The Berry Islands

We chose to go to the Berry islands as we heard they were lots of secluded anchorages and few boats. This turned out to be quite true and wonderful. We spent one night at the marina on Great Harbor Cay which was interesting. We saw stacks and stacks of conch shells but were unable to sleuth out any snorkeling around. The plethora of fish under the boat was quite entertaining. Graham encountered a manatee under Leela at the dock when he went fishing for Janaki's glasses one morning. What a surprise, plus he recovered the glasses!

The bar at the marina was quite a scene. It was open mid morning and three locals were sitting on barstools drinking beer in a 12x12 ft dimly lit room. We had only wished it were a bit later and we would have joined in the colorful scene but alas we decided to walk to "town". 

On the way, we were offered a ride by a young man driving into town. We declined partially because we weren't quite certain we were going into town or to the beach. We talked about the missed opportunity to meet the locals so 5 minutes later when another car stopped to offer us a ride, of course we simultaneously smiled and jumped in. We still hadn't decided whether we were going to the beach or town but our ganga smoking, beer drinking friend had an idea for us. He took us 1 mile away to a driveway and dropped us  at  our own beach where he promised we would have the place to ourselves and indeed we did. The Beach Club was, until 2 weeks ago, a full on beach bar with a sound system, good sized bar, and running water and an outdoor shower! Indeed it looked like it had been abandoned for at least a year, but it was all ours and the fresh water outdoor shower still worked, wohoo. Unlimited fresh water showers are quite a luxury when you are cruising.(note: us off the term "fresh" water in the Bahamas has different meaning. In this case the public water system was a sulfur smelling brackish well water  marginally fit for cleaning but not fit for drinking. Drinking water was either from bottles  or RO water  which cost about $0.50/gallon throughout the islands). The 3 mile crescent beach was also incredibly beautiful so we decided it was the perfect place to sail Kuivato around to and anchor off of our private beach club for three days. 

We finally got quite "hangry" and walked the 2 miles back into town where we had lunch at Miss Cooley's, one of two restaurants on the entire island. As we walked onto the deck over looking the Atlantic Ocean,  there sat Janaki and Graham , the only other patrons feasting on a fried conch lunch. 

The next day we sailed Kuivato from Great Harbor Cay Marina on the west side of the island, to our private Beach Club at Half Moon Bay, only 2 miles as the crow flies but a 20 mile sail around shoals and several smaller islands. We swam, snorkeled, relaxed and continued eating our delicious home cooked meals in this magical place. 

Reluctantly, we weighed anchor and sailed 30 miles south to White Island Cay anchorage. This gem was nestled between several deserted islands, White, Fowl, Hoffmans, and Saddleback Islands, where we spent 5 nights. We hiked to a blue hole on Hoffmans Cay and went hunting for conch, lobsters and Tim went out trolling for fish in the dinghy but the only thing we caught was a  coral ledge which took the fishing lure. Leela and Kuivato had the place to ourselves for two nights and then we were joined by MV and Shane on Gem, a Beneteau 50, and Judith and Phil on Cevitas, a  J 41. We all gathered for a bonfire at sunset and shared stories. The next night we enjoyed progressive apps and drinks getting tours of each other's boats which was great fun.

Phil, the "Hunter/Gatherer" aptly named by all the women, had caught wahoo, tuna and lobsters. 

This encouraged my hunter/gatherer, so when we left  midmorning for Nassau to provision before heading onto the Exumas, we reviewed the protocol if we catch a fish while under sail. 

As soon as we were in the deep 5000 ft waters of the Northwest Providence Channel, we threw out the fishing line and got to practice the sailing fishing drill. Once Tim got the first catch with in 50 feet of the boat, something changed with the line. We brought up the catch and it was a large barracuda whose entire body had been chomped off by a shark save for the head, what a sight! 

The next hit ended up chomping off half of the fluorescent orange sqid lure including the massive hook. It was likely a shark in both cases. The third time was the charm with Tim reeling in a beautiful 8lb Mahi Mahi; small for a Mahi Mahi, but just enough to fill our rail mounted fish cleaning table. It was quite a feat managing the sail. and bringing in the goods at the same time, but we succeeded. 

We heard pouring some alcohol in the gills subdues the fish quickly so out came the rum which worked great. As I continued on our course Tim went to work cleaning and filleting the fish and we looked forward to a fresh fish dinner once we arrived in Nassau.