We spent a week exploring the area from our anchorages around Hoffman's and Little Harbour Cays. The weather was uncooperative for much sailing as we were in the midst of a tropical wave which brought heavy squalls with lots of rain, thunder and lightening along with heavy winds. So, we spent our days snorkeling and beach walking as we tried to time our excursions during the more settled portions of the day. Even so, we were caught out in a few of the squalls.
When the weather settled, we moved to the northern most end of the Berry Island chain and the islands that are "owned" by various cruise lines��"Norwegian and Royal Caribbean��"where they take passengers for a day on the "private island". Great Stirrup Cay is used for the Norwegian Cruise Line's stopover and we explored the lighthouse, an old satellite tracking station, and the cruise ship "beach party" area once the passengers had left for the day.
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From Nassau, we sailed north to the Berry Islands. This mostly uninhabited island chain consists of several islands with beautiful sand beaches and hardwood hammocks. The sea bed is very grassy and a haven for the Bahamian Queen Conch.
On Hoffman's Cay, we explored the blue hole which had a 25' cliff, allowing the adventurous to jump off into the warm, deep waters.
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After a few days of snorkeling the reefs at Allen's Cay with Denny & Diane of JusDreaming, we moved up to Nassau on another spinnaker run to re-provision, get diesel fuel and propane, and some RUM! The plan is to move on to the Berry Islands tomorrow and explore those remote, mostly uninhabited cays for a couple of weeks.
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We have so enjoyed your travels. Liz, your're doing a great job of journaling. We are in awe. We are tracking your route on google maps, very cool. You are living a dream and no better time. We hope to taste the sailing life one day. Continued good luck and keep having fun. John and Anne
With winds out of the E-SE less than 15kts, we were able to make a spinnaker run up from Cambridge Cay to Allen's Cay. It was our first attempt as raising the spinnaker on Kokopelli and surprisingly, all went well. The chute went up without a hitch��"no twists, upside down sails or other problems.
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We spent a few days exploring the reefs around Little Bell/Cambridge Cay at the southern end of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. We enjoyed several excursions and spotted turtles, nurse sharks, lobsters out walking the reefs, as well as the usual varieties of fish. Since this is a protected park with no fishing allowed, the reefs are teeming with fish.
On Larry's Reef, we enjoyed the stand of rare pillar coral and got our hearts beating with a lone hammerhead shark cruising the reef and checking us out. He was about 10' long and seemed quite curious to decide if we were edible.
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We left Staniel Cay into Exuma Sound to try our hand at fishing. The mahi-mahi had been running for several days and the locals were bringing in tons of it!
We were outside for about an hour and lamenting the lack of fish, birds, and weed lines when about 30 seconds later we had hits on both the hand reel and the pole. I stopped the boat and took the pole while Alan reeled in the hand line. We had a blue fin tuna on the hand line and I caught a female mahi-mahi on the pole.
We had blood EVERYWHERE! Since the mahi continued schooling around our boat, we threw the pole back in as quickly as possible and hooked up another mahi-mahi. This one was a HUGE bull and Alan was fighting him for all it was worth. I, professional sport-fish captain that I am, maneuvered the boat��"reversing and spinning to keep the fish fighting off the stern. The mahi jumped out several times in a dazzling display.
Unfortunately, a 12' tiger shark caught the struggle and blood trail and began chasing the bull. I was unable to gaff the mahi before he broke the 100# test leader to the hook��"probably because I was so apprehensive about falling overboard with the shark in the water.
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