Market Fish and Soldier Cay

We left the stirrup cays to head south and hit all the remote anchorages.  We made it to the other side of little stirrup and called it a day.  The seas were big and the wind was right on our nose.  We nestled our boat into 6 feet of water with a sandy bottom just around the point.  Our draft is 2’-10” and the swells coming in are 2-3 feet.  It is high tide and so at low tide we will have 1’-2” between us and the sand with 2-3 foot swells.  This was our last option and with the sun setting and all other possibilities ruled out we dropped the anchor.  The seas settled but the wind howled all night and every time I felt a wave hit the boat I held my breath in anticipation of hitting bottom.  We never felt the bottom hit bottom hit but the next day when we were swimming/ walking around the boat we could see the sand being pushed away every time we gently touched bottom.  We anchored here the next night too as the weather was too rough to go anywhere else.  We took the dingy over to Little Stirrup Cay to hike to the lighthouse and see the view.  Knowing Dan and Preston we did not pull up next to the small beach cove, but the local “garbage dump” or what they called “treasure cove.”  After scavenging for gold we hiked up to the lighthouse and watched the waves crash onto the limestone caverns.

Yes that is a found cooler on the front of the boat.  We have no use for it, but Preston and Dan couldn't pass it up.  It is a 4 foot igloo cooler.  

The next day we headed down the Berry’s with Hoffman’s Cay in mind.  We made it to the north tip of Hoffman’s and then proceeded to slowly follow a small “deep” channel, according to the guidebook and our charts, down to the southern tip where the anchorage and blue hole are.  We made it about 200 yards in and the depth went from 8 to 2 feet in a couple yards.  Basically as we noticed the “channel” was no longer there only shallow sand bars we tried to turn, but ended up grounded.  Luckily low tide was in an hour so we figured we would wait it out and high tide would be back in about 8 hours.  We weren’t quite beached and we weren’t quite free.  After almost an hour of waiting we decided to put the dingy in the water and pull ourselves off the sand.  Our little 10’ dingy with the newly purchased 1984 outboard was going to pull our fully loaded 36’ catamaran off a sand bar……… YEAH RIGHT!

With Dan in the water lifting the boat one inch and a time, Preston in the Dingy pulling full throttle, and me at the wheel motors just in gear we successfully moved our boat against the wind and current back out into the safe 10 foot waters.  Once we were free I was not stopping the boat and Preston was in for a ride as the dingy was soon swung around to the side of the boat and facing the backwards being flooded with water.  Dan was running to catch up jumped up the back of the hull and helped Preston get the dingy flipped around.  We laughed the whole way back north to Market Fish and Soldier Cay where we anchored in a private paradise.  Blocked by the wind and safe from and current and swells we cooked the mackerel we caught earlier in the day and headed ashore to have a fire and blueberry cobbler for dessert.  Long day followed with the best night sleep yet also our favorite anchorage so far.

Berry Islands

YAY!! We finally have Internet again!

We left Little Harbour at 7:00am just as the sun was coming up and headed for the Berry Islands.  The forecast was for 15-20 knot winds from the ENE.  We ended up with 0-4 knot winds.  This led us to motor all day.  We put the sails up a few times but the wind was not strong enough to fill them.  We had the fishing lines out all day and around 2:00 we had a BIG one!  We saw it jump out of the water 3 times and it was really fighting Preston until it snapped the line and we lost it and our $10 squid.  The rest of the day was just motoring with nothing in sight until around 7:00 just as the sun was setting we could see land.  The plan was to pull in between 2 islands and nestle our boat up behind the point of one of them.  In the guidebook this is supposed to be the best holding most protected anchorage.  Around 8:00 when we were coming up on the islands even with the full moon we were not comfortable navigating the thin channel between 2 rocky islands.  We opted to head north around 2 islands to the wide open back side where we could anchor in the Grand Bahama Bank.  This took another hour and by 9:00 we were coming around the point and getting ready to set anchor.  We dropped the anchor in what looked like sand, but soon found out it was solid rock.  It wouldn't grab anything and so we pulled it up moved the boat a little further and dropped it again.  It immediately grabbed something and we were kind of in the middle of the traffic channel and wanted to move further away.  Now the anchor is so stuck we can’t get it off whatever it has grabbed.  We tried for an hour with no luck and decided we would call it a night and wake up early dive in and unhook the anchor.  We were caught in a strong current all night which went perpendicular to the wind.  This made for a very rolly night as the current was stronger and kept our boat sideways in the waves. 

Got up early, dove in the water that was warmer than the air and unhooked the anchor then we were off to town to stock up on groceries.  Once at Great Harbour we tied up and had 3 staff waiting to tell us what to buy and ready with their personal vehicle to take us to the store.  We jumped in Herbie’s Jeep and off to the “store” we went.  We pretty much cleared the shelves with our 2 grocery bags full of: 1 dozen eggs, 1 onion, 6 packs ramen noodles, 2 bags of chips, 1 six pack of coke (thanks Aaron), and 3 bananas.  We will be running low on supplies until we reach Chub Cay at the bottom of the Berry Islands.  I hope we can catch some fish!  As we left town we commented on how the employees were more than helpful and decided they were just excited to have something to do.  So far every person we have met in the Bahamas has gone out of their way to help us. 

We anchored the boat just around the corner of the marina and jumped in the dingy to do a little exploring.  On the GPS it shows a shipwreck just off where we anchored so we went and checked that out.  We also noticed what we thought was a rock and after a closer look in the dinghy found out it was a crashed plane.  We snorkeled the plane wreck and went back to the boat to try and catch dinner. 

DOLPHIN!!! DOLPHIN!!! Dan was yelling and I ran outside to find 3 dolphins swimming around our fishing lines trying to figure out how to eat the squid we had out chumming some fish.  They swam around a while and then took off into the sunset.  This whole trip every time we are out sailing I always say, “Where are all the dolphins?”  Now we see them anchored in some tiny bay in 8 feet of water.  Go figure.    

Little Harbour

We are snuggled in a small bay filled with 25 mooring balls and the cutest town of Little Harbour.  Little Harbour is a bahamian hideaway.  A Smith College professor and sculptor moved his family here over 55 years ago and lived in caves while they built their home.  The town is filled with bronze statues from his work and his 3 sons still live here and maintain most of the town.  The beaches and waters around Little Harbour are part of the Bahamas National Trust and therefore have great snorkeling and beautiful sandy beaches.  We hiked to an old foundation of a light house that used to be on the island and watched the waves crash on the sharp limestone rocks.