Bahamas!

Oakley's Post

We sailed onto the Bahama Bank as the sun was setting after a day’s voyage from the Florida coast near Miami. With the breeze in our favor we decided to keep on our course through the night. Being five days past the full moon we had a beautiful starry night till it rose around 11:00. We sailed directly towards its orange glow as it climbed the sky to the East. That night was some of the most enjoyable sailing I have experienced with Tarwathie heeling over and barreling along over the shallow bank. The sun rose with a blinding ferocity and soon outlined our destination: Great Harbour Cay at the northern tip of the Berry Islands.

To enter the marina on Great Harbour one has to pass through a narrow man-made channel cut through solid sandstone with cliffs on either side. We decided to treat ourselves to a night tied up along side the pier and had our first taste of the islands in the form of conch salad expertly prepared before us. We were some happy to have finally escaped Florida’s grasp after four weeks and to have made to the aqua blue waters we had been dreaming of. And from what I can tell the Bahamas truly are the stuff of dreams, never before have I felt sand so fine, met people so kind or seen such untainted natural beauty.

After a few days visiting the beaches and blue hole on Great Harbour we sailed on down the arc of the Berries and dropped anchor off Hoffman Cay in a serene, protected little nook behind other small cays. Jos and I snorkeled in to shore and found an abundance of fully grown conchs in a few feet of water. We marveled at the gorgeous bright pink shells and what looked like mini eyes poking out at us. We couldn’t bring ourselves to bash open their shells and eat them. Snorkeling around a point I came upon a large patch of fan coral with hundreds of fish of varying sizes and hues swimming through it. I counted myself one lucky guy. Later that afternoon we rowed to a small island named White Cay and it soon became one of my new favorite islands. It had a curving beach facing West backed by low sandstone humps that gave an amazing vantage of the surrounding cays and the long horizon to the East. We watched hermit crabs meander across the sand and lizards with tails curled in loops skitter to and fro. We hope to make it back to White Cay at some point in our lives.

We slept with anticipation for daybreak and didn’t waste any time in rowing off to find the fabled blue hole in the center of Hoffman Cay. On our row we spotted  a nurse shark and several rays gliding along the clear bottom. Once on the beach we located a somewhat overgrown trail leading to the blue hole and walked along through a tunnel of thick vegetation. The hole was all it was talked up to be. I took the plunge off a cliff and was confused to feel that the water was warmer the deeper I dove, not sure how to explain that one. With the depth somewhere around 550 feet I felt as though I was a tiny bubble floating at the surface of a tall glass. From the cliff above we could spot turtles rising to the surface for a gulp of air before diving back down again. We were it total awe. It goes without saying, we are liking the Bahamas.