Two weeks ago we were anchored in Bullocks Harbor off Great Harbor Cay in the Berry Islands, waiting out a big blow of indeterminate time. The winds lasted about a week, so we had extra time at GHC. Since I’m catching up on two weeks, you might want to grab a drink or snack and settle down someplace comfy before you continue reading; this is a long one.
We spent a couple of days exploring by bike. Those folding bikes we’ve been hauling around since 2019 finally earned their keep. We found Shell Beach, which despite its name had no shells, at least not the day we visited. It did provide a lovely walk on a soft, white sand beach, however. It’s on the Atlantic side of the island, so we could see the impact of the big winds on the seas. We also found the resort ruins up the hill from the marina. It must have been quite something back in the day. There was one cement staircase we were able to climb for a more top-down view. The remains of the courtyard include the old pool filled with accumulated rain water now. There’s another ruined resort at the north end of the island that we want to check out when we go back in August, Sugar Beach Resort. We’ll also have to talk to the locals and find out the history of these abandoned resorts.
We had lunch one day at Brown’s Garden and had a long conversation with the wonderful owner, Ronnie. His wife cooks a delicious meal! We’d hoped for lunch another day at Hammerheads, but it was closed, so we got a quick takeout lunch at the Whitewater Grocery & Restaurant. We both ordered a club sandwich. It was kind of comical. The woman taking our order was telling us it had turkey, ham and bacon, oh, but they were out of bacon. No problem, we can live without bacon. About 5 minutes later she found us in the grocery aisles to tell us they were also out of tomato. I said, “That’s okay, we’re out of tomatoes on our boat, too. We can do without.” Because of the big winds, the mailboat, which also brings food to the island from Nassau (which gets it from the U.S. mostly), had been unable to deliver. That has to be very difficult on the locals when that happens, especially with there being only two tiny grocery stores on the island.
The best part of being stuck at GHC for 10 days was that we finally caught up with a couple we met in the Dismal Swamp back in mid-November of 2019. We met Alex & Corey of Wildly Intrepid on a clear, chilly afternoon when eight boats transited from the north lock to the Visitor Center dock and tied up for the night. We chit chatted a bit that evening and again the following frosty, 31oF morning. We’ve followed each other on social media since then, but the pandemic had prevented us from meeting up again, at least until the big blow at GHC. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we were finally on the same island chain! They were down at Hoffman Cay (where we had spent two pandemic weeks in March 2020) and were heading to GHC to be out of the winds and to stage to cross back to the U.S. Over the week that we shared the anchorage, we snorkeled a couple of times, walked ashore a bit, and shared several dinners and late nights talking. It was so fun to get to know Alex and Corey beyond their social media (which you can check out yourself on their Wildly Intrepid YouTube channel or their Instagram @Wildlyintrepid). This is one of my favorite parts of cruising, meeting interesting and fun people. It’s always a bit sad to say goodbye, but who knows, our paths may cross again in some unexpected place.
On Saturday, May 22nd, Dave and I were taking the dingy into the marina to ask a question, when another couple we met in the anchorage waved us over (hello Bob & Pam on Porkpie!). They had just heard that the island was going into lockdown for two weeks and if you went ashore you were stuck. So back to Lady we went and turned on our VHF. Early afternoon, the Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) broadcast that all boats in the marina or harbor were prohibited from leaving, they even put a military vessel at the mouth of the harbor to emphasize the point. We were told to hail the RBDF with questions, so we did. They gave us instructions to call the local police to get their okay to leave. Okey dokey, we called the police. They were fine with us leaving and told us to hail the RBDF again and tell Lt. Cox that we were okay to leave. Right-O, back on the VHF to hail the RBDF. We relayed the message from the police, but since we weren’t leaving until Monday, we were instructed to hail them right before we left. Dizzy yet? We felt fairly confident that we’d be allowed to leave Monday, but we had one additional step we needed to take anyway. Cruisers are supposed to submit domestic travel health visas when they move from one island group to another. Sunday morning I submitted ours to move from the Berries to the Abacos. They were immediately approved; one more piece of documentation that we were allowed to move. Monday arrive and we saw that Wildly Intrepid had already left for the U.S. Surely we’d be allowed to move, too. Dave hailed the RBDF at 6:00 (before coffee!), gave them the spiel of everything we’d done to get approval and they approved us to leave. Sweet! Not two minutes after our approval, four other boats hailed the RBDF also seeking approval to move on. We started something.
We had a lovely cruise Monday across the Northwest Providence Channel to Cross Harbor on the west side of the south end of Great Abaco Island. It’s not really a harbor, but it was a great anchorage for the calm night, in crystal blue water. We were up early again Tuesday and on our way around Hole in the Wall, the southernmost point of the island, and up the east coast to Little Harbor. About 10 minutes out, we were joined by several dolphins who played in our bow waves for about 15 minutes! I never get tired of watching dolphins do that. Unfortunately, that was the only good part of this leg of the trip. As we neared the point, the seas were not as forecast and it was a miserable 10 hours for me. The seas and winds were almost on our nose, a little to starboard, but the seas were a bit confused and from a couple of directions, so it felt like we were in a washing machine. I was mildly seasick most of the final 8 hours. I never used to get seasick, grrrrrr. The seasickness was exacerbated by the spasms in my midback, which alone can make me feel a little off. I munched on crackers and other carbs all day. I got a couple of hours reprieve when we got to a point where we could change course about 50o to port, aiming toward land while still making forward progress to our destination. This put the wind and waves more on our stern, which doesn’t bother me. Eventually we had to beat back into the seas and winds to get around the next point of land before the cut we needed to pass into. A couple of hours after that we were turning west into the cut for Little Harbor and soon thereafter the reefs and small outer islands cut down the swells and my tummy settled. We anchored off Lynard Cay for the night, a couple of miles north of Little Harbor. Lesson learned, take seasick medications before any long, open-water crossing, just in case, and keep more seasick meds onboard.
It’s almost 5pm and Dave has been in the hammock for about 20 minutes with his drink while I sip mine and type this. Something is wrong with this picture! This is long enough already, so I’m going to stop here and pick it up later with a bonus mid-week post, so stay tuned. I promise to try to post weekly from now on, somewhere between Friday-Sunday.
Stay safe and take care of each other!
Life on Lady 