Continuing adventures on Cat Island

The crew of Carosy, Carole and Hugh, joined us for another adventure by car on Cat Island on the 25th. It was great to see them again after a couple of months! They had headed home to the Cayman Islands in December for the holidays, returned back the Abacos to the boat after New Year’s, and now we just happened to cross paths on Cat.

First things first, we had to stop at the grocery store to sign the car rental paperwork and pick up some snacks.

We drove south, and stopped at a beautiful beach on the southern edge of the island, on French Bay / Devil’s Point. There were lots of reefs right offshore, and the waves were crashing in.

Next we drove west along the shoreline, and stopped at another beach further down, which isn’t far from that first one but certainly looked quite different!

We found a bunch of coconuts at the beach, too, but had nothing to open them with. After a few attempts we decided to just chuck all of them in the trunk and deal with them later on.

We headed all the way west to the Hawk’s Nest Marina, and getting there required us to cross the airstrip runway (which just felt wrong, but it worked out!) Then we realized Ragged Dragon was at the dock, so we stopped to say hi. It started raining as we were chatting, and they welcomed us on the boat while the storm passed.

We drove back east and north past where we started, to have lunch at Fernandez Bay.

Now it was time to drive south again, but this time to go east and see the other half of the southern shore. We found a route to a beach through a lot that was for sale. Someone’s going to have some nice waterfront!

Next we explored the ruins of an 18th century cotton plantation. It was once an antebellum-style mansion, home to Colonel Andrew Deveaux, a Loyalist and veteran of the American Revolutionary War. The land was gifted to him to thank him for helping to protect and recapture Nassau from Spanish invasion and occupation.

We also stopped off at the Healing Hole, a big salt lake that is said to have healing properties.

We tried to go to an infamous beach bar called Da Pink Chicken, but sadly it was Thursday and they weren’t open. We walked around to check things out, and happened to meet the owner. We thought he might say, “well heck, you’re here, and I have cold beer,” but nope. It was an interesting place regardless.

Back to New Bight we went, for sundowners to close out the day.