Great Harbor Cay

We have seen it all when it comes to boats.  We've encountered the smallest of run down sailboats, fishing boats, sailing cruise ships, tall ships, "pirate" ships, mega yachts and the infamous charter boats.  It wasn't until we rounded the northern tip of the Berry Islands did we run into the ocean going mega cruise ship.  Holy cruise ship, those boats are monsters!  They dwarf everything in sight as if it were a make believe model of an island.  We'd heard they were abundant in the Bahamas, but we had to see it to believe it.  And there is really no way of getting away from them, they are so tall that you can see them over the tops of the islands.  How do those things float and not tip over?  At first site, we wanted to turn around and go back to our deserted islands.  However, we were on to them.  We knew their schedule; when they arrived and when they left and we planned our visits accordingly.

At the top of the Berry Islands sat a small 'cruise ship only' island called Great Stirrup Cay.  The guide book said you have to have permission to go ashore from the cruise ship captain.  There were multiple ships 'parked' along the shores of Great Stirrup Cay.  I smugly thought to myself that it was a little fake  that these passengers thought that this was a deserted island only for them.  I guess it was and I shouldn't judge, but it doesn't seem deserted if you are sharing it with 5000 other cruise ship guests and there are hundreds of lounge chairs lined up along the beach.  I'm just saying.....

Needless to say, we kept right on going.  In fact, one of the cruise ships was preparing for departure.  As we sailed closer and closer, we watched as the passengers were loaded back onto the ship and the smoke stack started spewing black smoke and then the anchor went up.  Oh boy, we'd better call to make sure he sees us.  Do those things have a back up camera??  We were about to sail right behind him.  So, we hailed Mr. big ship and told him we were sailing behind and would he please not run us over.  He was happy to oblige.

We were headed to the western side Great Harbor Cay in search of wifi.  We were preparing to head back to the US and that meant a gulf stream crossing.  We needed to know the weather forecast for the next several days.  We anchored outside of Bullock Harbor and dinghied in to see what we could find.  A whole lot of small island town is what we found.  There were Manatees lounging around the yacht club docks.  We went back across the harbor and tied up the dinghy in an abandoned or perhaps newly constructed (thinking positive) deep water boat launch.  We walked ashore and found a boat yard, post office, a small grocery store and a restaurant.  That's about it with exception to the homes in which the locals live.

 I reel in the extra lines while Craig reels in the fish

Oh man, it's another barracuda.  We caught 3 of these on this particular day.  It is such a bummer they are not good eatin'!

 See what I mean about the ship dwarfing the island (and that is no small island)

 Finally, a fish we can eat, a really nice big eye tuna.  We are not letting this one get away

A BIG tuna!

 A quiet sunset

 A hungry Manatee greets us at the dock where we stopped in the dinghy to ask for directions

 Eating lunch at Coullie Mae's restaurant by the sea - local Bahamian fare

Ouch, another toe casualty.  It's a good thing we are almost home, Craig is running out of toes to hurt.

 Liv reels in her catch

Leaving the rough Bullock Harbor Anchorage behind, we sailed across the shallow water to make our way back around the north tip.  Our plan was to see how many cruise ships were anchored and determine if they were all leaving for the night so we could stay the night in their protective anchorage before heading back to the eastern side of Great Harbor Cay.  Once we were underway, Olivia begged Craig to fish.  At first he said no because the water was too shallow and all she would catch was a barracuda.  Well, her persistence paid off or Craig was worn down, what ever the case may be, Olivia threw in a line.  Not only did she cast her line, she challenged Maggie to a little fishing tournament.  Maggie declined.  Once Olivia caught a little Cero, Maggie decided she was game.  She threw her line in and waited.....and waited....and waited.  Just as we approached the deeper water and were making our turn north, Zzzzzzzz, the line took off.  This time it didn't stop!  The fish was strong and fast.  He ran the line out to 900 feet!  Craig and Maggie fought the line while I slowed the boat down.  And then slowed it down more.  And then slowed it down to a stand still.  The fish was still fighting.  I turned the boat around and started heading towards it!  It was insane.  This fish was a fighter.  We could tell he was dodging in and out of rocks trying to cut himself loose.  The beast was eventually reeled in and victory was declared for Maggie!

 Liv's Cero (we let it go cuz it was kinda small)

 Craig attaches the fishing pole belt so Maggie can reel in her determined fish

The fish lost the fight.....Maggie's huge Mutton Snapper

 Passing the cruise ship island again - can you make out the hundreds of blue lounge chairs and the imported palm trees (not judging).

We arrived at the cruise ship island at about 3pm and there were 3 cruise ships getting ready to leave.  Ahhh, peace and quiet.  We pulled into a small protected area where several other boats were anchored (presumably awaiting departure to the US).  We jumped in and swam a bit and then it was time to make dinner and go to bed.  We didn't even venture ashore to check out all those lounge chairs.  The following morning, we moved over to Sugar Beach on the eastern shore.

 Making homemade tootsie rolls

The girls built a swing to pass the time

 Our anchorage between Shelling Beach and Hawks Nest Cay - at low tide the sand is out of the water (all the light green color in the middle of the screen)

 Maggie going out for a spin

 There goes Olivia

She looks like a pro - even if she has adult work gloves on!  Those are her "sailing gloves"

 Last look at our boat floating in clear water alongside a Bahama beach

Last picture of clear water and white sand beaches

Deserted Islands

What would you take if you were going to be on a deserted island?   Lucky for us we had our home!  We had everything we needed when we arrived at Hoffman's Cay.  There was not a soul around or a boat in sight as far as we could see.  Spectacular!  We inched our way around the north end of Hoffman's Cay but it was too shallow to get into protected waters if the wind were to shift.  What? Too shallow for a catamaran?  Get outta town!  I know, it was crazy to think that was possible.  We did drop anchor in a spot that we thought would be okay.  The sun was high in the sky, we had plenty of time to decide.  Heck, we had nothin' but time.

I jumped in the water to explore our surroundings, hoping to score more sea treasures.  If you have snorkeled before, you are familiar with the quiet sound of fish feeding on the coral reefs and not a whole lot of anything else.  It was a peaceful feeling floating along on the surface of the calm water and the afternoon sun warming my back.  So you can imagine my fright when I turned my head and was being stared down by a big ugly barracuda.  I let out an uncontrollable squeal and decided my exploring was complete.  At least in that area.  I swam to the boat and climbed up on the swim platform, only to be confronted by two girls getting suited up to snorkel.  We decided to go the opposite direction of the barracuda that I encountered.  There wasn't much sand on the shallow bottom.   It looked more like an under water golf course, with long green grass swaying in the ebb and flow of the waters movement.  We swam over to a sand trap and found a handful of sea biscuits and shells around the perimeter.  As we made our way back to the boat guess what we happened upon?  Yep, you guessed it.....a ginormous barracuda.  It must have been the granddaddy to the one I saw earlier.  He was huge and UGLY!  Those teeth are menacing and reminiscent of shark teeth.   He was staring Kate down.  At first, Kate was oblivious.  Then I brought it to her attention when I called her name, muffled by my snorkel, and motioned her to swim to me (FYI....Liv was already next to me).  Rationally, I knew he was not out to eat us but emotionally I thought he was going to attack Kate.  Particularly because every time Kate moved, he moved, in the same direction.  It was like a game of cat and mouse.  Needless to say it made me very uncomfortable.  And if he hadn't been sooo big, I might not have reacted like a lunatic (I prefer protective) mother.  So I immediately raised my head above water, spit out my snorkel and hollered over to the boat to get Craig's attention.  I was screaming and he couldn't make out what I was actually saying, so he and Maggie assumed we were in trouble and proceeded to drop the dinghy in the water in record time.  In about 60 seconds flat, the dinghy was there and we were scrambling inside.  Kate was shook up and my heart was racing and Craig was left feeling relief that it wasn't a shark in the water (cuz that's what he thought!).  All was well and we decided that if we couldn't swim by the boat without a family of barracuda preying on us, we'd move anchorages.  We scooted across the way to Market Fish Cay which had a white sandy beach and access to the ocean side.  It proved to have better protection from wind and swells and be a better place to snorkel without barracudas!

 View from the back door

 A pelican walks along the spit between islands in our anchorage 

 Checking out the scene on shore

 Hey, look what I found...a lost marker?

Fort building by Kate - held in place by the wind

A little daddy, daughter time in the fort

Did I mention we were all alone?

Nothing but the sea, the sand and the sun

 Collecting sea treasures

Upon snorkeling in our private anchorage I saw as many as 20 sea biscuits making tracks in the sand (underwater)!  It was so incredible to see them alive and moving.   I also spotted a finger star fish crawling along the sea floor.  I picked it up to show the girls and even contemplated keeping it as a souvenir but I couldn't bring myself to kill a living thing.  I put it back on the bottom and watched it make new tracks across the sand.  So cool!

 Craig spends his time making new lures for our next fishing expedition

Collecting and rinsing off the shells and sea glass we collected

Craig took Maggie and I to the ocean side of Hoffman's Cay to collect sea glass.  We had to swim ashore because it was a steep beach with breaking waves (impossible to land the dinghy in those conditions).  Once on the beach, we found lots and lots of sea glass.  We told Craig to come back in 30 minutes to get us, which in hind sight was not nearly long enough to thoroughly comb the beach.  We also saw several sea turtle tracks leading from the waters edge to the berm where mounds of sand were formed (presumable with lots of turtle eggs).  These were no small sea turtles either.  We could tell by how big the tracks were, that these were big mommas!  The tracks literally looked like a tractor tire.  In fact, Maggie asked me if they were tire tracks when she first spotted them.  I was really bummed that I didn't have my camera with me.

Sorting by color

Lots and lots of pretty shells

Sea Urchins

Perfect sand dollar

Collecting fire wood

 Building and lighting the bon fire

 Watching fire....it's mesmerizing.  Don't be fooled by the fact that we have girls and Craig might be the only pyromaniac in the family.  Girls are equally entranced.

 Playing a little limbo while the bon fire gets big and hot

Sunset on our very own deserted island

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June 2013 video of the month

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Sweet Summer Berries

The Berry Islands....our last group of secluded beauty, perfect bliss and no tourists before heading back to the US.  We wanted nothing more than to savor every single instant and wish on fallen stars that we could stay aboard Anything Goes forever.  The end was near and though it was inevitable, we didn't want to be reminded of what 'home' would look like.  We spent our last 2 weeks of this glorious trip in the Berry Islands.

The Berry's are a small collection of islands in the northwestern "out islands" of the Bahamas.  They are surrounded by gaping ocean waters on the south and east where the tongue of the ocean begins.  And, on the western side are miles and miles of crystal clear, shallow turquoise water stretching from top to bottom.   This was by far, the shallowest waters we had encountered so far.  These islands are so remote in fact, that there are only 2 out of the 30 islands that have any sort of facilities, like a marina, fuel and even groceries.  They are both very popular with the sport fisherman crowd because the fishing is spectacular in the Berry Islands.   What more could we ask for?   Islands all to ourselves and plenty of fish to go around!  Nevertheless, the islands are small,  mostly flat, with next to no vegetation and very shallow with narrow cuts in between and lots of of open water.  Definitely not a place you want to be in bad weather.  With that in mind, we ideally wanted a good weather window to feel comfortable.  Consequently, we had plans to spend another week in the Abaco Islands, but that said weather window presented itself and we decided to take off the following morning!  Plans, schman's, that's life living on a sailboat.  

Smooth sailing in the shallow, protected waters of the Abaco Islands, heading south to go out the cut and sail to the Berry Islands. 

Waves splash the windows in the North Cut

We strategically left at 9am in order to reach the "Hole in the wall" before nightfall.  It was a good 20 miles south to the cut and out the breezy, shallow waters of the Abaco Islands.  The hole in the wall was yet another 20 miles south,  where the fishing was supposed to be unbelievable.  We heard stories.  We were pumped.  We were like salivating dogs waiting to pounce on the multiple lines singing zzzzzzzz with every fish on.  We wanted to be there in the daylight in order to zig zag back and forth to make for some freezer filling fishin'!!  As we exited the North Cut, the opposing tide to the wind chop made for some really rough seas.  Let me rephrase that....it was hellish and scary!  I was driving to avoid getting sea sick (which works much like driving a car helps aid in car sickness).  I punched the throttle down in order to get through it as quickly as possible.  But the waves were huge, nearly breaking over the bow.  I had to slow down and soon it felt like we were standing still, proceeding to be pounded by every wave.  Did I mention that there are reefs with jagged rocks and crashing waves on either side of us?  That freaked me out and Craig had to take over, reassuring me the whole time that we would make it out without breaking the boat, running aground or going backwards!

This is the best dolphin photo yet, don't you agree?!

Ahhhh, finally.  As soon as we made it to the other side of the cut and the waves subsided, it was smooth sailing all the way.  It's a good thing the dolphins were so pretty because that was the only action we were awarded before the sun slid behind the horizon.  There were NO fish in the "hole in the wall".  Or at least they weren't hungry.  We zigged, we zagged, we chased birds, we chased Partronus....nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada!  It doesn't take a genius to realize that the morale on the boat was pre-ttee low that evening.

Approaching Frazer's Hog Cay

We forged ahead, altered course and sailed on through the night.  There was an abundance of thunderstorms coming and going, surrounding us.  It was much like playing frogger...trying to cross the road without getting hit by a car.  Trying to keep out of their way was the game and it made for an exciting night and helped pass the time quickly.  We had to sloooooowwwww way down in order to arrive in the Berry Islands at dawn (remember our rule of not entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark).  The fact of the matter was we wanted to fish during dusk at the Hole in the Wall....which put a cramp in our style of arriving in the Berry islands during daylight.  An overnight passage was the only way to accomplish both of those.  Anyway, at one point, I had so much time to spare, I actually turned around to avoid a thunderstorm, waited for it to pass and then headed back on course.  Let me tell you how AH-Mazing it was to observe that thunderstorm on the open ocean.  It was directly in front of me, roughly 7-10 miles.  The night sky was an inky, jet black.  The few stars that filled the cloudy sky were bright enough to reveal the horizon.   In an instant, the clouds lit up with a brilliant outline of towering fluffy cotton balls, illuminated like a night light.  At precisely the same time, a razor sharp lightning bolt reached out and touched the water that irradiated a glow as far as the eye could see along the horizon.  You don't see that everyday.  I wished I had a camera inside my eyeball.  It was more beautiful than words can describe.  And, let me add that it was this beautiful because I was watching it from a distance.  Had I been right under it, not so much!

Craig and Maggie were up on duty the next morning and brought in the sails as we approached Frazer's Hog Cay, our first stop in the Berry Islands.  It almost never failed that after a bad fishing day, we'd hook a fish at the exact moment when it was most inconvenient.  And that was when we were winding down, getting ready to enter an anchorage and drop the hook.  You see, we have to turn our boat around, into the wind in order to drop the sails.  It's a much bigger production than say a boat with a furling system in which you only need to be off the wind slightly (still going the same direction).  We do realize that beggars can't be choosers, so we never complained but it was bad timing, I have to admit.  As they brought in the sails that morning, we caught a huge Mahi or something but it shook the hook free.  Darn!  Then, just like clockwork, they caught a Cero as we had to navigate the shallow and narrow entrance to Frazer's Hog Cay!  A happy but stressful arrival.

Our one and only fish of this passage.  Again, not complaining but it wasn't anywhere near the Hole in the wall (just saying')

Grilled to perfection with lemons, garlic, butter and a splash of white wine

The acclaimed "Yacht Club"

I can tell you that this was no yacht club, just a building with a bar and a few tables.  The help didn't speak english and didn't seem to understand english either, even though she nodded her head as if she knew exactly what we were talking about.  Whatever.  We did spend a rainy afternoon here talking with 3 young people that were traveling on a small sailboat.  Rachel, from Australia, joined the two young gentlemen on their journey to Nassau.  I guess you could say they were modern day gypsy's of sorts.  Their boat was falling apart and frankly, I was worried about them making it in one piece.

The dude that was really in charge of the whole yacht club operation.  He went out to the end of the dock after I ordered a conch salad and fetched and cleaned my lunch right then and there.  Now that is what I call fresh.

Olivia catches another fish off the back of our boat, this time a remora!

s/v Cascadura was waiting for us in Devil's Cay.  

We stayed one day longer at Frazer's Hog Cay due to weather and were excited to meander around the corner to Devil's Cay.  Our friends and fellow kid boat, s/v Cascadura were waiting for us.  But wait, where is Patronus going and why are they not moving....????

Oh I see, they tried to sneak around the back side into some crazy shallow water, unbeknownst to them (their chart said it was plenty deep).  Hmmm, they look like they ran aground.  Let's go help.  Everyone pictured here is hanging on the starboard side trying to list the boat to free her off the sandy bottom.  No such luck.  Eventually, we got her to list far enough by connecting a halyard to the a dinghy and pulling the boat over on its side with the dinghy motor at full throttle, Patronus was free!  Chris always said he wanted to clean the keel.  Digging her in the sand did a pretty good scrub job!

Our room with a view

Kids will be kids, playing tirelessly

Liv stakes her spot in the hammock on Cascadura

Shannon (mom on Cascadura) pulls out her jewelry making supplies....have you ever seen so many beads?  

Girl Power - busy making bracelets

Horsing around on the swing

Reese, Kate, Katie and Maggie

Another view from our room

Anchor's away in the crystal clear water

Olivia catches a Rock Hind off the back of the boat

Reese supervises while Olivia butcher's her fish

Having a good time on Cascadura.  We eventually threw some food on the table for a cruiser style potluck.

The boys fished earlier that morning and caught some fish and gathered some whelks and clams.  They were excited to build a bon fire to cook their catch, Liv included.

Prepping the clams and whelks (snails) to be cooked over an open fire.  Don't tell the kids, but they tasted like old seaweed.  Yuck.  But I give them an "A" for effort.

More sailing fun with Cascadura and Patronus