Bahamas: Berry Islands

20^th April 2017 to 27^th April 2017

The Berry Islands are a constellation of 30 islands and 100 cays that stretch over 30 miles along the Great Bahama Bank.

 

The entire bight on the western side of the crescent is very shallow with many sand bores and areas that dry at low water. There are just a few true weather harbors amongst the 30 some-odd cays. Most of the lea side anchorages offer good protection from seas but some swells seems to work its way in at times. The cays are for the most part, uninhabited or privately owned. The northern Berry Islands, apart from the cruise lines (Little and Great Stirrup Cays) have remained largely untouched.

 

From our anchorage at Soldier Cay we dinghy southward along the western shore of Hoffman’s Cay to the second beach from the south. Hoffman’s Cay has a great blue hole. First Zack tried some fishing.

 

From the beach is a well-kept trail that we followed to the blue hole.

 

The trail climbed up over the spine of the island to the rim of the blue hole.

 

The trail took us down under an overhang from where you can get to the edge of the water.

 

The overhang had some stalactites.

23 April 2017

We lift anchor early morning with threatening cloud cover to find protection for tomorrow’s westerly winds. Before we could drop anchor at Beach Club Resort the rain has already started to pour down. 

 

After anchoring I was wet and cold to the bone. Shortly after we settled in it really started to pour buckets and the wind gusted to over 30 kts. Today is a day that you stay on the boat.

 

Something you can do in the rain! Zack quickly mopped the boat in the rain to get rid of the salt of the previous days sailing and decided to treat me with making some brunch.

 

It was an enjoyable end product.

 

Buckets of water pouring down.

 

Some unsettled weather producing these magical color schemes. I don’t like the sound of thunder as it is growing louder and louder.

 

Between Hawksnest Cay and Haines Cay a natural pool is formed during low tide connected to the sea by a ‘hole in the wall’. The pool is surrounded by rocks.

 

Queens beach stretches for almost three miles.

 

Reunion on Vagabund with friends with a lot of catching up. The ladies enjoying our sea couch.

27th April 2017

 

A day spend with our sailing buddies from Alleycat and Shilo

We walked over from Great Harbour Marina to the eastern ocean side of the island to have lunch at the Beach Club Restaurant and a swim in the ocean.

 

On our way back we stopped at the ruins of the once beautiful restaurant that has burned down and not being rebuilt.

 

Watching the sunset for a possible green flash on Vagabund before saying our goodbyes.

This sailing season of 2016/2017 we travelled more than 3000 nm averaging more than 500nm per month.  Starting in St Augustine FL in December, Crossing the Gulf Stream to the Abacos, Passage down to BVI doing the Eastern direct route, 2 months in BVI, Passage back to the Bahamas visiting the so special Hogsty Reef atoll, Acklins, Exumas, Eluethra, Spanish Wells, Exuma State Park, Cat Island, Little San Salvador, Rose Island, Berry Island and back to St Augustine. 

For now we have already start saying our goodbyes to Vagabund for this sailing season. We will miss to be rocked on our seabed every night with wind blowing through the rigging but are looking forward to returning to family and friends we have missed back home.

Crossing the Gulf Stream is always a challenge, but forecasts are good for leaving first light on Friday the 28^th April from Great Harbour Cay, Berry’s arriving Sunday the 30^th April in St Augustine, Florida.

 

Our last swim in the Bahamas waters.

Goodbye to endless blue and gorgeous sunsets.

 

The sunset was special.  A symbol our last night in the Bahamas for the 2016/17 sailing season it rounded of the most special cruising season we have had on Vagabund. The beauty of the sunset also reflects how we have been blessed and spoiled the last six months in the Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

Bahamas: Highborne Cay (Exumas)

18^th April 2017

After a perfect day in the ocean we safely anchored at Highborne Cay.  Sailing with our asymmetrical spinnaker, a dorado on the hook and dolphins playing in front of the bow. It was as perfect as it could be.

 

With the wind and waves on our stern we could use our asymmetrical spinnaker  for most of our trip from Little San Salvador to Highborne Cay. The trip of 51nm was done under 8 hours and enable us to pass through the cut on slack tide.

I know what we are going to have for dinner!!

 

It is always an amazing site to see dolphins playing in front of the bow.

 

Shortly after anchoring we dingied over to Leaf Cay to see the iguanas.

 

“Rock iguanas are large lizards, Bahamian iguanas are usually some shade of brown. Most are two and a half to three feet long. Rock iguanas thrive in dry areas where there are sandy patches for breeding and limestone that provides the Rock iguana with holes to retreat in and shade to regulate body temperature. Rock iguanas can live for up to forty years! The serrated ridge along the spine of the Rock iguana radiates excess heat from the iguana’s body. Young iguanas eat mostly plants and insects, later in life, they become almost complete herbivores (plant eaters).”

 

 

 

 

Rose Island: New Providence, Bahamas

19^th April 2017

We safely anchored at Rose Island after a bumpy sail of 33nm with the wind of an average of about 18 knots and sea on our beam.

 

The Screecher is not my favorite sail to handle as we had in the past dropped her twice into the sea in force 6 conditions. Today the weather, wind and sea conditions were perfect for the screecher.  Vagabund did build up a nice rhythm and we could maintain a boat speed of above 8 knots.

 

Zack was standing on the bow giving instructions: “Minus 10, another minus 10. OK we are missing the bommie!”  The dodging and diving was necessary for the 5nm long section in 3,5m of water over the yellow banks. 

 

Bahamas: Cat Island

7th April to 17th April 2017

Passage to Cat Island from Exuma Park

7th April 2017

 

The approaching cold front allowed us to use the wind as it clocks to time our sail from Cambridge Cay (Southern Exuma Park) to New Bight in Cat Island. For most of the passage we could use our asymmetrical spinnaker turning the 64 nm into a nice day trip with still enough daylight to navigate the shallows of the bight.  Our fish supplies were also top op with some fresh Dorado.

Cat Island

8th April 2017 to 17^th April 2017

 

Saturday the 8th April

For two weeks now we have been cruising at remote places where there was no shops and for most of the time no internet. The mission was fresh produce and the top up of a few supplies. We dingied to the bridge up to Musgrove Creek halfway through the falling tide. The dinghy was tied up to some mangroves and a stern anchor was dropped to keep her of the concrete. The New Bight Market and liquor store was just up the street. We did get carried away a bit with the shopping, lost track of time and made sure we accumulated enough groceries that the owner had no choice but to transport us back to the creek.   It was close to spring low and most of the water had disappeared from the creek. We were brought back with our goodies to the bridge. Using the standup board paddle and the setting current Zack had to row us back to the entrance of the Greek.

 

At New Bight at the shore at the “Take –outs” we eat tropical conch salad at Duke’s Conch stand.

 

To me this was one of the best conch salads I have had in the Caribbean. It was served with slices of apple and orange around the sides and in the middle the salad. Yummy!!!

 

The afternoon we went to the Hermitage. It can be seen for miles when one is out to sea as it sits on top of the highest hill in the Bahamas (206 feet/63m). Father Jeremo named this steep hill Mt Alveni

 

“Father Jerome, also known as John Hawes  (1876 – 1956) built the Hermitage in 1939.

Born of a comfortably affluent family in England, he studied architecture and then switched to theology. He became an Anglican priest and came to the Bahamas where he devoted himself to repair churches damaged by storms and hurricanes. In 1910 he designed St Paul’s Church in Clarence Town on Long Island.

In 1911 he left The Bahamas for the United States where he converted to Catholicism. He went to Rome where he became a priest and adopted the new name Father Jerome. He went to Australia and worked as a priest, architect and builder and remained there for a quarter of a century. Then perhaps sensing his own mortality after had a heart attack, he returned to the Bahamas in 1939. Using local stone, he built The Hermitage on the peak of Mt. Alvernia, a small medieval monastery where he could live in solitude.

 

He died in 1956 and was buried in the cave he had prepared for himself below his hermitage.”

 

He built a steep set of winding steps going up the mountain to the Hermitage.  At various intervals he made detailed hand-carved stone and molded cement Stations of the Cross along the way. Almost his version of the “Via Dolorosa”

 

The Hermitage is a scaled replica of a 12th century monastery. From a distance it looks much bigger.

The Hermitage is a conglomerate of small rooms including a kitchen, bedroom and a chapel with one pew only wide enough for one person and a small alter. All the rooms were only large enough for one person. There was also a summer kitchen and storage room for his food, much of which he grew around the Hermitage.

 

The sunset at New Bight overlooking Musgrove Greek.

"Cat Island is centrally located in the Bahamas chain; this fishhook shaped island is 48 miles long and between 1 to 4 miles wide. The first European settlers were Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, who arrived in 1783. The island may have been named after Arthur Catt, a pirate, or the name may refer to its one-time large population of feral cats. The population of Cat Island is 1,522 (2010 census)

Historically, the island gained wealth from cotton plantations, but slash and burn farming is now the main agricultural way of life for Cat Islanders.

In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut in a controlled manner months before a dry season. The "slash" is permitted to dry, and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the burned field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as upland rice, maize, cassava, or other staples. Most of this work is typically done by hand, using such basic tools as machetes, axes, hoes, and makeshift shovels.

An economic crop is Croton eluteria that only grow in Eleuthera and Cat Island (called also cascarilla) bark, which is gathered and shipped to Italy where it becomes a main ingredient in medicines, scents and Campari."

 

A strange thing for us to understand was the neglect to remove objects that has fallen into disuse. Abandoned cars, boats and houses are common and is littering the landscape of each island. Apparently it is part of their culture to abandon the house and leaf it untouched once the last one of the generation die in order to provide a place where the departed spirits can stay. They will then often build there new home adjacent to the old one. These properties are never sold, sitting as testaments of past generations.  Maybe it is applicable to cars and boats as well?

 

On Monday the 10th April we rented a car. The island was explored from north to south and east to west. We managed to travel 250 km that day.  The island is laid-back from New Bight to Orange Creek in the north and then to Hawk’s Nest in the south.

 

Just north of Smith Bay we explored a dirt road east to the open ocean side of the Atlantic at Ocean Dreams holiday resort.

The Big Blue Hole east of Orange Creek on Dickies Road is connected with the ocean. Many objects have been observed to get mysteriously displaced from the blue hole to the ocean. One such observation was a dead farm animal. Some locals believe that a monster live in Big Blue Hole and it was said to devour horses. This folklore still scares local fisherman from venturing too far into this inland seawater lake.

Griffin Bat Cave

Roughly a kilometer before the Big Blue Hole on the southern side of the road a small insignificant driftwood sign “Cave” let us to the Griffin Bat Cave, once a hideout for slaves.

 

Traveling back south on the main road just before entering the town of Stephenson we found the Bat Cave.

Map of the southern Cat Island

In the Port Howe area of Cat Island, are the ruins of an 18th-century plantation at Deveaux House mansion. In its glory days it was given to Colonel Andrew Deveaux in 1783 for protecting Nassau from Spanish invasion and occupation.

Driving north from Columbus point we turned off east to Greenwood Beach Resort. This is a beautiful resort on the Atlantic Ocean where you can do kite surfing, wind surfing as well as scuba diving on the southern wall.

 

On the Western corner of the foot of the island is Hawks Nest Point. This is a mecca for sport fishers with an easy fly in from the USA onto the marinas own landing strip. The Marina was filled with sport fishing boats.

 

Wednesday the 12th April we sailed up north to Orange Greek and anchored east of the creek outlet in front of a beautiful long sandy beach.

 

Thursday the 13th April we dinghy the 3nm south to Arthur’s Town. This is the government headquarters in the north.  The population of the town is about 400 (more than 25% of the people on the island), there is a police station, airport, clinic, and some small stores. 

 

Saint Andrews Anglican Church in Arthur Town

 

We had lunch at Da Smoke Pot. Julian has prepared for us fish, rice, coleslaw and mixed vegetables.

 

The entrance to the creek where Zack spend some time exploring for bone fish.

Snorkeling at the point of Orange Greek.

 Port Royal Bay

Port Royal Bay in Cat Island is another nicely sheltered bay in the NE side of the island. We moved Vagabund further north from Orange Creek to be out of the strong Easterlies that is blowing for the next few days. The wind is already gusting up to 28 knots. The sheltered bay allowed us to still get off the boat, kayaking, beach combing  and enjoying  lunch at Shanna’s Cove Resort with the friendly Frank and Gabby.

 

Tug in close to the beach ready for the wind

 

Exploring the secluded pink beach all for ourselves

 

Enjoying every moment. Flying back home in a couple of weeks. I am going to miss the blue water, pink sand…..

 

Overlooking the bay where Vagabund is anchored from Shannas Cove Restaurant.

 

Man of War Point on the northern shoreline of Cat Island.

 

Where east meets west at Man of War Point.

Tiger shark: Port Royal Cat Island

Reason why you do not snorkel your anchor late in the afternoon. This 2,5m Tiger Shark visited us both the afternoons on anchor in Port Royal Bay. Being so close to the drop off the sharks enter the bay at night.

 

Photo from Vagabund as the shark swam by.

 

The shark was close enough to take an underwater photo from the stern.

It was an awesome sight from Vagabund to see her slowly swimming twice around us. She even inspected our anchor.

Little San Salvador: Half Moon Cay

17th April 2017

Holland America cruise line owns this island and they have constructed a resort for their cruise ships.  Fortunately the day we visited the island there was no cruise ships and we could go to shore.  Port of Half Moon Cay Cruise Ship Timetable indicates a cruise ship that will arrive the next morning.

 

We dropped the hook in the bay close to the resort.

 

After exploring the bay with our kayak we asked permission to go ashore.  The resort was like a light bulb that you could switch on and off. It was a weird feeling to walk through the playground with almost nobody present.

 

A Pirate ship is used as a bar.

 

Their aim was fortunately a bit off, missing Vagabund on her starboard side.  We will make sure we are out of here before the tourists arrive in the morning.

 

We departed early on Tuesday for Highborne Cay as the cruise ship: Carnival Ectasy was approaching to spend a day on this pretty island.