S/V Stella Blue: The Berry's

Leaving Norman's, we headed to Nassau with Sundays Child and Arcturus to drop Verne off, reprovision, buy some fishing gear, fuel, water, do laundry, take a shower and move on. Nassau is a big port and not our ideal location for hanging out.

Arriving at 2:30 pm - we accomplished all tasks by 7 pm and then Ted helped Baxter rig a Cuban yoyo for fishing the next day. After that, we crashed hard. It was weird sleeping tied to the dock versus a rolly anchorage but we managed. We headed out of the slip the next morning crossing the Tongue of the Ocean and made way for Frazier's Hog Cay in the Berry Islands. We heard there were beautiful endless beaches for the dogs to run.

About 30 miles into the trip (only 7 miles left to go), Baxter started to say he couldn't believe we hadn't caught any fish. All of a sudden, we got a strike. Ted and Maggie came on the radio when they noticed we slowed down and said they hoped it was because we had a fish. When we didn't respond (I was reeling in the second line while Baxter was working the first and Kala doesnt have thumbs so we couldnt tell them what was going on) they knew it was going to be good. Baxter brought in a beautiful 3 1/2 ft mahi!! Ted and Maggie decided to follow the contour lines and stay out for a little bit to see if they could get a bite. That they did! Ted said he got a bite from the biggest mahi he'd ever seen and it broke the line and got off but they still had one more out. Pretty soon they got another bite and reeled in a huge mahi. Arcturus didnt have the same luck but it was no problem because we had plenty of food for all of us!

When we got to the anchorage, there were no beautiful beaches as we had heard but the dogs were still thrilled to see each other with lots of kisses and running and coconut playing. Kala chased sandpipers from one end of the beach to the other and out into the surf and back to the beach. She was exhausted!

Later that night, Maggie and Ted hosted everyone aboard Sundays Child (including Kala). It was our last night hanging out with them as Baxter and I were leaving the next day headed back to the states. His computer had died earlier in the month making it difficult to work from the boat (we were getting by with the iPad but it was not good enough to be a permanent solution) so we had to get to an Apple store for repairs.

Maggie and Ted made the best grilled mahi we've ever had, along with some strong painkillers (a concoction of rum, and coconut milk topped with nutmeg.) From what I remember, we all laughed so hard and I made a pitiful attempt to fry plantains that were not yet ripe. Probably should have waited not only for the plantains to age a bit but also maybe for when I was in a better state of mind to play with oil, propane, and fire.

The next day was one of the saddest we've had! We said our goodbyes to Ted, Maggie, Chessie, Bill and Dan and set our route 150 miles back to Dinner Key in Key Biscayne, Florida. Baxter went to the bow and I was at the helm and we were about to pull anchor when the only other boat in the anchorage (who had arrived about an hour before) dinghied over to us. As he got closer, we recognized our friend Ken Keyworth who we knew from Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern. He had left North Carolina in June and had been in Panama until recently. Of all the anchorages between Florida, the Bahamas, and the Western Caribbean, what are the chances we would anchor right next to each other on the exact same day (neither of us had ever been to Fraziers Hog Cay)? Apparently, the chances were pretty good. We caught up with Ken and wished him well as he was heading south.

As we sailed past the beach club at Frazier's Hog Cay, we bid a final farewell to Sunday's Child and Arcturus and even Kala sat on deck letting everyone know they would be missed.