April 21-24 Journeying to Great Harbor Cay (Berry Islands)

On the T-head where we are tied, the sailboat, and two other boats left a few hours before we were even up.  That left us with an empty dock and plenty of maneuvering space. 

Leaving Bimini

We started to prepare for departing when one of the inter-island ferries pulled in and took up most of the channel trying to get into the government dock which parallels the harbor.  Once he was close Jeff pulled out followed by us and we were on our way..

We went right past the Resorts World cruise ship dock which was hosting one of their cruise ships.  Seems they run out of Miami taking people to the resort for a few days.

We rounded the north rock and entered the Bahamas Banks.  And then our Navigation system decide to flip its orientation, probably caused by the odd scale of the electronic C-map Bahamas chart.

Cruise ship at their dock

North Rock point

I had the chart zoomed in but it wasn't showing any boat movement.  Turns out the scale I usually use for all of our other charts is much smaller on the C-maps charts.  The boat appeared to be making no movement simply because the charting software couldn’t plot it.  Once I corrected that, all was ok again, but meanwhile we made a big circling zigzag cutting right across Just Faking It’s bow.

But we got everything sorted out and hunkered down for the 6 hour run to Mackie Shoals where we’ll be spending the night.

It wasn't calm.  Another weather forecasting error perhaps?  2-4 footers on our beam made for an uncomfortable ride.  The forecast I read was 2 foot swells and light SE winds.  Not so.  Maybe I’ll buy a suitable coin and begin tossing it for weather predictions?

We also ran through a short burst of rain showers.  Its nice to have the salt washed off but it also means we have to close up the boat.  Not so comfortable when its 90 degrees and 90% humidity.  Gets hot!

Mackie Shoals is literally in the middle of no where.  Next nearest anchorage is another 60 miles for east and neither of us want to have another 11 hour run, especially in these beam seas.

Just Fakin It anchoring at Mackie Shoals

The winds moderated somewhat as did the swells by the time we arrived.  It’s very odd to be out of sight of any land, and anchoring.  We put out about 75 feet of chain and the snubber in 12 feet of water with swells lifting the bow up several feet every few minutes.

We aren’t uncomfortable, just bobbing up and down.  Big heavy tubs like ours smooth out the wave action.

So here we sit until tomorrow morning!  I’m betting we’ll be grilling tonight!

We did start to prepare dinner except one problem erupted.  The stove wouldn't work.  The circuit breaker for the stove remained unlit and the stove followed suit by not lighting. 

Uh Oh.

We went to bed without stove cooked food.  I know.  How can we suffer so.   Well we are least I was able to grill a steak.

Around 4AM, I woke up on the sundeck to lightening.  I was out there because it was hovering around 83 in the staterooms and I just can't sleep in that kind of heat.

Since I was up I ran around and closed all the hatches and windows and then went back to bed in the forward cabin where the hatches were all open.  It was cooler in there and also afforded me the ability to wake up when the rain began since the open hatches would allow rain to pelt my face.

And sure enough it began to lightening, thunder and then deluge!  Lots of rain which soaked everything but also washed all the salt off.

My biggest fear was a lightening strike.  We were 50 miles from any land, 100 miles from any repair facility, and in the middle of a large sea with a few boats scattered around possibly within radio range.  Quite surreal. 

But we survived as did Just Fakin It.

We left around 8:30 this morning for the 54 mile journey to Great Harbor Cay where we plan to anchor.  We ran into a few rain showers, brief little spurts of rain but otherwise it was very pleasant.  Gentle swells and cool (70’s) temperatures.

Great Harbor Cay.  Government Dock in the distance

Nice.  Until we closed within 20 miles of the Cay when it began to get rough again with elevated winds.

One thing that was disconcerting was the water depth.  It was basically 14-16 feet deep for miles and miles.  But when one peered into the depths you’d swear it was 5 feet deep. It was that clear.

We arrived at Great Harbor Cay and the Bullocks Harbor where we anchored.  The weather had moderated quite a bit so we found ourselves in very light SE winds and calm seas.

Rafted up!

We anchored and Jeff and Judy rafted up along side us.  They needed water and since we have a water maker we filled their tanks.  And then had a little cocktail party for a few hours.  Very reminiscent of our time on the rivers.

Cocktail time with Judy, Mary and Jeff.

They went back to their boat to eat and we grilled an then tested the satellite which actually worked this time giving us most of our normal channels.  Mary is ecstatic.

Soon, to bed and big day tomorrow exploring the town.

Sunset t Great Harbor.

With our new Bahamas phone we have internet access.  Very welcome system design.  All the phones have hot spots as part of their bundled software.  You pay for bytes used and that's all.  Its a pre-paid phone and has the ability to add minutes to the phone by calling a certain number.  You can add money via their Ez Top-off website and then top off your phone with data (2GB limit) or talking minutes.  Quite simple and works very well.   

Next morning we all slept late,  All we had planned today was going to town and visiting the marina to get gas for Jeff.

I should mention that this morning a surprising number of roosters on the island began crowing loudly enough for me to hear way out here.  At 4:30 AM. 

Before we leave though I had to get the stove fixed before indulging in play time.  I didn't want that hanging over our heads all day.

So I started by checked the circuit breaker and it had power although the light was out.  Took the stove out looking for a gas solenoid and it wasn't there.  Put the stove back in and headed up to where the propane tanks are.  Cleared out that area and lo and behold there was the solenoid.  And sure enough thee was a corroded wire hanging loose.  I was so badly corroded the connectors pretty much disintegrated in my hand.

After 20 minutes of cutting wire and cleaning contacts we were back in business.  So tonight I can make chili dipping sauce on the stove!  

Next I took the troublesome VHF radio and cleaned up the antenna contacts.  It seems to be work again.  I hope.  

By then Judy came over and while I put everything back she and Mary decided we were going to town.

We got our dinghy down and so did Jeff and Judy.  We had ours running and went tout a little past where were anchored when I heard Jeff shout so we came back. 

Jeff tinkering with his outboard

Their Mercury 15HP outboard wouldn't start.  Instead of fiddling with it we just loaded everything into out dinghy and headed over to the Great Harbor Marina to fuel up Jeff’s gas cans. 

You enter the marina through a little canal-like entrance hewn out of solid rock.  Going through it then opens up nicely into a little bay.  The marina is located way at the end and around corner.  Its pretty tight in there and no gas dock.  Seems we ran right past the islands gas dock coming in through the little canal.

Canal-like entrance to the basin

After the nice man told us where to go for gas we headed out of the marina basin along with another dinghy with a couple, as it turns out, who anchored their Krogen 36 on the other side of the island where there is this beautiful beach and anchorage.

We picked their brains as we went out of the marina.  They even mentioned Shark Creek which is a little creek that you can take your dinghy through to get to the their side of and that anchorage.

They left us to go to town through some other short cut I didn't quite see while we went to the fuel dock where Jeff filled up is gas cans.  It’s only around $4.80 a gallon.

We came back to the boats to drop off the gas and headed the short distance to government dock where there is an area where you can tie up.

Our dinghy(at the end) securely locked to Government Pier

We've been warned to always lock the dinghy and so we did although it’s still a foreign idea to me.

Walking up into town from the dinghy dock.

Not a Walmart

We walked up the main road past the church and school and.  Asked a nice lady where the police station was because we were told that’s where the best bar and grocery store is located. 

Sign for Cooliemae's

But we wanted to try CoolieMae’s Restaurant because, again, we were told it was the place to go for good fritters of the conch variety. 

Inside Cooliemae's.  Good conch Fritters!

We walked up the half block past the police station (and administrative offices) to the CoolieMae’s sign and headed up the short dirt road to a nice little house-like building overlooking the water and coincidentally our boats too.  We were anchored right out in front about ½ mile off shore. 

It’s a very nice place and the owner, Godfry was there.  He has 13 children and 24 grandchildren.  We even met a few of them when the school let out right before we left.

We all had a beer, and ordered conch fritters.  They were yummy.  Fresh, soft and well, yummy.   It’s a place to revisit when we return.

Next we headed to the grocery store which was benefiting from the supply boat that had arrived late last night.  Lots of stuff to buy even fresh fruits!

And ice cream.  We all had ice cream including the sales clerk’s little girl!   And then the ladie’s husband wandered in, the local constable, and we all had a good chuckle as he repeatedly hugged his wife.  Official duties seem to include wifely affection.

Getting ice cream

On the way back to the dinghy we saw some guys with conch shells.  We walked over and they were banging the shells with a hammer, and then cutting into the them at specific soft spot. 

Extracting conch from their shells

It leaves a slit in the shell where they extract the conch.  Very neat.  The guy told me it’s more of an art since you can’t really explain where this soft section of the shell is located.

Marys shell.  My bucket of bleach and water

Of course Mary had to have a nice pink one.  Another shell on the boat.  We may end up opening up a floating shell store.  Inventory would be no problem.

It was looking rather threatening off to the north and we had been watching Miami TV at CoolieMaes.  Miami is a little north of us here at Great Harbor Cay.  The station, like most TV, was trumpeting the ‘severe” storm and how to endure it.

Was it the end of the world?  Well, maybe not quite yet, but it must be mighty close from how they were presenting it.  From what I could discern, it was your basic thunderstorm.

But is was moving southwest which means we will get some rain although I don’t think it will approach the severity of what we had two nights ago out on Mackie Shoal.

Once back on the boat Jeff tinkered with his outboard and I did a few things around the boat before helping him swap out his broken Mercury 15HP for his Yamaha 8HP which he’s been carrying around and trying to sell.

Meanwhile it started to rain.  But only lightly, as the bulk of the rain seemed to have moved past us to the southwest.  Still humid though.  We have to make water tonight so at least we can run the A/C and rid the boat of some of the humidity.

We skipped the usual cocktail party to night.  

Tomorrow we’re going around the island to anchor in this more idyllic anchorage with the sand beach and Tiki Bar. A much better place to munch on chili dip.

The calm after the storm

 This idyllic anchorage  is almost opposite of us on the other side of the island.  But we have to get there by going north around Great Stirrup Cay where cruise ships expel hordes of passengers to play in the sand and surf for a few hours before heading back to the ship and departing for the next port.

As its been noted by others, if you do go by while the cruise ships are there, you become part of the scenery and will end up in countless thousands of pictures. 

Not sure if we’ll experience that but we’ll see tomorrow.