Whenever we mention the Berry Islands, people always say how much they LOVE the Berries. We've been here before, but neither time really found much to do off of our boat. We got a few suggestions from Daryl (boater with the dog from 2 different anchorages in the Ragged Islands) this time. One thing is for sure... The color of the water here is absolutely beautiful!
Anchored off of Hoffman's Cay at the north beach. This beach has a cute little swing and a conch shell-lined path leading to the blue hole. This blue hole doesn't connect to the ocean, so there are clams that live in it and not much else, except for the occasional algae. Sounds like a perfect blue hole experiencefor us! Reviews say to take this path despite it being longer and less shady rather than the south beach path due to the poisonous trees along that path. Due to the rocky ledge landing area from the cliff at the blue hole, it was recommended to go at high tide to ensure enough coverage. We missed that window for today and have a few days to spare, so we will stay here a few nights.
I read on some reviews of this beach and anchorage that there are some friendly resident sea turtles that hang with people here. Of course that means that people likely feed them. One review mentioned that they got nipped by a sea turtle- not in a malicious way and didn't break skin- but clearly mistaking humans for food which is unfortunate in so many ways.
There was a boat full of people at the beach when we got there, so we hung out on the boat, cleaned up a bit, and did some laundry. By the time they left, we had already started dinner and figured we would enjoy the beach tomorrow. High tide will be at 3:26, so we will plan to start the trail to the blue hole around 3.
Tonight's sunset was perfect. The colors were gorgeous- not even talking about the sun, just talking about the reflections in the water! We could even see the moon. It kept getting better with each passing minute. The kids were fishing and we all were soaking it all in as one of our last sunsets in the Bahamas on our Cartermaran. I know this night will be etched in my memory forever.
Since it was our first morning in a while that we weren't going somewhere new, everyone slept in a bit. Moose was fishing from the bow and I was watching him for a while. We spotted several turtles heads pop up in the water between us and the beach and got excited.
We got ready and went to the beach. There was a metal plank with boat stickers on it, so Roo added ours and quickly jumped on the swing.
Sure enough, after the Chicken was anchored and we got into the water, the sea turtles started swimming up to us! They were so brave and beautiful!! We just couldn't believe there were so many who would circle by so often. Every time they did, we all tried to gather together and slowly approach it so we could watch it close up. This was a checkmark on our must-do list for all of us!! (All video footage was taken on our GoPro camera. Not sure if I can add that here at all.)
After lunch, we went back to the beach and took the trail to the blue hole, anticipating getting in, and cliff jumping from the top. The trail, despite the reviews, was decently shaded and was a pretty quick hike.
Once Ben reached the cliff, he quickly announced that we would not be jumping from there. It was way higher up than he thought and in order to clear the rocks underneath, we would have to leap out pretty far without any hesitation or else we could break some bones or die. Gee, thanks, Ben.
I said I wanted to walk down into the cave below and see what the water looked like there. Yep- lots of rocks there, too. Ben said for a family that is not fond of heights, he doesn't see why we even thought about this- we already did something similar but less high in Canada. 😂 Good point.
After a few minutes of me saying I really wanted to jump, ultimately I decided against it. We really were enjoying swimming at the beach, watching the turtles, and didn't want to ruin that or the rest of our vacation for this one time jump.
We beached for a while longer and then went back for dinner and watched Project Hail Mary before bed. (I have not read the book yet, but still plan to!) If you haven't seen this yet- go watch it!
Rinse and repeat for today, but without the hike to the blue hole.
Roo and I got stung by jellyfish today! She was complaining about it before lunch. I got stung right as we were ending our day. I remember being stung as a kid when I lived in Florida, but hadn't experienced that in recent years. Such an interesting feeling- it stings and kind of itches, leaving a red splotch on the skin. The stinging comes and goes for a while after, but disappears after a few hours.
Everyone showered and we took some last Bahamas sunset photos.
The kids watched a How to Train Your Dragon movie and we went to bed early, anticipating an early and long day of travel in the morning.
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
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