Sailing East to the Berry Islands

Saying goodbye to our friend and favorite dock master, Henry, we left Bimini on Wednesday, February 22. The wind and waves were perfect for a leisurely sail east across the Great Bahama Banks. After seven hours of great sailing, we furled the sails, set the anchor and settled in for a nice night on the banks with no other boats and no land in sight.


Thursday morning we weighed anchor at 7:30AM giving us the whole day to sail and fish our way up to the Berry islands called Little Stirrup and Big Stirrup Cays. The cruising guide books warned that these two cays were used as destination spots for large cruise ships. One guide book said that the anchorage was just too chaotic with parasail boats and jet skis zipping about. We, however, were feeling adventuresome and ready for a little chaos!

We sailed all day (about 9 hours) and just as we caught sight of the islands and the first cruise ship, John started catching Spanish Mackerels on the hand line he was dragging behind the boat. Actually, he only caught two mackerels—decided to catch only what we could eat—besides we were getting ready to find a place to anchor for the night. We almost forgot to take a picture of the mackerels for you, but here is one being filleted.

We anchored Caribbean Soul in Slaughter Harbor next to Little Stirrup Cay. Contrary to what the guide book said, the harbor was calm and empty—we were the only boat there. The colorful Bahamian village on the shore facing us was empty too! Well, it was only Thursday and chances were that this little village that had been constructed just for the tourists would come alive tomorrow. So we grilled the fresh fish with lots of butter and lemons—yum—and lounged in our cockpit enjoying the Bahamas! Here’s a picture of the village with rows and rows of bright blue beach chairs. We couldn’t see the rental jet skis and other water toys, but we knew they were there somewhere. There seemed to be staff/workers on the island but we couldn’t see them—they certainly weren’t lounging in the beach chairs or fishing from the pier as this was not really a Bahamian village—just a pretend village for the tourists. Our evening was lovely and quiet.

So Friday we awaited the transition into cruise ship craziness, but it didn’t happen that day. A few fast boats from the real Bahamian villages around Great Harbor Cay ferried over lots of workers during the day, but the cruise ship passengers didn’t arrive until Saturday morning. Then the village did come alive with lots of Caribbean music, sunbathers, swimmers, kayakers, paddle boarders and—yes—jet skiers. It all looked like lots of fun and created a nice sort of chaos.

We were already planning to find another anchorage to wait out the stormy front that was predicted for Sunday, when we got a satellite email from my sister Nancy. Although we often have no internet or telephone connection here in the Bahamas, we always have a satellite connection called Skymate that John installed so we can always check the weather and receive emergency emails from home. Nancy’s email explained that Mom (Jean) had been admitted in the hospital with compression fractures in several vertebra. Friends were helping Mom and Nancy was flying from Tucson to North Carolina on Monday. Oh Dear! We used the same satellite email to tell Nancy that we would get to internet tonight and figure out if or when I should catch a flight back to the states. We were sure that when we got to Great Harbor Cay Marina tonight we could log on to the marina internet and make a Skype phone call to Nancy and maybe one to Mom in the hospital too.

So off we went—motoring this time because we were traveling into the wind—across the Great Bahama Banks to Great Harbor Cay Marina.