Atlantis

We left the Berry Islands on Saturday morning, running ahead of a cold front. While this meant 10-15 knot head winds, the seas had not yet picked up in the Tongue of the Ocean, so the crossing while involving more motoring than desirable, was pleasant enough and we arrived in Nassau mid afternoon.

The Berry Islands are very remote with small populations. They form a backwards L with the interior of the L all shallow sand, quite a large area actually as they run 60 miles top to bottom, with a 12 mile lower leg. Access is very difficult, we were using high tides to get in and out of anchorages. We found some nice snorkeling and a great beach area for shells, conch and starfish. The kids had a great time picking up the conch and starfish to move them below the low tide line. The only disappointment was that we checked in at Chub Cay, finding out that the landing fee was $100 not the $25 noted in the guide book. Explains why so many people had skipped the Berry's and went straight to Nassau to check in.

We decided to splurge and stay at Atlantis Marina. The upside is that you get full access to all the facilities. The downside is that everything at the resort is very expensive - for example $3 for a 12 oz coke, not to mention of course the morrage costs. Though in my assessment it was well worth it. We did not exhaust all of the activities. The many aquariums where outstanding with all kinds of different fish, sharks, rays... (note that you cannot access these any longer without staying at the Atlantis Marina, which is different than we had been advised, but it was clear that one had to present ID that your were staying in the resort to get into the rec areas, same as for water park areas). We also spent alot of time in the water park, which includes water slides, several pools, and river rides. The kids had a great time as did us adults.

We will now wait in Nassau until we get a little better weather to head down to the Exumas.