Cape Eleuthera

We left Cat Island on Thursday February 20th heading to the island of Eleuthera.  Keith fished on the way, but we only hooked two barracuda.  We arrived into Cape Eleuthera Marina & Resort around 4:00 PM and got settled in.  They were dredging the entrance to the marina when we came in.

Dredge at work

Eleuthera is a large, thin island in the Bahamas.  It is 110 miles long but only about 2 miles wide. There are approximately 11,000 people that live on the island.  Cape Eleuthera and our marina is toward the southern tip.

The wind moved in overnight Friday and we were seeing gusts at the dock over 30 mph.  We put a few extra lines on the boat to try to keep us from rocking around too much and it seemed to help.  Saturday despite the wind, we got a rental car and drove up the island to The Glass Window Bridge.  This is the narrowest part of the island of Eleuthera at just 30 feet across.  On the west side is the calm, shallow, turquoise water of the Bight of Eleuthera and on the east side is the churning, dark blue, deep water of the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1885 artist Winslow Homer was on assignment for Century Magazine to chronicle the islands of the Bahamas.  He saw the bridge in its original state.  It was a grand stone archway and he painted it in watercolor entitling it, "The Glass Bridge".  Since then the original stone arch has been washed away by hurricanes and a concrete bridge now spans the area.  Arial shots best show this striking difference in the two bodies of water.  You can pull up some of these pictures on the internet.  We did not have the drone with us and the wind would have been too strong for us to fly it anyway.

The Glass Window Bridge

Tranquil water of the Bight of Eleuthera.  This is the view toward the west from the bridge.

30 feet across the road the Atlantic was boiling.  This is looking east from the bridge.

These waves were 10 to 15 feet tall.

Waves in the Atlantic Ocean

Here you can see a bit of the road/bridge just in the lower right of the picture with a wave coming over the cliffs by the road.  The top of the cliff is 50 feet above the water.

Occasionally the weather gets so fierce, the bridge must be closed down.  Cars and unfortunately even people, have been washed away, over the edge by waves in the past.

In addition to visiting the Glass Window Bridge we stopped at several beaches to do some shelling.  Let me tell you, this is no small feat.  There are very few, if any, signs around here so finding these beaches was quite an adventure.  We were able to have some success and I found several tulip shells which I have been wanting for some time.  I was also able to get a large conch that was still in good shape with nice color.

My recent treasures displayed by Pengi

We also drove out to Lighthouse Beach one day.  This beach is very wide and beautiful.  Very few people go to this beach because it is such a commitment to get to it.  The dirt road leading out to the beach is narrow and filled with huge ruts, pot holes and wash outs.  Keith and I made it to within about 1 mile of the beach before we had to park the car and walk the rest of the way due to the road be unpassable without four wheel drive.  We were afraid of getting stuck with the small rental car we had.  An SUV might have been a better option for this adventure.

Lighthouse Beach

Our next adventure took us to Cathedral Cave.  Many of the Bahamian islands have caves and cave holes.  This is because the islands are made of limestone reefs.  When rain falls through the atmosphere, it picks up carbon dioxide and forms a weak acid that can leach through the limestone.  Over hundreds of thousands of years, this leaching has created the many caves and similar formations throughout the islands.  

The first inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Lucayans, believed the caves were a gateway to the afterlife and buried their dead within the caves.  Remains of these ancient peoples have been found in several caves in Eleuthera and throughout the Bahamas in general.

Cathedral Cave

Roots from trees grow down through holes in the ceiling of the cave making it appear like spiders legs.  This led to some calling the cave "Spider Cave".  I think Cathedral sounds much nicer.

On the trail to Cathedral Cave there is a "blue hole".  As I have mentioned in a previous post, blue holes are pond or "lake like" bodies of water that are actually filled with salt water.  They are very deep and have connection to the ocean via underground water filled caves.  The blue hole near Cathedral Cave is called the "Boiling Hole".  It got this name as a result of the tide changes.  The water can sometimes appear to boil.  Ancient inhabitants and even some old timer islanders believe the blue hole is the home of a giant octopus or other ocean creature and they will not venture into the water.

Boiling Hole near Cathedral Cave

For our final adventure before leaving Eleuthera, we took a tour of The Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute.  The Island School was founded in 1999 by Chris and Pam Maxey.  For some 20 years the school has been bringing high school students to Eleuthera to participate in a semester learning program.  They teach not just about the marine ecosystems in the Bahamas, but also work on sustainability projects.  

The Cape Eleuthera Institute grew from the school.  Here researchers and scientists are conducting advanced studies on sustainable marine and land based projects.  Students and researchers have a substantial amount of interaction during the semester.  In addition to all their studies, students and faculty grow all their own food and generate their energy needs right on campus.  It was quite an interesting place.  And just to show how small the world really is; our tour guide Lori was from Beaufort, North Carolina and had gone to college at UNC Wilmington.  

Some of the wet lab tanks at The Eleuthera Institute

Our next weather window appears to be Wednesday, February 26th when we are planning to head to St George's Cay and the settlement of Spanish Wells.

Cat Island

Our latest stop-over has been Cat Island Bahamas.  We left Great Exuma on Saturday, February 15th and cruised the 40 miles to Cat Island.  Keith pulled some fishing lines and we had some good and bad luck.  Keith hooked into something REALLY BIG; but just as he got it to the surface, it came off the hook.  Keith is pretty sure it was a big wahoo since Cat Island is know for the size and quantity of its Wahoo in its waters.  That was the bad luck.  The good luck was that he was able to land a nice yellowfin tuna that made two dinners for the two of us.

Keith fighting a big one

Fish On!  Here comes the yellowfin tuna he did land

Tuna for dinner

Cat Island is approximately 48 miles long north to south and ranges from 1 to 4 miles wide.  It has approximately 1,600 people that live on the island.  Cat Island was named after Arthur Catt, a little known pirate that is said to have frequented the island.  We are staying at Hawk's Nest Marina and Resort at the southern end of the island.  One day we biked over to the resort office and sat out at their beach and pool for a bit.  The road to the resort crosses the air strip so they have signs for any cars to alert you to the possible air traffic.

The resort has a small but very nice pool

I also took the kayak up into the mangroves next to the marina.  The saltwater creek goes quite a way up into the mangroves.

I saw turtles which were plentiful but elusive for pictures.  I did see many conchs (juveniles) and a few star fish.  One was bright orange, but of course that is the one that my go-pro did not get the picture to turn out.  This smaller tan one was cute through.

Star fish

Juvenile conch

Small yellow snapper under the mangrove roots

During the middle of the week we rented a car for two days to explore.  The drive to the top of the island took one and a half hours.  Then we got onto a dirt road for another 4 miles to reach the beach we were trying to go shelling on.

OMG is this really the road?  And this was the good section.

We finally reached the beach.

It is beautiful, but on every beach we have been on in the Bahamas there is so much plastic trash.  You would just not believe it.  Here is just a fraction of what we saw that day.

As I said, that is just a fraction.  It is such a shame these beautiful beaches have trash all over the place.  I have never seen anything like it.  Unfortunately, it washes up from the ocean.  I did get a large conch that was in pretty good shape and a few small shells, but by far there was more trash than treasure on the beach.

The first day we explored the far northern end of the island.  The second day we headed more to the middle and south eastern portions.  We had to be careful of the "locals" on the road in several places.

The highest point on Cat Island is also the highest point in all the Bahamas.  Como Hill stands 206 feet above sea level.  At the top of this hill is a small, stone monastery built by the architect hermit, Father Jerome Hawes in 1939.  He left an architectural career in England to become an Anglican missionary in the Bahamas.  He built the church at the top of Como Hill by himself as well as carving the 14 stations of the cross along the pathway leading up the hill to the church.  He named his  monastery, Mt. Alvernia and many refer to the hill by this name even today.  Monsignor Jerome Hawes passed away in 1956  and is said to be buried beneath his monastery.

The path up to Mt. Alvernia and the 14 stations of the cross

Mt. Alvernia

The view from the top is grand

Inside the chapel

At the base of Como Hill are the remains of the Armbrister Plantation House.  The Great House was built by Henry Hawkins Armbrister, a Scotsman in the late 1750's.  It is said to be the second oldest structure in the Bahamas.  The mansion was burned by enslaved Africans during a slave revolt in the early 1800's.  Slaves were emancipated in the Bahamas (then under the British Crown in 1834).

Armbrister Great House Ruins

View out from the mansion remains

Another plantation house ruins are located in the town of Port Howe. Colonel Andrew Deveaux was born to plantation owners in Beaufort, SC in 1758.  At the age of 17, Andrew joined the military and because his father was a Loyalist; Andrew fought on the side of the British.  In 1782 the British evacuated Loyalists and its military from South Carolina and relocated them into Florida. With the American War for Independence coming to an end, Deveaux needed a new calling. 

It was from Florida in the spring of 1783 that now Col. Andrew Deveaux devised a plan to recapture Nassau, Bahamas from the Spanish for the British Crown.  He set out with 70 men and 6 vessels.  Once reaching Harbor Island, in the Bahamas, Col. Deveaux picked up several more men and with a total of 220 men and 150 muskets he set out for Nassau to face 600 Spanish soldiers.  He was able to force the Spanish to surrender without firing a single shot.  As a reward, he was granted Cat Island and built a mansion and plantation on the island.

Deveaux House and out buildings

Our stay on Cat Island has come to an end and we are heading to Eleuthera on Thursday February 20th.  The weather looks good for us to make the 70 mile run from Cat to Cape Eleuthera.  Friday the wind is expected pick up and there is to be quite the gale on Saturday.  We will be tucked into the marina at Cape Eleuthera on the southern end of the island.