Day 6, Thursday

Leaving day. I got up at 7 AM and started packing my stuff. Hope, of course, didn’t like that I was up so early, but what can I say? I was ready to get this over with. Our taxi was right on time, although it was not who we expected. Leslie told us to expect the illusive Omar. But yet again, we got the same taxi driver we had on the way in. This was just one of several things that didn’t happen as expected or was just a little bit backwards. Did Omar even exist? The French Canadians said he did, but they’re French so you just never know. Je plaisante!

We arrived at Arthur’s Town Airport about an hour early after the 25 minute, $45 taxi ride. And just so we would have one more of those “not as expected” moments, we see Ned walking around the airport parking lot. What was he doing here? And why couldn’t he have given us a ride? We never found out but think we gave another group a ride. Who knows for sure.

The flight took off at 9:50, hopped over to New Bight Airport, and then headed to Nassau. We were warned many times that Nassau was slow and that you needed 3 hours to make your connection. We had 2 hours. But it all worked out. Customs was a breeze and we were off to get some normal food in the airport – Wendy’s for Hope and Quizno’s for me.

We took off around 1 PM and landed in Charlotte around 3 PM. All was well and we were almost home.

Day 5, Wednesday

Today we slept in as late as possible, I think around 8:30 AM. I actually woke up way earlier and just laid in bed and finished my book. Today was a pretty lazy day. We went to the beach for a while and then came back to make lunch. We decided to try and cook that Tile fish we bought from Paul. I attempted to cut some fillets out it, rubbed it down with Old Bay, and then grilled it. It really wasn’t all that bad, but Hope couldn’t eat much of it because of the Mercury levels in Tile fish.

Back to the beach for a while. We made arrangements to meet Leslie at the PCBC office at 4 PM to check out and print off our boarding passes, so we had a few hours to kill on the beach. I wanted to snorkel around today, but the water was a little rough so we just relaxed.

At about 4:20 we headed to the office and took care of business. We settled all of our tabs, Leslie arranged our taxi for the morning, and the boarding passes were printed. When we got back to the Boat House, I noticed the water was up again in Alligator Creek. I decided to make one more attempt to find the channel that Ned talked about that supposedly had all the wildlife in it. No luck. I paddled against the wind and current for over an hour, until the Boat House was just a dot in the distance behind me. I never found water more than a few feet deep. I did, however, finally see a sea turtle. Ahead of me I saw a dark shadow in the water. It was moving so fast, and the water so shallow, that I assumed it was a flounder. But, when the canoe drifter closer I could see that it was indeed a turtle. I always assumed turtles were slow and lazy, but as soon as I got my camera out, this guy darted away in the blink of an eye. No luck for a picture.

I finally made it back to the Boat House and Hope had already patted out the turkey burgers. And mmm mmm did they look good. Ok, not really. I loaded them up with more Old Bay and salt and threw them on the grill. They weren’t terrible, but like most of the food we had, it just wasn’t great. We were definitely eager to get home and get some pizza.

After dinner we waited until dark and I took Hope out to find another one of those huge crabs. We walked for a bit but Hope got bored before we found anything. She would not make a good hunter.

That was pretty much it for our last night. We cleaned up and watched a little more of a movie before going to bed.

Day 4, Tuesday

I woke up even extra early this morning. I wanted to catch the sunrise at the beach so I was up and out by 6:30 AM. Much to my chagrin, the sunrise isn’t all that great. It rises behind the trees and not over the water, so there wasn’t much to take pictures of.

I got back to the house, woke up Hope, ate breakfast, and we headed off on our bikes to the cemetery to do some snorkeling. I thought it was pretty cool – like being in a huge aquarium, except that there weren’t a ton of fish to look at it. We saw some yellow ones, blue ones, a flounder, and some other non-descript ones. Hope bailed out early; not cool enough for her. I continued on for a few more minutes. I have to admit it was a little scary not knowing what you might find when you swim up over the next mound of coral.

When I finished we hung around for a while and took some photos, then made the bike trek back home. We made lunch and then hit the beach. Hope baked in the hot sun for quite a while. I fell asleep reading my tantalizing, borrowed book, Sleeping With Fear.

Around 3:30 we walked over to the PCBC honor bar to see if there was any life around. We didn’t find much, except for Ned. He filled us in on Yardis, our dinner choice for the evening, and explained that Alligator Creek does indeed have a deep channel to it, we just didn’t paddle far enough to get there. I may try again tomorrow.

When we got back to the Boat House, we called Yardis to place an order. Hope ordered the Snapper, I ordered the Jerk Pork. The nice lady told us that the snapper included the head, but that she would kindly remove it for us. I thanked her.

At 6:15 we picked up the car and drove off to Yardis. We assumed we would eat there, but upon arrival realized our order was packed up and ready for take out, so we paid and drove off. Hope said hers was very fishy smelling, but tasted pretty good. Mine was good but very spicy hot.

After quickly finishing our meal, we ran to the beach to try to snap some shots of the sunset. I only had time for a couple pictures before it was over. Back to the house for some rest and relaxation.

I decided to head out to the beach under the moonlight just to check things out and see if there were any nocturnal creatures creeping around. And in fact there were! On the path through the dunes, I heard a crinkling noise in the bush. I turned around with my flash light and saw the biggest land crab I had ever seen! It had pinchers like a lobster. This wasn’t a ghost crab (those white crabs you see on the beach). It was a different kind, although I don’t know the official name. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera so I never got a picture of it. Out on the beach, all was quiet. The moon was shining so bright that my flashlight wasn’t necessary. I walked for a little ways, got bored, and then went back home.

Day 3, Monday

This morning started early just like yesterday. I immediately noticed that the tide was up in Alligator Creek, and Hope agreed to try another canoe ride with me after a quick breakfast. Unfortunately, even though the water was up it still wasn’t very deep. We ended the trip after about an hour total.

Next we decided to ride our bikes to Alligator Point. Ned told us we could ride our bikes, about 4 miles, to the end of the peninsula we were on. This was a disaster. Much of the road was sand too thick to ride bikes through. We had to walk our bikes, then ride about 20 feet until we got stuck in more sand. After 35 minutes or so Hope turned around. She was not enjoying herself at all. Frankly, neither was I. But I wanted to push on. I had gone this far. The road only got worse, but I made it to the end after about 30 minutes more. The highlight was a nesting Osprey. I took lots of pictures. However, I’m still learning my camera and most of the pictures turned out blurry. Bummer.

The ride/walk back was dreadful. I was not happy. It felt like it was uphill the whole time and it was hot! I finally made it back to the Beach House. Hope was already at the beach. I stayed at the house for a while and cooled off, made some lunch for myself and Hope, and headed back to the beach.

We stayed at the beach for a few hours, laid around, snorkeled some, and then headed back to the house.

Then, I decided to take a short bike ride to the cemetery and check out the snorkeling conditions. Ned told us there was a spot near the cemetery that had some good snorkeling, and I wanted to see how long the bike ride was and if it would be as hard as the last bike ride. To my delight, it was an easy ride and the snorkeling looked like fun. Our next adventure was set!

On the way back, I stopped at PCBC and met Leslie. She had been out of town with her kids but just arrived the night before. We chatted for a while before I headed back home.

For dinner we made grilled chicken and baked potatoes. Quite nice! I attempted to take some sunset photos but the sun was setting behind some clouds tonight. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Right now we’re watching a little Andy Griffith and Hope is already asleep on the couch.

Day 2, Sunday

Morning came early. The sun rises right into our bedroom and the curtains are very thin. But we didn’t mind.

For breakfast we had oatmeal, cereal, and peanut butter and jelly toast.

Shortly thereafter, the Reverend, aka the fruit guy, pulled up to the Boat House to offer us a delectable assortment of fruit and vegetables out of his pickup truck. Many dollars later, we had a few pieces of fruit to eat.

We immediately headed over to PCBC to talk to Ned. Hope had questions and needed answers. Ned made a deal with us. If we took his staff home at 12, we could have the car at no charge and do some more grocery shopping as well as try to find Tito’s and buy some fresh fish.

After leaving PCBC, Hope went to the beach and I headed to the Alligator Creek to do some canoeing. This was the worst canoeing experience ever. I saw no wild life and the water was only about 6 inches deep the whole way. I had to drag the canoe through muck and mire.

Hope met another couple from Montreal that were staying at PCBC. They were French Canadians, Carl and Melanie. They chatted for a bit and that was that.

At 12 o’clock we were at PCBC picking up the staff. Ned mentioned that he was sending another couple (the Canadians) off to the Smoke Pot for dinner tonight and that he would ask them if we could join them and split the cost of the car. We thought that sounded good.

We headed north and the ladies told us all the things we were passing. We dropped off the second staffer in Arther’s Town, and then continued north to Orange Creek Grocery store. We spent around $50 on just a few sacks of groceries.

On the way back we stopped at Titos. Unfortunately, Tito was still at church. However, Paul, a Bob Marley type of guy was walking down the street. We offered him a ride and he said he knew where we could get some fish. So, we took him a bit past PCBC to The Bluff where he called for his friend. Unfortunately, his friend did not have any Snapper, which is what we were looking for. He did, however, have some Tile Fish, so we bought one – for twenty dollars! We have no clue if it will be any good (and found out later that Hope can’t eat Tile Fish because of Mercury).

When we got back to PCBC, Ned let us know that we were “dialed in.” Meaning, everything was a go for the Smoke Pot and he had ordered us the crawfish, which is actually Spiny Lobster. We were in for an expensive night!

We met the frenchies back at PCBC at 6:45 and headed back north to Arther’s Town. Melanie and Carl were very cool. They actually just got engaged and were next flying to Hawaii.

After getting a little lost, we landed at the Smoke Pot. We weren’t sure we were at the right place, though, because there wasn’t a sign and there was no one else there. But Melanie asked, and we were at the right place. We got some drinks, pulled up some chairs at a table outside, and chatted. After a little while, several plates arrived loaded with a huge lobster tails, salad, and baked potato. And it was really good! When finished, we got our bill – only $42! We couldn’t believe it. That was cheap for this island!

Afterwards, the cooks played us a little Rake ‘n Scrape music. Rake n’ Scrape is a type of music indigenous to Cat Island, and produced using a screw driver scraped along a saw blade, along with drums and usually an accordion. There's a video of the Rake 'N Scrape here.

We got home around 9:30 and hit the sack. It had been a long day.

Day 1, Saturday

Today our trip to Cat Island, Bahamas, begins. See this site for more information about Cat Island. We left Greenville at 8 AM. On the way Hope mentioned that she had that feeling that she forgot something. I usually get that feeling too. But this time I didn’t have it and I told Hope that I was certain I had remembered everything.

We flew out of Charlotte to Nassau at 11:30 AM. We expected to fly from Nassau to Cat Island via Cat Island Air at 3:30 PM. However, Cat Island Air is out of business and no one bothered to tell us. Luckily, a nice agent of SkyBahamas managed to find us a flight and we made it to Cat Island on time.

Upon arriving at New Bight International Airport, we were to look for Omar, the taxi driver. However, the locals at the airport told us Omar was not a taxi driver, and he wasn’t there anyways. Someone else gave us a ride. The ride cost $50, plus $10 because we stopped at the grocery store. The grocery store was very basic. We got a few essentials, like mac n cheese and pbj.

After more than 30 minutes of driving north through the island and many of the settlements, we arrived at the Boat House. The Boat House is a raised house with a huge wrap-around porch. The inside consists of just two rooms: the main living area complete with kitchen, couch, tv, and library, and the bedroom and bathroom.

See pictures of the Boat House here. The official Boat House website is here. And I've got a video tour of the Boat House here.

After we freshened up, we took our bikes, Hell On Wheels and Lady Luck, and rode about 200 yards to the Pigeon Cay Beach Club (PCBC) and introduced ourselves to Ned, the owner of PCBC and manager of the Boat House. Ned is very cool, very laid back, and very island. He gave us some information and we headed back to the house. I've got a video tour of PCBC here (remember, we were not official guests of PCBC, so the tour is very basic).

Next, we took a walk over the dunes to check out our private beach. The beach was amazing. The sand was white like powdered sugar, and the water was crystal clear. Stepping over the dunes took our breath away every single time. I've never seen water look so blue and so perfect. See pictures of the beach here. I've got a video tour of the beach here.

For dinner we made mac n cheese and hot dogs. Quite the island affair!

Finally, we made use of the outdoor shower and then started to watch a movie, Double Jeopardy. By this time it was dark and we were tired. Remember how I said that I had not forgotten anything? Well after my shower I realized I had forgotten to pack something important – my underwear! It turns out, though, that in the Bahamas all you really need is a bathing suit, so just call me Commando Chris from here on out!