The Bottle That Went Around the World

When we left on our circumnavigation in April 2016, our first stop (or our last stop in the USA), was the Dry Tortugas, about 70 miles west from Key West, Florida. Anchored off the magnificent Fort Jefferson, we saw another Lagoon catamaran, a Lagoon 440 anchored not too far from us. Dave and the kids went over to say hi, and chatted for a while, and so we met Gary and Brenda aboard s/v Pandion. Before we left, Gary dinghied over and very kindly presented us with a bottle of champagne and wished us well on our journey around the world.

s/v Pandion (left) and s/v Cool Runnings anchored in the Dry Tortugas, FL in April 2016

We had planned to drink the champagne on many occasions: when we crossed the Equator from North to South; on our first year anniversary; when we crossed the Equator the second time from South to North; on our second year cruising anniversary, but the timing was never right, and the bottle remained in our small locker that safely holds a few glass bottles.

The Bottle that went around the World!

 Fast forward two years, and we were heading back towards the USA. One day, not long after we arrived in the Bahamas, we received a really nice email from Gary and Brenda aboard s/v Pandion. In the 2 years that we had been gone, they had retired, sold their house, moved aboard Pandion and were now cruising in the Bahamas! All this time, unbeknownst to us, they had been following our journey around the world on the blog! They had hoped we could possibly meet up somewhere in the Bahamas, but we were on opposite ends…they were cruising the Bight of Abaco, and we were down in George Town on Grand Exuma. We said we’d stay in touch, and hopefully meet up along the way.

When we made the decision to skip the Abacos, and go to the Berry Islands, we thought that unfortunately we would probably miss meeting up with s/v Pandion. Amazingly enough, we received an email the day we were leaving Nassau for the Berries from Gary, letting us know that they were heading to the Berries, and they were thinking they would probably miss us, since we’d said we were going to the Abacos! And so luck would have it, we were both heading to the Berry Islands from opposite directions!

We finally met up with Pandion on Thursday, 24th May, 2018 in Bullocks Harbor, Great Harbor Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas! We were both sheltering there from the tropical cyclone Alberto, that had been threatening to come our way for the last week, and we were still unsure of its track. On our second evening together, we finally uncorked the bottle that Gary and Brenda had given us two years earlier, and that had accompanied us the whole way around the world! There was no better celebration to finally drink the champagne, than to share it with the wonderful couple that had given it to us! Thanks, Gary and Brenda for the great time we spent together in Great Harbor Cay! We are so glad we were finally able to meet up, and to share the special bottle with you! We wish you all the very best with your future cruising, and we’ll be following your blog http://pandionsail.blogspot.com !!

CHEERS!  Finally drinking the Champagne with Brenda and Gary

Cruising the Berry Islands

Prior to our rendezvous with s/v Pandion, we had spent a week exploring the Berry Islands. After anchoring off Rose Island, near Nassau for one night, we left on the morning, Friday, May 18th and headed towards Bond Cay in the Berry Islands. The wind was blowing 15 – 20 knots and the sea was quite rough. We still flew our spinnaker, as the wind was directly behind us, and we made good speed towards the Berries. Prior to arriving at the pass in Bond Cay, we snuffed the spinnaker and motored the rest of the way in. We had wind against current, with the tide ripping out through the pass creating some uncomfortable seas and rough conditions. We carefully motored in, and were happy to find shelter behind Bond Cay as soon as we turned the corner.

Top:  Entering the pass at Bond Cay.  Bottom:  Outside the pass, the waves break onto the rocks, inside, we finally find some calm water

But the outlook for the foreseeable future was bleak…the rain and wind that we had experienced in the Exumas looked set to continue for the rest of our time in the Berries. Since we couldn’t control the weather, we decided to make the best of what we did have, and that was a weak cell phone signal, so we spent the following day anchored off Bond Cay and did blog updates, caught up on email, did school, read and watched movies. There was not much at Bond Cay, so even a dinghy ride in the rain and wind wasn’t warranted!

A screenshot of the weather outlook when we arrived in the Berry Islands!

The lee of the Berry Islands is extremely shallow, but we’d checked the charts and it looked like we could stay on the inside from Bond Cay to Hoffman’s Cay. On Sunday, May 20th, we relocated from Bond to Little Harbor Cay. The weather was slowly improving, and it was here that we explored the beach that prompted the kids’ reports on plastic. We stayed anchored here for 2 nights, continuing to do schoolwork in the mornings, and exploring in the afternoon. We were enjoying the Berry Islands. Although not as stunningly beautiful as the Exumas, they were still very pretty, and we were loving the solitude! There was nothing out here, including very few other boats.

Exploring Little Harbor Cay.  The image on the bottom left is a satellite image of the Berry Islands.  The light blue / white areas are the shallows and sand banks...as you can see, there are many!  And, by the way, don't the Berry Islands look like a Conch Shell?!  Gaby displays this beautiful Conch that we found on Little Harbor Cay

We were also closely watching the weather. There was a closed low pressure cell that we had been monitoring ever since we had first seen it on one of our weather models back in Cambridge Cay in the Exumas. What was frustrating us was that none of the weather models were agreeing on its path. The GFS model had it moving in a westerly direction, directly over us, with winds up to 45 knots. The European model showed it as a weaker system, moving eastwards. The other 2 models didn’t even show it at all! As the days went on, we learned that it had become a named storm, Alberto, an early storm forming outside of the “official” hurricane season. It looked like we would experience its impact on Friday and Saturday, May 25th and 26th. As a precaution, we decided to book a berth in the Great Harbor Cay marina, which had the reputation of being one of the safest marinas in the Bahamas, due to its location in a hurricane hole.

While the storm was looming, the weather where we were was actually improving! (the calm before the storm?!). We moved neighborhoods once again, and edged our way through the shallow banks to anchor off Hoffman’s Cay, a really beautiful spot! Getting there proved to be an adventure all in itself, when we decided to take a short cut, close to the edge of the Cays. The charts did show some shallow water, but it looked to be doable. And it was, except for one hairy corner where our master mariner Dave went around backwards! Yes, backwards, the reasoning being that if we ran aground, we would have some better thrust in forward gear on our engines to go forward and get us off the sand bank, as reverse thrust is not as powerful. We bumped a few times on the sandy bottom, but slowly edged our way (backwards) around the corner, and then executed an impressive 3 point turn, coming within touching distance of the extremely sharp, jaggered rocks that line the shores of these islands! Fun stuff! There were a few other boats at Hoffman’s, but it seemed that, with the geography of the cay, each boat could have its own little bay and beach to anchor in! Originally we had planned to meet up with Gary and Brenda on Pandion here at Hoffman’s, but with the pending storm, they had decided to also stay in Great Harbor Cay, and go into the marina if necessary. Since we were heading that way to weather the storm, we planned to meet up with them there.

Getting to Hoffman's...executing the 3 point turn and coming rather close to the rocks!  A private anchorage with beach for each boat!  Cool Runnings at the Hoffman's Cay anchorage as seen from the beach

There is a “blue hole” (some called it a “black hole”) at Hoffman’s that was quite famous, which we set out to find. After a few wrong paths, we found the correct one, and came upon this hole. It was quite incredible. We saw 3 turtles swimming in it, and wondered how they had gotten there…this deep, landlocked hole, filled with water, in the middle of the island! We decided it had to somehow be connected to the ocean via an underwater tunnel for the turtles to be there. How else could they have gotten there? We hadn’t known what we would find, so we didn’t have our swimming gear with us, and it was late in the day, so we decided to come back the following day to swim in the hole.

Our drone captures this image of the Blue Hole (the front, round hole), with Cool Runnings anchored off Hoffman's Cay

Photos of the Blue Hole

The next day, after school and chores were done, we headed back to the blue/black hole, this time armed with swim suits and snorkels. The first dip revealed cool, clear water. A short dive down into the black depths, revealed hot water!! It was usually the other way around! We had fully expected to feel the water temperature decrease the deeper you dove. But with warm water underneath and cool water on the surface, we could only deduce that it was being fed by thermal vents from within the depths of the earth. How deep the hole actually is, we didn’t know (and have not had the opportunity to research), but it was a weird sensation swimming in this hot/cold water, and not knowing where the bottom was. Being used to swimming in the crystal clear Bahamian waters, and always being able to see the bottom, swimming in this never ending blackness was a little creepy for me! My imagination ran wild thinking of the monsters that lurked below!!

The kids are already in the water, coaxing me to get in!

The kids decided it would be fun to jump from a cliff ledge, perched about 30 feet above the edge, into the water below. Gaby was the first to suggest it, but Dave was the first to jump. Then Gaby got up the courage and jumped. Benjamin was next, and they loved it! They urged me to jump. “C’mon, Mom, you can do it! We all have to jump!”. Ugh…how could I be the scaredy cat? After all, hadn’t I almost sailed around the world? Hadn’t I weathered storms and big seas? Hadn’t I once before bungee jumped (yes, I had!). What’s jumping 30 ft into an inky well of nothingness?! I remember doing this when I was a kid and our family would spend summer holidays at Uvongo on the south coast of Kwa Zulu Natal, about 2 hours drive from our family home in South Africa. There was a cliff we would jump off of into the lagoon below. The higher we could climb and jump, the more fun it was. Strange how age and being a parent changes you from a carefree cliff jumper into an apprehensive, nervous Nellie! My heart was pumping and it took some coaxing from the rest of the family, but I did it…I jumped! And it was fun, but once was enough for me! The kids kept running from our cave below to the ledge on top and jumped a couple of times each, just as I had in Uvongo, so many, many years ago!

Ben gets ready, looking over the edge....and then jumps!  Gaby's view as she looks down at Ben in the water and Mom and Dad looking on...and then she's also in mid-air!

To get from Hoffman’s Cay to Great Harbor Cay we had to negotiate some very shallow patches. We also had to exit the shelter of the Cays and sail on the “outside” because the inside route was too shallow. We had listened to, and then spoken to, a small boat with a shallower draft than ours, who had attempted the inside route together with another boat the day before, but they both had to turn around after running aground too many times. Just getting to the pass to get out was a challenge, with us having to turn around once, after our keels gently kissed the sand below, and we knew we couldn’t make it any further!

Shallow, shallow water...but oh, so pretty! 

Dave scanning the shallow waters as Gaby stands in the sail bag to get higher up and spots a safe route out

But once out, we had a great sail around the rest of the islands and over the top of Great Harbor Cay. The very top island is called Small Stirrup Cay, and is used by the cruise ships as a stop over. There was one cruise ship anchored off when we sailed by. Little boats ferried the passengers to and from the ship, while its occupants enjoyed the sandy shores and warm waters of the Cay. Hundreds of umbrellas and chairs lined the beaches and the contrast of what we had just left behind, complete isolation & natural untouched beauty, to what we were seeing now, took a little time to comprehend! But this was their paradise, if not ours, and we realize that we are so very lucky to be able to experience the solitude of the uninhabited islands, to move our little home to wherever we want, whenever we want.

The cruise ship and its occupants

Our fishing lines were out and we trawled as we sailed on by. Other than the mackerel we caught just as we were coming into the pass at Bond Cay about a week earlier, we had not had much luck fishing. All of a sudden, we had a fish on the line! Dave reeled it in, and it looked to be a great fish! It was a good size, but we were unable to identify it, and being a little weary of ciguatera poisoning, we decided to let it go. Ciguatera poisoning is quite prevalent in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas and is a result of consuming larger fish that eat the smaller reef fish that eat the coral. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, very low blood pressure, joint and other pains and a host of other ailments. It can be dangerous and possibly deadly, depending on the degree of poisoning. About an hour or two later, we had another fish on the line…another great size and good looking fish! We quickly scanned our fish identification books and although we were not 100% sure of the exact type, we were pretty certain it was a snapper, and decided to keep it. Photos were taken and sent to more experienced fishermen (nephews back in Florida) for further identification, and confirmation of its type came back as a mutton snapper…good to eat!! Yay! (Thank you, Ashton!).

Dave with the catch of the day!

 
By this time we were now around the corner and once again in the lee of the island, Great Harbor Cay. All traces of the cruise ship and its passengers were gone, and we were faced with a calm, open bay with only one other boat anchored there. It was the boat we were looking for: s/v Pandion. Gary and Brenda had let us know that they were out on their dinghy, so we knew they were not aboard. We anchored next to them and Dave went about the task of cleaning and filleting the big fish. Not too long after, a dinghy came to our stern. It was Gary and Brenda returning from their excursion! It was so great to see them again after all this time since our brief meeting in the Dry Tortugas just over 2 years ago! Gary also identified our fish as a mutton snapper, and told us that he had had ciguatera poisoning after eating a fish in a restaurant in Nassau a few years prior! He said it took a couple of years for the symptoms to completely go away. If he was happy to eat the snapper after having suffered from ciguatera poisoning, we knew it was definitely fine to eat!!

Gary and Brenda had invited us to dinner aboard Pandion that evening, so we were happy to be able to contribute! We decided to bring the fish, and Brenda made rice and a green salad, something we had not seen for quite a while!! And of course, we brought the famous bottle of champagne! It turned out that we had so much fun and did so much talking, that we forgot to drink the champagne that night!! It stayed on Pandion until the next night, when we got together again for dinner, this time onboard Cool Runnings. Before our dinner of hot dogs that Gary and Brenda brought over, we finally popped that well-traveled bottle of champagne and toasted to a new friendship borne out of a short dinghy ride to say hi in April 2016!

Another shot with the now famous bottle of champagne!

By now, Alberto had made its path more well known, and we looked like we would be spared the brunt of it, as the storm would move into the Gulf of Mexico and up the west coast of Florida and into the pan handle. We cancelled our marina reservations, but decided to stay anchored off Cistern Cay with Pandion and wait for the weather to pass. We had 2 days of torrential rain, and wind gusts up to 30 – 35 knots, but we were sheltered and safe.

To pass the time, we went on a rain-soaked walk and explored a drug lord’s house that had been abandoned and left to decay. How quickly they abandoned it was evidenced by a car still parked in the garage, now stripped and rusting in the elements. In its day, the house must have been grand, but the termites have ravaged the wooden beams, and the elements have found their way into the house through the holes in the roof. There was even a ramp for a seaplane. How easily they would have been able to smuggle the drugs in and out of the Bahamas back in the day!

A once beautiful house left to decay

By Monday morning, May 28th, the worst of the storm was over, and, after having said our farewells to Gary and Brenda the evening before, we decided to leave as planned. We had a long day ahead of us, about 80 miles from the Berry Islands to North Cat Cay, the jumping off point for our trip across the Gulf Stream and back home to the United States of America.