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

Pool Party!! Happy New Year!!

Anchored in crystal emerald waters of the Berry Islands on the first day of 2016, Fair Winds and Fly Away decide to have a pool party because the water is just too delicious. But where, our pool or theirs?  We invite Jean and Gordon to raft up with us and swim in ‘our’ pool.

Crystal blue waters of Great Harbour Cay

We have crossed the bank from Bimini with strong east and southeast winds, beating all the way.  It was ok the first night just west of Gun Cay, but the second night was rough and hard to rest. So we focused on getting across the bank to a calm anchorage.  We motor sailed into the wind striving and driving to the Northwest Channel where we will decide to go 15 miles to Chub Cay, Berry Islands, or 20 miles to Morgan’s Bluff, Andros.  Then D notices that if we go north we will head to Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands, a fabulous destination! The same distance and the sail will be more comfortable. 

D finds a huge starfish

Back at the anchorage, we swim in our pool and find huge star fish, much to Jeannie’s delight.  We see sea cucumbers and crabs come out to watch Gordon clean his boat bottom. No fish or sharks, sting rays or barracuda, so it’s an ideal pool for me!

Wahoo steaks and lobster for New Year's day raft up

We grill wahoo steaks that D and Gordon got from a sport fisherman and guide in Bimini. We grill and steam lobster tails for Jean and me so we can taste test the difference.  Both were delicious we agreed.  I thought the grilled lobster had better flavor and the steamed lobster were moister.

   

What a way to start the New Year!  Happy New Year to all, health and happiness throughout the year.

Celebrating Christmas in Bimini

Christmas in Bimini with palm frond tree

Christmas tree lasts through new year and beyond

Photo Gallery

Cat Cay (photo by Jean)

Gun Cay lighthouse (photo by Jean)

Sunrise at Bimini Blue Water Marina (photo by Gordon)

D dinghies past Gun Cay lighthouse (b&w photo by Gordon)

Coral arches on Gun Cay

Hiking Gun Cay coral shores

Jean hooks a lemon shark off the coast of Bimini (photo by Jean)

Hermit crab on Great Stirrup Cay (photo by Jean)

Flat rocks of Great Harbour Cay beaches (photo by Jean)

Fly Away at sunset in Great Harbour Cay anchorage (photo by Jean)

Bimini - Time to Explore

Bimini is the western most Bahamian Island only 50 miles east of Miami.  Bimini Islands include North, East, and South Biminis, Gun Cay, Cat Cay, and a chain of rocks running north to south bordering the Gulf Stream. 

Bimini blue waters

North Bimini is 7 miles long and about ½ mile wide. It has 2 main roads – Kings Highway (the low road) and Queens Highway (the high road) – named from times of British rule.  Small, but the island has just about everything that a larger island might have. We see supply boats with fuel, construction materials, and food all arrive when the weather clears. When weather prevents delivery, the island goes without!  3 days without gas, no onions or eggs to be had.    

Conch shells 

We stay in North Bimini because Jean and I have a flight out in December to the US.  She to visit her mother who turned 98 November 30 and me to visit my cats in Maine. Gordon and D will stay with the boats in Bimini.

December weather is typically northern front after northern front from the US and this December seems to be typical, so it is prudent to stay close because weather may prevent you from moving from harbor to harbor. We get a slip at the Bimini Blue Water Marina with easy access to the airport in South Bimini.  Gordon and D will continue to stay there until we return and continue our passages east and south.

We start exploring Bimini by foot, then by bike, after clearing into the Bahamas officially with Customs and immigration.  We visit the Bimini General Hardware Store, a chandlery, on the south end of the island, and up to CJ’s deli for lunch, where the flies outside were awful, but none inside with the food.  We walk to Barbara’s for bread and she has 2 loaves for us.  Then onto Roberts’ grocery and up to Bimini World Resorts to check on the ferry schedule to US, and back to the boat. We ride the ferry to South Bimini, catch a shuttle bus driven by BIG to check out the airport transportation and schedules. It’s a day of orientation and exploration.

Fold a bikes touring the island 

We visit the Office of Tourism, the Craft Center and read the historic posters to learn more about tour new home, but the real history lesson is meeting Ashley Saunders at his Dolphin House. A native Biminite, his family in Bimini for 5 generations, Ashley is a teacher, educated in the US at University of Wisconsin, Madison and attended Harvard. He has written 2 volumes of Bimini history complete with lots of pictures and local information.  He gives us a tour of his home he built and is expanding to a third floor. It’s got 41 dolphins of all kinds of creative artistic displays. It is whimsical, colorful, unique, and it’s made of materials from the sea and things found on the beach - tiles, glass, shells, bottles and other sea trash.  He spends lots of time with us and answers all our question. A must do for any visitor. His brother, Tom, a dapper dresser shows us his ‘life of conch’ display.  He said he is at the third from the bottom stage of life.

Ashley Saunders gives us a tour of the Dolphin House

Inside is more whimsical artwork

Tom Saunders displays his "Life of Conch"

We celebrate the full moon by walking to the beach for sunset over the Atlantic. We have some rum, John Watling’s Buena Vista sipping rum, and Georgette’s Amazing Biscotti.  Then we turn west to see the globe of the full rising over Bimini Bay. Amazing. Life is good!

When the weather improves we explore by dinghy.  We go north up Bimini Bay and around to East Bimini where a deep creek cuts through the mangroves. Pristine and curvy it offers surprises – a deck overlooking a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr.!  Ansil Saunders, bonefish legend, boat builder and Ashley’s brother preaches at this deck and had taken MLK to this spot when he last visited before he was assassinated.  The Healing Hole is another creek leading to cold water, maybe spring, swimming hole.  We all swam and felt much better!! Then to the beaches of East Bimini where Jean finds a perfect milk conch and steps on the tail of a stingray! A very close encounter. Luckily, no barb, she suffered scratches though – back to the healing hole. Seriously, our greatest vulnerability to a happy cruise is our health.  We must be careful, no injuries or accidents especially when we are in remote places.  We return carefully over the shallow flats of Bimini Bay at low tide.

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial in the mangroves

We spend Thanksgiving at Seaside Cafe where Gloria Rolle has cooked her little heart out. Jean and I have stuffed lobster with all the fixings while D and Gordon have turkey and ham.  The day after Thanksgiving we continue to give thanks with a shared dinner on the boat of smoked turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, and homemade toasted bread. We have much to be thankful for.     

Thanksgiving feast - we are so thankful!

With continued calm weather we go fishing on Fair Wind. Within 2 miles we are in 1000 feet of water! After 2 hours of trolling rods and outriggers, four lines altogether, with double hooked pre-rigged ballyhoo, Jean and I pull in 2 barracuda at the same time!  We release them. Daryl finds a sunken structure in 90 feet with lots of fish activity on the fish finder, so we switch to bottom fishing. I catch a trigger fish but little eating so we release it and it swims happily down into the deep.  I catch a small fish that gives gentle resistance then wham! It dives and my reel spins, I reel in, and it spins again.  Finally we get it to the surface all that is left is the head of a small snapper.  Most likely a shark hit it and ate it.  Next Jean catches a shark and fights it for 22 minutes then gives the rod to Gordon who fights it another 30 minutes until the shark swims under the boat and the line breaks. It was exciting – a lemon shark, 8 feet, 150 pounds! Still no dinner. We enjoy hot dogs on the grill with baked beans on Fair Winds with friends.  

A baby lemon shark at the Shark Lab

We snorkel the Sapona, a landmark for miles around.  It is a concrete rebar ship built during WWI when metal was scarce.  After the war it was not feasible for commercial use, so it was sold for the cost of shipping it away. Rumrunners in Bimini towed it from the US to Gun Cay where it was a warehouse for liquor during the Prohibition in the 1920s. They decided to tow it closer to Bimini and on the way it went aground on top of a Spanish galleon and has stayed since. Plans to make it a night club with a glass floor aquarium to see sharks never happened.  It has suffered practice bombing by the US military, several hurricanes, and now, graffiti.  It’s in 15 feet of water and rises about 20 above the water.  It is about 150 feet long.  The concrete has deteriorated and the rebar is exposed everywhere.  There are several compartments to swim through the holes in the side and we find lots of fishes.  There are many colorful tropicals, triggerfish, jelly fish, sting ray, barracuda.  D sees a grouper.  The water is beautiful as we fly back in our fast dinghies. 

Ruins of the Sapona

Back to the US for a visit and then east and south to the out islands of The Bahamas!