ST CATHERINES BEACH
After spending some time at Tobacco Bay, we decided to walk down the street, toward the forts, and head to Achilles Bay. However, at the end of the street, we came across this beach and it was so beautiful that we knew we had to stay awhile.
This place was just an absolutely breathtaking beach. It was just gorgeous and so deserted! There were only a handful of people there and I thought that was weird for such a gorgeous beach.
We found a spot along the edges by the palm trees for shade and put our towels and things down. I headed over to a "shack" that was being built and ask the workers (who I swear were Mexican and had a Spanish accent) what beach this was. We were at Fort St Catherine otherwise known as Gates Bay Beach. I ask about the chairs (as you can see in one of my pictures they are all stacked up) and he said "they're free". Ok then. He said he has never seen anyone here renting them and everyone that comes here just takes them and pulls them out to the beach. Then of course said..."go ahead and take them". LOL
I went back and told the guys and they looked all the way down there, then looked at where they had everything put down already, looked back at the chairs again and said "I'll pass". LOL Lazy I tell ya.
Meanwhile, the kids have already headed out to the water of course...with Sakari in the lead as always.
Time for a selfie at this beach and man was I a hot mess from snorkeling all day then walking in the hot sun to this location. You can tell if it's hot by my hair frizz. LOL
I really loved the fort as the backdrop to this beach. It really made for some nice pictures. The streaked clouds were an added plus.
We did take our snorkeling mask down here with us to at least check out the area.
There were tons of little fish everywhere...but really not much to see unless I imagine you went out a ways.
The kids had fun looking around in the water up and down the beach.
It was pretty wavy since it wasn't a protected cove area, but it wasn't as bad as Horseshoe Bay.
It did kind of worry me here though because it was one of those beaches that the minute you step in the water there's a drop. You can tell by this picture that it got deeper right away by Shayla being there and Kendra and they were not sitting down. You can see it's all the way up to Braydens neck where he was at and Kendra was actually swimming instead of standing up.
Beaches like this just make me nervous. It's easy to get carried out and away fast.
We walked back over to where our stuff was and I informed everyone that it was time to "move on". LOL The looks I get from others when I say this and they just got comfortable laying down. Billy looked up at me and said "Do you known how long it took me to carve the sand out from under my belly and then build up around my neck to lay perfectly in the sand?" LOL Oops. Never a dull or restful moment if you are on vacation with me.
So this is definitely a very nice beach and not at all crowded. It would make a perfect beach day if you are looking for a place to go with no crowds. The only draw back is there's no concession stand for drinks or food (I assume that's what they are building at the moment) and there's no restroom that I seen. Free chairs though...according to the workers. :D
I was almost positive from my research that Achilles Bay was to the left of the fort so we headed back out on the road that brought us there and seen something that said a beach house something or other and had a building there. We headed in that direction hoping that we weren't about to invade someone's property.
Click here for my review of Achilles Bay