"My Cat Island" Tinkerwee's Adventures in Catching Crabs on Cat Island.

It a hot summer’s day, am sitting under the shade of the fig tree impatiently waiting for my share of crab and dough, boiling away in the big iron pot just a few feet away. You have never had a true Bahamian dietary delight until you have some crab and dough. Like Bahamian singer Ronnie Butler said “you gatty get some a dat.” Translation is you must have some of that. Yum, Yum good. But I digress. Before enjoying this savory dish you should enjoy the adventure of catching the native land crab. Scary looking but if handled correctly, quite easy to manage. Chile, you can’t dare call yourself a true, true Cat Islander if you have not been out catching crab. 

Hummm! Let’s delved into the adventure of crab catching.As a preteen, crab catching could have been likened to a social event. Crab catching was done during the raining season, that’s when the crabs came from underground and can be found everywhere. The black crabs inland and the white crabs in swampy areas. 

Catching crabs were done mainly at night. So at dusk, we would  begin our preparations. First by preparing lights to see our way in the darkness. Lights were made by pouring kerosene oil in an empty soda bottle where an old rag was twisted and push down in to absorb the oil then lit with a match. The oldest clothes and shoes were put on, for some no shoes at all. Straw hats on head, old rice sacks over the shoulder and our little rag-tag bunch would be on our merry way. Each house passed, one or two more would join until there was little crowd headed out of town following along like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Once out of town, the fun would begin. Sneaking into corn fields, raiding sugar cane patches, digging sweet up potatoes and cassava for roasting and eating while we sat around the fire until it got dark. Telling  old folk stories, teasing each other about who had a crush on who. Laughing our heads off at how much fruits or crop we got. See we did not consider it stealing. It was just mischief. You see, a few years before we would not have entered any field that had a strange looking bottle fill with odd looking material hanging from a tree.We were told if you ate anything from that field your stomach will swell up really big like a pregnant woman each time there was high tide. It would stay that way until low tide.That scared us to death. As we grew older we realize it was just a ploy to keep us from raiding the farmers’ fields and enjoying the fruits of their hard labour, as we were doing just then. Yep! Crazy, wonderful innocence of the time. Then, as complete darkness descended it was time to light the bottles and begin looking for crabs.

There were unwritten codes, buddy system and rules. We lined up on the narrow dirt road. No one rushed to the front, the first person to catch a crab simply went to the back of the line. If someone went too far into the bushes the person in back of them, patiently waited for the individual to come back out. If person’s light went out you helped them to get it relight. Crabs are caught by approaching it from the back staying away from the claws. They are held down with a big stick or by your feet. Careful now you don’t want to crush the back or it will die quickly before you can get it home. On a good night, we would all hang around until everyone’s sack was full. The sack was placed on the head to be carried home. The straw hats kept the crabs from biting through the sack to your scalp.

Well by now you would realize that that returning home quietly would not be the order of the day. More mischief would naturally follow the way back. We just had to disturb old Mr. Thompson’s sleep. We would all run down past his house then hunch in the bushes. Two persons would sneak back climb his fruit trees and pick as many guinep from his tree as possible. One would run back and hide with the group while the other shook the tree as hard as possible. As expected, out Mr. Thompson would come stick in hand to thrash the daylight out of whoever was in his quinep tree. But no one would be there. There we go, bags on head, giggling along, sharing our ill -gotten gain. Well, there you have it Tinkerwee’s adventures in crab catching Cat Island Bahamas.

You must let Smiling Pat teach you the art of catching crab. You must visit Mary’s Crab Shack, Zonicle Hill where you can sample, some delicious crab and dough and her Bahamas famous stuffed crabs. Ya must get some a dat.

Land crab emerging from its hole after rain.

                            Correct way to hold crabs to avoid                                    those claws.


Guinep fruit

"My Cat Island" Bahamian proverb: why oil and water dont mix.

Why? Why? Why? It never stopped even when my adopted mother said “hush, ga along and sit down chile.” Yep that was me. Why? Why? Why? Again with the whys even when told one morning after mass, “oil and water don’t mix”. This came after my girlfriend and I got caught red handed eating tamarind (a sweet and sour native fruit) during mass, by the priest. We were so busy we had not seen him come down from the altar until he was standing right over us.

Mass was held in this beautiful old building, Holy Redeemer Church in New Bight Cat Island. It was built by Father Jerome a Catholic priest, well known for building a number of historical Roman Catholic churches on several of the Bahama Islands. Read about his life in Peter Anson’s book The Hermit of Cat Island. A fascinating read. He is buried at one of the most historical sites on Cat Island. Mount Alvernia, the highest peak in the Bahamas.

Well, as, usual I got, “hush, ga along and sit down chile.” That got my little brain a thinking. I will find out for myself.  When it rained next I stole some kerosene oil a precious commodity since it was the only means by which we could fuel our lamps at night and some matches. My partner in crime Sarah poured the kerosene in the nearest puddle and proceeded to light it with a match. There was a flash and bye, bye eyebrows, eyelashes and all the hair on my right arm. Needless, to say my arms were singed. 

The fear of explaining what had happened was greater than the pain of being burnt. The long and the short of it all was Sarah and I both got a good whipping for stealing the oil, matches and starting a fire. Yep! Another quote I became quite acquainted with was “spare the rod spoil the child.” I was also sent to the back yard to fetch some Aloe Vera to sooth my burns. Years later I found out what was meant by “oil and water don’t mix”, after Sarah led me into a number scrapes. I can’t really say she led me, I was a willing partner in her escapades. Like the time we decided we were going to walk by sea to another island. Hummm!

Let Smiling Pat Eco Tours take you to Mount Alvernia the highest peak in the Bahamas. Visit Father Jerome’s tomb, stop by Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Introduce you to the Aloe Vera plant, where legend has it, that because of the very nature of its healing properties it was the only plant God allowed Adam and Eve to remove from the Garden of Eden. See Leslie Higgs book, Bush Medicine in the Bahamas. The healing agents in the aloe is such that it is used in hundreds of products, body lotions, tanning lotions, age defying creams etc. Don’t forget to ask Smiling Pat what is meant by the Bahamian proverb “oil and water don’t mix.”

Aloe Vera Plant.

"My Cat Island" Reflections from Tinkerwee

As a child my most delightful evenings were spent around the fire built in front of my home. Thatch roof, walls made of lime stones, wooden windows pushed out held open by the branch cut from the fig tree. Closed at dusk to keep the mosquitos and sandflies out.  We sat out doors to keep cool and gathered around the fire served several reasons. 

The first, and most important was to keep the pesky mosquitos and sandflies at bay. Green leaves were placed on the fire creating smoke. The right leaves gave off a beautiful aroma shooing away the sandflies and mosquitos. I can close my eyes to this very day and time inhale deeply and be carried back to that time and that place. Second, it served as light for the adults (plaiting) interweaving straw to make baskets and hats for the tourist in Nassau. This paid for clothing, groceries and school supplies etc. Third, to roast crops from the field, corn, sweet potato, yams and cassava. The fourth and best of all, to tell old stories and rhymes. I would chase my friends around or try to catch lamplighters (fireflies) until I heard “Hush chile!”  “Once upon a time, a merry old time, monkey chew tobacco and spit white lime.” 

Every child would stop in their tracks. It seemed even the crickets heed that command and stopped chirping. IT’S TIME, IT’S TIME to hear the crafty tales of B’ Bouki an’ B’ Rabby. Hummmm! Would you like to experience some of my childhood adventures first hand? 


Come visit Cat Island. Let smiling Pat Eco Tours take you on an adventure. Feel the warmth of the fire, smell the aroma of leaves on the fire, feel the warm ocean breeze flutter softly on your skin, see the fireflies twinkle in the distance. Hush! Listen! Smiling Pat is about to spin her tales of the how crafty B’ Rabby outwitted poor B’ Bouki yet again. Join in finish the story finish the adventure