Touring Cat Island…had been in the plans. We did justy that, starting after our morning chat with Corinne, the lady manning the Post Office. She seemed alarmed when we told her about our plan ..and was willing to lent us her car…We thanked her kindly and just went our way! And it was such fun! Every car stopped by, one heading in the opposite direction drove backwards to check if we needed any help! One of our drivers was working at the Fernandez Bay resort...so we visited it and chatted with the owner. It is indeed a beautiful small resort, tastefully decorated and with a beautiful beach. Our last drive was with three Cat Islanders who were just cruising (in their truck) around...they stopped at a “mall” to buy liquors (we did too) and had a beer while driving…not an unusual thing here in the islands. We figured that the driver had an expensive truck and was used to have a beer while driving..so we enjoyed a nice and long ride at the back of his brand new Ford Truck up to Arthur’s Town, the second largest settlement of the island …supposedly the birth place of the well know actor Sydney Poitier. We had a wonderful view of the coast line and of the hills. We finally had lunch at a little seaside beach restaurant while chatting with the mother of the owner about the bumper to bumper traffic jams of Nassau…where her children and grand children were living at the moment. The Kalik beer was cold and really refreshing…the view idyllic. The way back to New Bight was fun too: we stopped at the Bennett’s bay school and chatted with Mr. Rolle, teacher of the 5 and 6th graders, then we rode on a large truck, and then we had to walk for about an hour in the sun before getting two other rides, the last one with a young police officer who, luckily, was driving directly to New Bight Police station and our anchorage!

So we can say that Cat Island is NOT a touristic island whose charm lies in its very kind people…if we had rented a car, we might have been disappointed as the vistas are repeating themselves and there is no real center of interest...but, having hitchhiked and met people all along the way made it a fun and richer experience!

And as a closure for this fun day, we met the other cruisers at the beach of the Regatta center for a BBQ and a Rape & Scrape session. Bohold, had talked to us a day previous and kindly agreed to play with his little band on Friday night. Bohold seems to be quite a name of the Rape & Scrape music here in the Bahamas (according to our truck driver) : he explained to us that this music is related to the Cajun music of Louisiana’s bayous (indeed, accordion is not an instrument that we heard in any of the Caribbean islands). It was a fun get together with the other cruisers but also a good opportunity to talk to a couple of locals and hear their barracudas stories!