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We found ourselves the last of our little armada of three in our departure from Bimini, our several nights at anchor with two anchors down had produced a nice twisting of the two anchor lines.  With a little effort from both Brian and I, we managed to unwrap our secondary anchor’s rode from around the primary, allowing us to easily pull both anchors aboard once we’d gotten the tangle undone.  By the time we’d completed this, both Renaissance and Rotop were well into the channel leading out of Bimini.  With Brian at the helm, I quickly got both anchors stored and secured for our trip to the Berry Islands.  Our plan was to sail out to North Rock, and then turn down into the Great Bahamas Bank where we could anchor on the Bank for the night and then make our way down to Little Whale Cay or Chubb Cay in the morning.  We had been expecting to have pretty strong winds that would allow us to easily make this course, although we were expecting that the waters might be somewhat rough given that the proceeding two days had been a pretty strong Northerly breeze.  As we rounded the point and came out of Bimini’s channel, we found that the winds and waves were not quite as expected.  Both Rotop and Renaissance were well ahead of us, and we radioed ahead to them to confirm that they were still game to move on, which they both were.  Poor Cate was below, feeling quite seasick, which left Michael at the helm without much help - Renaissance has a tiller and no autopilot or self steering mechanism, so whatever ground we covered that day we wanted to ensure that we were taking a prudent course that would be managable for them.  We established hourly radio checks - just so that we were all in good contact and so that we could make decisions about how to proceed as the day went on.  We’d gotten a later start than we’d hoped or planned due in part to Renaissance’s battery issue, and for us due to having to untangle our anchors, but we were out of Bimini’s harbor before 10AM, which gave us a good long day to cover the miles we were hoping to cover.
At about 3PM the wind had continued to shift around to the Southeast, forcing us off of our preferred anchorage spot, and after some discussion, the decision was made to alter course - falling off a bit - so that we would instead head for Great Harbor Cay, at the top of the Berry Islands - it would make for a much longer trip, but as Michael was game for it, and it would make for a slightly more comfortable sail for all of us, we all fell off and made our way to Great Harbor.  All of us were making great speed, averaging 6.5kts or more.  Renaissance is slightly smaller than we are, and Rotop is both slightly smaller and heavier as she’s steel, so by the time that we made this course shift, we had caught up and passed both of our sailing partners.  Also at about this time we all managed to catch some fish!  Martijn and Michael both caught a Spanish Mackerel apiece (Martijn had cooked and eaten his by the time we dropped anchor) and although Michael got his filleted while underway, by the time we reached our anchorage he ended up tossing it overboard as he hadn’t been able to cook it and the smell was bothering Cate who was feeling quite ill from our prolonged ride.  As for us, Brian caught a Black Grouper which we threw back (high risk of cinguaterra) and another fish that slipped the hook JUST as we were about to bring it aboard.  All in all we had an epic run, covering close to 80nm before finally reaching our anchorage at Great Harbor Cay at about 11PM.  A long and exhilarating sail (and exhausting for poor Mike), and once we’d all dropped anchor, we checked in for one last time for the night and all hit the hay for a good night’s sleep.
We awoke in the morning to find ourselves in a beautiful anchorage - craggy shoreline interspersed with beautiful sandy beaches and crystal clear water.  Mike and Cate had gotten up earlier than we, and had sounded their way in closer to the shoreline to get additional protection from the land as although we were anchored within the cove, we were still somewhat close to the mouth of the harbor which afforded more surge from the ocean than was really comfortable.  Mike buzzed up in their dinghy and suggested that we do the same, as he’d found plenty of depth and the bottom was quite sandy affording good holding for our anchor (which does not like seagrass at all!).  We followed his lead, as did Martijn, and found ourselves well protected and in phenomenal water for a swim.  Mike and Cate went ashore to do a little exploring and came back reporting that this island was used by the Norwegian Cruise Lines as a stop for their cruise ships… we knew that it was used for one of the cruise lines…just not which one.  Cate opted to stay on board while Brian, Martijn, Michael and I all piled into Renaissance’s dinghy (we knew we were staying for only a day, two at most so didn’t want to deal with setting up the Portabote) and went for a swim in the beautiful water (Mike having been assured by the Norweigan staff that it was no issue for us to explore the island as long as we respected their guests’ privacy - and there was no ship there that day… so not an issue at all!).  We beached the dinghy and went for a wonderful snorkel where we saw all kinds of colored reef fish, a ton of conch (Brian found a huge one that we kept the shell from), baracudas, lion fish (not good - wish we had known then that the Bahamians want us to kill them if we see them - they’re an invasive species from Asia that are destroying key reef elements) and most exciting of all… Spiny lobsters!!  Mike and Brian had some good luck that day tickling them out from under a coral head/spearing them so we had a fantastic dinner that night - conch salad and lobster tail served over rice.  Delicious!!!
The next day the wind was still not cooperating.  Brian and I awoke to the sound of our fishing line spooling out… we’d thrown some conch bits on a hook and dropped it over the side.  I ran topsides just in time to see a huge fish break the water… and our line :(. Mike took the dinghy around the corner of the harbor and came back reporting 4′+ swells, so we opted for spending another day exploring in Great Harbor Cay.  This day there was a cruise ship that had come in, so compared to the peaceful atmosphere of the previous day, we were “treated” to the sound of jetski’s racing around in the anchorage in the morning.  We decided to go ashore, as the folks from Norwegian had told us that there would be shops set up for the cruiseline guests and that we were welcome to check them out.  We made the hike up and over the hill to the facility, finding the beach on the other side to be PACKED with cruiseline guests.  We did a little exploring of the shops (little of interest to us but it was fun to see). wW walked back to our boat and set up the hookah so that we could do a little more diving.  Unfortunately we don’t really have enough weights for three of us to dive, and since Michael and Brian were having such a great time, I gave them my weights and just continued snorkeling around and enjoying the wonderful water.  No fish for us that night, since by the time the guys were done with their dive, it was too late really to go out and snorkel for spearfishing - besides we were all fished out!
The next morning we awoke to find that the seas had calmed some, and the wind had started to clock around to the north slightly, allowing us to make our next hop down the island chain to our next stop at Hoffman’s Cay.  We decided to depart around noon for our short hop of about 15 miles.  Martijn had gone ashore to take some pictures of the “airport” (see pictures) and to do a little more exploring before heading out, and told us that if he wasn’t back by 1 to head out and he’d catch up with us (as we’d all agreed on our anchorage the night before) so at 1 Renaissance and ThreeSheets weighed anchor and set off.  We’d no sooner cleared out of the channel then we caught sight of Rotop’s mast coming around the bend just behind us.  All in all we had a lovely sail down to Hoffman’s Cay, although the entrance was a little daunting as the water has a tendency to be quite surgy.  We pulled in at about 4PM and dropped anchor near Renaissance (who ended up moving soon thereafter because the location was too rolly for their boat) and awaited Rotop’s arrival.