Day 62: Sailing to the Berry Islands

Bimini Cove Marina, South Bimini to Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas (anchored)

March 17, 2022

We cast off at 5:30 this morning and left with the light of the moon and green beacon.  When we travel with so little light we have to turn down the intensity of all of our navigation instruments.  John even had a towel over our compass because its light is distracting.

Bimini marinas are all either on, or close to, the west side of the island.  The east side is far too shallow for most boats.  Since we were going east, we had to sail north around Bimini on the dark.  Our navigation system has a depth finder and I have two apps on my phone as backup.  It’s important to get to the next anchorage in the daylight so we can see the bottom (we want to anchor in sand if possible because the anchor will hold better).  We also needed to pass to the north of North Rock (an underwater rock that has shallows around it).

There was a line of storms to the west of us with some cool bolts of lightning but they didn’t impact us.  Because I am nervous about all of this, I was glad that we were able to get enough wifi to be able to check radar just to make sure.

We decided to wait until we made the turn east AND when it was light out before we set the sails. 

The waves were not as small and slow as I hoped when we turned.  It’s not that it’s really scary – Lailia is a really sturdy boat – it’s that invariably something needs to be done down below: a bathroom run, John needs a thing, or I hear something fall.  Navigating the companionway ladder while we’re bouncing isn’t easy. 

I took a dose of Dramamine last night and another at about 10am.  I had read that earbuds or earplugs can help, so I played some downloaded podcasts.  Boredom is also a huge issue – it’s too bouncy to read and we’re stuck in our cockpit for a very long time.

I napped after reapplying sunscreen .

John would occasionally wake me up to let me know he was heading below.  The one time he didn’t do this I woke up convinced he had fallen over when he was just down below getting a snack.

I need to listen to those podcasts again because I have no idea what they were about.

The waves did finally calm down and once again we could marvel at the water color.

We sailed (no motor) for a good two hours.  As the wind lessened we turned on the motor and motor sailed for probably 6+ hours.  This is the longest stretch of sailing we’ll do in the Bahamas and I am glad it’s done.

We’re anchored tonight off Great Harbour Cay. The moon is up, so the sky is too bright to see many stars.  We can hear some music from the island but we’re tired (even with my naps).  John stayed awake and alert for the entire crossing – it’s more taxing than driving because we can’t pull off the route and rest. Having the sails up meant John had to make adjustments the entire time.

I’ve got an anchor alarm set plus a tracker.  This should help me feel less anxiety about us dragging our anchor (and crashing into rocks or another boat).