February 18, 2019: Cat Island!

Blog #28: February 18, 2019:

Nikki and Penelope resting during the crossing

We got to Cat Island! Ever since I first looked at a map of the Bahamas, I've been wanting to visit because I really like cats. It turns out that its name has nothing to do with felines. There was a pirate named Arthur Catt who used to visit this island, and the name stuck. Personally, I think the residents should market their island to crazy cat ladies like me. Penelope approves!

We anchored about a mile south of Rollezz Villas Beach Resort in Old Bight. We walked down the beach to see it, as they've got many great reviews in Active Captain.

Rollezz Villas Beach Resort is extremely cute and well-landscaped. What a great place for a honeymoon or anniversary! We were very hot and thirsty, so we bought some Hawaiian Punch there. While we drank it, we started talking to a young Jamaican man. He asked about fishing, and when I told him we threw back the four foot long barracudas, his eyes bulged! I'm guessing he must eat them, even with the threat of ciguatera poisoning. We were too late to have supper here, so we went to Dean and Wendy's for spaghetti and a game of dominoes.

February 19, 2019:

Dean and Wendy had plans to go bonefishing today, so we dinghied over to New Bight. We had been told to visit The Hermitage. It is a medieval-style monastery built at the top of Mount Alvernia, also known as Como Hill. What is amazing about this site is that it was all built by one man by hand using local stone in 1939! He even hand-carved the Stations of the Cross in stone along the steep path up to the monastery (It's amazing what people accomplished before TV and cell phones!) His name was Monsignor John Hawes, known to locals as Father Jerome. He also built cathedrals and convents throughout the Bahamas.

The view from The Hermitage is amazing! At 206 feet above sea level, it's the highest point in the Bahamas, and you have a 360 degree view!

Nikki looking out over Cat Island from The Hermitage

Inside the bell tower at The Hermitage on Cat Island

We walked back down to New Bight, enjoying the plants and flowers along the way.

Check out the spiny pods in the above picture! We passed the very pink building that housed the police station, post office and three other agencies. (Can you imagine a pink police station in the States?😁)

Our next stop was Olive's Bakery. We met Olive's husband Chris, and he gave me a big hug as "we have the same name!" We got some bread and coconut tarts: yummy!

Then we must have walked at least a mile to the New Bight Food Market. I almost laughed out loud when I saw what was under the spaghetti:

Can you imagine this in the USA?? I'm sure every household has at least one machete to keep the plants from overtaking their yards. Children must learn from a young age not to play with them. We filled our backpacks and walked back to town. We stopped for a wonderful lunch of BBQ chicken, orange rice with veggies, and some fried plantains. Yum! (Unfortunately I didn't write down the name of the restaurant, and I can't find it on Google Maps). We saw several dogs in town, but no felines. Maybe Penelope will have to be the token cat 😁.

The dinghy ride back to As You Wish was very choppy, as the wind had picked up. After we put away our groceries, the wind had died down enough to snorkel.

Yes, we may have had some laughs at the sea stars' expense 😁 Then we took the dogs and Penelope to the beach, so she can officially claim that she's been to

Cat Island

.

I love her perfect, purrfect little paw prints!

February 20, 2019

We returned to The Hermitage with Dean, Wendy (and Pierre) and explored a shallow cave just below the monastery on the back side.

Kris and John at the base of The Hermitage on Cat Island

Wendy in the bell tower of The Hermitage

In the cave on the back side of The Hermitage

Then we went back to our boats, raised anchors, and sailed to Fernandez Bay. We snorkeled around a big rock, and there were lots of fish and corals.

Christmas Tree Worms were on this coral!

We went to shore and visited Fernandez Bay Village. It's a beautiful resort with nice art too!

Later, Dean and Wendy came over for a supper of Italian sausages and polenta with zucchini and tomato sauce. We were all so tired we just talked; no games.

February 21, 2019:

We left at 8 this morning and sailed mostly wing-on-wing to Bennett's Harbor. The bay here has very cute beach houses, but if you want to walk into "town" that's another story. Even the school is shut down in this area; students go to Orange Creek. We saw lots of dogs; still no cats.

More snorkeling:

These juvenile Damselfish are quite bold, but they're so small it's difficult to get a good picture!

Above is a Spotfin Butterflyfish. The White Spotted Filefish below was really cool!

I love these Purple Feather Duster Worms above, and the Christmas Tree Worms (below) also!

I'm not sure if the above fish is an immature Harlequin Bass or something else. The poor sea cucumber below is a Donkey Dung (and yes, the white pellets are its dung). It must be the Rodney Dangerfield of the ocean: "I get no respect!"

Then I worked on pictures while John went over to Chaos. Dean and Wendy had invited several other couples over for appetizers too, but I was feeling "off" and antisocial. John had a good time and said everyone he met was really nice.

February 22, 2019:

We went snorkeling again. I don't think I will ever get enough of it!

Orange Icing Coral, above

Sea Fans above, and an immature Blue Tang below (yes, they're yellow)

Queen Triggerfish above, and one of my favorite pictures below of Nikki and Teddy happily watching for our return from snorkeling.

Above is a juvenile Queen Angelfish. They are such a colorful fish!

Brian and Becky on Sunny Skye invited us and others over for appetizers. We went with our already good friends Dean and Wendy, and we also met John and Sheri from Lost Shaker, Darcy and Michelle from Delta Phase, and Julie and Bill from Jubilee II. The stars must be aligning overhead: not only did we become very good friends with Brian, Becky, Michelle and Darcy, but I also discovered that Michelle & Darcy share my Faith! They're from Canada, and Brian and Becky are from Illinois.

Join us in our next blog, "February 23, 2019: Eleuthera!"

February 18, 2019: Cat Island!

Conception Island