Berry Islands

We finally got our weather window to cross over to the Bahamas on Thursday. Talk about a mass exodus, it was a steady stream of boats leaving the harbour! We left with Quick Sticks, Glory Days and Peace and Quiet all from LaHave River and Caper (Phyllis and Paul) from Wilmington NC. The weather was beautiful but no winds so it was 24 hours of motoring… not our preferred method of travel.  A picture of Quick Sticks shows how calm it was, there was a slight swell but nothing significant. We used the autopilot most of the way but auto and I don’t have a very good relationship and he is always determined to kick off whenever I am at the helm so it was easier for me to hand steer on my watch than use it! The last time that it kicked off on me Richard was sleeping so I hand steered until he woke up, it was a good thing that he checked it when he got up because the unit had overheated and burnt the motor and melted the casing, we were very blessed that it hadn’t caught on fire!

    Entering Great Harbour Cay was very easy even though all the channel markers were missing. The marina is very protected and lovely with fantastic staff.  Customs was first on the agenda with the agent coming right to the boat, and all went very smoothly. Getting cell phone coverage was next on the list so a bunch of us piled into the marina truck and headed out to the phone office. Coverage is much more than we expected it to be at about $1.50/minute so it will be for emergency use only and we will use gmail for most calls. The group had a nice stroll back to the marina once everybody had their phone business completed.

     That evening the marina was hosting a barbeque so we were all eager to have a night off from cooking and a chance for everybody to get together. The meal was your choice of chicken, pork, steak or ribs with a side of corn on the cob and mac n cheese. Richard and I had ribs and pork and both were delicious but the mac n cheese was amazing. It was an early night for all after doing the overnighter the previous night.

   Saturday Richard and I decided to take a walk in to check out the town which is about a mile away from the marina. The weather was beautiful and about half way to town the couple from the boat next to us came along headed back to the marina in a golf cart that they had rented. They were so kind to give us a ride to town and we all met up with Paul and Phyllis who were anchored off the wharf . The town is not very big but it was fun to explore the couple of little shops. We all had lunch at Cooley Maes restaurant which consisted of Ribs, mac n cheese and peas n rice again the food was excellent and although the mac n cheese was different it was fantastic. After saying goodbye to Paul and Phyllis we headed back on the cart with Alan and Joanna who are on a power boat out of Conneticut.

   Ken and Meydie had left earlier that morning but unfortunately had some boat issues so had returned to the marina and we ended up having them over for supper and we were later joined by Alan and Joanna.

   Richard had met a man at CooleyMaes who had offered to pick us up for Church, we weren’t really sure what denomination we were going to but we were glad to be going to a local Church. It ended up being an Anglican service which was very different than we are used to but it was a good message and great to be in the Lord’s House. After a quick lunch we left the marina and had a nice sail up the coast for about 15 miles passing by 2 cruise ships docked by their private islands to our destination of Pantome Harbour. Paul and Phyllis had arrived earlier in the day so as it was 5pm when we arrived we invited them over for supper and had a fun time discussing our day and making plans for tomorrow.

    We have really enjoyed the social aspect of cruising and have been having so much fun meeting new people and reconnecting with others that we have met along the way.