Our friends Michelle and Tony had Cat Island on their bucket list for a long time and invited us to check it out with them. Always up for an adventure we were happy to tag along. The only issue we had is that the forecast was calling for dead calm weather for multiple days, as is often the life of sailing. Always too much or too little wind, rarely the perfect amount. On the other hand, sailboats are also wonderful power boats; fuel efficient and ours can comfortably travel at about 6 knots under motor.
So we decided to head over to Cat island from Rudder Cay, on Feb 27th. It was a long hot day of motoring in very calm seas. It allowed Douglas to have a pretty good day working while I babysat the autopilot and tried to stay out of the sun. At one point I mixed up some focaccia dough and brought it up to rise under the dodger. Otherwise it was a very uneventful day, and we got into the main anchorage before sunset. We had a little walk on shore and enjoyed a very pretty sunset and we then had a very peaceful sleep.
The next morning we headed into town to find the trail to the famous Cat Island hermitage. The site sits on top of the highest hill in the Bahamas and was built by a Catholic priest in the 1930s. The trail was pretty easy to find and it was a pleasant walk up the hill. On the way up there is an interesting set of stairs with the stations of the cross on the way up.
Once at the top the scenery was fabulous and the buildings themselves were very cool. There was a tiny chapel, a bell tower, a rustic kitchen and a little sleeping quarter. We also found the old well and a sundial. It was beautiful, and interesting to imagine this priest living there all alone looking out over the island. It was probably a mostly very peaceful life, except when storms rolled in I bet.
Later that afternoon we went for a walk around town. We didn’t find much else to do on that side of the island so we decided to head out early the next morning, for Georgetown. If we had had a lot more time we would have rented scooters and explored the rest of the island. I think it is probably very beautiful, and has a bit more elevation than the rest of the Bahamas. However, the hermitage at the highest elevation is only just over 200 feet!
