As we are sailing very slowly for very short distances, we have the unique opportunity to explore the entire island quite extensively. Our next stop was at Joe Sound Creek, where we anchored, took the dinghy up the very shallow creek and then went ashore to pick up some shells. We could walk over the little incline to the sound where the boat was anchored.
Our next stop after a short sail was a town called Freetown in New Bight. It looked like a cute little village from the boat, but I was doing laundry when a sailboat came in and anchored not very far from where we were anchored. Shortly after they had anchored they got on their dinghy and went ashore. After some time, we also went ashore and was walking through the main street, or only street in town and to our absolute surprise, ran into the couple on the boat next to us, who happened to be our friends from Florida! What are the chances? only two boats on a remote island, in the off season and we know each other!
The following day our friends left and we hiked from Doud’s Village across the island to the Atlantic side, which were about a 4 mile round trip hike going from paved road up the hill, to dirt road a way down the hill to a foot path and then hardly any path at all. There are peculiar holes all along the way and at some point I was hoping that the earth would not just randomly open up and swallow us:-)
From a distance when approaching from the ocean, a strange structure was visible at the top of what we believed would be the highest point in the Bahamas. The next day we followed the path up the hill thinking that we would get to the top, see a government structure and then had to just turn back. To our surprise, the structure at the top of the mountain belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. Locally the hill is known as Como Hill, but was named Mount Alvernia by Monsignor John Hawes, a Roman Catholic priest. Monsignor John Hawes known to Cat Islanders as Farther Jerome, was a skilled architect and sculptor.
Using local stone, he built The Hermitage on the peak of Mount Alvernia in 1939, a small medieval monastery where he could get away from the world. The way up the hill to the monastery is via a stone staircase on a steep rocky incline. You can see Farther Jerome’s beautiful and detailed hand carved reliefs of the Stations of the Cross along the way, and the 360-degree view around the lush island from the top is awe inspiring.
There’s a grocery store to the north of the settlement, so we found a route on the charts that we could get closer to the store with the dinghy. We entered into Musgrove creek and was blown away by the beautiful creek with a shoreline that looks like manicured rock gardens. The water is crystal clear and we could go all the way to where the road forms a bridge over the creek. We tied the dinghy up, and walked a short distance to the T-junction, where you turn left and within 200 yards were the shop, liquor store and car rental outfit. The store was well stocked and the prices normal Island prices (2 to 3 times more expensive that Florida) but the selection of what was available was remarkable.
