January 8, 2009 BIMINI TO THE BERRY ISLANDS

PICS
* The rare great white, beached, balding whale
* Beach Club café deck
* Great Harbor Cay Marina
* Typical “iron rock” coastline


After four restful nights in Bimini Sands Marina, it’s time to put some more distance behind us by entering the Grand Bahama Banks and heading for the Berry Island chain. It’s about 85 nautical miles straight eastward again. This going east stuff is like paying your dues up front, and it starts with crossing the Gulf Stream. The prevailing winds in the winter are from the east so it’s like swimming upstream. Once we get up into the middle of the Bahamas, we can sail south much more comfortably. So, on Sunday, January 4, we left Bimini knowing that we wouldn’t be seeing land for at least two days.
This shouldn’t be too bad; the weather experts say ENE 5-10 knot winds and “slightly” choppy to flat seas for the two days. They’re absolutely correct as we round the north end of Bimini and enter upon to the shallow Banks. At least we’ve now traded the 1000 ft deep Gulf Stream water for the 6-10 ft deep crystal clear Banks. We can even set the jib and do a little motorsailing on our route straight east. Nice.

Well, spoke too soon. A couple of hours later we douse the jib, the kindly breeze has now shifted to straight out of the east and is honking at 15-20 knots. It’s on the nose again, and we’re starting to slam into waves. About the time we’re thinking maybe we should consider turning around and waiting for a better window, we meet “Cataline”, some new catamaran friends we met in Bimini a couple of days earlier. They had left a day ahead of us heading for the Berrys; now they were coming right at us going back towards Bimini. They explain that they had had a terrible night, last night, out on the Banks and were too rattled to keep going. We were still fresh, so we said our goodbyes and continued slogging eastward. After 9 ½ hours of pounding upwind under motor alone, we’re pooped, too, and are considering dropping anchor for the night. Looking way back behind us, on the horizon, there is a mast following our same route. Guess who’s back in the hunt? Cataline decided that if little Summer Breeze could take that punishment, they could too. There’s always courage to be gained by having company. We were as happy to see them as they were to see us. We dropped anchor together to sit out the bouncy night. And it was bouncy! Sleep was very elusive.

The next morn we were both on the move just prior to dawn. The winds never varied from that on-the-nose east 15-20 knots. The poor catamaran, while much larger than we, was occasionally getting stopped dead in its tracks. Oh, well, we were making 4 knots over ground so we’d get there someday. Noon brought new hope. I’d caught a really nice yellowtail trolling behind the boat, and Cataline had brought in a huge barracuda (4 ft +) that ate his lure. We were starting to have some entertainment, when all of a sudden we see Cataline do a quick 360 spin about 200 yards behind us . . . must have hooked another one. Then we hear “did you see that fishing net?”
“Nope,” we replied, “we didn’t see a thing.” Concerned that the net snagged the bottom of Cataline, they confirmed it didn’t, however, it did rip their fishing rod right out of the holder, and it now sleeps with the fishes. Bummer. I thought gill netting was illegal. This one was maybe a mile long and was about 10 feet under the water. Glad we only draw 4 feet.

By 1 p.m. the wind has eased and we can feel that we’re starting to get into the wind- shadow of the Berry Island chain even though they’re still 3 hours away and we’re out of sight of land. That’s exciting; our speed increases and our spirits lift even more. The sun is shining, the water is a gorgeous crystal clear green . . . estimated time of arrival, just in time for sunset. Life is good.

By 4 o’clock we’ve cleared the shallow entranceway that is cut through the cliffs into Bullocks Harbour and have dropped anchor with 4 other sailboats in total protection. Poor Bullocks has obviously seen some pretty good hurricane damage since we were here last, a couple of years ago. Ninety percent of the navigational day marks leading into this beautiful little hurricane hole are totally missing. We’re glad that we had been in here before and have a feel for the shallows.
We’ve been here a couple of nights now, revisiting our favorite beach walks, eating some fresh cracked conch, and waiting out a norther that is just now slamming the Florida coast. It’ll be on us within 24 hours. It’s OK, we’re safe as can be in the cheap, but colorful, little Great Harbor Cay Marina, giving the local economy some help; and getting us a much needed freshwater shower.