{"id":2990,"date":"2014-04-16T13:51:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T13:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2014-04-16T13:55:14","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T13:55:14","slug":"father-geromes-hermitage-and-a-beach-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2990","title":{"rendered":"Father Gerome’s Hermitage and a beach bar."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday morning and a lovely day at anchor off of Cat Island in the central Bahamas.\u00a0 Last year, when we visited Cat, we had to leave abruptly when there was a wind shift coming that would make staying anchored\u00a0uncomfortable, or perhaps\u00a0dangerous.\u00a0 Happily, this year we have already been here for three nights and the weather is still good.\u00a0 Imagine that\u2026<\/p>\n

Yesterday, accompanied by our friends Maureen and Bill of Kalunamoo, (I finally figured out how to spell the name of their boat, I think.) we visited Father Gerome\u2019s Hermitage.\u00a0 The Hermitage, Father Gerome\u2019s retirement home, is perched on the highest peak in the Bahamas, a whopping 202 feet above sea level. Not particularly high but the view from there is still pretty impressive. \u00a0 Pandora\u2019s out in the distance with a handful of other boats.\"\"<\/a>As I stood up on the peak I found myself wondering what the winter winds would feel like to live in such an exposed stone structure.\u00a0 But wait, it\u2019s the Bahamas and winter winds are in the 80s.\u00a0 Oh yeah, nice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, Father Gerome was not a guy who needed a lot of creature comforts.\u00a0 His bed, if you can call it that, was just a small depression in the floor of one of the main rooms.\u00a0 Not sure Brenda would go for that.\u00a0 No wait, she WOULDN\u2019T like it at all.\u00a0 I\u2019d say that it was quite \u201chermit like\u201d, actually.<\/p>\n

Not only were his living conditions pretty spartan, he wanted to be sure that it was pretty uncomfortable to get to his place. \u00a0The path, if you could call it that, was quite steep at the end.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>The Hermitage looks quite grand from a distance with lovely proportions and architectural details.\u00a0 Gerome was a gifted amateur architect. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At first glance you really think it\u2019s a grand structure.\u00a0 However, here\u2019s Bill standing alongside. \u00a0It\u2019s actually more like a large scale model, that you could live in, assuming, of course, that you are an old hermit that loves to be uncomfortable. \u00a0Can you say “hair shirt”?\"\"<\/a><\/span>The windows, carved into the stone sides, have modest shutters. I\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0resist peeking\u00a0out for a \u201cKodak moment\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No wait, Kodak?\u00a0 Perhaps it was a \u201cdigital moment\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever\u2026\"\"<\/a>Down toward shore there is an area where some farming is going on.\u00a0 In spite of the dry conditions, bananas are grown in some depressions on the ground.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how much fruit grows on a single stalk.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>We also took a walk down the road running along shore for a bit of lunch.\u00a0\u00a0 These \u201cdining establishments\u201d, no make that bars, are very modest wooden structures right on the beach.\u00a0 Pretty basic.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>However, they do quite a solid lunch business.\"\"<\/a><\/span>Yet another view of Pandora framed nicely. \"\"<\/a>As a reminder that all wasn’t always so peaceful here in the Bahamas, we saw some cotton plants from the days when the Loyalists, following the American Revolution, brought their slaves here and tried to set up plantations. \u00a0Alas, it didn’t work as there just wasn’t enough water here to make a go of it.\"\"<\/a>There are ruins everywhere. \u00a0Building abandoned. \u00a0And, they are often right next to a more modern structure. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Many churches on the island. \u00a0Often many out buildings and more like “compounds” as modest as they are.\"\"<\/a>Some cute little shops but they always seem to be closed. \u00a0Brenda liked this building, in particular. \u00a0And painted brightly, as is their custom.\"\"<\/a>The wind was kicking up for the afternoon so we got pretty well splashed on our way back to Pandora.\u00a0 Nothing new there.\u00a0\u00a0 However, as sunset approached, things settled down and we were treated to a spectacular sunset.\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s Kalunamoo framed against a beautiful setting sun.\u00a0 Pretty dramatic.\u00a0 \u00a0If you\u2019re thinking \u201cBob, if you\u2019ve seen one sunset, you\u2019ve seen them all\u201d than you had to be there.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>Oh yeah, two nights ago we set an alarm for 03:00 and got up to see the lunar eclipse.\u00a0 It was amazing.\u00a0 Brenda stayed up longer and was treated to a number of beautiful meteors streaking across the moon and even a satellite.\u00a0\u00a0 Me, I craved sleep and missed much of the fun. It\u2019s not often that you can view such an amazing event from aboard with such a panoramic view. \u00a0Pretty special.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our plans for the next few days are a bit up in the air but we\u2019ll be speaking with Bill and Maureen later to decide.\u00a0 Happily, the next few days are looking great with moderate winds and fair skies so we have a number of good options on where to go, or not go.\u00a0\u00a0 After a winter spent constantly dodging cold fronts, we are ready for some benign conditions and that\u2019s what we have.\u00a0 That\u2019s good, very good.<\/p>\n

And, if that\u2019s not enough, Rob and Kandice join us in Staniel Cay in about a week and a half.\u00a0 Perfect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday morning and a lovely day at anchor off of Cat Island in the central Bahamas.\u00a0 Last year, when we visited Cat, we had to leave abruptly when there was a wind shift coming that would make staying anchored\u00a0uncomfortable, or perhaps\u00a0dangerous.\u00a0 Happily, this year we have already been here for three nights and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}