Although I enjoyed sightseeing, 2 days was quite enough in Nassau and at Hurricane Hole Marina so, after calling in our departure on the VHF to the Nassau Harbour Patrol, we made our way under the bridges and out the west end channel for the Berry Islands. We reviewed our maps for a good place to anchor and decided that we would pull in at Fish Market Cays (about 2/3rd the way up the Berry Islands chain). We were well rewarded with this decision - aside from a few coral heads (in 15+ft of water) the entry here is easy (we motored around the north end), the water is 10-12 feet deep and clear turquoise (aside from the grassy patches closer to the beach), the anchorage was deserted, we were well protected from the modest waves and the island itself is beautiful and teeming with wildlife.

Our CQR lay on its side for the the first drop so we re-set the anchor and then snorkled it to ensure we were well entrenched in the sandy bottom. Since there was no one else there, we let our more than enough rode and held well all night, depsite a moderate pick up in winds as a squall passed to the west. Our first mission was to swim to the white, sandy beach and take a look around - the only occupants of the island were birds and sea creatures (and we saw what looked like snake tracks). We attempted to cross over to the rocky (windward) side of the island but the occupying birds must have had nests closeby as a few of them raised a huge fuss as we watched in that direction - squawking and then flying around us, then towards our heards (and swooping just over them) ! We decided it wasnt worth upsetting them so walked to the other end of the beach before snorkelling the area. There are a few modest coral patches near the beach, with very large colourful angel fish swimming about. Other than that, the waters were relatively empty.

Now its onto Freeport, where we will pull into a local marina to provision, weather watch and do a bit of maintenance (filters, tighten the backstay). The weather in the Bahamas now is SO unbelievably hot and humid. We are seeing little to no wind every day so have had to resort to motoring or motorsailing to all our locations - if we do get a bit of wind (as we did this morning), it dies quickly or we are on the "wrong tack". Thunderstorms seems to be almost a daily occurence but I am happy to report that they have tended to be far enough away recently so as not to be alarming (except in Nassau - but at least we werent the only tall structure there).

Everyday, I build a small tent like structure in the cockput for our journey to the next set of islands to ensure we are in the shade, constructed from a set of beachtowels that I clip onto the back/sides of our bimini with clothespegs (leaving a bit of space for the little breeze we have). We have stocked our freezer with lots of cold drinks that we are guzzling down. It is so hot to even eat such that our meals consist largely of fruit, cheese and salad. And the heat drives us to either stopping the boat here or there for a quick dip or, if time is pressing, taking 3-4 quick, cold showers each per day. Thank goodness for our large diesel tanks (~400 gallons) and water tanks (~400 gallons) !!