Berry Islands and Market Fish Cay

We left Freeport for the Berry Islands on October 31^st.  We started the day with good wind and figured our 55 mile journey would take us about 10-12 hours.  An hour in the wind shifted and was coming 30 degrees off our port, which is the cutoff point where we can’t sail.  We decided to keep the wind 60 degrees off our port and we would tack east later in the day to make up the distance.  As the day went on the seas got rough and we were getting pounded all day.  When we went to tack we had to tack 140 degrees because the wind shifted and the waves were even bigger.  After 12 hours and we were still 6 hours away we turned on the engines and headed straight for the Berries.  We arrived just after 1:00am to our favorite anchorage so far.  It is the same anchorage we stayed at last year after running the boat onto a sand bar!  We love it here.  Market Fish Cay is now my island.  I am claiming it.  It does not have a bug on it, the most perfect crystal clear bay with a private beach, and the ocean side is filled with blowholes and waves crashing.  We spent the first day snorkeling and spearfishing (with no luck).  We also took the dingy over the sandbar we hit last year to Hoffman’s Cay to check out the awesome blue hole.  It was a little hike and then you turn the corner and WOW!!! It comes out of nowhere and was a great place to have a picnic.  The only person that liked the blue hole more than we did was Lucy.  She was in heaven swimming, swimming, and swimming some more.  It was truly a site to see, the jagged cliffs were great fun and there was a cave formation right where you climb out that was fun to explore.  We were having so much fun we decided to stay another day so we could have a bon fire on the beach and make dutch oven peach cobbler.  As we pulled up to the beach that night it was sparkling with “glitter” all over the place millions of pieces of “glitter” or what we soon found out were the eyes of spiders reflecting off our lights.  It was so creepy every time you would shine your light around to make sure no “glitter” was approaching the fire.  We finally got the waterlogged wood to take a flame and baked the best peach cobbler yet.  It was so good we had it for breakfast the next day too.  Speaking of the next day, we were planning of leaving for Nassau, but when we listened to the weather forecast that morning it was 20-30 knot winds and 8-12 foot seas.  We decided to stay in our little protected cove and wait it out.  Now that is precisely what we did for the next 4 days.  Each day the wind got stronger and the waves bigger.  Our cove was protecting us, but we were still bouncing up and down non-stop for 4 days with wind too strong for our wind generator to be on.  We basically lounged around the boat doing nothing for those days.  A lot of games were played and books were read.  By the time Thursday came around we were dying to get moving again.  With a good forecast for the day we pulled the anchor at 7:30 and made it to Nassau sailing a straight course all day till 5:30pm when we caught our monster and then anchored by 7:30pm.

Wind blowing 25 knots and seas over 10 feet just beyond our breaker

 This is for you Tanner!!!

 Wiped out after swimming all day long

Farewell Market Fish Cay