At midnight, on Tuesday a week ago, we left Miami and headed the 42 nm (nautical miles) over to Bimini in the Bahamas, where we arrived at 8 a.m. Check-in with Customs and Immigration was quick and easy and by 9:30 a.m. Diesel Duck started her 80 nm run toward Chub Cay in the Berry Islands over the Great Bahama Bank.
Starting Tuesday evening the wind blew from the NE at about 5 to 8 knots or less, which lasted throughout all day Wednesday into early Thursday morning. This was a so called weather window! So the trip was very pleasant with almost flat waves over the banks. Although the almost full moon helped, there was not much light coming from the Chub Cay Marina at 21:30 hr when we eased Diesel Duck toward shore where we dropped the hook in front of the cell tower at the S/W side of the island. After breakfast the next morning we relocated from the island, to the marked channel of Frazer's Hog Cay. We have been here before and like this place. Frazer is located on the southern tip of the Berry Islands and adjacent to Chub Cay. Frazer's has the natural advantage of a yacht harbor along its entire three mile S.E. shoreline, formed by Bird and Whale Cays with their inshore sand banks sheltering Frazer's from the prevailing easterly winds.
At Frazer's Hog Cay there is The Berry Island Club which is privately owned. The club/marina has 23 mooring balls and dockage plus lodging rooms with private baths for rent, a bar and restaurant, wifi, plus all the usual amenities. Except, the Club is presently closed and their webpage states that the Club is now under renovations (more info further down the story). A little past the mooring field we dropped the anchor but decided after a few minutes to move back down the channel and to anchor at a spot for more protection from the waves. We were the only boat there. Late in the evening Diesel Duck turned around with the tide and now sat broadside to the wind which started to blow at 20 kt from the N.E. with a swell coming in from the south. This made for a noisy, slapping, rolling motion which we escaped by lifting our anchor early the next morning and moving back down the island to the bay at Chub Cay in front of the marina and resort where it was totally calm.



Chub Cay Marina and resort is also privately owned, but the developers of this $250 million Bahamian based resort development are in receivership and Scotiabank (Bahamas) is holding it now. It is a pity, because when we came through here in 2005 and 2006, the marina was under construction and closed, we were not able to see it. Now there is an unfinished development, half finished 20,000 sq ft manor style club house with an infinity pool and Tiki bar next to a marina village resembling a loyalist Bahamian settlement with about 30 partially finished beachfront homes. The marina has 110 floating docks in size from 40 to 70 feet and is open for business at a reduced rate of $2.75/ft. Visiting yachts can clear customs here if they agree to purchase fuel for a minimum of $100 at a rate of $6.05/gal. or pay a $100 fee in addition to the Customs fee. However, the place looks deserted and abandoned except for the skeleton crew of employees.





The bay here in Chub Cay is nicely sheltered and is being enjoyed also by a few other cruisers. So over drinks, André, the skipper of "Images 1" a C&C Landfall sailboat from Quebec, Canada, filled us in on the story what happened at "The Berry Island Club" at Frazer Hog Cay. At the last week in May of this year he stopped at the Berry Island Club while on his way up to the States. He took a mooring and headed to shore in his dinghy to pay the fee. But he was told to keep his money because the club would be closed and the manager was gone and in the previous week the club had been raided by the Nassau Police, apparently the cook had been fishing square groupers and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) got wind about it and notified Nassau Police. A couple of days later, two guys were standing on the fuel dock waving their arms off, trying to get the attention of the crews on the moored boats. Finally, when the first dinghy got there, these two guys introduced themselves as U.S. Marshalls. "We are here to close the place down, but the problem is, the bar is still fully stocked and we cannot take the booze on the plane and we cannot leave the booze here for the Bahamians." They said. "The solution is to poor the stuff into the ocean or you guys from the boats come this evening and we all have a big f..king party." The boaters didn't have to be told twice and the news spread like wildfire to the American and Canadian moored yachts, with everyone showing up for the "Get rid of the booze party!" Putting plenty effort in reducing the inventory, they emptied the bottles into a big bowl and it became the ultimate punch. By late evening while the wind was blowing strongly, the Marshalls wouldn't let the boaters get into their dinghies for fear that they would not make it back to their boats in their present state, so everyone stayed over at the lodging and slept at the guest rooms. This was another fine example of Canadian and American boaters working together to solve difficult problems!!!



This is André from "Images 1" who even now cannot quite remember how many bottles of booze where consumed that night in May at the Berry Island Club and he is still working on the hangover!



a view of the docks from the Berry Island Club