Cat Island — Fit2Sail

Cat Island has long been on our wish list of places to visit in the Bahamas. Somehow in the 5 other times we’ve cruised these islands, we never managed to make a stop. Finally this winter we made it to Cat! It was a brief window where we rode a frontal passage the 40 miles across Exuma Sound to Cat Island, hid from one small front, enjoyed three solid days of easterly sector winds with time to climb Mt Alvernia, then ride the last of the easterlies ahead of the next front back across Exuma Sound to tuck back into Pipe Creek. At 5 knot speeds, that’s a lot of sailing for not a lot of down time, but it was well worth it.

Cat Island is a 45 mile long, skinny island that stretches northwest to southeast. Supposedly 1500 people live there, though we didn’t see a lot of evidence of anywhere that many people in the largest settlement of New Bight, towards the southern end. There’s endless anchoring possible in more settled weather with the prevailing easterlies, but protection from westerly sector winds is in very short supply. We did tuck ourselves into Smith Bay (where the government dock is) for a mild frontal passage, in a bay with room for 1, maybe 2 boats at anchor if a mail boat is in port. Reportedly when no boat is due, as many as 15 boats have tied stern to the government dock . . . I can’t even imagine!

One of the questions we’ve grappled with this whole winter is what, exactly, constitutes high season, where stores and restaurants are open. Not that we’re shoppers or eaters-out, but sometimes that’s a great way to get a sense of a place. We’re largely coming up empty. In early December, in Green Turtle Cay, it was “not high season yet” according to some people we talked to while others shook their heads and said it had been in November. At Cape Eleuthera, where we stopped to buy water before crossing to the Exumas, the friendly dock master said they (a resort that caters to sport fisherman coming across from Florida) are busiest from March through June. And at Cat, when we talked to Teresa from the liquor store as she drove us and our beer back to the beach where we’d left the dinghy? Apparently we’d just missed it. Junkanoo (Bahamian carnival) and its high activity level had been the week before. It’s quite possible that Cat Island is sleepy always. We still wish we’d seen a bit more activity. Oh well.

The big claim to fame of Cat Island is the Hermitage, a monastery for one built by Father Jerome after he retired. It’s on top of Mount Como, commonly known as Mount Alvernia, the highest point in the Bahamas at 206 feet. The views from the top are pretty spectacular. We set this as our goal for the visit, knowing we only had a couple of days before weather forced us onward.

Okay. Hike the Hermitage and buy beer. We knew Bahamas beer was expensive. We’d taken that into account when thinking about the winter. We still balked at $70 or $80 a case, the going rate at Black Point or Staniel. We were completely out of beer!

We left Pipe Creek on February 11, working our way south on the banks side of the Exumas to get a better angle on the wind across to Cat. Happy to leave the (not great) anchorage at Darby behind, we set off in initially very lumpy seas which smoothed out as we got further away from land. Our first anchorage at Cat Island was along a beautiful beach near the southern tip. The second day (first full day at Cat) saw us sailing up to New Bight, dropping the hook off of town in very onshore conditions with a clear mission of “buy beer”. An hour later, successfully stocked with the cheapest beer we’ve found ($52 a case for Kalik; $58/case for Heineken), we immediately picked up the anchor and sailed north around the corner to Smith Bay to hide from the approaching front. It was Jeremy’s birthday, and he’d identified a sweet-looking, well-reviewed waterfront bar he wanted to try out.

Which wasn’t open. Sigh. At least there was cold beer on board, with hamburgers and key lime pie for dessert.

Cat Island, full day 2. In the morning, we took the dinghy ashore and walked directly across the street to Alvernia Foods, the island’s main grocery store. It was fairly well-stocked, including locally grown tomatoes and cabbages and less-local fresh mozzarella . . . Sail from Smith Bay back to New Bight, where the conditions were vastly improved from the day before. Easterly sector winds had filled in! We spent the afternoon walking around, trying to identify (not very successfully) where town might be. The major activity spot seemed to be the Fish Fry, a collection of food shacks on the northern end of the beach. Not much happening at 3 in the afternoon on a Wednesday.

Day 3: Mt Alvernia day! Taking along the drone and a bottle of water, we set out along the dusty road to the top of the hill we’ve seen referred to as “the Mount Everest of the Bahamas” Despite the fact that this is possibly the largest tourist attraction of the Bahamas, and definitely the biggest draw on Cat Island, we saw nobody else on our walk. Not along the road, not at the top, not along the way back. Sleepy indeed.

Day 4: The wind was forecast to change in the next couple of days, and we wanted to stage ourselves for a closer sail back across to the Exumas, so up came the hook and off we sailed to Old Bight. We’d hoped to splurge on a meal at the extremely well-rated Rollez Resort, but they weren’t doing lunch or dinner that night. Pizza on board it is! We took a long long walk on the gorgeous (and completely deserted) beach as our Cat Island finale.

And the next morning, we set sail back across the sound to Pipe Creek.

We’re glad we made the effort (and had the weather) to get over to Cat Island this season but wish we’d had more time. The island likely has much much more to offer than the small sleepy slice we got to see.