seadoodle

I’m actually really tan…just not next to Jordan.

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since our last post because we’ve been in a very remote part of the Berry Islands the past week waiting for a weather window to cross over to Nassau.  It was a beautiful place to be.  We were tucked behind Devils Cay, surrounded by other small islands/cays with absolutely no connection to the world.  Also, we finally got to meet up with our friends on Tangueray after leaving each other back in Florida.

This was the first time being somewhere completely remote. It was tough not being able to talk to our families, but besides that fact, it was the best week we’ve had on our journey so far.  All we had was each other, our boat and the nature surrounding us.  The spearfishing and snorkeling was awesome. I also speared my first fish (awkward video below)!  We caught our dinner during the day and spent the evenings cleaning and preparing it.  I can’t complain about the food we’ve been eating, because it’s been fresh caught seafood almost every single day.  Jordan speared three Grouper and a few Snapper.  We’ve also been eating a lot of Conch! Anytime we’re feeling a little fished out, we’ll throw in a vegetarian or canned chicken dinner here and there.

Actually, the last night in Frazers Hog Cay, before we left for Devils Cay, we were fortunate enough to be there when a fishing boat came in with their massive fresh catch.  The boat’s name was Bad Company and it was a very, very, very nice sport fishing yacht.  They were all but bad company.  The owners were a super nice family from Florida who happen to be pretty awesome at fishing.  They came in with a dozen Mahi, one being over 65 pounds!  With that, Howard (from the Berry Islands Club) prepared an awesome family style dinner of Mahi Mahi for everyone.  Bad Company also left us with our own ten pound filet of fresh Mahi meat to take back with us.  Very generous!  It was an awesome last night at the Berry Islands Club.

Right now we are in Nassau anchored in the Nassau Harbor.  It’s a cool place to be, but I’d much rather be on our way to the Exumas.  Unfortunately we’re stuck here for at least a week because there is some rough weather coming in.  It’s sort of a culture shock being here compared to the other Bahamian islands we’ve been at so far.  There are so many people, things to do, and places to spend money.  It is great to be able to provision a few additional things and get a few boat items we needed.  Though, almost everything in the Bahamas is much more expensive compared to the states, except the rum…so we restocked!

Here are some pictures from the last week we had in the Berries…

Happy Birthday Mom! Sorry I couldn’t upload this on the real day!

These are the flats behind Frazers Hog Cay. There were baby lemon sharks swimming up pretty close to us. So cute!

View to the open ocean on White Cay

Surrounded by uninhabited islands

We found a lot of conch and made cracked conch… YUM!

Cute crab!

View of the islands from up high

This grouper was the first fish Jordan speared in the Bahamas

Grilled Mahi Mahi steaks and our own homemade rolls!

Nami anchored behind Devils Cay

Exploring!

Right before we grilled that delicious snapper

It was 20% off if you got 12 bottles…obviously we went 6 and 6 with Jon and Geri!

We’ve completed two of the three largest crossings before we get to the Exumas (a strip of a few hundred small islands in the Bahamas), where we can hop from island to island with no worries.  Thus far, both of the crossings we’ve had now have been much more rough than we expected.  The journey from Bimini to Chub Cay (island in the Berries) took us two nights anchoring out in the ocean instead of the typical one night.  It’s pretty freaky anchoring out in the middle of the Bahamas Banks with no land in sight.  After leaving Bimini, we didn’t see land for two and a half days!

Finally seeing land was so wonderful!  We pulled into Chub Cay, the southeastern most island in the Berries, and anchored outside of the beach in beautiful, clear blue water.  The second we pulled in, we were on a mission to find some internet or cell reception to get in touch with Jordan’s parents.  They had flown into Nassau that same day to come visit us.  Our original plan was to be (hopefully) in Nassau by the time they got here, but as it goes with cruising, the weather did not cooperate and we weren’t able to get there in time.  After throwing around a couple options with fear we might not end up seeing them, we were able to get a last minute flight to Nassau in a little five passenger airplane.  We got to spend an awesome two and a half days with them.  We wish it could have been longer, but that’s the way it works with the flights going to these little islands.  Anyways, the time spent with his parents was just what we needed after weather, boat and crossing troubles.  It felt like a real vacation.  The most stressful thing was choosing where we wanted to eat dinner after spending a day exploring Atlantis or relaxing on the beach.  It was really awesome seeing family after all this time.  Thank you Miriam  and Orlando :)

Now we are on a mooring ball at the Berry Island Club in Frazer’s Hog Cay.  It’s an awesome little place with a wonderful one man staff named Howard.  When we got back here to the boat from Nassau, there were two more sailboats here and we knew both of them!  We had met Right of Passage and True Colors in No Name Harbor before we left Florida.  Oh also, we ran into some friends we knew in Bimini.  We met Bruce and Gayleen on s/v Pearl back in Fort Pierce where this whole journey began! What a small place the cruising world is!

Bimini is wonderful! The people here are sooo friendly and nice. Also, the food is delicious (my favorites: fresh conch salad, conch fritters, Bimini bread and coconut cream pie)! We splurged a little and allowed ourselves to try a lot of food since it was our first island in the Caribbean and a treat after the tough crossing. Normally, we will be sticking to our stowed provisions and anything we catch for our food.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning to cross to the Berries. It’s a two day trip so we will anchor out somewhere midway on the Bahamas Banks. Basically, we’ll be anchoring in open water in the middle of nowhere. Freaky!

We didn’t take many pictures in Bimini, but here are a few:

I was trying to protect some skin from the beating sun, but that was a bad decision because it was TOO HOT!

This is our friend Bob. He’s a stray dog who followed us everywhere the first day. Unlike us, Bob did not like Bimini bread.All the houses are cool colors like this one.DELICIOUS fish tacos Jordan made with some fish we caught that day!Infinity pool at the Bimini Bay Resort. We sort of walked in and went into the pool. Act like you belong and you can get away with anything!