Sailing to Nassau and The Berry Islands

 The weather window to travel north was holding on March 26th. The long range forecast did not look good, so we decided to take advantage of the weather and keep moving north. This was the day that we were leaving the Exumas. The Exumas are as beautiful as advertised. We loved the crystal clear water. There were two things that we did not like as much. First was the number of other boats. We had become used to spending time in fairly empty anchorages. In the Exumas, there was always lots of boats around. The other issue was the difficulty in finding anchorages that have protection from the West. With that being said, we loved the Exumas and think it is the Bahamas experience that most cruisers are looking for. 

We were up early to get a full day to make the 46 nm trip up to the island of New Providence. New Providence is the island that has the city of Nassau on it. Nassau is the largest city in the Bahamas by far. It is civilization. We had purposely avoided it during our visit to the Bahamas, just like we do in the US. We just don't like cities. 

We started out by working around the reefs that protect Highborne Cay. That took about a half hour, but all went well. We then put up sails and turned Northeast. We had a few other boats in the area, but most of the day we did not have sight of land and could only see boats on the distant horizon. We had some fairly light wind, so we sailed for a while and then motor sailed for a while. It was another very easy day on the water until we got to the island. As we made our approach, the currents got crazy. The water went from 50 feet deep to over 2000 feet at the tip of the island and the ocean currents were ripping. The water got rough for about a half mile, but then once we got out in the deep water it got much better. We then made a turn to starboard and went through an opening in the reef surrounding New Providence. It wasn't long that we were anchored right off of "Jaws" beach. 

Leaving Highborne Cay we had a very nice sunrise.

Not much to see out here except the beautiful water. In the distance, you may be able to see our first sight of the Atlantis Resort on New Providence.

This is our anchorage called "Jaws" Beach. This is where they filmed Jaws 3. It was a Sunday, so we had lots of people there with loud music when we arrived, but before long the people went home to make it to work the following day. 

It was a nice evening after our long day sailing. There were about 10 other boats in the anchorage. 

We had no plans to stay on New Providence. We were heading to more remote anchorages up in the Berry Islands. We had been traveling for 3 straight days and were a bit tired, but we decided to keep moving one more day and make the 33 nm sail up to Bonds Cay in the Berry's. We had another good forecast with wind behind us, but I knew it could get interesting. The water between New Providence and the Berry's is deep and notorious for having swift currents and big swell. 

The beginning of the day was going well and we motor sailed in the light wind. About half way through the sail, the swell started to get bigger. As it turned out, we had swell coming from two different directions and it made the ride very uncomfortable. The wind was not strong enough to hold the sails in place, so as the boat rolled from side to side they started to slam back and forth. I tried a number of different configurations, but none of them worked. I finally gave up and pulled down all of the sails and we motored for the last two hours. It was the roughest sea we have ever seen, but SHIFT handled it with no problem. It is times like these that I keep gaining confidence in our boat. And the best news of all is neither of us got seasick.

As we approached Bonds Cay, we saw the cut in the islands and made it in without issue. Then all of a sudden the water was totally flat. It is amazing how everything changes that quickly. One minute we are holding on for dear life and the next minute all is calm. 

I did not take any pictures of our rough passage. This is our nice calm anchorage at Bonds Cay.

The late afternoon sky was beautiful. All of that water is under 8 feet deep. The Berry's are known for shallow water.

I can't wait to go explore this cay.

The water is about 8 feet deep and crystal clear.

We ended the day with a nice sunset. 

We were very happy to have the hook down at Bonds Cay. The forecast looked fine for the next couple of days to stay here and rest. It looked like a great place to go check out the beaches and do some snorkeling around the rocks on the shoreline. In my next entry, I will tell you how those plans worked out.