The Joys of Cat Island

We anchored in Fernandez Bay after our ocean voyage from Conception. We had been to Cat the first year that we sailed in The Bahamas but not since then. The first year we had rented a car and discovered Fernandez Bay where there is a lovely resort. The bay is a nice anchorage; however it can also get a bit rolly as we discovered during our second night. This vist to Cat was such a pleasure as we discovered many creeks and mangroves to paddle with lots of wild life.
Right next to the resort is a great paddle up a mangrove creek and we took our lunch and explored much of the area until the dropping tide forced us back to the main creek. We happened upon three good sized green turtles who put on quite a show for us. They kept swimming around the same area and even poking their heads out of the water to take a peak at the big white fish that was hovering in their creek.

Before leaving Cat we decided that it might be a good idea to visit a clinic for a post puncture wound follow up. We anchored near the clinic in Smith Bay and paddled ashore. You never know until you get to the clinic whether there might be a doctor as the doctor rotates from clinic to clinic during the week. We happened to hit the day that Dr. Adderly was in smith Bay so we were very happy. Both the doctor and nurse felt that my wound was looking very good....in fact the nurse called it gorgeous. That is not a term that I would use to describe it; however it was nice to be told that what we were doing was working. The doctor prescribed another two weeks of antibiotics just to be on the safe side and a new topical antibiotic ointment. We left the clinic with 2 litres of saline solution to mix with peroxide, a bottle of peroxide, a two week prescription of Augmentum (a combination of amoxicillan plus clavulanic acid to fight bacteria that are penicillin resistant) , a tube of Bactroban ointment, 3 vaginal ovules in case I get a yeast infection as a result of all of these antibiotics, several packages of non stick bandaids, a wad of dressings, gauze, tape etc. and this time the bill was $60.00. Rob only had two fifty dollar bills and the clinic couldn't make change so the nurse said $50.00 was fine. You have to love The Bahamas.

After our clinic visit we picked up a few groceries at a local store and headed back to the boat and motored up the coast of Cat Island and anchored off of Alligator Point. It was like a sight seeing trip by car and we enjoyed our lazy afternoon. Alligator Point reaches out into the bay for a couple of miles so we took a lunch with us and paddled all along the coast. At the end of the point we saw a large osprey sitting on a nest. Our plan was to paddle into a creek access at the tip of the point but between the wind and the current we knew we wouldn't be able to go too far. The creek was beautiful and in the right conditions it looked like you could paddle a long way. The water was so clear that it felt like we were paddling in an aquarium. We wanted to go further but we knew we had to paddle back against the wind...always a challenge in constant trade winds.

From Cat we had a good sail to Little San Salvador. Little San Salvador is a private island owned by the Holland Cruise Ship Lines. The ship comes into the cove and people spend the day on the beach where there a Disney Land of things to do. The last time we were there we had watched a cruise ship arrive; however this time we missed all the entertainment. We did however see this big ship off of the Eleutheran coast.