Little Harbour Cay, Berry Islands

Ah, beer. Sweet, sweet beer. When we provisioned our boat for this trip we decided (by mutual agreement) that we should try not to stock soda and beer and instead bought drink mixes and rum and juice since they would A. take up less room, and B. require less ice. Plus beer is kind of expensive in the Bahamas, compared to rum anyway. I have no problem going without soda, but sometimes you just want an ice cold beer. At this point I don't even have a preference -- Kalik, Heineken, Miller, even Corona with lime (and I am not a fan of lime in my beer) -- it doesn't matter as long as it is cold and frothy. Don't get me wrong, I like rum drinks as well as anyone but it's been a week and we are finally back in civilization where we can order food from an actual menu along with the frosty goodness known as beer.

By "civilization", I mean that we have moved on to Little Harbour Cay. It is only 3 miles south of our Hoffman anchorage, and it took maybe 30 minutes to get here, which is less time than it takes us to remove the sailcovers and put them back on, hence our decision to motor vs. sail. We have the anchorage all to ourselves and there is a swift current that runs north when the tide comes in and south when it goes out, so we set two anchors: our trusty delta and the massive fortress that Kevin's mom gave us as a wedding present. This is the first time we've used the fortress and it does not budge, so we will sleep soundly tonight. After we were satisfied with our anchor setup, I radioed and made reservations for dinner at the restaurant.

The fact that there is a restaurant or even a settlement on Little Harbour at all is a testament to the Darville family. Hurricane Andrew hit this place pretty hard and devastated nearly everything. But Chester and his mom Flo took the adversity in stride to pursue Chester's dream of running an island restaurant/bar so they opened Flo's Conch Bar. They welcomed us at the door and we had a lovely lobster dinner, frosty Kaliks, and great company. They are the island's only year-round residents, so when cruisers come through they are happy to hang out and pass the time. After preparing the excellent meal Flo came out and sat with us and the four of us watched TV together for a while. They even have satellite. Ah, TV. Sweet, sweet TV...