home.  Our 1^st stop is a small bar and grill called the “Da Smoked Pot”.  We thought we would check it out as a potential lunch spot on the way back.  Doors are open but the bar is not.  Monday is a down day for Da Smoked Pot, although the worker does offer to open up and make us something.  We say no and then ask her where the school is and tell her why we are looking.  She does not remember Caroline’s parents, she is a little young (we guess mid 30’s), but she does go and call the neighbour to come over.  She explains that James Webb, the neighbour is a retired teacher so should be able to help us out.

James Webb and Julie

Julie on Bay front walkway

James comes over and we introduce ourselves, and then proceed to tell him that our friend was born here when her parents were teachers at the local school in the 60’s.  He certainly remembers the Payne’s and it turns out that his sister Sheva was Caroline’s nanny.  He points out Sheva’s house to us.  We ask where the teacher’s cottage was and he explains where it is and that it is now the Wood Shop.  We thanks James for the information and make our way along Bay Front Road toward the school.  Arthur Town is quite large for Cat Island with a number of homes and businesses.  One of the 1^st businesses we come to, after the Da Smoked Pot is Cocktails by the Sea.  It is now after 12 and we are both quite hot walking in the sun so we ask the old woman sitting at the bar if it is open.  Her answer is of coarse and help yourself.   Dawson walks around the bar and pulls two nicely chilled Kalicks out of the cooler.  We then spend 30 mins chatting to Etta who owns the bar (she has 4 kids, 15 grandkids and 9 great grandchildren).  It is quite a well built establishment, built right on the water front and featuring a 2^nd story lookout.  Etta tells of her children and the story of the bar.  We enjoy the cool beer and stories. 

Arthur town from the water

Cocktails by the sea business with Etta

From Etta it is a short walk to the school, it is lunch time and all the students are out milling around the grounds.  Right in the middle of the school buildings is the wood shop the one that James said was the old teacher’s cottage.  We take some photos and try to spark up a conversation with the kids.  It is now time to start looking for lunch, we try the Cookie House next door but although the door is open they are not open.  The owner tells us he is trying to get some work done so recommends that we head over to Boggy Pond for lunch.  He ensures us that it is not to far of a walk.  We bumble our way over, only making one wrong turn and end up at Boggy’s.  It is similar to a number of bars we have been into during our lives, Dawson comments that except for the reflection of a palm tree in the bar mirror we could be in River Valley Ontario.  We both order a burger and a beer.  While we wait we are visited by Isaac Dean who is a maintenance man at Boggy’s.  Julie tells him our story and he remembers the Payne’s well he says although we kind of feel we were leading the witness.   The bar owner comes over and gets Isaac back to work and then talks to us while we wait.  Her story is that her father was from Cat Island and she was raised in Nassau.  When her grandmother needed help running the hotel, bar and restaurant she thought it was time to bring her kids back to Cat Island.  Our burgers arrive and we enjoy them.   We say our goodbyes and start our trek back to the boat.

Sunset at Bennett Harbour

Downtown Bennett Harbour

Once back onboard we up anchor and head the 3 miles south to Bennett’s Harbour.  We drop the hook just off from the government dock.  Once we are sure we set we take the dinghy over to the dock and go for a walk into town.  There is not much in Bennett’s Harbour, we do find a small convenience store where we buy a bag of peanuts and 2 club sodas.  For every occupied house in Bennett’s Harbour there is a house in ruin.  The guide book states that a number of these ruins are from early settlement by the loyalists.  Also due to outmigration, everybody moves to Nassau, the population is in decline.  Dawson does see a road that heads off to the East that he plans to run in hopes of making it to the Atlantic side of the island.

We are back on the boat around 5, enjoy a quite happy hour, dinner, a game of Kings Cribbage, a cup of coffee and off to bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 253, Sunday March 2nd.

Day 253, Sunday March 2^nd.

shoreline by Cove

Waves behind Dawson were big

 A leisurely Sunday morning but both of us are anxious to be on our way up the Coast of Cat Island. We can only handle being at one anchorage a couple of days.  Our goal today is Arthur Town where Caroline Wright (our good friend from Calgary) was born.  We get underway by 10 with a reef in the main and the 110% jib sail.  It is not long until we also reef the jib in.  Our wind indicator is not calibrated properly so we were not sure of the wind speed.  As always we were on the Jazzy scale.  Julie called the neighbour who was sailing parallel to us and he indicated he saw gusts up to 35 with the bulk of the winds registering 25 to 30, no wonder Julie was not having fun.  We were quite heeled over and that was with us also “spilling” the wind by easing out the main sheet.  We started the engine to help stabilize us and decided to pull into a closer anchorage.  After 2 hours we landed at “Cove”.

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At anchor

We anchored and dinghied to shore to see the sights.  The shoreline here is called the iron shore and it is not very friendly.  There is a patch of sand for us to land on with the dinghy, but the rest of it is old coral which is bumpy, hard and dried.  Sure would not want to have the boat blown ashore here.

Dawson in front of another closed restaurant

The sights were minimal.  A few banana trees which they grow in sink holes, a few goats, lots of abandoned buildings of which many of them are loyalist ruins from the days of US independence from Briton.  We wave to everyone who we pass or drives by.  It is just the thing to do.  There is an abandoned vacation building which is falling into disrepair called Club Paradise, and one business we pass.  The business is a bar; however looking in the window it is just a room with a few boxes in it.  We take a pass on stopping for some refreshments.  The outer islands are much poorer than the northern islands.  There is not much tourism on the outer islands which brings in a lot of money to the country.  It seems like very few people have regular jobs.

Dinghy at shore (we have learned to park it facing forward

We return to the mothership and do some reading on Sidney Poitier as he was from Cat island, and relaxing.  Today is shower day.  We thought we were running out of water but the second tank had more than we thought so we don’t have to ration the water.  Our hygene has been suffering a bit. 

Tonight we are again cooking some mahi mahi.  It is just fabulous.  We highly recommend grilling it with a marinade of oil, lime, and garlic and pepper.  Tonight we put the marinade on about an hour prior to grilling, but the other day we just brushed it on after the fillets had been flipped.  Both ways were equally good. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 252, Saturday March 1st – all by ourselves on Cat Island

Day 252, Saturday March 1^st – all by ourselves on Cat Island

Syrena and San Cles leaving Cat Island

We wake up to another beautiful day here in Cat Island.  But the 1^st thing we see when we get up on deck is Synera and San Cles heading off into the distance.  Synera is en route to Black Point in the Exumas and San Cles is off to George Town.  Luckily we had said goodbye to them yesterday during sundowners.  

We get our day started very slowly; Mark from Down Island stops by for a yap and lets us know that there is a fund raiser lunch at the local church at noon.  The new info on lunch adjusts our schedule somewhat.  Our original plan was to head in to the New Bight Market around 11, but with the lunch we decide to push the food shopping back into the afternoon.  We head into the beach for 11 but head over to the police station to make use of the free Wi Fi.  We watch Ross’s two goal medal races (1500 meter and 4x800 meter) from the OUA last week and then put in a Skype call to the Patricks.  We have a good call and catch up on all the Sudbury news. 

Julie with our take away lunch from the church

Around 12 we head over to the church to see what’s cooking so to speak and get picked up by some winter residents.   We have a choice steak or chicken with baked potato, corn on the cob and a bun all for $10 each.  Dawson opts for the chicken and Julie goes for the steak.  We get our food and head back to the beach for a picnic over looking the water.  The food is excellent; Dawson gets half a chicken which has been bar-b-qued very well. 

Lunch on the beach

Exterior of the Church

After our beach lunch we start to make our way over to the Food Mart, but stop in at the church as Julie needs to use the washroom.  The washroom is in the church itself so we end up taking a tour of the church, it turns out to be one of Father Jerome’s churches.  We meet some children who have taken shelter from the heat in the church.  Due to the thick walls and excellent use of windows to allow the island breeze to past through it is nice and cool.

Interior of Church 

Interior of Church c/w children

Water pump with Lizard, Can you spot the lizard?

Dawson opening up the liquor store

We finally make it to the Food Mart and pick up some fresh food and a few other items we need.  One item we pick up is fresh coffee beans as we are official out as of this morning.  It cost just under $24 for a small 250 gram can of beans but we have grown to love our morning and evening coffee so we make the purchase.  We also have to pick up some wine and rum and the Food Mart has a liquor store attached.

We ask the owner about opening the store for us but he just hands us the keys and tells us to go and get what we want and come back to the food mart to pay. You would not see that in the States or Canada.

We then start the 2 km hike back to the dinghy with our 4 bags of groceries and a backpack of alcohol. Lucky for us a pickup pulls up and offers us a ride which we eagerly accept. We get enough walking as cruisers without turning down rides.  Buy3 o'clock we are back on Jazzebelle, we read a bit do a couple of small jobs on the boat, Julie does her French and before you know it is 5 o’clock and time for happy hour.  You have to wonder where the time goes!  During happy hour we deal out a couple of hands of bridge and review the bidding we had learned back in George Town.

We supper on chicken ceaser salad and then enjoy a good cup of fresh ground coffee.  Just as we are getting ready to call it a night we get a call on the radio from Down Island.  Turns out two of our fellow boaters have lost their boat, can’t find it due to the dark night and no lights on it.  They are both in kayaks, Julie quickly grabs our spot light and Dawson locates their boat about 500’ off our stern.  The kayakers head over to Jazzebelle and then we light up the way to their boat.  Within 10 mins they are safely on board.  A little bit of excitement in New Bight Harbour.  It is boaters midnight (9 pm) so off to bed we go. 

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 251, Friday February 28

Day 251, Friday February 28^th

Well it is the last day of February.  Good-bye to another month.  Our friends and family back home will be counting down the snow storms left in the season.  It has been a doozy of a winter for them and an endless summer for us!

Last night the wind moderated in the evening so the wave action was mild.  Still a bit of movement, but not bad.  Julie is starting to wear earplugs to bed, a good thing to have on board for those thinking of heading out.

The Hermitage from the water

The winds continue to pick up during the morning and the waves join in.  We are tossing and turning and awaiting a squall.  The squall does not come, but the light winds which were forecasted don't come either.  Dawson plans to go for another run on the beach but by the time he takes action it is too rough to head to shore as he was worried about a repeat of yesterday.  Turns out the neighbouring boats were hoping for another show.  We just hang around, somewhat trapped on the boat as it is tricky getting into the dinghy when the back of the boat is rising and falling about 6 feet.  Better to stay put.  The winds start to "clock" at around 1 so we decide to weigh anchor and head north in the bay to seek shelter from the point that is jutting out to the west.  It takes at least an hour as there are head winds but soon enough we are anchoring in New Bight.

As we arrive into the new anchorage Mark from Down Island gives us a call to pass on that the swells  are still rolling in from the west while the wind is out of the north north west.  This combination would give the boat a bad roll if you just hang off a bow anchor.  Mark recommends that we rig up a wave bridle for the boat to allow the boat to face into the swell.  Dawson's response is that it sounds like a good idea but has never done it.  We get some instructions over the radio and Dawson sets out to get the line and tackle set up.  The rig consist of a chain hook on approximately 100' of line.  The key is to set the hook with the normal 7 to 1 scope and then attach the chain hook and separate line, you then play out about 50' of anchor rode while running the extra line back to the stern chock and then on to the jib winch on the opposite side that you want to turn from.  At the bow you hook up the bridle but again only on the side you want to turn from.  You then adjust the hook up so you have an equalateral triangle center end at the midship of the boat.  This rig pulls your stern up into the wind and allows the bow to fall off to face the swell.  Dawson gets it setup and it passes inspection when Mark comes over.  It works great.  It is like an anchored "Heaving to".  A quick look around the anchorage shows that the boats that are swinging only on the bow are taking the swell on the Port side and rolling , while we are just doing a small rise and fall with the swell right on the bow.  It is a good day as we have learned something new.  With the winch you can do small adjustments as the wind shifts.  The added benefit is the dinghy goes to the lee of the boat sitting in nice flat water.

Once we are sure the anchor is set we head to shore for a look around.  We had been to shore before but only for sundowners so we figure we should take a look around.  We land at the beach in front of the goverment building and drop our garbage off.  Turns out we have landed right at the road that heads up to the Hermitage which is the main place to visit in the area.  We had planned on hiking up the next morning but decide there is no time like the present, so off we go. Father Jerome was a catholic father who was an architect for the church back in the 1920s and 30s.  He came to the Bahamas to rebuild a number of church's that had been damaged or destroyed by a major hurricane in 1926.  The church that we had visited in Long Island was his creation.  The hermitage was his retirement home and a tribute to his god.  It is well worth the visit.  Father Jerome chose the highest point of land in the Bahamas at a total of 206 feet above sea level for the location.

The hike takes you along a paved road for about 1 km past a grove of banana trees.  There are a number of bananas ripening on the trees but there is a sign asking that you not pick them as they are being grown for shipment to Haita, good thing the sign was there or there would have been two less bananas for Haita.  At the end of the road we start up a trail through the scrub and soon come to the 12 stations of the cross which Father Jerome had created, all the time climbing up towards the Hermitage.  The Hermitage can be seen quite clearly from the sea and looks quite impressive and as you approach it maintains the look.  Upon arriving you find it is still impressive but almost miniature in scale.  The building features a chapel with single pew for one, a small sitting room, a galley kitchen, a spartan beadroom and a two story bell tower.  In the chapel there is a guest book to sign which Julie fills out for us.  Dawson then flips through looking at earlier visitors comments, one which catches his eye is from two years earlier and conveys the following story.  A visitor states that his mother had met Father Jerome in Cat Island and that he was a very tall man.  The reason for the small size to the hermitage (We had to duck in all the door ways) was to "modify his body to empower his soul".  It is quite an impressive structure when you realize it was built by one man as his final home and as a tribute to his god.

After the hike we head into town to see what it has to offer.  We find a bakery where we purchase some coconut bread and have a conversation with the bakers 4 year old son.  We then head over to the convenience store and back to the mothership to host sundowners.

Wilma and Barrie

Barry and Wilma (she just became a great grandma a couple weeks ago) from Syrena and Dave and Sue from Sans Cles join us and we chat for a couple hours until we go our separate ways for dinner.

We spend a quiet Friday evening with coffee and reading.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 250, Thursday February 27th

Day 250, Thursday February 27^th

Well we were awoken to some wave action.  The winds shifted to the west earlier than anticipated and stronger than anticipated.  We were safely anchored so managed to get back to sleep.  Dawson woke Julie up with the declaration he was kayaking to shore for a run, time for Julie to do her French lesson.

Part way through French however, Dave called on the radio to announce a squall was on its way, so Julie took action to get the boat ready for the incoming weather.  Laundry in, windows shut, steering wheel  put back on, everything secured...  Dawson returned quickly once he had seen the clouds (he was running with his back to it until he turned around and by then he was a couple kms. away).  It started raining as Dawson was kayaking back to the mothership.  The winds whipped up but he managed to get on board (after falling in while boarding as the boat was rising and falling about 4 feet.  Then the kayak started blowing away, it had not been secured, so back in the water Dawson goes swimming after it.  (only about 20 feet, but had to get wet again).

The squall only lasted about 15 minutes.  We had hoped for more rain as it rinses the boat nicely and we gather the water for later use.  The waves stayed somewhat high so the day was spent monitoring our anchoring.  There is no safe haven around here from a westerly except a marina that is very buggy so we don’t want to go there.  We spend the day reading, and blogging, glad we have someone’s internet to use.

The wind does not abate as early as we would like so at 8 we are still rolling a bit, however we know our anchor will hold, and hopefully during the night the calm will come.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 249, Wednesday, February 26

Day 249, Wednesday, February 26

Up and at em.  A few errands on the agenda and a run for Dawson.  Dave decides he will join Dawson for the run while Julie and Sue head to the Grocers.  We dinghy to an abandoned pink coloured resort where the books say we can access the road  to the grocers which is about a 10 minute walk.  The 4 of us stay together until the grocers has been found.  The runners head off and Sue and Julie peruse the store.  It is adequately stocked, and clean.  Unfortunately the mail boat that brings in supplies is due tomorrow so the freshest stuff is probably a week old.  The broccoli still looks excellent, but Julie takes a pass on other fresh stuff except some limes.  We are able to get real milk and resupply our UHT emergency supply with our preferred 1% parmalat so that is good.

Dawson Barbequing Mahi for all of us

We grab a couple bottles of wine as Sue and Dave are coming for dinner to share in the Mahi catch.  On the way back to the boat Julie grabs some coconuts so we have fresh snacks, and coconut water.  Julie is going to try to make Sky Juice which is a gin based drink offered at the Santa Maria resort on Long island.

Back at the boat we decide to reanchor about 3 miles south as the south winds are building and there will be better protection.  Our existing spot at New Bight is starting to get lumpy.  The move takes about an hour but is well worth it as there is very little movement down  here.  It is now about 3:30 but still time to fit in a snorkel.  Dave and Sue have marked a spot on their GPS so we follow them out about a mile and have a great snorkel.  It does not compare to the snorkelling we have done in the  nature parks here, but it is one of the best outside of the parks.  There are lots of corals, and fish, but no lobster is seen.  Darn!

Dave, Sue and Julie in our cockpit

On our way back we go to shore and husk the 3 coconuts.  Dave and Sue have another 2 to husk.  It is a bit of work, but Dawson  has a process that has been working well so in about 20 minutes we have our fresh stash of coconut.

Dinner is wonderful.  The company is great.  Sue and Dave sure make us giggle.  Love the sense of humour.  We teach them how to play king’s cribbage and then call it a night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

The pics not blurry it is us that is blurry!

Day 248, Tuesday February 25 - a great fishing day but not a good sailing day

Day 248, Tuesday February 25

Plans written in the sand at low tide.  We left conception, heading north.  

We are really undecided, cause we had wanted to go down to the Ragged islands, but slowly the thoughts of home and knowing every mile south is a mile we have to recover to head home, we turn to Cat island.  We are quite looking forward to Cat island as our good friend Caroline Wright was born here.

 As soon as we are under way Dawson puts new line on our rod and rigs a new leader/lure and we get the rod out.  There has been a fair bit of chatter on the radio about fish on over the last two days so we have our hopes up.  About an hour in we spot some activity on the water, with sea birds diving and fish jumping, we are next to a feeding frenzy so change course to go through it, hoping to catch one of the fish on our line, but no luck.  There are hundreds of about 16 inch fish jumping about with seabirds fluttering amongst them all diving for smaller fish.  There is little to no wind unfortunately so we are motoring.  We have been quite successful sailing versus motoring as we keep our plans flexible to go with the wind.  There are many things to consider though.  Waves, tides, future weather and safe anchorages etc.

Dawson landing the mahi mahi

 While underway we do a myriad of domestic duties.  Cooking, cleaning, blogging....  Other than the departure and arrival there is lots of water, so with the autohelm it is a no brainer for getting there.  Dawson is actually reading a book during his watch.  Julie was playing solitaire on the ipad during her watch.

Dawson holding 48 inches of Mahi

We are just about to pull in our line as we are approaching the south end of Cat Island and will be turning into the shallows in about 20 minutes.  We figure might as well leave it out a few more minutes and bang we have a fish on the line.  Dawson quickly grabs the line so we don’t make the same rookie mistake we did a couple of days ago losing the line because it ran out.  It takes Dawson 40 minutes to reel it in.  Once again Julie bumbles around keeping us on course, getting stuff out of the way, getting the sprayer with Scotch ready, towels, cutting board, bag, knife, net etc.  About 20 minutes into landing the fish Dawson looks up and spots a whale surfacing for air about 300' off the boat, he yells to Julie who happens to be looking in the right direction and spots the whale just as it dives.  We can’t get the fish in the dip net due to it's size but Julie follows it as Dawson just hoists the fish into the cockpit.  Not much chance Julie would have caught the fish if it got off the line at this point.  This fish was not as tired as the last one and it was banging against the side of the hull.  Once in the cockpit it also bounced a bit, but we quickly put a wet towel on its head after Dawson managed to spray some alcohol into its gills.  Wow this fish is bigger than the last one.  Another Mahi Mahi and about 48 inches long head to tail.  Dawson bleeds it out all over the cockpit, which is fine as the cockpit is easy to spray clean and scrub.  Once again we are very excited.  We put the fish is a garbage bag, then put ice packs on the bag and a wet towel over top to keep it cool until we can fillet it which is in about 2 hours as we are close to the anchorage.

Towel over fish to calm it

We decide to go into New Bight as we can get some supplies.  As we are getting closer the internet starts to work and we can see via facebook that San Cles is at anchor which we are thrilled about as we have enjoyed their company immensely and had lost where they were.  Upon getting closer we also see Syrena has made it safely into anchor.

The local band, one of Brits is trying his hand on the saw

It is now about 4:00 and we start cleaning the fish.  A few boats pull up to ensure we are aware that there are sundowners on shore.  One boat pulls up and tells off of the sundowners and that they have hired a band.  We indicate we will come as fast as we can but that we have a fish to clean.  It takes us about an hour to get the fish cleaned, stored away, and an initial rinse to the cockpit.  Another 30 minutes and we are off to shore.  We know just 3 of the boats, the other 5 or 6 are new introductions.  A British boat with 3 couples on board has arranged for a rake and scrape band to come and play for us for an hour or so.   This is the first true rake and scrap bands we have seen, earlier ones had electric guitars and a drum kit.  This band is made up of grandfather and two granddaughters, the oldman is on a small accordion one of the girls on half a 45 gal drum with a skin on top and the other one is playing the carpenter saw by scraping a file on it.  The music is great and the company even better.   The sunset is excellent and we are treated to the “green flash” phenomenon.  It is 7:30 by the time we are making it back to the mothership.  We give 3 ladies from the British ship a lift as they are anchored near us.  We have had a lovely time on shore. 

Luckily we did not eat any of the munchies that are typical of sundowner socials.  We did not have time to put something together, so the rule we have is no contribution, no eating.  We decide to BBQ the mahi mahi with an olive oil, lime and garlic marinade and it is fabulous.

The anchorage is very peaceful so we have a great night sleep.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson