Bimini was fun, but it’s time to move on. We slipped the lines from Bimini Big Game Marina on Saturday and headed out for Cat Cay. It’s a private island, so no beach-going for us. But we just wanted to get moving. After a short motor-sail, we dropped the hook and settled in for the night. Sunday morning we set out to explore a ship wreck just north of Honeymoon Harbour.
After 7 or 8 attempts to anchor near the wreck, we finally gave up. Our anchor isn’t a fan of grassy bottoms. And what wasn’t grass was hard packed rock. I don’t know where people anchor to explore this thing. Obviously somewhere much further away than we were.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed the day on the water. We motored back to Honeymoon Harbour and dropped the hook. Jeff jumped in the water to check the anchor when he was immediately startled by a shark staring him in the face. On top of that, a sting ray decided to check him out, hoping for a hand-out. Two sharks and a barracuda later, Jeff motioned that the anchor was fine and hurried back onboard.
After a quick bite to eat, we hopped in the dinghy and rowed ashore to stretch our legs. We tried to hike over the coral and through the woods, but it was too far. The tide was coming in, and our dinghy would soon be afloat.
Our friends, Tony and Lidia had joined us in Ft. Lauderdale, and were hanging with us for another few days. I love having guests on board who are phenomenal cooks. I think I gained five pounds last week. Luckily, they cooked another unbelievable meal, and we called it a night.
The alarm rang at 5:30 AM. That’s just not right. No one should be awake before the sun, But we had 80+ miles to sail from Honeymoon Harbour to Great Harbour Cay, so we needed to get moving. Navigating the shallow waters and narrow passes in the Bahamas is scary enough. Try doing it in the dark!
As the day drew to a close, we began to see all these ships on the AIS (Automated Identification System). We had found them – 17 of the missing cruise ships! They weren’t really missing. Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean knew exactly where they were. But it was still exciting to see them all anchored in a pile just north of Great Harbour Cay. We can even see six of them from the highest point on the island. Lucky for us, we live on our own private cruise ship!
It was kind of eerie, actually. Like a cruise ship grave yard. But, these are COVID times, and cruise ships are not allowed to cruise. At least not with passengers So, for now, these ships are all anchored at the north end of the Berry Islands with skeleton crews to keep things running. I guess this is a good time to make all those necessary repairs and upgrades, too. When this COVID crazy is over, these ships ought to be good as new!