CODA HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (24)

 CODA : exploring the Berry Islands, Bahamas.

3 February 2025 

Anchorage behind Cabbage Cay, Hoffman's Cay, Bahamas  

Sunset behind Cabbage Cay.  Note that there is nothing as far as the eye can see to the west.

Marc-  Somehow I skipped this day in the blog (real reason is lack of internet).  We left Great Harbour Cay to head south.  We motor sailed first north around Little Stirrup Cay and Big Stirrup Cay and then went south to Hoffman's Cay Inlet, found Cabbage Island and anchored behind it.  This part of the Berry Islands is very pristine with several uninhabited islands.  

Coming out of the narrow cut of The Bay of the Five Pirates,

Great Harbor Cay

Two Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships at Little Stirrup Cay.  The Island is an entertainment center for cruise ship guests.

A Norwegian Cruise Line ship anchored just off of Great Stirrup Island.  This particular ship is a little to tall and too thin for me.  The ship has only about 30 draft and more than 3 times that above the waterline.

Sue and I land on a small uninhabited Island.  

No footprints in the sand.

Sue has found some treasure.

Sue's haul.

I notice that the island is made of very sharp coral stone that would not take long to carve up a boat.

I also notice that a nice pine tree is somehow growing out of this very sharp coral.

I also notice the coral reef in the middle of the entry channel to this island.

A puffy sand dollar.

Sue:  Really the highlight of the trip so far, for me, has been finding the conch and sand dollars.  The sand dollars are much larger and puffier than what we have seen in Massachusetts.  There were a lot of them on or near the shore, all dead.  We have seen a lot of conch shells in our prior Bahamian ports, but in fisherman dumping grounds, not at the beach.  These conch all had a hole up near the top, all in the same place, and Marc somehow knew that fishermen jab something sharp in that spot that kills the conch.  I subsequently read about how they are killed and cleaned, and it is gruesome.  I didn't finish reading the horrible description.

CODA HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (25)

CODA : exploring the Bahamas.

4 February 2025 

Atlantis Marina, Paradise Island, Bahamas 

Welcome to Nassau Harbour.

Marc-  We made it to Nassau motor sailing with light easterly winds (and leftover ocean swells for part of the trip).  It was a 5 hour journey from Hoffman's Cay Inlet.  Sue was the first to spot land about 2 hours out (she saw high rise hotels first).  There was certainly more boat traffic once we approached the harbor but nothing excessive. Actually a harbor freighter that left just before we entered helped delineate the path I needed to take to get in.  Another first for me was calling Nassau Harbor Control for permission to enter the harbour.  They want to know who you are including documentation number, where have you been, and where you are going.  Not a problem.  We passed close to the northernmost cruise ship.  It shrinks the available space when you have 5 cruise ships in port.  I started calling marinas as soon as cellular phone service became available without much success.  Many of the older marinas have been refashioned into megayacht only marinas.  Sad for the rest of us.  The remaining marinas have raised their prices substantially.  I eventually called Atlantis Marina which charges $5.00 per foot for smaller boats and snatched up their last slip.  The dock master instructed that I needed to back into the slip that was only about 2 feet wider than Coda.  Sailboat owners will understand that it's much easier to go bow in to slips.  In any case a dock hand came by to catch the lines from Sue and I backed Coda in with the help of the bow thruster running almost constantly.

Great slip with a large swimming pool nearby. We had lunch on board and explored this rather high end resort.  First the majority of the boats at this marina are mega yachts.  The dock master's office is 1/2 mile away from where they put the small boats (50 feet and under).  The hotels and shops and restaurants have a very maritime feel here.  The place is patterned on "The lost city of Atlantis" that is rumored to be somewhere in The Bahamas (they did find an ancient roadway underwater here).  There is a large waterpark, numerous swimming pools and fabulous beaches. The is even a mega aquarium where you can snorkel and a basin for swimming with dolphins.  The marina village includes a Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop (Will Patton was here for sure).  Sue and I walked for miles around this place and had time for a swim as well.

There is a sign in the window saying Lil Vermontster.  We had to go in and surprise, the prices were the same as in Burlington.

Pool by the marina.

Coda is the last boat on the right (perfectly protected from the mayhem in Nassau harbor).

Chihuly blown glass display at the entrance to the Casino.

Chihuly blown glass suspended above the Casino.

Another Chihuly glass creation just hanging there somehow.

We entered the massive aquarium complex in the basement of the great hotel (Looks like that's how this spiny lobster came in as well.)

These fish certainly did not know where they were headed.

This school of fish knew what direction they all wanted to go in.

A loner fish (wait is that a shark eyeballing him?).

A stingray.

Nasty looking eel.

Mayan temple water slide where you shoot down inside through the shark tank in a glass tube.

Nice seahorse support for the roof structure.

This was a highlight of my visit to Atlantis.  Meeting a bird trainer and his bird Coco.

One little whistle and Coco spread his wings.  He would fly away on the next whistle (Coco always comes home to his trainer).

Sue found a cat on the way back to the boat.

Sue's sunset over Nassau harbour. 

CODA HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (23)

 CODA : exploring the Berry Islands, Bahamas.

3 February 2025 

Bay of the Five Pirates, Bullocks Harbour, Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas 

Bullocks Harbour is the name of the Town.

We are actually anchored in a place called "The Bay of the Five Pirates."  (Note: We are feet away from where Coda is anchored.  The red arrowhead marks where Sue and I are coming back in the dinghy doing 1.9 knots.). You can see the narrow cut channel into the Bay.

Marc-  The anchorage was perfectly calm last night.  Not even the early morning boats ferrying workers to the Cruise Ship Cays nearby disturb us.  

Another beautiful day in the land surrounded by beautiful water.  Sue and I headed ashore to explore the Island on foot with our Nordic walking sticks.  We basically did a 4.2 mile loop of the Southern half of Great Harbour Cay.  The area around the marina has many modern waterfront townhouses in excellent condition.  There were several nice single family homes, a hotel and other houses in various stages of construction.  We crossed over the causeway to theVillage where several churches, a small grocery store, schools and the main commercial pier is located.  The roads are mostly well maintained and normal width compared to town roads in Vermont.  Cars still drive on the left with a steering wheel on the right.  It's a small coastal town.

We enjoyed some local grouper for lunch back at the marina.  Soon after we returned to Coda, Stacy and Scott (nice couple traveling on a 34 foot Powercat; we met in Key Biscayne) stopped over on Coda.  They had just been on a dinghy guided tour on "Shark Creek" that crosses the Island over to the ocean beach side.  They reported good snorkeling and numerous sea turtles.  We arranged to stop over on their boat and have dinner ashore.  Their Powerboat is in excellent condition with lots of interior space compared to a mono hulled boat of the same length.  We enjoyed a nice dinner of spiny lobster on the dock.  You order the food from a fish shack and it is brought over to your table.  Nothing fancy but good food.

We plan on heading south to Little Harbour Cay tomorrow.  Weather and wind seem favorable.

One of the marina docks.  They have large motor yachts tied up on some of the docks here.

Stacy and Scott's boat.

One of the newer waterfront homes.

Crossing the causeway into the Village.

Daisy, a local friendly dog who followed us around town.

Immigration and Customs Entry Point.

CODA HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (22)

 CODA : exploring "the Bank", Bahamas.

31 January 2025 

Mackie Shoal, Great Bahama Bank, Bahamas 

The water of the Great Bahama Bank is extraordinary.  This shallow shelf is a carbonate platform about 20 feet deep and covers hundreds of square miles.  

Marc-  We delayed our departure three times today due to gusty winds of 20-25 knots that were diminishing.  It took until 13:00 hours before we felt safe to go with 10-12 knots of southeast winds.  We literally could not leave earlier since Coda was pinned to the dock by a combination of the wind and a 3 knot current caused by the outgoing tide.  Sue and I explored some more of Bimini on foot in the morning visiting some outdoor markets at the Government Pier and visiting a Vermont boat owned by a member of our DIYC boat club moored at Brown's Marina, a busy loud place.

We had no difficulties leaving the marina when we did although some fellow boaters came over to lend a hand.  The trip out to Mackie Shoal, a spot in the middle of the Banks, was fine even with some light headwinds.  We anchored in about 20 feet of water.  It is a waypoint on an east-west boat route over the Banks.  Two sailing catamarans anchored in the area.  The diminished wind had calmed the waves but the swells persisted all night long.  These swells ran at an odd angle to the currents causing Coda to roll. It was a very poor sleep!

Beer ad at our marina.

Narrow streets for narrow cars driving on the wrong side of the road.

North Hero, Vermont boat.

About time that I raised the Bahamian courtesy flag.

This marina in Bimini did not rebuild after the last hurricane.

Sun going down.  Note the swells!

Sunset and Moon rising on the Banks.

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 CODA : exploring "the Bank", Bahamas.

1 February 2025 

Bullocks Harbour, Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas 

Sunrise on the Banks (finally the seas are quiet when we are ready to leave).

Marc-  Beautiful sunrise after a mostly sleepless night on a rolly boat.  We raised the anchor and off we went for a quieter destination:  Great Harbour Cay.  We motor sailed about six hours on perfectly clear waters (looking over the side of the boat you would guess maybe 5 feet when it is actually 20 feet deep).

There were very few boats out on the Banks today, but quite a few boats on our arrival to Great Harbour Cay.  The first sighting was of the Cruise Ships anchored just north of Great Harbour at Little Stirrup Cay and Great Stirrup Cay.  The Cruise lines offer their guests watersport entertainment and beautiful beaches here.

Coda needed to refill one diesel tank so the village fuel dock was our first stop.  We arrived when it was closing but the very nice attendant lady took care of us.  I asked her about anchorages nearby and she recommended going around the corner to the inner harbor.  We found a very secure spot for the night.

Sue's sunrise this morning.

Sue:  Last night was miserable.  We rocked and rolled out in the middle of nowhere.  Sometimes it felt like we were being slammed and thrown around.  There is a reason people go places on big cruise ships and airplanes.   I will not be doing this again.  I was exhausted yesterday on the way to Mackie Shoal - I guess from doing very little plus my diet of Bahamian bread and American gorp (heavy on the M&Ms), and snoozed some.  So the combination of daytime sleep plus the horrible conditions made for barely any sleep all night.

Today was just a long day of motor sailing and some reading.  By the time we made our lunch/dinner, it was too late to go out and explore.  So we are trapped on the boat until the morning.

Those eggs we bought in Key Biscayne and I wondered if they'd be good or "anemic?"  They're good!