February 19th – 24th
We reached our anchorage in New Bight just before 4pm and dinghied to shore to grab a bite to eat from one of the food stands in the local ‘fish fry’ area. Having spent a year or two in the mid-west, when we heard the term ‘fish fry’ we were expecting an actual dinner of fried fish like they would have each Friday evening in Milwaukee. Well, New Bight isn’t Milwaukee and the term ‘fish fry’ doesn’t apply to an actual meal, but rather an area along the road/beach with lots of little specialty food stands.
Here in New Bight, the fish fry area had a conch salad stand, a hamburger stand, two or three small restaurants, and a small beach bar or two. We enjoyed a great dinner at Hidden Treasures restaurant. Unfortunately, we were the only ones enjoying a good meal. Our food arrived shortly before sunset, and as the sun began to go down, the bugs/no-see-ums began to come out! The proprietor of the restaurant could tell by our constant slapping and scratching that the bugs were enjoying a meal too, so she brought over a can filled with coconut husks and pine straw and tossed in a match. ‘Once the fire dies down, the bugs will all go away and leave you all alone. If they don’t, we can add some more husks to the can and relight it!’
While the smoke screen did provide some protection from the bugs, it didn’t really enhance the flavor of the food, which didn’t need enhancing at all. We all polished off our dinners as quickly as we could, settled up our bills, and smelling of smoke, headed back to our boats to get away from the bugs.
The following day we took a hike up to highest point in the Bahamas, Como Hill, which stands 206 feet above sea level and also happened to be the sight of the retirement home of one Father Jerome. John Cecil Hawes, known to the locals as Father Jerome, was an architect turned Anglican, then Catholic, priest. He was born in England in 1876 but later moved to the Bahamas where he had his hand in building or restoring churches throughout the Bahamas. His unique stamp of hurricane-proof stonework with its thick walls and barrel-vaulted roofs can be seen throughout the islands. He eventually settled on Long Island (our next stop) and ministered to the people there. After an interim elsewhere as a wagon train driver, a monk, a missionary and horse breeder, he became a Catholic priest and returned to the Bahamas to build Catholic churches and the St. Augustine Monastery in Nassau.
On Father Jerome’s first approach to New Bight in 1937, he immediately selected Como Hill has the spot for his retirement home. As one walks up to his ‘hermitage home’ from the base of the hill, one is struck not only by his gift for architecture, but also for his genuine and humble devotion to God, which carries all the way up the hill through his Stations of the Cross, past the replica of Jesus’ tomb with it’s rolled away stone to his spartan living quarters and small chapel for private devotions. (The history of Father Jerome and Comers Hill was copied almost verbatim from our Explorer Charts cruising guide)
(Pictures of some of the Stations of the Cross at the Hermitage)
On our return from Como Hill we passed several fields filled with ‘volunteer’ vegetable plants – volunteer in that they looked wild and scattered about rather than planted and cultivated in neat rows. There was however a local man who was picking tomatoes & beans from some of the plants in the back corner, so I approached him and asked if it was ok if we picked some as well. He said no problem, help yourselves. So we each picked a few and then left some money on the seat of his car for letting us take some of his vegetables. We then proceeded to walk to the other end of town to pick up a few bottles of wine to restock our supply.
According to the locals, the store was only 5 to 7 minutes away. After walking for nearly 15 minutes, some in our group beginning to question the directions we had been given. After another 5 or 10 minutes walking we did manage to reach the store and pick up some wine and spirits. We must have looked fairly exhausted because one of the clerks volunteered to drive us in the company pickup truck back to where our dinghies were parked several miles back in town. We gladly accepted the ride.
Once back to the beach we loaded our vegetables and loot into our dinghies and headed back to our boats to unpack and grab some lunch before rejoining on shore later in the afternoon to hike to the other end of town to the grocery store. When Diane and I got back to the boat and unloaded our stuff I realized that I was missing my iPhone. I had taken a ton of pictures of Father Jerome’s Hermitage, and remember pulling it out to use as a flashlight while looking into a cave that was just off the trail, but don’t recall where I would have left it.
We went to shore to look around the area that our dinghies had been parked, thinking it might have fallen out of my backpack … no luck. We went back to the store to see if we left there or in the back of the pickup truck … no luck. We walked along the road from the store to the dinghy landing area thinking perhaps it could have fallen out during the ride … no luck.
Over the next two days we retraced our steps, including several sweeps of the garden, the Hermitage, and the hiking trails around the Hermitage and never did find the phone. Since its a US number and we’ve been using another phone with a local sim-card and Bahamas phone number, my phone has been on airplane mode with no cell or data service, so it’s not like we could call it or even use the ‘find my phone feature’. I’ve since changed all my passwords, temporarily suspended my 818-6686 number, and have everything set up so that the phone should wipe itself and become locked, if it ever reconnects to either cell or wifi service. Oh well, I was looking to upgrade my phone later this spring anyway!
In addition to spending time looking for my phone, we spent the next day, Sunday, at anchor, riding out another strong cold front that was moving through the area. The winds were blowing in the low 20’s most of the day, and gusting into the 30’s. The skies were overcast with occasional rain, so it was a good day to stay put.
On Monday we rented a car for the day and toured the island. Actually, we picked up the car at 11 am, so we didn’t need to return it until almost noon the following day. We headed north and explored the northern end of the island. We stopped and had lunch at a nice little resort that overlooked the harbor … beautiful view and good food. After that, we took a nice long hike to the northern most end of the island and then got back in the car for our trip back south to New Bight.
On our drive home, we kept looking a road that would allow us to cross from the western side to the eastern side of the island so that we could get a good glimpse of the Atlantic. Even though the island is only a mile or two wide, we didn’t find any roads that transversed the island on the northern part. We found several dirt ‘paths’ and attempted to make the crossing two or three times, but the path just kept getting skinnier and bumpier the further we traveled east, so we would eventually turn around and continue our journey south.
We finally made it back to the dinghy landing and parked the car at the police station for the evening. We figured that was one of the safest spots around to park a car. The worst thing that could happen was that we’d get ticketed … but fortunately the parking lot wasn’t posted and we were able to park the car there overnight without incident.
Since we didn’t have to have the car back to the rental car agency until close to noon, we decided to all head to shore around 7 am, and spend a few hours exploring the southern end of the island.
We met as planned, all piled into the car and headed south. We enjoyed our morning exploring that part of the island and on our way home, did manage to find a road that would take us to the eastern shore. The road did turn into more of a ‘path’ for one stretch,(mid route we noticed it was labeled “rocky road” in tiny letters on the map) but then eventually widened again and we were able to find a gas station to refill the car before finally returning it close to noon.
After our early morning adventure, we all needed to get some rest so that we could be prepared for the evening’s festivities.
The night before, upon our return from the northern end of the island, we met an older gentleman, Pompeo Johnson, who was hanging around Duke’s Conch Shack in the fish fry village. Pompeo had joined us for a domino’s match that evening and then invited us to join him and his band the following evening for some traditional ‘rake and scrape’ music. Not exactly sure what we were agreeing to, we said we’d be delighted to join them. Just tell us the time and place.
So at the appointed time, 5 pm the following evening, Pompeo and two ladies treated all cruisers and any locals that wanted to join in to a concert. Pompeo sang and played a small accordion, while one lady played a drum and the other played a handsaw. Yes, a handsaw. Apparently the ‘scrape’ part of rake and scrape refers to keeping time and providing a beat by ‘scraping’ a screwdriver along the teeth of the saw. (I’m sure if you check out YouTube, you can probably find a video of someone preforming this type of music). The lyrics were pretty folksy and reminded me of bluegrass music.
Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a great way to wrap up our time on Cat Island. There may only be about 1600 people on the island, but everyone we met was very friendly and welcoming. They were very appreciative for any and all the cruisers who stopped by to visit their island. It’s definitely on our list of places to return.
Zionsail 