The Crossing – The Berry Islands, Bahamas, March 24, 2025
Now that we are officially offshore, the rigging and solar are working great. The main was raised and functioning perfectly. As I mentioned in our last post, this is the second longest passage we have made and our first one on this untested boat. It has been 32 hours and 198 miles across the Gulf Stream and onto the Grand Bahama Bank. We took the southern route this time, which is new to us, and ended up in The Berry Islands. We have never been here either and were keen to try it out. We heard that it is very shallow on this route and the Berry’s, specifically. They were not kidding.
As we exited the Gulf Stream onto the Bahamas Bank, there were times we only had about 2-3 feet under the keel. Leaving about 8:00am from Marathon, Florida and we approached the bank after dark so we could approach the Berry’s and get ourselves anchored by sunset in Great Harbor Cay on the east side of the largest Berry island. This meant that it was Ron’s shift once we started the bank to ensure all was well before I took back over. It was the smoothest trip across the Gulf Stream we have made yet. Whew! It’s nice to be back.
Great Harbor Cay is a port of entry, and it was necessary for us to make a stop to check into customs. They were very pleasant and efficient. The trick is to go to the marina here, which is through a very narrow cut. It was good to know, in case of any weather events, that is one of the most protected harbors in the Bahamas.
We could have stayed here but, after checking in, we moved over to the east side of the island to stage for some incoming westerly winds. The winds here tend to make the anchorage outside of the harbor a bit on the rocky side. The water temperature here is still a bit cold, and we are hoping to move a bit farther south so we can do some snorkeling. The next hop will be over to Eleuthera, which is a short 60-mile jump. They are expecting the wind to come in the next couple of days, making The Berry’s uncomfortable to stay.
Since we won’t have much time here, hopefully we can keep this on our list to hit once we come back through here in June. At that point it should be warm enough to do some exploration on these beautiful little islands. Even though it is already so late in the cruising season, there should still be enough time to stop in here before making the jump back over to Brunswick Georgia for the start of hurricane season. These islands are stunningly beautiful and made the crossing worthwhile.
On our first cruising season there was one of the many cruisers we met who said, “this is the most beautiful place. You’ll be back, even if only for the water.” After sailing all the way down to Grenada…they were right. The only other place that holds a candle to this place is Hawaii. It’s good to be back to the Bahamas!
Cement Donkeys 