Black Point to Cat Island

We took advantage of a favorable forecast and sailed 60 miles east to Cat Island. We left Black Point just before dawn and exited through the nearby Dothan Cut. We could have waited a few hours for slack tide but that would have meant getting to Cat Island quite late. We were hoping that, since the wind would not be opposing the outgoing tide, the conditions at the cut would not be bad. Dothan Cut is deep, about 20-30 feet, and narrow so the current moves through there rapidly. As it turned out we had 5 foot waves with very short intervals so it was a wild ride for a few minutes. I was happy to be done with it. We were pleasantly surprised to have enough wind to sail for the first few hours, then we motor sailed and finally just motored. The wind clocked around from the SW to the NW so we attempted to anchor in the NW corner of the bight for more protection from the waves. We couldn’t get the anchor to set, so after two attempts we motored over to the anchorage off of New Bight. There was just one boat here when we arrived and it left shortly after we arrived. The waves from the NW made it a bit bouncy early in the evening but it calmed down and shifted to the N overnight. 

This morning we went to shore and hiked up to the Hermitage, said to be the highest spot in the Bahamas at 206 feet. Father Jerome, a well known figure in the Bahamas who built churches that have withstood hurricanes, built it by himself as a place for him to get away from it all. It is based on a medieval monastery, built at 3/4 scale. The very steep walk up the hill is not for the faint of heart but worth it once you get there. One path, the steepest one, takes you through the stations of the cross. As we walked back down the hill we noticed a very large garden that seemed to have some sort of beans or peas. The interesting part was that the plants were interspersed between the rocks. They didn’t bother clearing the rocks away and probably couldn’t have even if they tried. After coming back down the hill we stopped at Olive’s Bakery. Her cinnamon coconut bread was the best bread we ate in the Bahamas when we were here two years ago. The bakery was closed so we called one of the two numbers on the sign to see if they would be open today or tomorrow. A man answered and said they were just returning from his father’s funeral and would have bread ready for us by 4 pm. I gave him my condolences and said we would return. Next we stopped at Hidden Treasures, one of the restaurants on the beach in the Fish Fry section. We asked if we could come back at 3 pm for lunch. She said yes and asked us to tell her what we wanted to eat. We both chose the grilled lobster which we remembered as being delicious when we ate there two years ago. It was just as delicious this time. We sat at a picnic table in the sand and had smoke from a fire of pine needles blowing on us to keep the no-see-ums and flies away. After we finished our meal we walked back over to Olive’s Bakery and bought some still warm coconut bread. 

The Hermitage

Garden with bean plants

Grilled lobster from Hidden Treasures