Adventures on Beannacht

Monday 23rd February

      

The Berry Islands felt like something of an arrival on this journey. We left West End at 6pm on Tuesday and arrived at Devil’s Cay at about 2pm on Wednesday, motoring all night into 20 knot winds that weren’t forecast to arrive until late on Wednesday afternoon. Somewhat uncomfortable, but Beannacht coped really well.

Pulling into the narrow channel it was hard to work out where the anchorage actually was, I kept looking at the chart and then looking at the land around me. It took a minute or two for me to adjust to the scale of the islands – they’re tiny. We were aiming for a protected spot that was between seven islands, but when I looked at the scale four out of seven were the size of houses, and the other three were smaller than rugby pitches.

We got in the channel, dropped anchor, and got our snokel gear out straight away. Kel’s inital impulse was a need to check the anchor, which we did, but we then spent an hour inspecting the seabed for signs of life – and signs of fish to be caught in my mind.

There wasn’t much to the Berry’s in terms of marine life, at least not on the inside of the islands, and the seas were too rough to snokel the outside while we were there. [Kel - I think that there were loads of marine life : small conch, a big barracuda, beautiful yellow and purple coral, parrot fish, yellowback fulsilier fish, fairt basslet royal gamma, sea urchins and sea biscuits and loads of others that I haven't found in the book yet!] Conch (pronounced conk) is one of the staple foods of the Bahamians, large shellfish that are essentailly underwater snails. We’ve read about how to harvest them, a tricky extrication from the shell aparently, and were on the lookout, but there were only a few juveniles in the anchorage. Later talking with Jay and Susan cruisers on Elixir we discovered that fishing crews come out around the islands with one mothership and lots of tenders. They move through the cays (pronouced Keys) clearing out all the adult lobsters in one swoop.

So fishing was not on the todo list this time, sadly. We did have one bit of luck on the way to the Berrys. A flying fish – a strange Darwinian quirk perhaps – flew straight onto our deck and we put him in the pan for breakfast. Kel actually saved another on her night watch hearing him flapping on the deck – bloody animal lovers, I’m hungry and she’s throwing them back.

On our second day in the Berrys we met the Jay and Susan. We were on our way to the beach for some snorkelling and saw Jay on deck so headed over. We spent a couple of hours chatting and hanging out and then arranged to head over to the Blue Hole for an explore later that afternoon. Blue hole is self-explanitory – a large crater inland that’s filled with sea water. It’s about 80 feet deep aparently and we had a customery cliff jump into the deep before swimming around exploring the marine life. Ragged rocks razor sharp on the feet and sandstone eroding in the baking sunlight.

Kel and I spent another day exploring the beaches on Friday and did some good home baking. Food is of course a big part of the trip, not least the challenge of provisioning for longer periods away from grocery stores – M&S Food just round the corner was a bit of luxury in Irwin Ave. We’ve been cooking up some new concoctions with things that are on the way out, and baking loads of bread. Our appetites are a lot less because of the heat, although we’re still pretty thirsty, so we’ve been cooking one good meal a day and then snacking when we’re hungry the rest of the time. 

 

I’ve been working on our Ham radio for the last couple of weeks and on Friday Kel and I installed the copper ground foil for the antenna in the bilge – it’s the earth connection for our antenna and largely determines the performance on the radio. On Saturday morning we tuned into Chris Parker weather for the first time – he’s based in the states and provides weather for sailors in the Caribbean year round. Aparently one should really pay to receive such a service, but the beauty of radio waves is that they’re just out there. People who do pay get the added benefit of being able to talk directly with Chris for personal forecasts, but for us just tuning in is perfect. 

And  so on Saturday morning, having listed to Chris’ forecast, we set off for Nassau, capital of the Bahamas, and the nearest Apple repair store where I can get the DVD drive on the mac fixed. We sailed in past the cruise ships and dropped and anchor just opposite the marinas and off the shores of Paradise Island – a massive holiday resort and casino. 

It might be important to note at this point that we set off just behind two other boats heading to Nassau, over took them and beat them there by at least an hour, if not more. Maybe it’s not important, not sure? We were flying, over 8 knots lots of the time, averaging about 7.5.

We dropped our dinghy back into the water and went off for an explore in the afternoon. Nassau is kitted out for the cruise ships and everywhere you look there are tourist tat shops and tax free emeralds. We didn’t really plan to be here for very long, but today I’m heading to the Apple repair store and trying to find a repair shop for our Ham radio – dodgy tuner – so our stay will be dictated by repair times.

[kel - we walked up the queen's staircase and to a fort overlooking the harbour and then down to the old section of town and the straw market....stu forgets to mention these things]