Alder's Cay, Berry Islands

Sunday, June 10, 2007

025-32.100 N
077-42.960 W

Ahoy from Alder's Cay in the Berry islands!

Alder's Cay is about 8 miles N of Little Whale Cay, which is where we had our anchoring adventure. The next morning Unicorn called on the VHF and said that we were getting company. It seems that they were bumping and needed to move to deeper water. So they picked up their anchor and moved to a spot near us. We had a stern anchor out to keep us into the swells and they didn't, so they swung differently than we did and BJ felt like they were getting too close. They decided to head to our next anchorage instead of re-anchoring...again! This was quite unique for them as they typically let us lead the way into anchorages.

An hour or so later we headed to Alder's Cay and found Unicorn anchored quite a distance from the beach and there was a swell coming in through the entrance. We slowly motored past them and snugged right up to the beach and we were out of the swell. Shortly thereafter Unicorn pulled up their anchor and came forward...

One of the unique things about the Berry Islands is that there are quite a few private islands. The Whale cays, where we spent the previous night, are private as is Alder's Cay and Frozen Cay. It must be nice to own an island! The houses which are on these islands are nicely sized vacation homes, not McMansions that other people seem forced to put up today. From this I'd guess that these properties where purchased and built before today's building craze.

Alder's Cay is absolutely delightful! It's a relatively small island, only about 3/4 of a mile by a 1/4 of a mile or less wide. There's a single, well maintained house here that's lined by palm trees. There are palm tree lined, white sand beaches and crystal clear water. It's wonderful to look at. Frozen Cay lies just to the N of Alder's Cay and overlaps it by a bit, forming a nice harbor for a shoal draft boat. It boasts a single house as well as a man-made private boat basin. Clearly there's a few bucks around here!

Last night the skies were crystal clear and for the first time in quite a while I sat out on the deck and looked at the stars. The first thing that struck me was how many lights I could see on the horizon. You could clearly see Chub cay to the S, Nassau to the SE and you could see the unmistakable glow of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale to the W. We're clearly headed back to civilization as before this the skies were dark, dark, dark. In many ways it's sad to be ending this cruising season, but in other ways it will be good to get back home. We still have 900 miles to go, so it'll be a while!

Today we're headed N to either the Market Fish cays or Great Stirrup Cay. Then it will be on to Freeport and the out into the Gulf Stream for the fast trip north.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 974