24:13.53N 75:23.90W  Fernandez Bay, Old & New Bight, Cat Island

 

On our way south, our first stop was in a little bay of Fernandez Bay Resort.  Nice bar, good beach and another creek to float down.

 

 

 

One night we had an Elvis party on sv Shiloh, which was a hoot. Alan from AlleyCat is a great Elvis fan – the last time we cruised with them (San Blas, Panama in 2011) I recall another Elvis party!  There is some “dressing up”, and Alan hauls out all his music and music videos and we all get to experience The King once again.

 

    

 

 

While at Fernandez Bay, Mike and I took out our bikes and cycled down to New Bight – not much to see but the 15km trip did us good.  We also me the owner of the local grocery store, who would come and fetch all the ladies from the dock to do shopping later in the week.  As I am sure I have mentioned before, shopping is a challenge – the stores are not always close to a dinghy dock and it is often hard to find a good one.

 

As is turns out, this one was great. We anchored off Old Bight and were taken to a great little shop – a very good selection of fresh, frozen and dry goods. . Holli said that she had never seen cruiser buying ice-cream in the islands – but with my cooler bag and some ice, I am getting pretty good at this. And we do love Ice-cream! The tourist highlight here is a walk up to The Hermitage at the top of Mt Alvernia (also called Como) From 1939 to 1956, Father Jerome, an American priest lived here, building this miniature Hermitage. It has a chapel, a bell tower and small living space.

 

  

 

The south wind was bothering us all in the anchorage, so we moved across the bay to Old Bight – in front of Rollezz resort.

 

Here we met the wonderful Rolle’s – Yvonne, Carl and their extended family.  They have a delightful little resort with 8 self-contained cottages, built to very high standards and very tastefully decorated. We had a few beers with them and they gave us some Land Crab to try.  The trick to eating these land scavengers, is to keep them in a cage, feeding them watermelon and fresh water for 10 days before cooking.

 

 

 

 

The next evening Carl promised us a bonfire. We first went up to the bar for a few beers, joined by another South African couple, Lindsay & Daryl (sv Wild Blue). As the sun set, Carl lit up a pile of old wooden pallet and it was raging.

 

      

 

 

and our last “team pic” for Cat Island. Tomorrow we are heading to Georgetown, while the others head to Conception island.  Its been fun!