Berry Islands

On the Bahama Bank

We made our crossing over the Bahama Bank to the Berry Islands from North Bimini the next day as the weather did cooperate.  We motored sailed mostly, as again the wind was on our nose once we turned the corner north of Bimini and headed east. 

It is amazing out there, the water is an incredible green, it’s no more than 20 feet deep for most of the trip over and you can’t see land from any direction.  There was a dolphin that scooted under us that we could see coming from quite a distance as the water is so clear, right to the bottom.  It’s hard to describe the clarity, being able to see the bottom so well from even 20 feet above. 

We ended up on the same trajectory as a sailboat from Newfoundland, heading to the pass around Mackie Shoal about 35 miles east of Bimini.  We chatted on the radio and ended up anchoring in the same area that night, out in the middle of nowhere.  Comfort in numbers with more lights, so less likely to be run over in the night.  The moon rose, nearly full, the wind quit, you could hear other boats motoring around us during the night, quite a surreal experience. 

The next morning, we said our good byes to our anchor buddies as they were continuing onto a different port.  The wind picked up a bit, but this time right behind us, so again we motor sailed to Great Harbour Cay (pronounced Key), and into the marina there, the only one of the Berry Islands. 

 It’s fascinating watching these little scrubs of islands coming into view.  At first they look like upside down moustaches poking up out of the ocean, then gradually more and more bits show up until you get most of a line of trees an odd tower and lastly buildings come into view.   The first impression is how on earth have these islands stayed top side of the ocean through all the hurricanes that have razed this area over the millennia.  Once ashore you realize that under the sand there is a lot of rock hard coral and that’s about all.  They don’t grow crops over here, so most everything eaten is brought in… except for seafood.  This place gets a delivery of food twice a week, mail once a week, but does have an airport that also brings in cargo and people.  They get their water from reverse osmosis; not sure if they collect rain water at all. There is lots of scrub, palm trees, mangrove trees and shrubbery that make the islands green.

Sugar Beach, Great Harbour Cay

Road sign

After we settled into our slip we found out that tonight was potluck night – everyone around brings something and we gather at the gazebo. It is a great place to meet sailors, and we do.  There are a lot of great people here.  The marina management goes to great lengths to make people comfortable, they have several activities happening during the week; besides potluck night, pizza night on Thursdays made by a local restaurant, Grill and chill on Friday night.  This week they had a Valentines dinner at the little hall they have here.  Tonight, there is another dinner we can sign up for at the little bakery shop down the dock if we choose.

The Valentines dinner was fun; the little hall was adorned with all sorts of Valentines decorations hanging from the ceiling, little vases of decoration

s and flowers on the tables.  The meal was ok, guess I’m spoiled, it was either a half stuffed Cornish hen or roast beef, potatoes and carrots.  The dessert was guava cake, that was yummy.

Across the Cay from the marina is an amazing beach that sprawls for miles in either direction.  The bay is also an anchorage depending on the wind direction, but mostly no one is there. It’s a short 15 minute walk to get there and just up the beach from the access path is a quaint little beach bar.  How rough is that… we went over to the beach with a couple of our neighbours for a swim then wandered up to the bar for a cold one.  The bar also sells breakfast and lunch, supposedly quite good; it’s all outside, plastic chairs, I guess for wet bottoms that have been swimming… like us and $4 beer.

Looking out from the Beach Bar

more beach,....

The marina has bikes that we used to peddle around the island.  There are little roads all over the place, the main ones paved, the others not and are either sand or the coral rock is chipped away in an attempt at a road.  There are a couple small little grocery shops, a pub/restaurant, police station, a government dock that receives the mail and supply boats, a bunch of homes, an airport and that’s about it.  Oh, there is an eighteen hole golf course here as well; I don’t think Tiger Woods will be playing here anytime soon, though it certainly would be a challenge. The airport is busy, as we hear small planes coming and going most days.  At the top end of the Berry Islands a few cruise ship companies have bought two of the islands and they stop here, a couple ships at a time, and take their passengers to shore to play on the beach and in the water, snorkeling, parasailing and such.  This helps with the local economy of the area as lots of locals commute out to these islands to work with the passengers.

Momma and baby Manatee

As I mentioned on Facebook, we are ‘stuck’ here waiting for our fridge parts to arrive, with luck mid-week next. It’s not a bad place to be stuck for sure with all that’s going on here.  We still have parts of the island that we haven’t been to yet including a Cay that has excellent shelling beaches and reefs to snorkel along.  

Our fridge had been making a beeping sound as it tried to start up.  We called the manufacturer, giving the model etc., his response was that version was older than he was and that it was kapootz.  Lovely.  There are no repair kits available either, so we bit the bullet and ordered a new kit.  We got a better deal and service from a distributor in Seattle than we could in Florida, go figure, and Florida was not willing to negotiate, so he didn’t get our business.  It was quite the chore getting the logistics sorted out to get the bits here, as part of its journey will be by air from Florida to here.  The bonus is that the new kit will be far more energy efficient than the old one, so we wait.

A few of our neighbours went out with a local fellow the other day to find Conch, and boy did they,… 70 of them.  I think they regret taking so many, as it turns out that the conch are being overfished a bit, and who needs that many.  The conch didn’t go to waste as there is a fellow at the end of the marina that has a little stand that makes fresh conch salads.  I haven’t tried one… I’m not one for raw seafood, but the word is that it’s great.

Can you find our cute little boat

The neighbours went out again a day or so ago and ended up on the shallow banks in low tide and were somewhat stuck.  Back at the marina we had noticed that they weren’t back and after discussion Al and another fellow went out in his little Boston Whaler looking for them.  It’s getting dark and finally one of the group came back and told the story of what was going on out there. Al and Don were sticking with the other two dinghies to help them get into the harbour in the dark.  A lesson learned by all about going out with the proper equipment at all times.  Thankfully the night was calm on the water.

They picked up only a few conch this time and some with incredible markings on them, very different than the regular pink ones that are everywhere.  They gave one of them to us, which we are trying to clean, or it will stink.  There are all kinds of interesting experiments happening amongst us, with different methods being employed to get the conch meat out in its entirety, from hanging one up by the foot, tossing another back into the water (it’s dead) and let the fish clean it out, soaking it in bleach, boiling it.  The verdict is still out on the best way to clean them to be able to keep the shell and not have the stink.

Conch cleaning crew...

 Yesterday we went with the neighbours on their big stink pot with 3 other folks to find a snorkeling spot on the other side of this island.  The journey entailed heading north from Great Harbour Cay and around the northern tip of the Berry Islands before heading down the other side to end up on the opposite side of the island we are currently staying at.  It took nearly 2 hours to get there and of course the wind is pretty brisk, not bad though.  We passed two big cruise ships and their little shuttle boats that were taking their passengers back and forth, to shore and back.  The beaches on that islands were littered with rows and rows of beach chairs and umbrellas and folks playing in the water.  Not sure of what all is available to the passengers once on shore, but there were lots of them on the beach.

We finally got to our destination, dropped the hook, ate a spot of lunch then took the plunge snorkeling for a bit before climbing back aboard.  When we headed back, we encountered a batch of cranky water.   There were a few 6 foot waves, but more that were smaller, so it was a rocky ride before we got around the tip of the Islands and heading back down the west side to Great Harbour Cay.  We were quite glad to be in the big stink pot, as it could have been a bit intense in anything smaller. 

So we will be here until our fridge parts come in…. gee darn…