Better weather in the Berry's

Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Tue 23 Mar 2010 20:06
25:36.79N 077:43.56W
White Cay, Berry Islands
 
Today we had our first stunning day in the Bahamas. A light westerly wind and lots of sunshine - the water is blue and everyone is a lot happier.
From Lucaya we sailed south for a few hours to Great Stirrup Cay. There are two islands, both used by the cruise ship industry. The giant ships park outside the bay and the passengers are ferried to one of the two beaches, depending on the wind direction. The beaches have thousands of deck chairs in neat rows, many stalls of curios and a plethora of water-sport activities - to give the cruise ship passenger a "true Bahamian beach experience"  ..ha..ha...  not exactly what we came here for! With the weather remaining grim, the next day we moved around to Goat Cay, looking for protection from a 24 hour rain storm.  Not very comfortable, but we kept busy with what Coenie aptly called "drank en karte"
 
Yesterday we headed further south the beautiful protected anchorage between White and Fowl Cay. En route we had a strike on one of the rods - Frauke screamed "fish!" and everyone sprang to action. Willy rushed to the rod, and Mike, who was brushing his teeth at the time, head to the helm station so we could reef the sail and slow down the boat.  Mike, with a mouthful of toothpaste was trying unsuccessfully to shout instructions and eventually just spat it out. Unfortunately there was a fairly strong wind and Willy who by now was landing the fish got a face-full of toothpaste flavoured gob!  It was hilarious and worth the discomfort, as we had our first Nassau Grouper of the trip, which we will be eating tonight.
 
Today we spent some time on the beach at Fowl Cay and while the gals got some sun, the guys went on a hunting expedition - and managed to find a number of bugs and conch. A perfect day in paradise! Here are Willy and Frauke on the beach.