Bimini has been fun (more posts to come!), but it’s time to move on after spending nearly two weeks at our first chain of Bahamian islands. Next up, the Berry Islands!
A long passage
We pull up our anchor as the sun begins to rise to get an early start on our 95 mile journey east to the Berry Islands. As tends to be our usual luck, the best weather/timing window for us still included winds directly out of the east dead center on our bow the entire way. We tried putting up our sails to see if we could pick up enough speed motor-sailing to justify the required tacking, but quickly nixed that idea. We set our engines at 2200 RPM, fixed our auto pilot on a straight course east, and settled in for the long ride.
We took turns manning the helm, relaxing, and accomplishing small tasks. I got us caught up on our hand-written cruising log – which was only 6 weeks behind (oops!), planned our intended route through the Berry Islands, and managed to get some tan relaxing up on the trampoline. Monster followed me around loyally trying to find a place to nap everyone she went.
Fortunately the seas were calm and it was a pretty uneventful day – that is until we had a little visitor.
The hitchhiker
In the middle of our passage – 50 miles off Bimini and over 40 miles from the Berry Islands, a small bird that closely resembled a yellow finch lands on our dinghy davits. I don’t know how in the world he managed to make it to our boat with no land or other boats in site, but there he was. We didn’t want to scare him off, since he clearly needed some time to rest his wings so we admired from a distance. He then decided to check out our salon, flying through the open glass doors and choosing to land on our soft blanket on the couch. Ok sure, make yourself comfortable.
We let him hang out inside for a while, offering him Monster’s water bowl (don’t tell her) and some bread crumbs – he took neither. Several minutes later, he took off flying around the boat and then coming back only to leave again and never be seen after. I’m not sure where he was going or how far he’s able to fly, but I hope he made it safely to his destination. He sure added a little excitement and fun to our day at sea!
Landfall at Bullocks Harbor
We arrive to our anchorage in Bullocks Harbor on the west side of the Berry’s at approximately 7:45 pm – 13 hours after we raised anchor and about 15 minutes before all light disappeared from the horizon. We quickly chose a spot and fortunately were able to get a good set on the anchor with our first try. Just across a small peninsula were several other catamarans anchored, but we had this side all to ourselves (until a powerboat anchored nearby during the night).
The next morning we pull up anchor and head to a nearby marina to fill up our fuel tanks. The fuel dock was not much more than what I would expect for a dinghy dock though, so we call over the radio to ask for help on how we should tie up. Of course, the fuel dock is only open for 2 hours a day though from 1-3 pm. We were hoping to make it about 30 miles to our next stop and didn’t want to wait around for several hours so we turn around and continue on.
Now that we’re low on fuel and didn’t fill up when expected, we decide it’s probably time to get more serious about the whole sailing thing. I mean that is why we bought a sail boat – so we could use free wind power to move. We get both our main sail and jib up and kill the engines (first time with both sails up!). It feels great and we’re keeping a quick pace around 5-7+ knots. We sail around the north end of the island checking out the two cruise ships that have docked and anchored nearby. Apparently Norwegian and Royal Caribbean both have private islands here in the Berrys – complete with touristy beaches and a water park. We came so close to the Norwegian ship on one of our tacks, we even got a little honk from the ship!
We continue to sail around to the east side of the island chain, tacking through the wind as needed. It definitely feels like we’re missing something because we have to tack at such extreme angles to just go from a 30 degree wind direction over our starboard to 30 degrees over our port. Basic math would tell me that means we’d need to turn the boat about 60 degrees – but it takes us over a 90 degree turn. At one point we were literally sailing back the way we came just so that we could reposition for another tack to go the direction we actually wanted to go.
Clearly we are not real sailors – just baffled people trying to make do.
Serenity at Soldier Cay
We make it to our destination for the day, Soldier Cay, around 3 pm. It is absolutely gorgeous with a pristine white sand beach, and we have it all to ourselves! This is exactly what I pictured when I think of sailing the Caribbean.
We quickly drop anchor in 8 feet of water with a sandy bottom only 150 feet from shore, and then hop in the dinghy to head to the beach. We spot a shark and a turtle on our way – amazing! The beach isn’t that large but it’s so pleasant to just walk along and take in the fresh sea breeze. We were also able to walk a hundred yards or so across to the other side of the island which faces out to the ocean (we were more protected in a bay area). Monster had way too much fun running up and down the beach and rolling in the sand, making a complete and absolute mess of herself!
After getting back to our boat, we decide it is long overdue to get the Brownie (hookah dive system) in the water. Not a couple minutes after being in the water, a reef shark comes over nearby. Thinking it’s the same one we saw before and just being excited to see one, we watch it swim around nearby for a few minutes. It appears to be circling the area we’re in though – which is quite unusual behavior for a shark. We decide to get out of the water as we see a second reef shark coming over. So much for getting quality time underwater using our Brownie.
The two sharks swim near and around our boat for a couple hours. We spend much of that time amused and watching them. One of us would stand on the roof spotting while the other would stand on the swim platform watching them go by. We were able to snag some pretty solid GoPro video doing this!
One day I will actually get some of those videos published to the blog. Until then, you’ll just have to imagine how great all of our shark encounters have been.
