Burntside Adventures: Petit Cay, Berry Islands

We had anchored on the west side of Cistern Cay for protection from east winds after we crossed from Lucaya. At the north tip of these islands is deep water and cruise ships come in and anchor, with the passengers getting a "day ashore" on a tropical island without much commercil facilities. The ships spend the day there, then pull out at night. They look like a city on the water, all lit up. The day we laid over there was wet. I rigged up a funnel to one of the downspouts off the top deck and collected about 5 gallons of fresh water which came in hand to rinse out some clothes and rinse our snorkel gear. It worked amazingly well. Yesterday morning we kayaked over to a "blue hole" at Cistern Cay, not much to see, but a nice beach to explore. We then pulled out and moved to the east side of the Cay, a move of only a mile or so but had to travel 12 miles to get there to go around the shallows. We anchored off Petit Cay for the afternoon and explored the reef there, loads of fish, a grouper I should have speared but no lobsters. we moved closer to the lee shore for the overnight and today will move again south 10-12 miles to Hoffman Cay area. There are a bunch of anchorages there that are supposed to be nice, and a blue hole we can hike to. So far I am really pleased with the kayak. We use it almost every day. It's really a bit quicker on the water than I expected and takes only a minute to convert solo to tandem. The paddles I bought with it are war clubs however. But the price was right and they do the trick for a resistance workout.