The Berry Islands

We passed by Chub Cay at the southern most point of the Berry Islands at around 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, Mar 23 and had a nice sail a bit to the north and on up to Frazier’s Hog Cay to the Berry Island Club where we tied up to one of their moorings. The “book” said they charged $15 a night but we found that they had raised the price to $25 and that that the place was under renovation—no bathrooms, but a quite primitive shower. Still, it was nice to have some shore side facilities, especially the shower. Oh yeah, the restaurant was closed because they had no rest rooms—oh well. The anchorage was quite pretty and we were surrounded by different water colors from the deep blues to the very light, light blue that the Bahamas is so famous for. We dinghied around a bit, found a nice white beach, but nothing particularly noteworthy other than a lot of very shallow water. We spent that night and the next day and night on the mooring as we contemplated our next destination and made friends with the Mainiacs (from Maine) aboard a nicely restored 1976 Morgan Out Island 41 center cockpit sloop, “Door # 3” It was owned by Lee and his wife, Susan, and they were accompanied by Lee’s sister Lynn and her friend Sharon who had flown in to Bimini and joined them for a trek on down to Nassau. Fun people!!
Next day it was on to our present anchorage about 25 miles north in a little cove between the north end of Devil’s Cay and the south end of Hoffman’s Cay, bordered by small White’s Cay and Fowl Cay. This is truly one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been. I hope the photos do it at least some justice. Each of the surrounding Cays is a little bit hilly providing beautiful vistas of both the cove and the Atlantic, leading down to gorgeous white sand beaches. The waters are fairly well protected and the holding is good in patches of sandy bottom about 9 feet deep. The best part is that there are very few other boats here.
There was a beautiful power cat anchored here when we arrived but no one else. We got to know the couple aboard her. They are Glen Cooper and wife, Pam Rickard. They have been cruising a variety of vessels for many years and just took delivery of this one just a couple of months ago. In addition to getting to know them, which was treat enough, they also invited us to conch fishing/diving/snorkeling in the shallow waters of the banks just off to our west. We spent the morning gathering 6 quite large conch and the afternoon learning how to clean them---we are now experts. We had planned on going after some lobster (diving with a weapon called a “Hawaiian Sling”—kind of a sling shot that shoots a 4 foot spear---but ran out of time---perhaps another day. I’m sorry to have missed the opportunity to go with someone experienced. I’ve got all the equipment, just need some instruction.
Later that evening Glen and Pam invited us aboard their boat “Cacique”for fresh conch salad, prepared by Glen and topped off with fritters prepared by Diane. The conch salad is made with raw conch, diced, and mixed with fresh veggies, orange juice, lime juice and a bunch of other stuff-kind of like cerviche. It was incredible, as was Diane’s conch fritters—they were unquestionably the best I’ve ever had—anywhere---or maybe it was just the over-all ambiance of the day and the evening. The whole thing was a perfect example of what we have been looking forward to on this trip. Thanks, Glen and Pam for a magical day and evening.
The previous day Diane and I had dinghied around to the various beaches and islands on a mission of discovery and enjoyed a couple of beautiful and very private beaches and a walk up one of the islands to the “Blue Hole” pictured herein—very kewl. This is truly an idyllic place.
Today, after 3 beautiful days in this gorgeous spot we tried to venture out into the Atlantic to return to Chub Cay where we plan to rent a slip for a night or two to reprovision and refuel in preparation for our last few days here and the return to Bimini. We’ve been virtually on the hook for the last 7 days and six nights and we need to top off the batteries, get food and refill our water tanks—we’re down to our last 20 gallons of water plus the emergency 5 gallons that I carry on deck. We poked our nose out into the Atlantic and turned south to encounter strong winds—again on our nose---and 4 to 5 foot seas opposing us, so we turned around and came back in to wait for some smoother conditions. Glen has offered to help us with water if we run out—they have a 40 gallon per hour water maker on their boat. Unless we’re delayed any longer than this one day we should be all right—sure could use a good, long, hot shower though. So, we’ll suffer through this one more day and evening in Paradise, before we start heading back toward civilization. It’s a tough choice---let’s see---paradise—shower; paradise—shower; paradise—shower---Paradise wins!! Life is indeed good!!