The Berry Islands

December 14

We motored the entire night, against the wind and the current. Not much traffic, except for the odd freighter or cruise ship. I spent the entire night in the cockpit, sleeping and feeling the windy breeze. For some reason, I was extremely exhausted from my three hour shift at the helm... our routine was a little off, due to the late departure time. In the morning we started to notice the Berry Islands. We were headed for Devil's Cay... which is more in the central Berry Islands. The Berry's are a series of small islands mostly uninhabited between Grand Bahama Island and New Providence Island, where the capital of Nassau is located. We anchored Joana in 18 ft of water, near White Cay. Surrounded by white sandy beaches, deep Blue holes and waves crashing along the rocks, this was one of the most scenic anchorages I had ever experienced. I'm happy we stopped over to the Berry Islands. Our dinghy was never launched at this anchorage, supposedly it only touches the ocean on very rare occasions... looking forward to that moment. You will notice in the picture, some of the other vessels tucked in further West from where we we anchored. We endured a rough night with the wind and surge... we called this spot the 'Rock and Roll Surge Spot'... instead of having a bobbing motion from front to back, we were rocking from side to side. Felt like we were out at sea for the entire night.

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Starry Starry Night

December 12 & 13
Our last two days spent in Freeport were dedicated to Miss Scarlett B. and her catamaran. We went into town to gather some items to help organize and take stains off of the ex-chartering boat. It was wonderful to see her huge smile at the end of the day, when she started to see results from all our hard work. We also got some free entertainment... Andrew was going snorkeling in order to remove all the barnacles from his bottom hull. He was trying to soften all the shells that were growing on his propeller blades, so he used Ty-D-Bol... a bathroom cleaner to take the growth off. I hope it works! Sunday we just lounged around the boat, killing time and saying our goodbyes to all the friends we made at Bradford Marine. It was somewhat sad to leave Scarlett behind with her Catamaran, she was extremely thankful for all the scrubbing and repairs we did. Spoke with Andrew the super friendly Bahamian… who gave me some very interesting advice about life… I really appreciated his take on things. At 8:00pm we called Freeport Harbour Control and asked to leave the port, we had to wait for 25 minutes. At 8:30 pm we casted our lines from the safe harbor and departed with a light breeze from the East South East. We motored throughout the night, the wind on our nose while watching the lights on Grand Bahama Island fading away in the distance. Some of the cruise ships we could see in the distance were also very well lit, they appeared to be making their way across the Gulf Stream towards the USA. Instead of watching television... we watched hundreds of shooting stars must have been a special meteor shower, the stars appeared to be falling from the sky. It was a breathtaking experience.

Scrubbing and Washing the Cat

December 11
Our neighbour, Scarlett has been driving us around into Freeport and Port Lucaya on a regular basis, so today we decided to do a small act of kindness. Assist her in getting the Catamaran all cleaned and free of monkey glue! It wasn't an easy job, scrapping bits and pieces of gorilla glue off the fiberglass decks. Wade assisted in refrigeration and electrical issues... It was a perfect windy day to work outside, the sun was hiding behind all the fluffy clouds. We discovered that this product called "On & Off" works wonders for stains left on fiberglass, and a bottle of 100% acetone removes any glue residue. We volunteered our time to tidy the boat and make it ready to go on the boating market. Anyone looking for a 48" Catamaran... with 5 cabins/heads??? It was a full days of work aboard "Anticia". We are all in need of some well deserved rest!