M/V MAERIN

The run south to Gun Cay and Cat Cay was pleasant. We anchored off the airstrip at Cat Cay, our choice of a jump off point to the Berry chain in the morning. This spot affords easy access to the Bank in the dark, since we plan to start before sunup. Most navigation in the Bahamas is done by reading the water, so the few markers that are present are in disrepair, or more often are simply wrong. They can’t be counted on, and unless you’re intimately familiar with the local waters, you don’t want to be picking your way through the shallow waters in the dark. Daytime navigation is best, with the water color guiding, the deeper the blue, the deeper the water. Brown is bad, indicating either a coral head to avoid, or shallow grass, “Go in brown, run aground” is the saying. Run aground on a coral head, it’s bad news. They’re rock! We’re becoming acclimated to reading the water, but it makes for some tense times, since you can see the bottom, and it looks really close!

We arrived at Cat Cay shortly after 1 PM, in time to dink to Gun Cay and go ashore. The beach there is an interesting mix of white sand and coral heads. Lots to explore, and a great place for the dogs to run.

We began our run to the Berry Island chain bright & early, well, dark & early! We raised the anchor at 0517 and started across the Great Bahama Bank, a run of about 80 miles. Our original plan was to head for Bullocks Harbor, but after reviewing our cruising guides en route, a change of plans took us to the south part of the Berry chain, and our destination became Chub Cay. Chub is a private development, very high end homes line the marina and beach. Landing on the beach from the anchorage is not permitted. We opted for a marina stay since the boat was encrusted in salt from the day’s run and we wanted to get some of it removed before we began our stay in the Berry chain. Hopefully we won’t repeat the process before we find a suitable anchorage. We’ll need protection from SE winds, since the prediction is for the trend to continue well past this coming weekend.

We’re not sure exactly where we’ll be, but internet coverage in the Berry’s is sparse, so there may be a few day’s gap in blog updates and Skype™ calls!  Which, by the way, are much more affordable at $.021/min compared to Verizon roaming at $1.99/ min. So if any of our readers have been trying to call, it won’t work- cellphones are shut off.

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