Our Great Adventure : Chillin' (literally) in the Berry's

It's hard to believe that we have been in the Bahamas for two weeks!! Granted three days were a hard slog of travel, but still the time has flown. Our boat cleared customs in Great Harbour Cay Marina, in the Berry Islands, on Jan.27. It's quite an interesting process - I have only ever cleared customs at airports or bus terminals, and once on foot in Poland from Slovakia but never on a boat. Customs in Great Harbour Cay has to be cleared from the marina since the customs officer drives over from the airport. Once we radioed the marina that we were close they called customs to inform them a vessel was arriving and was flying the "Quarantine Flag". This is the yellow flag a ship must fly when it enters a country's waters but has not yet been cleared into customs.

Our Quarantine Flag

Apparently historically the yellow flag was signified a ship had cholera, but now means the ship is free from any diseases for which it should be quanatined and is requesting clearance from customs. As Captain of the ship, only James was allowed to leave the vessel and I stayed on board filling out the customs forms he gave me while he got our passports stamped and obtained our joint cruising and fishing permit. The customs officer never even laid eyes on me or the boat yet James returned with a stamped passport for me! The paperwork I filled out was very interesting and I suspect has not been updated in a very long time. My favourite questions were:

I'm not entirely sure what is considered usual or unusual rat mortality but I took no rats onboard as a very happy sign. Also apparently if people "accidentally" died aboard on the way to the Bahamas - meh no big deal - as long as it was an accident you don't have to declare it! And don't worry - in case you're not sure what plague, cholera, yellow fever or small pox look like - this helpful "Note" is attached (FYI James is considered "the Master"- HA):

Since we had no prostrating fevers nor diarrhea leading to collapse we passed our customs inspection! We then took down our quarantine flag and hoisted our Bahamas Courtesy Flag (which has since ripped in all the wind we have been having).

The Berry Islands are a chain of islands in the northwest of the Bahamas. The entire population of all 30 islands is only about 700 - most islands are uninhabited and very small. They were settled in the mid 1800s by freed slaves. They are beautiful, rustic, remote and rugged. There is hardly anyone here and in two weeks we have only seen a handful of people. It's a pretty cool experience.

After we rested up and filled our water at the marina we spent 2 nights at anchor nearby. While at anchor we were able to dingy to the marina and then go ashore for those two days. We had an amazing time exploring the island! It's quite small and we biked around it in a day. The first day we borrowed the marina bikes, let me tell you - a hilly island on a fixed gear bike with beach tires is quite the work-out! We went to the Bahamas Telecom Company and got a SIM card so we could have internet then we checked out the "settlement" which is what they call the towns here. Friendlier, more down to earth people you could not hope to meet. When people talk to you they shake your hand, put a hand on your shoulder, give you eye contact and genuinely smile. As we biked along EVERYONE we passed waved or honked and several drivers pulled alongside us and chatted as they drove along! The settlement had a school, a church, a "beauty store", and several small convenience shops. We stopped in one and bought a "Goombay Punch" which we were informed "has the real taste of the Bahamas".

It tasted a little like cream soda and we learned there is a drink called the "Goombay Smash" which is an adult alcoholic version which we are both excited to try!

Throughout the day spent biking around, we stopped at several beaches to cool down and swim. At each beach we were the only people there. We also hiked up to the top of the island for a rather spectacular view of the water. Before we arrived in the Bahamas, the first thing everyone said when learning we were coming here was "wait until you see the water!" and it's true - it's truly incredible. The photos just don't do it justice. There are so many shades of blue and green and the clarity is like a glass of tap water. It takes some getting used to sailing in such shallow water and being able to see the bottom - I'm just waiting for our keel to hit something! However, the thing no one talked about was the stars! I have never seen so many stars before and they are so clear and close. There is almost no light pollution at all and it's a fairly flat landscape so being out on the water gives the most unreal view of the stars - I understand now why celestial navigation would have been so helpful - you can see everything out here! Sadly, we are still waiting to see those "five visible planets" that apparently can be seen this February.

View from the top of Great Harbour Cay

From Great Harbour Cay we sailed (actually sailed, got to turn the motor off) to Soldier's Cay where we were the only boat so we had the beach entirely to ourselves. We spent a very relaxing beach day reading and snorkelling with stingrays. A few days later we headed to Hoffman's Cay and again had the place to ourself the first day. The second day a local fishing boat showed up towing six smaller boats. The largest boat acts as the mother ship and stays anchored while the smaller boats scatter and fish throughout the day. We met some really nice fishermen who dropped by the boat with their catch! Hoffman Cay is a great location because from there you can dingy to many small islands and beaches. We did a short hike on one of the islands to one of the Bahamas famous "Blue Holes".

Pondering at the Blue Hole

Each day we visited a different secluded beach, did yoga, read, and swam and snorkelled. We saw the largest starfish I had ever seen - I had no idea they grew so large. Some were at least one and a half feet across! Then we moved to Bondscay where we had a beach fire. We had gone to shore to swim and walk on the beach but on our way back to the boat the predicted cold front moved in much faster than anticipated and brought some very large waves with it. By the time we reached our boat it was bobbing all over the place. We had a very hard time getting out of the dingy and climbing up the ladder since the waves were lifting our boat so far out of the water we were afraid the dingy would slip too far under the transom and get smashed. We are now at Frazers Hog Cay and are enjoying the second cold front in as many days - the cool weather is one thing, I'm sure the further south we go we'll have days where we long for a respite from the heat - but the high winds and rough seas it brings are getting old.

Now that we have relaxed and enjoyed some time not fixing things it has dawned on us that this is our life! We are out of survival mode when we just dealt with one calamity after another. Tomorrow marks FIVE MONTHS aboard!! It's true what we read on other people's blogs - around the six month mark is where you really settle into the lifestyle. It doesn't feel like a vacation or a crazy adventure so much as our new lifestyle. We pretty much have stuff figured out and are back to doing normal things like baking and cooking real meals.