It’s Monday morning and we are anchored close to a lovely beach that is several miles long in an area of Cat Island known as New Bight. The shoreline is very low and has a few simple, if brightly painted homes and businesses. It is a small settlement and very modest, as is typical of the Bahamas out-islands.
Yesterday Brenda and I came here from Georgetown and made the 50 mile run after taking time to visit friends to say our goodbuys. It’s going to be months, if not longer till we see some of them again. Hopefully, some will make it to our three day SSCA gam (event) in Essex in late June. It will be nice to see them again sooner or later. Sooner would be better.
One couple that we visited were Mark and Kathy who live aboard Corina, a 41’ Manta brand catamaran. Yes, those funny boats with two hulls do hold a real appeal. They have so much room and sail flat. That certainly beats 25 degrees of heel aboard Pandora. However, that’s another topic.
Anyway, Mark and Kathy had spent a month in the Jumentos, a spot that we had hoped to visit but never got to this year due to the cold fronts that were coming through so often. One of the best parts of visiting the Jumentos is walking the beaches to see what has washed up. “Sea Beans” are a particularly special find there. Sea beans are the large seeds of tropical plants that wash down rivers in South America and Africa and are carried by the currents and finally come ashore on islands in the Bahamas. The areas of the southern Bahamas tend to collect more of these “beans” and as there are so few visitors, there are lots to be found. We have run into friends who have collected hundreds of these over a season. Mark takes these beans and polishes them to make necklaces. And, as an added bonus, he’s willing to part with them. Mark doesn’t take money for his work, just wine. And what a nice trade it is. Brenda really wanted one of these necklaces as she had seen Mark’s work on our friend Anne, of the cat Nati. Cathy is also very talented, and with sea glass she picks up along the way, makes very pretty earrings. Happily, Brenda was able to get a very nice “matching” set of earrings and sea bean necklass. The “bean” is called a “hamburger bean” as it has a light stripe with dark sides. Very pretty. Happy Brenda. 
The downside of all the goodbyes was that we left a couple of hours later than we should have to make the run to Cat. 50 miles is a long run to make in a single day and it turned out that while we were able to get to Cat while it was still light out, the sun was setting as we dropped anchor.
While we were able to sail much of the way. we were hard on the wind most of the time, and with a few squalls passing us, we had to contend with some major wind shifts that made sailing impossible for part of the run. All and all, we had a good run but a long day none the less. Unfortunately, Brenda was feeling a bit seasick as the swells were running pretty high, especially in the beginning, so it wasn’t a great run for her. And frankly, I don’t particularly like sailing hard on the wind either.
However, as we dropped the anchor close to shore we were treated to a beautiful sunset and, as an added plus, a lovely moon rise. 
And a lovely moon rise in the eastern twilight. I understand that there will be a partial eclipse of the moon tonight. That will be neat.
Today Brenda and I will likely do a bit of beach combing and perhaps exploring in “town”, such as it is.
Our friends on Kaloonamoo, Bill and Maureen, are joining us here as they are currently underway from Georgetown..
Perhaps we’ll also head up to Father Gerome’s place nearby with them on Tuesday.
Happily, it looks like we will have several days of settled weather here so we will be able to relax and enjoy the solitude here at Cat Island for a bit. Last year, when we visited, we had to run for cover ahead of a wind shift after only two nights. Perhaps our luck will hold this year for a longer stay.
Fingers crossed…