Goat Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas

Another day another short day hop along the Berry Islands, this time reaching the northern most islands to allow us to pass to Grand Bahama the following day.

It is a fairly quiet day enough wind to justify sail up but with the contrary 2 knot current not enough to switch off the motors. We arrive at Goat Cay between the Great and Little Stirrup Cays which have apparently been commandeered by the cruise ships. They anchor outside and shuttle guests in and have build cafeterias, first aid stations, bars etc onshore.

There is another catamaran anchored at Goat Cay as we head across but they pull up their anchor as we start to drop our sails. We think this is good news as it is a fairly small anchorage. They start to navigate by eye across to Lignum Vitae Cay, which we know to be 1 m or less most of the way in and watch with interest. They get part way in then turn about, obviously spotting us moving toward the anchorage. There is then a comedy supermarket car park type rush to get a spot, being rather smaller than they and with an engineer skipper who would not over-rev our engines on pain of death we come in second but luckily there is plenty of room and our anchor digs in straight away. We are both hot and sticky and jump in for a swim, though as per my snorkel at Frozen Cay yesterday I am soon joined by a Great Barracuda. Kevin has recently read the tragic story of the USN Indianapolis that we picked up at a book swap, in which the Great Barracuda forms a rather evil role and I have never been comfortable with them since as they just don’t swim off like the other fish do. The water is green and murky anyway with literally a thick lawn of sea grass beneath so we are both soon out of the water.

Goat Cay

It is a squally afternoon as the wind comes in from all directions, with intermittent rain. We content ourselves with a good book with the loud cricket noises from Goat Cay as accompaniment.