Bahamas Adventure 2023: The Final Chapter

The weather during our last week and a half in the Bahamas was a mix of windy and calm, primarily spent traveling between islands or waiting out rough weather, but also punctuated with a few more snorkeling opportunities.

We motor-sailed from Shroud Cay to Thomas Cay - a very protected anchorage - on April 29th, in preparation for high winds expected to arrive the next day. We managed to squeeze in an afternoon snorkel and found a veritable conch nursery among widely scattered coral heads. Jan also spotted a slipper lobster - another creature I had never seen before.

The winds arrived, as expected, the next day so we did "indoor" stuff like laundry, "making" (desalinating) 

water and baking banana bread. Yum :-)

The inhospitable weather only lasted one day, and we spent the next day expanding our snorkeling radius. There was a cut to the ocean side of Thomas Cay that passed by a fairly high bluff, which was beautiful in its own right. The current through the cut was swift but heading in the right direction, so we decided to drift with the current to see if there was anything worth exploring. We found ourselves passing over the top of a beautiful coral garden.  The coral was vibrant and the garden very large.  It was so gorgeous and we crossed it so quickly that we returned to the cut to make another pass and fully enjoy the scenery.

Bluff at Thomas Cay

 Since conch was abundant in the Bahamas, we were continually finding beautiful shells littering the pristine beaches. One of the specimens I found had been broken in such a way that I could see the various layers of its construction.  I had thought the shiny pink interior of the conch shell was "polished" by the sea water, but in looking at the cutaway, it was clear that the conch shell has a layered construction. I did a bit of research, and learned that the outer brownish layer is called the periostracum, the pink layer - or mantle - is created from calcium and carbonate ions in seawater, and that below the mantle is a crossed-lamellar layer which gives the shell its toughness.  Way cool 😎

Cutaway of a Conch Shell

Live Conch (Sea Snail)

Mascot on Starboard Stern

We continued our northward journey after our day of snorkeling Thomas Cay, heading to Norman's Cay. Our streak of fishing luck continued, this time with Jan landing the catch!

Jan's Catch!

We spent the next day at Norman's Cay, which had a neighboring small island that we nicknamed "Hermit Crab Island", due to the proliferation of hermit crack tracks crisscrossing the island. It seemed that the hermit crabs were attracted to bird remains that were scattered about.  This was quite useful, since the clusters of hermit crabs allowed me to identify and avoid the bones before Jake could get to them!

Feasting Hermit Crabs and  Their Tracks

The weather was a bit cloudy on the day we spent at Norman's Cay and the snorkeling not as clear as we had had previously, but we still found interesting specimens including a very shallow coral bed and a bottom dwelling fish called a sand diver.

I keep in touch with some of the people we have met on our journey and we learned that one of the couples we befriended in Titusville and met again in Carolina Beach were in Highbourne Cay and we decided to make that our next stop so that we could visit with them. We sailed from Norman's Cay to Highbourne Cay on May 4th, and, as a luck, would have it, Steve caught dinner on the way!

Dinner for Six...no problem

We made a snorkeling stop on the way to Highbourne Cay, stopping at a place called Oyster Rock. This would turn out to be our last chance to snorkel before our crossing back to Florida, and unfortunately, there wasn't much to see here in terms of fish or coral, but I did learn why "seaweed" is so named. My previous experience with seaweed has been that it is brown spiky stuff that floats around in the surf bumping into or wrapping around swimmers' legs - sometimes freaking them out since they don't know what "thing" is touching them - and that it eventually washes up on the beach. The area we snorkeled on this outing had a barren sandy bottom, save for exceptionally tall, vertical plants with a single stalk, small leaves, and berry clusters.  The plants were spaced ten or twelve inches apart. After a few minutes, I realized that the berries looked like seaweed berries and that these tall, green plants must be the source of the floating, brown, dead seaweed I'm familiar with. And indeed, the huge patch of spindly plants on the sandy ocean floor looks exactly like a field of weeds. 

After our productive day sailing, fishing, and snorkeling, we enjoyed sharing the evening with Michael and Karli, and introducing them to Jan and Mark.

Michael, Steve, Laura and Karli

Jake Enjoyed His Return to Familiar Territory at Highbourne Cay

From Highbourne Cay, we traveled to New Providence Island, where the city of Nassau is located.  We skipped Nassau and opted for an anchorage on the west side of the island.  

Route from Highbourne Back to Florida

New Providence Island

The weather was not conducive to snorkeling for the next few days, so we traveled each day, leaving in the morning and anchoring in the evening.  Our next two stops were in the Berry Islands, first anchored at Alders Cay and then at Bullock Harbor. While at Bullock Harbor, we ate at a restaurant called Coolie Mae's.  The town at Bullock Harbor was very small but Coolie Mae's was excellent.  The food was very good, and our server was friendly and fun. It was our first meal in a restaurant in more than three weeks. At this point, Mark and Jan hadn't been off the boat for several days. The water had been choppy for several days and dinghy rides to shore for Jake's walks typically left me drenched, so they had opted not to join us. Jan enjoyed our restaurant outing, but had the distinct feeling that the table was rocking back and forth! A true sailor!

On the day of our planned return to Florida, the weather cooperated by providing waves less than three feet which would mean a more comfortable journey. The wind was also quite low...below levels for good sailing with the standard sails. Steve and I had been looking for an opportunity to try our asymmetric spinnaker, a sail which is good in low wind situations where the wind is at an angle between 90 and 180 degrees to the nose of the boat. We had also been waiting until we had extra hands on board to help, since we had never used this type of sail before and it's large enough to spill overboard and get tangled in the propeller if it gets caught in a gust.

We took advantage of the perfect situation and got to work!

Steve Showing Her ;-)

Laura Trying to Figure Which End is Up!

And voila!

Starry Night Flying the Asymmetric Spinnaker 

Unfortunately, the wind was so light that we only sailed with the spinnaker for an hour or so before we had to "douse" it, put it away, and resort to mechanical power.  After an overnight sail, we arrived in Florida and anchored in Lake Worth with a view of the Breakers Hotel and the mega-yachts of Palm Beach.

Mega Yachts in the Background at Our Anchorage in Riviera Beach

One of the More Modest Models

Having to motor back to Florida was a  disappointing finish to our Bahamas adventure but, all things considered, we couldn't have asked for a better adventure.  We'll definitely be going back for Bahamas 2024!!