Frazer's Hog Cay, Berry Islands

Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Thu 29 Mar 2012 23:05
 

Our position is     25:25.34N 77:50.19W
 
Friday 30th March
 
After a useful day in the marina yesterday getting our washing done, the stores replenished, emails received and replied to, blogs written and water and diesel tanks topped up, we were pleased to be on our way again. After gaining permission from Nassau Harbour control to leave by the Western entrance, we motored off under the Paradise Island road bridges. The harbour is a busy place with ferries, tripper boats, freighters and pleasure craft and with a strong current pushing us along we could not really relax until we had cleared the entrance buoys and were back off soundings. The rest of the trip was easy going with no worries about depth, the autohelm doing the work and with less than 10 knots of wind we opted to motorsail.
During the afternoon we spotted a square rigged ship running down towards us from the NE, identified on the AIS as Tenacious. I had had the pleasure of being entertained on Tenacious with the Tot Club last February in Falmouth Harbour Antigua and when we heard on the vhf that they intended to anchor in sight of our intended mooring off Frazer's Hog Cay I thought I would give them a call.
As the wind died away they made slow progress down the coast of Whale Cay and Bird Cay, we could just see the tops of their masts above the low lying islands, and by the time their anchor was down Kay and I had finished our sundowner in the cockpit and it was getting dark. A quick call on the vhf established there were no Tot Club members on board and that after a short cruise in The Bahamas they were heading back to the UK. However we were pleased to have seen her under sail, there is always something special about a square rigger, especially when half her crew have disabilities.
 
 
              
Heading West in Nassau Harbour towards the bridges                                   70ft high so 22ft to spare
 
              
 
Atlantis resort dominates Paradise Island                                                    Today's cruise ships had not yet docked - perhaps they heard we were coming!
 
              
 
Looking back from deep water                                                                  Easy passage to Frazer's Hogs cay - but life as a foredeck bimbo gets boring