The Blue Hole at Hoffman’s Cay

Jereme and I worked our way down the Berry Islands last week, hitting the south end of Hoffman’s Cay for one night.

We left the west side of Great Harbour Cay and motorsailed (due to a total lack of wind) a little ways down the chain of islands, past Market Fish and Soldier Cays, in addition to a few other tiny islands. It took us less than 3 hours to sail down to the south end of Hoffman’s.

Along the way, we caught another stupid barracuda…they are such a pain to take off the hook.

I think this guy might have followed us all the way from Great Harbour Cay, where I’m pretty sure he was living under our boat for the past couple of days. ;))

Without any civilization on the island, Hoffman’s Cay is a gorgeous spot to snorkel, dinghy through the crystal clear waters, and just enjoy the simplicity of cruising.

We spotted tons of sealife just cruising around the tip of Hoffman’s Cay, including lots of stingrays, a few sea turtles, a shark, and plenty of fish.

There’s also what’s known as a “blue hole” on the island, which is really the main reason we anchored at Hoffman’s for the night.

What’s a blue hole you might be wondering?

Here in the bahamas, there are several of these “blue holes,” which are basically underwater limestone sinkholes, or vertical caves, that go hundreds and hundreds of feet deep. At this particular blue hole, the water is saltwater.

We could easily spot the blue hole on our Explorer charts, but used another cruiser’s notes in Active Captain for intel on where we should actually land the dinghy in order to find the hiking trail that leads up to the hole.

The notes indicated to take the second beach from the southeast side of Hoffman’s and they were spot on! We landed the dinghy at a small beach where a former Boot Key Harbor catamaran, Wind Fall, was anchored. It’s such a small world because we met this boat in Marathon and saw them again in Great Harbour Cay, and now here they are once again at Hoffman’s Cay! We chatted with them for a bit and then went on our merry way to hike up to the blue hole.

It was an easy 10-minute hike through a narrow tree-covered path, with Oliver blazing the trail, of course. ;)) He was always the first in our party to spot the cool looking lizards (much different than the regular old ones we have all over the place in Florida).

You know you’re at the right spot when you see this…

Pretty neat, huh?

But then we realized there was another tiny trail that led down to the water and under the cliff edge. We checked out the scene, had a few cold drinks, and snapped a few photos, and headed back.

I’m guessing some folks might actually get in the water and swim, but neither Jer or I were interested in swimming with whatever creatures lurk beneath the deep blue water.  Although I’ve read that the water circulation is poor in these blue holes, thus creating a rather unfavorable environment for most sea life.

Our single night stopover at Hoffman’s Cay was pretty great and gave us one of the best sunsets we’ve seen yet!