The blue hole on Hoffman’s Cay

According to Wikipedia, a blue hole is “is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef). Blue holes typically contain tidally influenced water of fresh, marine, or mixed chemistry.”

Getting there

We planned to travel the short distance from Soldier Cay to Hoffman’s Cay based on several recommendations to check out the blue hole. Initially, I planned our route so that we would travel along the outside of the island chain (e.g. the east side which is open to the Atlantic ocean). This is a longer route as we have to exit the bay at Soldier Cay where we stayed and actually go further south past Hoffman’s Cay in order to find another entrance (of suitable depths). However, there is another – “inner” – route which we could traverse from Soldier Cay to Hoffman’s Cay, which is half the distance and much more protected on the bay side. I’m sure you can tell there’s a “but” coming…

The inner route is through very shallow waters. Technically,with our catamaran drawing a max of 4.5 feet (and I’m pretty sure we’re closer to 4), we should be able to make the passage as long as it’s not low tide. When we woke up in the morning, we were getting near high tide, so we decide to try it. The water was 6+ feet most of the way, but there was one point where our depth gauge read a harrowing 2.6 feet (yikes!). The depth gauge is not located at the water line though, so really it was probably about 4.6-5 feet. I’d say we scraped through by the hair on our chinny chin chin – but hey we made it! That’s the important thing. Given that we’ve already been aground 3 times in less than 2 months, we were really hoping not to have another “adventure.”

Hoffman’s Cay is another gorgeous horseshoe-shaped bay with a white sand beach. Unfortunately, this time there are a lot more boats anchored in the nearby area. As we approached, we realized this is where everyone was hiding – surprised by our isolation the night before.

The blue hole

The blue hole appears to have no name, other than “the blue hole” – which is okay I suppose… descriptive and succinct. After getting to the beach, there is a small path that leads through the brush for a short 5-10 minute walk before opening up to the blue hole. I must admit that it was larger and more majestic than I had anticipated – we were quite impressed!

We climbed down the rocky path to the bottom of the hole where we were able to step into the water. Monster even made a brave attempt at swimming in the blue hole just to say that she did it! After a couple minutes though, she quickly exited back onto dry land and we brought out the snorkel gear. Doing a lap around the edge, we quickly realized there wasn’t much sea life to speak of, although we did spot a small turtle hanging out in the center. Matt practiced a little free diving while I stressed about the dog – since she was crying and trying to climb cliffs around the hole in order to stay closer to where we were swimming at all times. Next time, she’s going to be swimming the entire time.

After we completed our round, we climbed back to the top of the cliff above the hole, which is infamous for jumping off. Matt gave it a couple tries while I took photos and videos. Not too long ago, I joined in on some cliff jumping in Hawaii, but this was just outside my comfort zone at 20+ feet high (I’ve had a traumatic cliff jumping experience before). About this time, two other couples showed up so we felt it was time for us to leave and allow them to enjoy it all to themselves – just as we had! Apparently, we must have been quite lucky to have the place to ourselves, because as we made it back to the beach, there were three other dinghies pulling up and we saw a couple others traveling in not much later.

Tomorrow, we will either be heading south to Chub Cay or depending on some potential thunderstorms in the area, we might hang out in this pretty little spot another day until the storms pass.