BAHAMAS - BERRY ISLANDS

 Last time I forgot to mention that I briefly met a guy named Paul Nicklen at the Big Game Club in Bimini. Nicklen is an acclaimed Canadian photographer, film-maker and marine biologist; a contributor photographer for National Geographic; multi-prize winning photographer; author; and Ted Talk speaker. Anyway, he had just gotten a new boat (used custom made 60' catamaran), which he named SeaLegacy, after the ocean conservation organization he co-founded. He was in Bimini filming shark behavior with the help of Jay (Marine, Dive Master, Shark Week shark wrangler, boat rescuer and genuine nice guy).

Circled in red are the Berry Islands. The dots are where we have anchored and the "X" is where we are now, which is near the settlement of Black Point on Great Guana Cay in the Exumas. Like the Bimini Islands, the Berry Islands are one of the Bahamas' 13 districts, or what would be states in the US. The Berry's were settled in 1836 by a group of freed Bahamian slaves. They include 30 islands, over a hundred small cays, a population of around 800 and are referred to as "The Fish Bowl of the Bahamas". 

In order to arrive in the Berry's during daylight, we left Bimini late afternoon on January third. We had a great overnight sail but the interesting thing is that about two-thirds of the way there and around 2:00 AM we ran across all these green triangles on our chart plotter. 

Each green triangle represents a vessel that has their AIS (Automatic Identification System) turned on. By clicking on a triangle the above information for the corresponding vessel pops up. It turns out they were all anchored cruise ships. This one is with Celebrity Cruises, is named Reflection and it's roughly 1,000' long by 150' wide.

When we were sailing along the Florida coast last spring, because of Covid all the cruise ships we saw were at anchor and dark. I actually thought it may take years, if ever, before that industry rebounded at all. However, these 20 ships were all lit up and I assume had passengers. 

Weaving through this fleet made what could have been a long boring night go pretty fast.

Before sunrise we found this guy on-board. From wingtip to wingtip he's five to six inches wide and has apparently found a home on the boat because he reappears now and then, even six weeks later.

We had a nice sunrise, which is my favorite part of the day, when sailing that is.

By 8:00 AM we were at Great Harbour Cay and ready to go through this very narrow entrance to The Bay of Five Pirates, which is considered one of the Bahamas' best hurricane holes. I've tried to find the story behind the name, Bay of Five Pirates, but no luck.

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We anchored right in front of the marina.

 This aerial shows the marina (1), where we were anchored (2), the narrow entrance to the bay (3), the little settlement of Bullocks Harbour (4) and a distant cruise ship (5). Great Harbour Cay, the largest of the Berry Islands, underwent significant development in the late 1960s when famous people such as Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Bridgette Bardot, Telly Savalas, F. Lee Bailey and members of the Rat Pack spent time there. I'm sure my kids are asking "who?". Anyway, in the 70's development slowed and then stopped. Attempts were made in the early 1980s to revitalize Great Harbour Cay, but they were overshadowed by drug and weapons trafficking. The island has been pretty quiet ever since. However, there is a golf course, two airports, town homes for rent, beach villa rentals, as well as big game fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving and great beaches.

Lest we forget we're on a boat. Upon our arrival, the generator which we hadn't started since St Augustine, wouldn't keep running. "LOC" (lack of coolant) was the fault code.

Turns out the "key" that connects the impellor to the water pump shaft had disappeared, so the shaft was spinning without turning the impellor. The "key" was made by locals in Honduras a year ago. I suspect it was made out of a metal that couldn't hold up to the salt water, and simply corroded away. But my real question is, why do we even have impellors (we have at least four) that need to be replaced periodically, which is never easy to do? The water pumps in cars, trucks, etc. don't have impellors that need to be replaced every couple years, or sooner.

The marina had maybe a dozen boats, with cruisers living on four of them. Most of the rest were waiting for their owners to return after leaving last spring because of Covid. The convenience store was closed.

Of course more piles of conch shells.

The marina had a long abandoned pool and waterfront restaurant.

Some healthy looking cats had taken over the grounds.

                                                     Finally a use for used conch shells.

          The next day we dinghied over to the largest and one of the few settlements in the Berry's. 

It happened to be mailboat day and all the islands supplies for the next week had just been unloaded. As far as masks go, whenever we're in public we wear ours, as do almost all of the locals. However, while most everyone wears masks, relatively few bother to cover their nose and/or mouth.

The week's supplies being sorted.

                             

                                        We took at walk around town. Saw the Police Station.

This is one of the two grocery stores. There was also a restaurant, church and a couple variety stores.

Besides this lone basket, there was also a run down full length basketball court with a sign saying it was paid for by the Norwegian Cruise Lines.

The family goat.

And at the end of the road, it looked like it could have been northern MN.

With new supplies fresh off the boat, this grocery store was in the process of stocking its shelves. The only thing we bought was a bag containing three small heads of romaine lettuce, which cost eight something.

In a small bay that connects to Five Pirates is a development with some very nice homes. The sign said to keep an eye out for the manatees. We haven't seen any but we've talked to people who have.

The next day we borrowed some bikes from the marina and went to the beach. The water and sand was amazing. We didn't see another soul.

Here's Delana getting a closer look at a ray,

while I relax.

We have probably seen more rays than any of the other larger sea creatures, closely followed by Nurse Sharks and turtles at a distant third.

While Delana worked on one of her sewing, cooking, knitting, et al projects, I did some exploring. I first ran into some fisherman cleaning their catch. I can't remember what these are.

These are trigger fish.

This is what's left of an old resort/golf club just up the hill from the marina.

This is looking back at the marina from the old resort.

It's really sad. Reminded me of the abandoned resorts and homes we saw in Central America and Mexico. I ran into the caretaker who said that Jack Nicklaus owns what's left of this resort, as well as an 18 hole golf course of which 9 holes are open. I'm not sure if that's true or not.

At one time it was very nice.

This is the terminal for one of the five airports in the Berries. Seeing how the Bahamas is a nation of islands, they have a lot of airports (41), a bunch of landing strips, 10 active airlines and 13 defunct ones. 

I didn't see JunkanooAir on either the active or defunct lists.

The Great Harbour Cay airport's runway is over 4,500' long by 80' wide, which is pretty good size. However, it looks like it's at least partially under construction/repair and is mostly used by private aircraft.

I found this beach bar/restaurant, one of only two places to eat-out on the island.

This is one of the nine holes that isn't open. I never did find any of the nine that are.

When going to shore we'd tie the dinghy up under the bow of this yacht.

While in Bimini the welding that attached the petals on my bike to the frame broke loose, plus I had a flat tire. We found someone to reweld it, but he did a horrible job. As far as the flat goes, this guy showed us how to fix one with fishing line. Necessity is the mother of invention for these places.

When we left Great Harbour Cay we went right past Little Stirrup Cay. It is leased by Royal Caribbean International. They call it Coco Cay. It has been turned into a private amusement park for the passengers on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises. Next door is Great Stirrup Cay, which is owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines and used for similar purposes.

It's pretty common for the local fisherman to use a larger mother boat to tow a bunch of smaller ones out to the fishing grounds to harvest conch, lobster and/or fish. They may be out for a month or more at a time.

Delana caught this nice mutton snapper on our way to White Cay, which is about half way down the eastern side of the Berry's. It made for a couple delicious meals.

The first two nights we anchored just inside White Cay. Though it was really pretty and private, for the rest of our stay we moved to inside (leeward) of the next set of cays, which was better protected from east winds and more comfortable.

These never get old.

As we dinghied along shore we spotted this small shark looking for something to eat.

Hoffman's Cay, just north of where we were anchored, has a nice blue hole.

A boat we had seen at Great Harbour Cay was there at the same time. They had four kids all being boat schooled.

We were told that one bay was full of turtles, but low tide evidently wasn't the time to go. We only saw one or two turtles, but did see a couple rays, sharks,

sea biscuits,

 starfish

and a bunch of conch. We took two mature ones home for dinner.

Despite the pained look on my face, getting these two conch out of their shells was pretty easy. There's been times before and since when it's really been a battle, with pieces of shell, conch and me everywhere. Delana has made conch ceviche, conch curry and my favorite, kind of a cross between conch fritters and cracked conch.

The next day we invited the other half dozen boats in the anchorage to a bonfire on the beach, but first we had to gather wood.

We've seen a lot of these lizards. They're very curious and will stay quite close.

A view from the top of White Cay with the Tongue of the Ocean and depths of over 6,000' on the right, and the entry/channel of less than 10' on the left.

The Berry's have tons of nice beaches.

This starfish was left behind by the high tide, so was trying to get back to the water. Delana helped him out.

That night we had our fire on the beach.

 

We had a fun group. But what was interesting, seeing how most new cruisers begin their cruising in the Bahamas before sailing clockwise around the Caribbean, is that we had been cruising longer than anyone on the beach that night. They had a bunch of questions and were fascinated that we had been in Central America the past couple years. Being considered cruising veterans was a milestone. 

We caught this small barracuda on our way from White Cay to Frazer's Hog Cay, our last stop in the Berry's. We released it because of the risk of getting Ciguatera. Ciguatera is a foodborne illness caused by eating reef fish that are contaminated with certain toxins. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, numbness, itchiness, sensitivity to hot/cold, dizziness and weakness. If all that isn't bad enough, some symptoms can last for months. This fish was probably small enough that the risk was minimal, but we weren't hungry enough.

There were about a half dozen boats at the Frazer's Hog Cay anchorage with a total of ten kids, all having a great time.

Back to reality. The outboard had been working great, but then the throttle started sticking, so that in order to slow down I had to take the cover off the motor and manually adjust the linkage. I've been messing around with it ever since and THINK I've finally gotten it fixed. Of course now it's harder to start. There's always something.

And it was laundry day for Delana.

Dave and Janice who we last saw in Guatemala a year ago last December happened to be staying at a marina about four miles away. So they met us at a beach half way, them in a golf cart and us in our dinghy. It was great catching up. We ended up buddy boating with them for the next week or so. 

The next day Dave caught a couple nice sized lobster which we had for dinner on their boat that night.

This was our last sunrise in the Berry's before heading south.

Next time we'll be on Andros Island where we REALLY had an interesting time.