Nassau and West Bay, New Providence

January 26, 2016 we are anchored in West Bay, New Providence Island (Nassau). We hire a driver, Mario Cooper, 242-455-7221, for the day to  pick up Jean at the airport, go to immigration to extend our cards, reprovision our groceries, supplies, and fuel. Mario is amazing and helps us to get it done all in one day, then we are off for the Exumas. 

Aerial view of Berry Islands

Provisions on the dock, waiting to be loaded 

on the dinghy, then onto Fly Away

The amazing Mario, driver extraordinaire, drives 

on the left side of the road freaking Gordon out

Where coconuts come from

Lobster condos on Jaw's Beach

Conch lined road in Clifton Park 

The cliffs of Clifton Park

Lyford Cay house built into the coral
Sean Connery is one of its residents

Peter Nygard, Canadian and women's fashion 

designer's home and play ground

Sailing on ...

Chub and Frazer’s Hog Cays, Berry Islands

January 15, 2016 we arrive at Chub Cay and Frazer’s Hog Cay, the most southern of the Berry Islands. We stayed at the marina during Hurricane Joaquin in September 2015. The cays are separated by a small creek. Chub Cay has a thriving marina with active construction on infrastructure – water, communications; and homes – colorful, single family residences on the water. The marina was purchased from receivership by a Matagorda, Texas, businessman, George Bishop, who has Geo South, at least that’s what his jet has on it!!

Typical house being constructed on Chub Cay

Frazer’s Hog Cay has the 5000 foot airstrip and airport that Jean flies out of on a 6 seat airplane to Nassau where she connects to Orlando. Dan Scott is the airport employee who helps with a big smile, a Tiger Woods smile, in booking, guiding, loading and flagging the flights. He also drives the van.

Six seat airplane to Nassau on a 5,000 foot
typical Bahamian island airstrip

We eat at Saulie’s restaurant at the airport.  Saulie is a native of Chub Cay and making a real go of the restaurant business. He has decorated it with local pictures and painted it fresh in Bahamian colors. Great cheeseburgers with secret barbecue sauce.

Saulie, of Saulie's Airport Restaurant, and Jean and Gordon
 in front of satellite picture of the Berry Islands. 

We anchor behind Frazer’s Hog Cay for 48 hour blow with gale force winds (>34 mph) before it calms, and we sail southeast to Nassau, New Providence, to pick up Jean and continue our sail.

Little Harbour and Bond's Cays, Berry Islands

Beautiful lizard in our path to the cottages at Bond's Cay

In January from our anchorage at Alder Cay, we dinghy to Flo’s Conch Shack on Little Harbour Cay to the north and Bond’s Cay to the south.  We have rum punch with Chester at Flo’s and hike the island paths that he clears to the east coast and watch the swells crash against the coral outcropping.

The famous Flo's Conch Shack welcomes us to Little Harbour Cay

Inside Flo's Gordon and Daryl get rum and goombay punches

On our hike of Little Harbour we find Darth Vader 'Wilson'
and place him to mark the trail

Bond’s Cay is being developed by Shakira, the singer, and other performers. We meet Stephen, the builder, and he invites us up to an open air bar, On Our Own, with a deck and fire pit.  He is a gracious host and serves us wine and goombay punch, but because he didn’t know we were coming, he had no fish, lobster or conch available. We are ok with that. We meet his girlfriend, Katherine, the gingerbread mermaid, who is from Canada and she gives us a tour of the facility – bar, 2 bathrooms, 2 showers, and 4 cabins. 

Host and builder Stephen holds a lucky 6 pointed starfish

On Our Own bar has a pit fire and open air deck

  Back at Little Harbour Cay ... we do more exploring. We find starfish, fast turtles, and beautiful coral beaches secluded by shallow water.

We love our twin dinghies - they are SO fast!!

Jean and Gordon reach across the coral span

D and Margaret on coral

The weather is forecast to shift to the south so we must find another anchorage and head south to Chub Cay. 

Same but Different – Soldier Cay, Berry Islands

We sail south next day to play at Soldier Cay, one of D and my favorite places.  We were here in 1998 on Ceilidh, 1999 on Tough Decision, 2011 and 2015 on Fly Away.  The seasons and tides and weather can make the same destination different each visit.  

We dinghy to Hoffman’s Cay Blue Hole and meet up with a family visiting Great Harbour, Sandy Dixon from Georgia and his guests from California. Sandy owns a place in Great Harbour so he was a huge source of information. He told us of the progress at Bond’s Cay, now a bar and some cottages.  There are 3 kids, 9-13 years old, and the 2 older jump right in from the 15 foot ledge after both parents. The youngest wasn’t quite ready, but tried so hard she cried.  

Hoffman's  Cay Blue Hole

We dinghied around the island and seas were calm.  We saw the clearest water and beautiful coral reefs with gorgeous elkhorn coral reaching up from the depths next to crystal blue water and white sandy bottom. It’s so pristine, very rare for tourist to dive here.  Usually, just fisherman for lobster, conch, and fish.

The Rock on east coast of Hoffman's Cay

The next day we go to Ambergris Cay, a shallow banks cay that can only be accessed by dinghy. We go to a rock that is 15 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. It always has the prettiest aquarium of fish around it.  Today the tide is high and we are able to dinghy the whole way. The tide is rushing out at 5 knots so we can’t snorkel. The water is clear enough to see sting rays and a small nurse shark.  Jean and Gordy have a glass bottom bucket to see under the surface. 

We continue south and anchor at Alder’s Cay where we saw a spectacular cave and blow hole.

Cave at Alder's Cay with water from the blow hole making mini-waterfalls

Great Stirrup Cay, Berry Islands

In January we move from Great Harbour Cay to Great Stirrup Cay, continuing south down the Berry Islands. We motor into large swells and waves in the Northwest Providence Channel, the big water south of Grand Bahamas. We turn east and can set the head sail and have a wonderful four mile sail into the Great Stirrup Cay anchorage under the white light house. 

Seas of the Northwest Providence Channel

White light house of Great Stirrup Cay

Fly Away in the blue waters of the anchorage

We explore the island owned by Norwegian cruise lines as much as allowed. There are no ships in today, but we watched them come and go from Great Harbour. We saw the tiki village, palm trees and beaches, and rows of chaise lounges. A perfect island get away. We dinghy to shore and take the path to the working but rundown lighthouse, and then along the beach where I find milk conch shells and iguana tracks. We hike into the brush, mosquito alert, and emerge on a beautiful beach cove on the tip of the island. 

We find a deserted beach on the tip of the island

The deserted beach with 2 oyster catchers on coral rocks

We look up to see a frigate bird soaring low

Fair Winds sails with 2 cruise ships 

and light house behind

Fair Winds races on a downwind leg to Soldier Cay