There Go The Berries!

Last Updated on October 19, 2023 by Jill

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Monday morning we woke up pretty early and had the anchor up by 6:30 am.  We put the headsail up and headed to the Berries.  Our plan was to stop in Stingray city and then anchor in Great Harbour Cay.  Stingray city is located off Great Stirrup Cay which is a private island a lot of cruise ships use to bring visitors to see the stingrays.

After sailing all day we were closing in on the Berries and noticed there was a lot of construction going on.  The more we looked at it the more we decided it might not be a worthwhile stop.  It turns out they are undergoing a major renovation opening in May.  That is why there was so much construction going on.

We also realized it was already Monday afternoon and Dave’s mom arrived in Nassau on Thursday.  If we stayed that could put us possibly cutting it close heading down to Nassau to pick her up.  Plus, on top of this, we had decent winds for an overnight sail to West Bay, New Providence.  That was it, we decided to go for it.

Night Sail

This was by far one of our calmest and most beautiful night sails we have had.  It was so peaceful and calm we actually got concerned we would not make it in time so originally the motor was on for a bit.   The motor didn’t stay on for long, we were making such good time we turned it off and just sailed.  It was beautiful, we both got some decent sleep.  The pups slept almost the entire time.  I was able to listen to some podcasts and Dave was able to catch up on some CLE’s.

West Bay

We arrived in West Bay at daybreak 6:30 am.  We took our time and waited for the sun to fully come up since the anchorage gets a bit shallow.  There was only one other boat anchored and they were pretty far in.  We had the pick of the bay, it was wonderful.  Shortly after we dropped our anchor we tidied up the place a bit and then took a nice nap.

Dinghy

We had our dinghy up on our bow since Galveston, TX.  It is the safest place for it to travel on passages and we haven’t needed it until now.  Finally, we got to lower it in the water and put the dinghy chaps I made on it (dinghy chaps protect the boat from UV). It was really nice to get it off the bow and have more space for the pups to run around.  Dave got it all set up on the davits ready to be used.

 Old Fort Bay

The next morning we moved over to Old Fort Bay in hopes of finding a close spot to have a taxi drop off Phyllis.  The bay was beautiful.  We took the pups in and they ran around and explored for a long time.  On our walk, we bumped into a gentleman who told us that the community above the beach was private.  Bummer!  This meant we wouldn’t be able to have Phyllis dropped off here.  We played around on the beach and then decided it was time to move on.  With a bad storm projected to come in a couple days, we decided to go into one of the marinas in Nassau and just wait for her there.  This would make things easier for her to get to us.  

I have included a short video and when I say short I mean short.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Jill