Central Bahamas Ep. 54

This week’s entry finds Thalia on the move from the Bahama’s “Outer Islands” to the central Bahamas, specifically Cat Island and then Eleuthera Island. We were feeling quite isolated and were eager to get closer to Great Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas so we can ensure our rendezvous with friends on June 1. We still have about 220 miles to go and plan to make it in a few hops in order to explore some of the islands along the way. 

Cat Island ~

Just like the Caicos Islands, many of the islands and island groups of the Bahamas have huge banks in their weather lee where the waters are very shallow and sand-bar riddled. Both Cat and Eleuthera Islands fit this description. Because Thalia draws 7 feet of water, we have to be extremely cognizant of these depths. Most boats which enjoy these waters for any extended amount of time have drafts of 3-5 feet. The additional 2 feet has shut us out of many of the great cruising grounds in these waters, but we are still able to find some special places! Cat Island was one of those special places; however, we needed to anchor nearly a mile and a half off the shore! Our lonely boat looked pitiful sitting all the way out there. Oh well!?

We took in two key attractions on Cat Island and, always looking for efficiencies, experienced them together! The highest elevation in the Bahamas is atop Mount Alvernia (a.k.a. Comer Hill) and it boasts a whole 206 feet above sea level … imagine it! (smile) Luckily, one extraordinary man named John Hawes (known in later years “Father Jerome”) built “The Hermitage” up the side and on top of this rocky crest. Father Jerome had spent his younger years (1908 – 1954) traveling the Bahamas to repair storm-devastated churches. In this way, he combined his architectural expertise with bare-hands skills to rebuild the wooden churches which could not withstand hurricane-force winds with stone construction. Many of the Father Jerome churches stand today as a testament to his skill and dedication.

The Hermitage, built in the 1940’s, was modeled on scaled-down European monastic buildings. Father Jerome lived here until his death in the late 1950’s.

On the left is a crude kitchen and general purpose room. The Chapel, center, has an alter, a single prayer bench, and an offering table. The bell tower is attached with an arch and these buildings and one other open onto a courtyard in the back, as seen here.

Father Jerome used the steep, jagged, hill-side approach as a place to reenact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in stone sculptures. The tale begins at the bottom of the hill with the Roman leaders washing their hands of the responsibility of condemning Jesus to death.

Jesus takes up his cross for the journey to the hilltop where he will die upon the very same cross which he strains beneath.

Jesus accepts assistance from one of his followers to illustrate that none of us can carry our burdens (our crosses) ourselves.

At the hill’s crest, Jesus is nailed to the cross and left to die.

After death, Jesus’ body is taken from the cross, anointed with oil and placed in a stone tomb.

After three days, the tomb is found to be empty. Jesus has risen to be at the right hand of God, his Father.

Thus, the telling of the crucifixion– the Easter story. Jesus has overcome death so that we might have life through the forgiveness of our sins, which were washed away by his sacrifices upon the cross. Regardless of your religious beliefs or affiliations, this depiction was stirring and drew each of us in.

Eleuthera Island ~

Monday, May 21st, we won our anchor (an old seaman’s term for raising anchor) and set sail for Eleuthera. As with the trip on Saturday, May 19th, from San Salvador to Cat Island, this hop would take the entire day. High winds were predicted to become even higher over the coming days, so we decided to move during this window in case we didn’t get another anytime soon. Initially, we thought we would have to anchor outside of a harbor off the southwestern coast of Eleuthera. In high winds, it is always somewhat unnerving to not have any land protection surrounding you. Especially in these islands where if you drag your anchor for any distance, you risk moving off the “shelf” where the water depths quickly drop from 12 feet to 1200 feet, sometimes in the distance of a hand-span or two. As we settled in for the night, the winds began to build. We set an “anchor drag” alarm on our GPS so we would be notified if our boat moved outside of the small radius that we specified to the GPS. In the morning, the weather report called for the winds to remain brisk for the next several days. We wanted to explore the island and thought of renting a car, but worried about leaving the boat anchored there. We again searched the charts for a harbor we might be able to get into. We found a very isolated harbor another 12 miles northwest and considered this. Since we had a hand-held depth sounder, Tom thought he would check the depths in the harbor we were right outside of. The cruising guide said the channel only had 4.5 feet at mean-low tide water, but it was worth checking since the guide’s data was a few years old. How excited we were to learn we could [barely] get in! As the tide was falling, we scrambled to quickly raise anchor and head down the channel Tom had just sounded. We were moving so slowly, we could have swam faster! Tom and Zachary were on the bow looking at our path while I was at the helm. Our youngest was repeatedly calling out our current depth under our keel. We got down to .8 feet below the keel, but made it in. Yeah, we could relax and enjoy our day ashore.

We picked up the rental car at noon and headed north on the one road which goes the length of this 122 mile long, skinny island. All the Bahamas’ land masses are limestone and, as such, often have caverns below their surfaces made by hundreds of years of erosion from the unrelenting ocean swells. It is not uncommon to know of a cave, but not be able to identify the source of water that originally created it. The town of Rock Sound, Eleuthera, has what is called a “blue hole”, which is an inland area where ocean water moves below the surface through caves and creates a pool in a break in the surface ground. Rock Sound calls their blue hole “Ocean Hole” and they have never located the underwater cave or caves which feed this pool a continual (and tidal) flow of clean sea water! There is a town park on one end of it and it seems to be used as a swimming hole. Frankly, it gave me the creeps to be near this, as I wondered when the next hole in the ground would open up and expose itself to the caves below!

Moving on …

After a quick lunch in the picturesque town of Governor’s Harbor (sorry, no pictures … raining too hard!), we went further north to see another creation of nature. This one, called “The Glass Window” gets its name from the occurrence of a natural archway found at a very skinny section of the rock spine which is Eleuthera Island. To the east are the deep, deep, blue Atlantic waters and to the west is the far-shallower, turquoise green water of the Bahama Banks. Eleuthera Island’s west side is fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean’s 3000 mile fetch. The power of a distant storm is, therefore, brought against this rock spine and can send 100 to 120-feet high walls of water into the air and onto the shore’s cliffs. This arch is no longer an actual arch, but a complete break in the island’s rock spine. To keep the two sections of this island together, the community has built many bridges over this ever-widening gorge. Here is a picture of the current bridge, which we just drove over. Notice the not insignificant crack mid-way along the span. To the left is the Atlantic Ocean and over the bridge to the right are the calm, shallow waters of the Bahama Bank.

I am hoping there are plans to make additional repairs to this roadway! It took a fair bit of restraint for me to calmly sit in the passenger seat while Tom drove BACK over this bridge!

Check out the strength of the sea as it churns and pounds in the picture below. This sea state was caused by a day or two of 20 mph winds. Imagine standing here with hurricane-force winds!

Before re-crossing this chasm, we ventured a bit further north so we could take a water taxi to near-by (and very popular) Harbor Island. This is where all the tourists are! We had heard that Eleuthera was more heavily visited than the islands to the south and west but we hadn’t seen evidence to that effect. Wow, what a vacationer’s paradise. Pink sand beaches — truly pink! I brought back some sand to prove it. We spent a few hours walking through the resort and cottage-lined streets, and then enjoyed the beach for a bit before taking the water taxi back to mainland Eleuthera.

What a day! We were all exhausted but knew we had the long drive back down the length of the island to Davis Harbor Marina. After I held my breath while crossing the Glass Window Bridge, we slowly made our way south. Since it had rained nearly all morning and for the previous three days, the roads were in very tough shape. There were several places where standing water covered the entire road. In one area, an unmarked detour was required. We drove into the marina’s parking lot at 11 pm and a light rain was again falling. Yet, we had smiles on our faces because we didn’t need to jump in our dinghy and make our soggy way back out to our boat! Instead, we walked about 20 feet to the dock where Thalia was comfortably (and safely) tied.

Little did we know at that time, but she would remain tied to that dock for a total of five nights! Each morning we would obtain the latest weather information and each morning we were faced with a greater number of days of high winds and significant seas. We need to travel 160 miles total to get to Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island. This will be an overnight in the open Atlantic, where the seas are guaranteed to be large. Luckily we have time before we need to meet our friends, so we turn to our ever-present list of boat projects and school assignments to fill our days! It is nice for the kids to be able to just jump off the boat and run around when they need to spend energy, but we are anxious to get our final hop through the Bahamas behind us. Maybe next week?

General Bahamas Commentary ~ 

I know when we think back on our time in the Bahamas, one central theme will stand forward of others in our minds — weather! I realize that we have officially passed out of winter and into spring–which is part of the Bahamas’ rainy season–but enough already! Since we left Puerto Rico on May 8th, two and a half weeks ago, we have experienced countless days of lightning and rain, colder than normal temperatures and now high winds which produce heavy seas! We are trying our best to give the Bahamas a fair shake and not judge it too harshly, but between shallow waters and less than desirable weather … well, we will continue to try!

The water color and dramatic rocky shores are beautiful, however!

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