The Berry Islands

 We arrived at Bonds Cay in the Barry Islands of the Bahamas on March 27th. We had been on the move for 4 straight days and were ready for a break. The weather was in our favor, so we started the day with a dinghy ride to explore the beaches that surrounded us and do some snorkeling on the various rock patches around the shallow bay. 

I was hunting for dinner most of the time and missed a shot at a nice grouper that still haunts me. There  wasn't a lot of fish, but it was still tons of fun. While I was exploring a rocky shoreline, I saw the largest ray I have ever seen in the wild. It was a spotted eagle ray that was about 4 feet across. Kim was able to see it also from the dinghy through the crystal clear water. 

We have not seen many birds while in the Bahamas, so this Great Egret was worth a picture. I snorkeled around the rock island just beyond, but it was too shallow to hold any larger fish.

We took a long walk on this very nice beach. Kim was in her element.

The contrast in colors of the crystal clear water was quite striking. The darker area is a grass bed.  

There was an old dock on the shore that made a nice picture.

I think this is what this trip was all about. We really enjoyed exploring the beaches that we had all to ourselves. 

The shore had dead sea grass on it that looked like cut up newspapers. I am not sure I have ever seen it just like that before.

This beach had a rock layer and then the sand and sea grass. It was low tide.

SHIFT in the crystal clear water

Wow, just WOW!

We ended this great day with a beautiful sunset.

Once again, we had bad weather approaching the following day. The wind was going to come out of the Southwest then clock around to the Northeast. Our beautiful spot at Bonds Cay had no protection from that direction, so we decided to move over to Hoffman's Cay. It was a short trip of only about 9.7 nm. the only problem was that there were a couple of very shallow parts that would require all of our attention. We waited for just before high tide and headed out. Just as we left the anchorage a large Catamaran was also leaving. We talked on the radio and they went first with a 4 foot draft. As they passed the shallow spots, they reported back to us the depth. I could see them on my AIS, so I could follow their exact path. The most shallow water we saw was about 5.5 feet, so that leaves us about a foot of clearance. I was happy to arrive safely at Hoffman's and get the hook down right in front of a beautiful beach. There were a few other boats around that were also there to ride out the coming weather. 

Hoffman's Cay is a beautiful island that is known for a very nice "Blue Hole". A Blue Hole in the Bahamas is a collapsed area in the limestone that gets filled with water. We went ashore to see if we could find it. It did not take long to find the path and make the walk to the edge of the cliff. We met some other cruisers there that told us they had jumped in. We decided we wanted to do it so both Kim and I made the plunge from about 30 feet up. The water was very refreshing and the scenery was amazing. 

I was surprised how big it was. 

We climbed down to the waters edge to check out the landing area to make sure we could get out if we jumped.

Me in the shot for perspective

This is where we made the jump. We have it on video that I will include with one of my videos on my YouTube Channel.

We saw this cool lizard on the walk back to the beach

There is SHIFT at anchor from the beach.

Kim on another beach. 

The strong weather came as predicted. Our position was good and we had a comfortable two days on the boat. The only problem was that we had not seen a grocery store in a while that had bread and we were now out. So, I decided to try to make some. It actually came out pretty good. 

Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread. 

As we sat at Hoffman's Cay waiting for the weather to pass, I was looking at our next moves. I wanted to go visit Great Harbor Cay before we left the Berry Islands, but I was also looking at our plan to make the crossing back to Florida. We were now down to three weeks left on our cruising permit and I did not want to be forced to make that crossing in bad weather. I was now looking for a time where we could make the crossing comfortably, but we had some challenges to face before we could do that. In my next entry, I will write about the worst day we had in the Bahamas. It was a full moon...