April 25-27, 2021 Bonds Cay

The Berry Islands archipeligo are formed in a rough cresent shape.  There are  marinas at the northern and southern end.  In between are a string of cays, some inhabited but most not.  To the east is the deep waters of the sound. To the west is a huge expanse of shallow water, much of it drying out at low tide.  We entered the archipeligo from the sound on the southeast side using a deep pass between the cays and partially submerged rocks.  We then slipped close along the west side of Bonds Cay in a narrow channel of water just deep enough to navigate.  There the banana cresent shape of Bonds Cay results in a large bight with some protection from the north, east, and south.  It is here we dropped anchor.  

This is a new place for us.  Hoffman and Devils Cay that we anchored near in our prior visit are visible about 8 miles north of here.  Bonds Cay has proven to be as delightful as these other Berry Island favorites.   A sheltered anchorage with good holding, sand flats for more than a mile around, small beaches a bit farther up the shore.  

Mid afternoon Brent was standing on the coach roof checking out the lay of the land when he spotted what he thought were a couple sharks on the sand flats.  Quickly we jumped in the dinghy, got upcurrent of them and shut off the motor so we would quietly drift toward them.   We started counting, and spotted 10 nurse sharks.  Some came by to check us out.

We watched them for an hour or so before feeling a need to go make lunch.

The folks from a large motor trawler anchored on the other side of the cove stopped by to say hello.  Butch & Fran from Smartini invited us over for happy hour and dinner. (WHAT? Dinner with people face to face? I remember doing that a long time ago.)  With a loaf of bread and chocolate cake as offerings, we visited on their beautiful boat.  It was lovely to watch the sunset and then moonlight on the water from their top deck helm.   We stayed way too late, but it was fun to sit & talk.

April 26

Back on board Second Star we were woken in  the night by a thunderstorm.  Although the lightning is worrisome, we were grateful for the rain to wash the crusty salt off the boat.  We spent the day using rainwater we had collected to clean the interior spaces.  Since our cockpit is basically always open air, it quickly builds up salt, sand and, in this case, some volcanic ash dust from St. Vincent. Then there was time to relax.

April 27

The wind built up overnight to high teens/low 20s and the swell has found its way in to disturb the peace.  We took turns getting up to check the status of boat & anchor, and happily there was never a problem.  There is a trimaran that arrived and anchored maybe 4 boat lengths directly upwind from us (in spite of it being a huge bay.  Herd mentality at its best). We were also keeping an eye on him, hoping he had a good anchor set and enough scope out.

We had planned to move back to Hoffman Cay today, but strong gusting winds helped us decide to just stay put.  The day was spent just relaxing.  We both are deep into books at the moment.   We are however looking forward to moving up the cays tomorrow in search of adventures off the boat.