The Berry Islands and Flo’s Conch Shack

The Berry Islands were our second stop in the Bahamas and did not disappoint. They are an idyllic collection of small islands south of Grand Bahama and only a day sail away. Many of the islands seem to have few to no inhabitants and the anchorages were not crowded. After a very calm sail over we dropped anchor in Half Moon Bay (coincidentally, the name of the marina we used to go boating out of when I was a kid), at the northern end of the chain. The crystal clear waters let us see the anchor and chain all the way down and made anchoring a breeze compared with what we’ve been used to.

The winds were due to turn in the next few days and the anchorage we were in wasn’t going to offer enough protection so we picked up anchor the next day and moved further south over by Hoffman’s Cay (the location of the ill-fated “stranded on a beach” incident!). This location appeared to be the source of much bad luck for us (did we forget to pour one out for Poseidon before heading towards this anchorage??). The day after our rescue, Kevin spent the day trying to fix the electric motor and through much research found that it was a bit of a lost cause. The parts we would need to get it going would not be obtainable in the Bahamas. Next plan was to get our regular outboard running, here is where we discovered that in our haste to leave land, we had somehow managed to grab a Honda fuel tank for our Mercury outboard (perhaps it was from our last boat, Tied-we are unsure). It turns out that although the fuel line fittings for both Mercury and Honda look very similar, they are ever so slightly different. So here we were, in the Berry Islands, on a beautiful weekend, surrounded by little Cays with beautiful white sand beaches, with no dinghy motor! We were truly living the old adage “cruising is just fixing things in beautiful locations”.

The next day was when the winds turned and the storm came through. The thunder and lightning passed over us pretty quickly but the wind and chop stayed up all day. The benefit of this was that we didn’t feel bad about not being able to leave the boat at all. The drawback was that when the wind turned we found some shoaling that was not marked on any of our charts! Living up to another old adage “If you have never run aground, have you really been anywhere?”. You should really always do a circle around where you are going to anchor before dropping anchor if you can, especially in the Bahamas! We knew this and didn’t do it, so suffered the embarrassment as a consequence. All part of that tapestry we are working so hard to weave!

One of the things we kept hearing we HAD to do in the Berry Islands was to go to Flo’s Conch shack. We had intended to go there from the anchorage we were in but without the dinghy motor it was too far. We were determined though, so we picked up anchor in search of an anchorage that we might be able to row in from. Fortune seemed to be changing a little for us now and we found a deep water anchorage with pretty much no protection from waves and wind (the fortunate aspect was that we didn’t need any protection for the one night we planned on being there). I can only assume that because of how open this anchorage was, nobody else ever wanted to go there. It was completely empty and so peaceful! Learning our lesson from the last anchorage, we did a very big circle and then dropped anchor right in the middle and set about figuring out our visit to Flo’s.

Flo’s Conch Shack is on a small island called Little Harbour Cay, where the only residents of the island appear to be Chester and (as Chester put it) his “brother from another Mother” Jay, who lives on his Trawler at the dock. Chester was raised on the island and after living away for a while when he was younger, moved back and opened the restaurant. Jay moved here after having visited a long time ago in his sailboat and being taken in by Chester and his mother, Flo (the restaurant’s namesake). Flo passed away in 2011 but Chester keeps her memory alive with his famous conch fritters, that Flo was known for, and a big photo of her as soon as you walk through the door.

I have no idea what the opening hours or days of this place are, or how to find out to be honest. The Explorer charts told us to hail them over channel 12 and give at least 3 hours notice. We tried hailing multiple times and got no answer. Ultimately I found a number that I messaged over Whatsapp and then got a call back from Chester saying to come at 3:30pm but he was only doing conch fritters and rum punch. These are the two things he is famous for so this was perfect! We had about an hour and a half to get over there and it wasn’t a short distance, especially with no motor! Kevin did all the rowing and arrived hot and exhausted. Ask him if the conch fritters were worth it though…