Category Archives: Self-Guided Tourist Activities

Keith’s Perspective on Cat and Eleuthera Islands/ Le point de vue de Keith sur les îles Cat et Eleuthera

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This week has been fun. On Saturday, we walked to the bakery, then did D&D, then went back to the restaurant on the beach that we liked for dinner with a bunch of my friends. 

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi on a marché jusqu’à une boulangerie, joué à Donjons et Dragons, et mangé au restaurant qu’on aime sur la plage pour dîner avec mes amis.

On Sunday, we moved to a place called Fernandez Bay. It was kind of uncomfortable. Everyone else decided to go snorkeling, but instead mom dad and I cruised around this little estuary. On the ride back I was tired, so I fell asleep with my head on the side of the dinghy. But when I woke up, I had the grippy print on my face. After we got back we played D&D aboard a different boat than usual. After dinner we went to Hasteaway and just hung out until 11:45. By the time we got back, dad decided to get the dinghy up, which wasn’t fun in the dark. 

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Boiling Hole/Cathedral Caves and the Pink Beach, Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas

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Continued from yesterday… We reached a sign that said “Cathedral Caves and the Boiling Hole.” It was a short walk down a paved path to the Boiling Hole.

The sign said that it was one of many blue holes on Eleuthera Island. This hole was connected to another blue hole, located offshore about 1/4 mile west. They were connected via a network of underground caves. As the name implied, the water in the hole bubbled and churned as the tides changed. When we walked by, it looked calm.

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Keith’s Perspective on The Bight, Cat Island/Le point de vue de Keith sur The Bight, Cat Island

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This week has been fun. On Saturday, we had lunch with some friends from Baja. The restaurant we went to was meh, but it had a lot of activities. After that we did D&D, but it rained on us. We saw people feeding massive rays. 

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi on a mangé le dejeuner avec des amis de Baja. Le restaurant où on a mangé était moyen, mais il avait beaucoup d’activités. Après le déjeuner on a joué à Donjons et Dragons, mais il nous a plu dessus. On a vu des personnes donner de la nourriture a des grandes raies. 

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Father Jerome’s Hermitage, New Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas

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Sunrise on Friday, April 4

Yesterday, the families agreed to moved to New Bight — the northern part of The Bight Bay — where there were more activities and amenities within easy dinghy/walking distance. Eric had been reluctant to move because we’d heard it was less comfortable in the northern part of the bay, but we couldn’t resist the appeal of more activities/restaurants.

Since we were only moving about 3.5 miles within protected waters, we didn’t do a great job of securing things for sea. We did bring up the dinghy, though. With our dinghy being so lightweight, we didn’t want to take the chance of it flipping it during towing.

We pulled up anchor at about 0830 and by 0915, we were anchored in our new location. As anticipated, up here, the swell and waves came from different directions and it was rolly. We immediately put out the flopper stoppers. With the flopper stoppers out, it was still a tad lurchy, but the motion was fine overall. 

In the early afternoon, the families went for a walk to Father Jerome’s Hermitage. Father Jerome was an Anglican missionary in the Bahamas for over 10 years. He then converted to Catholicism and continued missionary work in Australia. Prior to becoming a missionary, he’d been an architect, and he used his architecture knowledge to build simple, yet beautiful churches. Upon retirement, Father Jerome moved back to the Bahamas and built the Hermitage on the tallest hill in the country, Mt. Alvernia, at 207 feet. He passed away in 1956.

After lunch, we dinghies to shore near the dock. Since the dock was in disrepair, we all beached our dinghies.

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Rafting Down The Rio Grande in Portland, Jamaica

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Thursday, March 6 — Our friends on the Kadey Krogan had recommended that we do a river rafting tour down the Rio Grande, and had recommended a guide. We’d called him a few days ago and had made arrangements for him to pick us up today at 0900. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good communicator. He said the price was $95 for a two-person raft. We were unclear on whether we were renting one raft or two rafts, and if only one raft, if there was a charge for a third person. We were also unclear on whether the cost included transportation to the river. 

At 0900, we were greeted at the marina gate by two men; Michael was our driver and Louis our rafting guide. We left town via the same road that follows East Harbor that we’d taken yesterday, but instead of following the shoreline, he turned inland and took us up the mountain. The road was narrow and full of potholes, but it was scenic. Here is a view of the blue mountains.

As expected, the farther away from town we got, the less dense the homes along the road. While there were some dilapidated homes, the majority appeared to be well built and well cared for.  There were quite a few large homes, as well.

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