Berry Islands and Nassau

Greetings from Nassau! We took cover in a small marina in order to avoid the high winds that came in on Saturday, Feb. 16 and we finally have some wifi, so I want to share the highlights of the last week.

One of our favorite places in the Bahamas!

Great Harbor Cay beach

We spent a weekend at Great Harbor Cay in the Berry Islands and absolutely fell in love with the place. Lots of friendly cruisers, great staff, and beaches beyond compare! We spent a Sunday afternoon with several other couples exploring a tidal pool at low tide--finding starfish, sea biscuits, and shells.

 Continuing Barry's new exercise regime:) we walked the 2+ miles back to the boat with Jim and Nancy--cruisers from Colorado. In the evening, we went to John and Arlene's boat for a potluck dinner--enjoying lobster tails for dinner and LOTS of laughs! Arlene is a storehouse of cruising knowledge and she has a tremendous asset on her boat-- a SEWING MACHINE. This came in handy, as our headsail suffered a rip during our crossing from Bimini. No problem.... she just put the machine on the dock and sewed her up! I wish I had a picture of what happened when Barry and I reinstalled the headsail on the boat--let's just say the wind came up and so did I (almost). As always, a fellow boater lent a hand and we finished the job. I did get a picture of the local manatee family drinking fresh water (their favorite) from a hose on the dock. Love the way the baby rolled over on his back! On Monday, we took off for Soldier Cay--finding a couple of cruise boats from Nassau invading "our" beaches! Actually, they lease islands here and unload passengers to enjoy the beaches that we see for free (sort of).

Mama and baby manatee drinking from a hose on the dock!

Royal Caribbean--Freedom of the Seas

 We spent several days in an outstanding anchorage at White Cay. When we arrived, we had a few hours to ourselves before 4 fellow boats joined us in this unbelievable place. Take a look:




Sunrise over White Cay





White Cay beach

Beach near the Blue Hole

For a few hours, we were the only people at White Cay. Four boats

joined us that afternoon--one of the boaters rating the beaches here a '10'. We agree!!

We took a short dinghy ride to explore the Blue Hole--a natural phenomenon at White Cay.





Trying to see the bottom of the Blue Hole--rumored to be 800 feet

Overhang at the Blue Hole...complete with stalatites!

During one of our expeditions, our sailboat decided to do a 'walk-about'! We were returning from the Blue Hole to our dinghy and spotted Pat, who was rather frantically motioning for us to COME ON!! We quickly jumped in our dinghy and raced back to the anchorage, to find our boat dragging its anchor. Two of the other boaters were on-board, and already had a temporary anchor in place to hold our boat. We reset the anchor--I got some accolades for running the helm with three guys giving directions from the bow. (I'm learning not to hyperventilate) If they had not been around, who knows what would have happened....Barry says we would have been ok, but it would have been very difficult. One more lesson.
For Valentine's Day--and our 15th anniversary--we headed to Rose Island, about a 10 hour run. (Some women get a dozen roses for Valentine's Day--I got Rose Island!! Corny, I know) We arrived just before sunset, so we quickly explored the beach and found that someone had carved a large heart in the sand and had placed votives all around it and an adjacent arbor. After returning to our boat, and enjoying an anniversary pasta dinner, we tried to stay awake long enough to see what was going to happen on the beach that night. We rarely stay awake past 9pm, so we missed the ceremony. But the next day, all of the candles were gone--so someone had fun!

Catamarans from Nassau on a snorkeling adventure at Rose Island

The next day, we went snorkeling right off of our sailboat. I am always surprised by the universe that exists just below the surface of the ocean. We saw purple fan coral, brain coral, and about fifteen different varieties of tropical fish. My favorite are the ones called Gramma fish--colored half-tangarine and half-magenta! Fabulous!! Again, we did this for free--but the people on those catamarans paid dearly for an hour in the water.
One more adventure to report--as we headed to the marina in Nassau, we went aground. SMACK. Now, this has happened before, and we usually get free quickly. Not this time. Our 6 foot keel was stuck, and in spite of help from several boaters in the anchorage we could not get off. One person tried to push us off, using his dinghy. A family from France tried to pull us off--tying a long line to the mast and to their dinghy with a 30 HP outboard. Another boater tied lines from our bow and stern to mooring balls so Barry could winch us over. No luck. Finally, fellow boaters would float by and advice us to have a glass or two of wine and relax until the tide comes up. 8 hours later, we floated off. It was about 10pm, dark, and the wind was supposed to rise at any moment. We limped into Harbor View marina--taking the last slip available since everyone was trying to outrun the storm that was due to arrive imminently. Barry felt terrible about this....but we handled it well--pulling out books to read until darkness fell, and then patiently waiting for the tide. Lesson learned--watch the charts,  and don't assume we know where the channel is.

This is what it looks like to be aground. Kind of like being in a carnival fun-house for 8 hours.