Jer is very curious as to why this Island is named Cat Island. Here is what I have come up with so far. Its original Lucayan name was Guuanima, “middle waters land,” according to a book cited in Wikipedia. It could have become Cat Island after the pirate Arthur Catt who spent time here. That is the version from our chart book. Also, there were once many feral cats on the island. And then there is this photograph from space that was not available at the time of the naming but is strangely catlike, so the name seems appropriate.
Cat island is 150 square miles and has a population of about 1600. It is home to the highest peak in the Bahamas, a hill that is 206 feet above sea level, It is on top of this hill, called both Como Hill and Mt. Alverina, that the architect and priest turned monk known as Father or Brother Jerome (originally Anglican, then Roman Catholic) built a monastery called The Hermitage. The property is still owned and maintained by the archdiocese of Nassau as a sacred space. The life of John Hawes, who later became known as Father Jerome is very interesting.
In the morning, we dinghied to the beach by the government building. There was once a dock there but it is in disrepair. The government office is across the road that runs along the beach. They have a trash bin there for use.
The road to The Hermitage begins at the government building and heads up the hill. Goats were feeding along the road. We also saw some butterflies that we had not seen before.
There is an archway that leads to the path to the site of the monastery. The path forks to the right to a winding stone staircase lined by frescoes depicting the Stations of the Cross. For anyone (like me) that is not completely familiar with the Stations, I include this diagram.
A number of the stations were included on the walk and labeled by their Roman numeral. At the top was a replica of the tomb with the stone removed.
The monastery was made from stone hand cut on site .
While he was building the monastery, Father Jerome sometimes lived in this cave.
After the monastery, we walked back down to town. We decided to have lunch at the Bluebird restaurant. It was open but lunch was not quite ready so we walked around a bit and ended up at Olive’s bakery. We spoke to Chris there who told us a bit about the island. They actually do some farming on Cat Island. They have red, black, brown and white soil. We saw the red soil on our walk.
According to Chris, the pineapple loves the red soil but the young people are too impatient to grow pineapple because they take a year to grow. They do grow cassava, yams, some beans, sugar cane and watermelon. The cascarilla tree is also farmed here. It is native to the area and its bark is used to make Campari.
Chris asked us if we were staying at his marina. We replied no, we were anchored off the beach. He smiled, “that is all my marina,” he said. A lovely one.
We bought some Bahamian biscuits and a loaf of cinnamon raisin swirl bread as well as a slice of pineapple upside down cake. The cake actually had the pineapple on top so i called it right side up cake, but David insisted that it was really upside down for upside down cake and was therefore named correctly.
The Bluebird was a one room bar and restaurant on the beach in front of the anchorage. Two women ran the place. We were the only customers. The choices were chicken or lamb. We ordered one of each. The plate came with rice and peas, cole slaw and spicy potato salad. Delicious. The large meals and two sodas came to $34, a little more than the price of a cheeseburger in George Town.
The wind picked up in the afternoon and we said the Cat was howling from the southeast. We decided to move to a beach for better protection. We headed out and then back into the harbor to avoid coral heads. We could have gotten closer to the beach but were afraid. There were 4 other boats spread out in the area. We were the furthest out.
We took the dinghy to shore for beach exploration. We saw several starfish. We met a dog named Riley and two women, one from a cat and one from a trawler. The cat’s name is Crazy Idea. One of the women had been to the island before and said it was one of her favorite places. She said it was fun to rent a car to explore which we had thought about trying for tomorrow. There is also a lagoon inside our beach to explore. David also has his eye on another anchorage, Fernandez Bay which we may need a calmer day to get into. We definitely want to come back here.
We returned to the boat for pineapple … cake. David had some dinner too but I was still full from lunch. Full moon tonight. Howling winds but calm in our anchorage and holding tight.
