Friday April 15: Cat Island

     We gathered on the beach with new friends Nieve and Gary from Freed Spirit and Lee and Brian from Presence-ing for a walk up to Mt. Alvernia. Father Jerome (aka John Hawes) was a Briton who studied architecture and theology.  He came to the Bahamas in 1908 and devoted himself to rebuilding storm-devastated churches throughout the islands.  He modeled his preaching and his lifestyle after the simplicity of St. Francis of Assisi.  A devout Anglican, he eventually adopted Roman Catholicism and became an ordained priest.  On Mt. Alvernia, the highest point in the Bahamas, he built a steep path with Stations of the Cross leading to a replica of Christ’s tomb, complete with roll away stone.  There he lived in a tiny stone room adjacent to a small chapel, from 1938 until he died in 1956.  It’s quite impressive to see and commands a great view of the harbor.  There are other John Hawes churches in the Bahamas, many of them are on nearby Long Island.

One of the Stations of the Cross

The ascent through the Stations of the Cross

Replica of Christ's tomb.

The interior of the chapel.

     Dan and I talked with a few local people, learning they were rebuilding a different storm-damaged church, and that good food could be had in the town of New Bight and in various restaurants along the beach.  We walked the beach to do a little shelling, but mostly we picked up glass.  There was an awful amount of sharp shards scattered all along the beach.  

Laughing gulls on the beach.

     We made plans to join Presence-ing in their anchorage around the point, and to go out to dinner with them and our friends from Freed Spirit, and after a late lunch we weighed anchor and set off around to the next cove to the North.  Our guide book promised this area had better snorkeling.  As soon as we settled in our new anchorage, we launched the dinghy and broke out the snorkel gear.  There was a large rocky reef in the harbor and we started our exploring over there.  We saw an abundance of small fish and found another new-to-us species, a colorful fish called a puddingwife.  For the first time in a long time, there were no barracudas around.  We snorkeled quite a while, making our way slowly back to the Willie.  

Puddingwife - stock internet photo.

     Presence-ing was hosting everyone for cocktails before we all headed ashore to a local resort for buffet dinner of surf and turf, so we had deck showers and put on ‘going ashore’ clothes and jumped back in the dinghy to head over to their catamaran.  They gave us a tour and we all had a good time getting to know each other a little.  

     The resort we went to for dinner was very elegant and yet very relaxed.  There was an honor bar - you poured your own and filled out a little card to hand to the waiter at dinner.  The dinner was excellent - beef tenderloin perfectly cooked, lobster tails, chilled asparagus, home made yeast rolls, and a large green salad.  We all dug into the salad with much appreciation - leafy greens just aren’t a part of our usual diets here in this warm climate.  They probably don’t grow well here and they certainly don’t last long in the heat.  For dessert, we had ‘upside down pumpkin cake’ which was more like a pumpkin pie without the crust.  Delicious!  The six of us had a table on the deck overlooking the harbor where only our three boats rocked gently at anchor.  There were perhaps six other people total there for the dinner, this being a bit between seasons at the resort.  After dinner we sat around a bonfire on the beach with a young couple from Texas who were staying at the resort.  Such a great day spent in the company of really nice people.  We made tentative plans to buddy boat with both Presence-ing and Freed Spirit,  though we all had different goals for our individual Bahamas experience.  We knew there was yet another Northerly blow coming early Sunday morning, and we decided collectively that a stop at Little San Salvadore Island might be a good spot to weather it.  We left it that we would listen to the updated forecast in the morning and confirm our plans then.