Whelp, our Bahamian adventure is coming to a close for 2018, and we were able to end it with a great mini-trip to the Berries. We had a slightly swelly but beautiful sail from Nassau to White Cay in the Berry Island chain on Monday, and between dropping anchor at 4:30 and the time the sun set a couple of hours later, we were already well-convinced that we made a good choice.
We dinghied to a beach on nearby Hoffman’s Cay to hike in to view the inland blue hole listed on the chart. We were expecting something maybe 20′ in diameter (like underwater blue holes we’ve seen); in reality it was 150′ across and our viewpoint was high enough on its edging cliff to give us more than a pause of shock. Since it was late in the day and the sun wasn’t directly overhead its ‘blue’ beauty wasn’t truly showcased, we vowed to return the next day for the full effect.
The timing was good for turtle feeding however, and we saw 5 or so milling around, swimming in and out of our line of site in the depths.
On our way back to the boat we parted a large school of eagle rays wih the dinghy’s path, so we stopped to watch them all around the boat, most likely feeding on the goods brought through the small cut between islands.
We were then off to White Cay and its beautiful sand beach for the onset of sunset, which completed our very full day with a gorgeous display.
now a believer!)
Yesterday we opted for a reeeallly short school day (sorry, teachers!) to be able to maximize our time there. We packed up early and headed up the west side and around the northern tip of Hoffman’s Cay in the dinghy, where we found a beautiful beach on the ocean side. The swells had calmed, and it was a gorgeous day for flying along in the dinghy while seeing everything below with sharp clarity.
The beach itself was a treasure trove of sea glass, perfectly sized waves for body surfing, and beautiful coral heads just offshore. After a picnic and a serious haul of sea glass, we dinghied back around and paused on the vast expanse of sand bar for a dip in the wide open nothingness but sand and turquoise water. It was a spectacular experience, and the idea that we could practically walk the two miles back to our boat was intense as well.
We then made a run down to Chub Cay last night to better position ourselves for shoving westward this morning. The easterly component of the winds last night weren’t forecasted, so we endured our rolliest, most uncomfortable nights’ sleep to date, naturally the night we wanted a decent foundation of zzzs to get us through an overnight run tonight. Wind and Gulf Stream reports have us taking advantage of a window to cross, so we’ll spend the day and part of the night crossing the bank, and we’ll have mostly daylight for crossing the stream before landing in West Palm tomorrow afternoon. Ugh. Our attempts at finding the bright side are going poorly! Lily’s sweet excitement for seeing her people and being back in cold weather may give only slight glimmers of assistance. But… not yet.
