The Bahama Islands are more than 500 NM in total which is about the distance from New York to Charleston. The Bahamas consists of 700 tropical islands with only about 30 of them are inhabited by people. These islands are grouped into several archipelagos, each having a different vibe and unique cruising features. For our second stop, we chose to visit The Berry Islands, one of the smaller, less visited archipelagos. This j-shaped cluster of nearly 30 islands and 100’s of cays, mostly uninhabited, totals no more than twelve square miles of landmass.
The Berry islands are still relatively undeveloped, with two small regional airports and no hotels, However, townhouses and beach villas are available for rent for visitors. The difficulty of reaching the Berry Islands and the lack of infrastructure keeps life low-key. With that being said, two of The Berry Island cays are owned by cruise lines. Norwegian Cruise lines owns Great Stirrup Cay and Royal Caribbean Cruise Cruises has exclusive use of Little Stirrup Island. Obviously, recreational boaters and not welcome and attack dogs along with security on ATV’s certainly help the unwelcome feeling.
We visited Great Harbour Cay, population about 700 and the largest of the Berry Islands. It is eight miles long and the widest section is two and a half miles wide. Three Sons docked at Great Harbour Marina to be protected from some strong northeast winds that were headed our way. The folks here are friendly and helpful, and the marina has nice bathrooms, (a huge deal since we pay for water here) along with three social events a week, Grill-N-Chill with live music and BBQ, Pizza Night and Pot Luck dinner. We did lots of relaxing, biking and walking while waiting our the weather. Although there are some similarities, let’s just say ‘being stuck’ waiting for the wind to calm down is a bit different than being snowed in.
Exploring
The first few days we explored the area around the marina. We took a two mile walk to the only town, Bullocks Harbor, which has one small variety store, a church, hardware store and two bars. We intended to go have a drink a Coollie Mae’s Sunset by the Sea but unfortunately, they were closed. I guess that happens a lot in the Bahamas, hours of operation are subjective. We rode our bikes to see some of the beaches close by and wow we were impressed. The locals are incredibly friendly and always give a honk as they drive by us. Although they are few and far between since the island is certainly not very populated. We did appreciate the man who stopped his truck to inform us we should be on the other side of the road. Umm, that is why when the first car that went by I did not see a driver in the seat.
Exploring more of the Island
It’s a cool day, low 70’s, and the locals keep yelling “It’s winter!” as we were dressed in shorts and t-shirts. We decided to to go exploring on bikes and headed up to the north part of the island. Pedaling up hill on the only road, which was a mixture of dirt a few patches of pavement, provide beautiful view of the aquamarine ocean. This rudimentary road was full of pot holes or ruts that you could lose a small child in, so we carefully dodged around similar to avoiding crab pots in the ocean. We pulled the bike off on a few different spots and walked down to the gorgeous beach with white fine sand. At one stop, we climbed some coral and had a spectacular view of the coast. The entire area was remote and secluded. We never saw one person on the beach and probably only passed about dozen cars in our 10 mile ride. Houses were few and far between, but we saw one for sale and poked around to check it out. A small, single story concrete house in an amazing location. As we were peeping in the windows, we did agree it was our dream house. A completely open layout with the front and back walls all glass that overlooked the ocean and the bay. A pool in the front yard and the ocean in the back. We did some research, having no idea on the price and Bob’s guess was the closest, $3.2 million. If only!
True confession, our ‘to do’ list gets very ignored. Sitting still, we have been making attempts to cross things off including: giving Three Sons a good bath, shining up the stainless steel, a generator project, replacing a float value on the washing machine, reprograming the MMSI number in our AIS and cleaning and organizing some storage boxes.
Exploring the ‘Ruins’
Great Harbour Cay was once the major golf resort for the rich and famous. In the 60’s there was The Clubhouse, a private tropical exclusive haven that attracted many famous folks for stays. Supposedly, the Rat Pack spend countless days parting here. Today, due to abandonment and neglect, it makes for an interesting place to explore with a feeling like something out of The Walking Dead. The bar, pool and shell of a building stand and even in complete ruin you can imagine the glitz and glamour. After exploring the main building, we walked down a dirt path to check out the golf course. After seeing an open field, which we think was an hole, we saw a chain link fence in the distance. Upon further investigation and walking we discovered the fence was around two clay courts in working order. It was the oddest sight! There was a huge rake tossed to the side and looked like someone had used it to groom the courts. An old shed with a half open door had some very old, rusted landscaping equipment. It was like moving from the Walking Dead to a post- apocalypse scene. However, we will return with our pickle ball paddles.
Still Windy!
Mother Nature and her force on winds, currents and waves, decides when we travel and sometimes where. Since, we extended our stay we needed to move Three Sons to a new slip, literally two slips down. That night, we enjoyed cocktails with our new dock mates, Will N Joy, on our old dock mates boat, Pleione. Putting boat projects aside and enjoying the beautiful locations and sunshine we spent our days exploring this tiny island. Along with walks to town, we enjoyed a few more bike rides down the unpaved road enjoying the spectacular views. A favorite way to kill time was walking on the beach and stopping for lunch at Da Beach Club, the only restaurant on the beach. It is a fun hangout spot with gorgeous views, a phenomenal grilled cheese burger and Kalik beer. The marina also organized a sunset walk to sunset beach. With drinks in hand, we walked to the other side of the island (about a mile) chatted and enjoyed an amazing sunset. In the end, we spent at week at Great Harbour Cay enjoying the weather, folks and waiting for the winds to calm down.
