The Berry Islands, Bahamas

Thirty-five miles northwest of Nassau lie the Berry Islands. There are 30 mostly uninhabited islands and cays with the largest being Chub Cay which is 10 miles long and 1 mile wide. Birds outnumber humans in this string of islands and cays and many are privately owned by individuals or cruise ship companies.

BOND CAY

Bond Cay is one of the privately owned islands and is now a bird sanctuary so we were not allowed to go ashore and had to settle for a dinghy ride to get a closer view. The waters were beautiful and we saw many stingrays swim by, boy are they fast. We also saw a variety of fish and some turtles but no sharks here.

We did see some interesting stuff happening here. First a water plane landed and a power boat met them at a little cove along the shore and in the same spot the next day a helicopter landed on the island and was met by a power boat. Hmmmmmmmm............We don't know what was going on.....what do you think?

ALDER CAY

Alder Cay is also privately owned. Mike and his friend Tim McCurdy had been here 19 years ago and Mike says this was their favorite anchorage. Mike said it was much prettier back then having more beach area. We're thinking maybe some bad storms washed a lot of the sand away. We saw three houses on Alder Cay and Frozen Cay, which is right next to it, hiding in the palms and trees and not much else.

HOFFMAN'S CAY

We left Bond Cay Friday, April 27, 2007 and sailed to Hoffman's Cay. This was an anchorage that Mike and Tim had also visited. We had an extremely difficult time setting the anchor because the ground was as hard as a rock or covered with turtle grass, neither of which our anchor holds well in. For the first time we ran the boat aground, err, rather Kim did, argggghhhh, very briefly we touched bottom, it was very shallow, very, very shallow, it could of happened to anyone :)))) To move past that subject we finally threw out our 25 pound danforth in the turtle grass. Twenty-five pounds is not a lot of anchor for our 18 ton boat, our CQR anchors are 45 pounds. We were sitting there watching the anchor feeling very insecure when Richard from another boat came over to talk with us. They were anchored on the other side of Fowl Cay about 200 yards from us. He was traveling with his wife and twin, 13 year old daughters. He suggested that we try to anchor over where they were. He said they had a nice sand patch and there were other sand patches that way. We did move over there and we saw sand patches, but those sand patches were hard as a rock!!! We drug all over the place, but the danforth held us on a rock, then the current switched and the danforth let go, but caught another rock and held us, etc, etc.......aaaaaayyyyy....we had a sleepless night. We did go see a blue hole on one of the cays that Mike had been to 19 years ago, we didn't get a picture, but here's what it looked like back then, yep that's a much younger, thrillseeking and yes more skinny, Mike. Well we wanted to stay and explore more, but we just couldn't get a good anchor hold so we left the next day for Great Harbour Cay.

GREAT HARBOUR CAY

Along the way we passed Great Stirrup and Little Stirrup which are now owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. They bring their passengers for a day of play. This is where Mike and Tim, 19 years ago, anchored and would go over to the island where the Cruise ship passengers were, and got in the chow line to eat and drink for free. Those were the days, huh. They would even get the leftover hamburgers, Cokes and Rum Punch mix. We had wanted to anchor in their old spot and try to get in the chow line again but our draft (the depth of our boat) was to much and Kim wasn't going aground again! As we motored by there were lots and lots of people on the beaches and in the water on jet skies and taking paragliding rides. We had to sail pretty close to the ship so we didn't get too far off course, so the waters got pretty crowded. There was absolutely zero wind and we ended up motoring all day, but look how calm.

Once we passed the cruise ship and rounded the corner we entered the shallows that led to the anchorage at Great Harbour Cay. Mike took the wheel, Kim didn't know why and didn't let it go easily. The only markings to show the shallows were poles that have long since lost their green or red coloring, so we did a lot of eyeball navigation. Thank goodness for the Bahamas crystal clear waters. We found some great sand to anchor in and had ourselves a nice sunset. In the 1960's Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and others made Great Harbour Cay their stomping grounds and created the Great Harbour Cay Club, complete with golf courses, marinas and ocean front homes. The rich and famous such as Brigitte Bardot, Cary Grant, the Rockefeller family and reportedly mob guy Meyer Lansky were frequent visitors. The club was finally closed and ransacked in the mid '70s.

We checked out the marina and the inner harbor where the Great Harbour Cay Club used to be, not much to see. We found more interesting things on the outside anchorage where we were anchored. Lots of sting rays and spotted eagle rays, another wrecked single engine plan, beautiful houses, broken docks and thrashed houses. We left Great Harbour Cay .....heading for Mackie Shoal to spend the night then head to Bimini.

MACKIE SHOAL

Mackie Shoal light marks Mackie Shoal which is located at 25.40.55 N, 078.39.27 W. It's just a light marker in the middle of the Bahama Banks. We tucked in at dusk behind the Shoal as far away from the shipping lanes as we could get. We tucked behind the bank so anyone not paying attention would hit the shoal before they hit us. The seas on the Banks that night were about 4-5 feet, so it was somewhat uncomfortable. There is no protection from wind or seas out there. It is an eerie feeling anchoring out in the middle of the ocean. We wanted to get an early start so it was still quiet dark when we got up. We saw a lot of traffic out in the water when we went up on deck. BIG ships and lots of them in the shipping lanes...great....There was also a Mega yacht anchored not too far from us, so it was tricky getting out of there in the dark. Off we went, next stop Bimini, more on that later.

Cheers Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Nassau, Bahamas

We left Norman's Cay at 5:07 AM on Monday, April 23, 2007, arriving in Nassau about 1:00 PM. Nassau Harbour is very busy with lots of commercial and pleasure boat traffic. We had to call the Harbormaster just to get clearance to come into the Harbour. We were heading for Nassau Harbour Club Marina were we had a slip reserved. We had a navigation light and a bilge pump to fix and we needed to provision the boat. We were only planning on staying a day or two to get our supplies and to wait out a cold front. We heard the holding was really bad and there were not many places to leave the dinghy so we decided to take the slip at the marina. Maybe we're getting spoiled....

The marina was really nice. We took hot showers and Ka'imi had a good freshwater bath! Captain Mike did an excellent job of getting us in and out of the marina with the wind, current and very tight quarters, not to mention that all the surrounding boats were large and expensive.

Sorry but we were so busy here that we didn't take any pictures but you can use the Google search bar above to get more information and view some pictures of Nassau, Bahamas.

Oh, by the way, you may have noticed that we have allowed advertisers on our site. It's okay to view them they should only contain information relevant to the site or advertisers that we have chosen. They may be able to give you more information or help you plan your trip to where we have been. We have also added a button that will help you download the browser Foxfire. We use it all the time in conjunction with Internet Explorer. We think its important to have two browser features available.

We left Nassau and headed to the Berry Islands. These islands are where Mike and his friend Tim spent some time about 20 years ago. It was great seeing what Mike had talked about for so long, and interesting for Mike to see the changes that had occurred. More on that in the next post. Cheers from Ka'imi and don't forget to use the search bar for more info on Nassau.

Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Norman's Cay, Bahamas

Click on any picture to enlarge.

We arrived in Norman's Cay on Saturday, April 21, 2007 after a 5 hour sail from Warderick Wells. If you're interested in looking up the location of the anchorage the Longitude and Latitude are N 24.36.707 W 76.49.241. Norman's Cay is about 4 miles long and is located 210 miles off the coast of Florida.
For 4 years Norman's Cay was drug central and a hideaway for the Medellin cartel kingpin Carlos (Joe) Lehder. In 1978 Lehder, et al, started buying up property on the island including a home, a hotel and an airstrip. The locals began noticing an increase in air traffic and armed guards walking the beaches. Lehder began harassing the residents until ultimately they all fled. Lehder now had his own island and could do as he pleased. The Bahamian Prime Minister at the time was Norman Pindling. He is believed to have taken bribes for looking the other way. There was said to be an arrangement where Pindling would warn Lehder if he became aware of an potential dangers to his operation.

Norman's Cay soon became a stopover and refueling place for small planes carrying cocaine for Lehder, et al from Columbia to the US. Lehder had the airstrip protected by radar, body guards and Doberman attack dogs. When planes came that were not wanted, they would simply block the landing strip. You can read about one couples story at http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/2004/cay0404.html.

You can also read an interview with Lehders personal pilot Fernando Arenas http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/arenas.html.

In 1982 after extreme pressure from the US, the Bahamian government began to crack down on the drug operation and the party ended. There was an expose that ran on American television that helped put the pressure on the government. During our travels in the Bahamas we learned that during the 1970's and 1980's many locals and politicians looked the other way when it came to drug operations because it was a great source of income.

Inside the lagoon we found this plane the size of a DC-3 that had been ditched in 10 feet of water. The story goes that the pilot was high and mistook a moonbeam for a runway....I checked the web to find out if that was the real story but couldn't find any info. If anybody happens to know the real story let us know, or, maybe the moonbeam thing is for real. The plane's now a haven to fish and a favorite snorkeling spot for visitors. There is a restaurant on the island called MacDuff's that is supposed to be the Cheeseburger in Paradise, place that Jimmy Buffet sings about, but we didn't go ashore so we didn't see the restaurant, the airstrip or the ruins from the drug era.

On one of the beaches we found this wrecked fishing boat. Michael thought he might be able to fix it. Hmmm.

On the other end of the island we found this lagoon with resort houses. The picture to the right is what looks to be the docks for the houses. The houses are hidden in the bushes and trees. The lagoon was so clear we saw all kinds of sea life, including a huge sting ray , a reef shark and a nurse shark. You can see the animals in the photos but it's not real clear. The left is the sting ray and the right is the reef shark.

Here are a few other pictures from around the island, you can see how beautiful it was, Cheers for now Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Warderick Wells, Bahamas

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

Well our bad, it's been so long that we forgot we went to Waderick Wells Cay before Norman's Cay, so you'll have to wait for the Shark and Drug Lord stories. Waderick Wells has it's own history although it's very vague as the facts were never recorded. We wrote in a previous post that Warderick Wells is part of the Exuma National Park and you are not allowed to anchor. They do supply mooring balls so we had a comfortable stay not worrying about the anchor.

The water was beautiful and the island was crisscrossed by walking trails. Because the island is limestone there are many holes, caverns and interesting rock formations.

One trail led us to a loyalist ruin from the 1700's. A waist-high wall spanned the island from east to west on two sides of the ruins. We speculated that it kept the loyalists animals on his property, such as pigs and cows. Unfortunately, as I said before, there is no written history on the island so they rely on the property records and passed down stories.

We found a pirate's lair on the other side of the island but we didn't bring our camera :( The lair had a fresh supply of water from natural wells and the pirates would congregate there. The pirates often brought seeds from other countries they had visited. It is thought that either inadvertenly or maybe on purpose the seeds found there way into the ground around these wells bringing new plants to the island. They hid their ship between Warderick Wells and Hog Cay, an anchorage that would have kept them out of sight and protected from any ocean swells.

Our best sighting was that of the the endangered rodent, the Hutia, it is protected and indigenous to the island. It's about the size of an adult cat and looks like a cross between a hamster and rat. (The picture is courtesy of MSN we didn't have the camera.) They are nocturnal so we were lucky we saw even one-- we saw two hanging out under dead palm branches. They weren't particularly scared of us as we watched them scavenge through the brush. We also discovered these curly tailed lizards. There were lots of them and half of them were missing that cute little curly tail.

The beaches were amazing and we explored as many as we could. We became animal activists on this island saving one octopus that had stranded himself and many baby conchs that we thought were stranded at low tide. Hope we didn't throw them into deadly territory. The waters were filled with critters too. I saw the biggest lobster I have ever seen....EVER. It was in a rock cave and spanned the whole rock with it's head at one end and it's tail at the other. It looked like the creature Alien...for real! Along with saving wildlife, there was also a group of 5 motor boats that came in one evening having a difficult time picking up their moorings. We jumped in our dinghy and helped one boat having the worst time and after that the other boats were waving us over, saying pleaseeeee, everybody moored safe and sound that night.

Waderick Wells Cay is also said to be haunted by the tormented spirits from a ship filled with monks that shipwrecked on the island. They say you can hear them sing late at night....

Well obviously we haven't found work yet or we probable wouldn't have the time to update the web. The heat outside also pushes me to find inside projects, like how about updating the web. It's supposed to rain heavely this weekend, so guess what, I will probable be updating the web :))))) Hope your well and enjoying our stories, cheers Mike and Kim on Ka'imi.