The Berry Islands: Great Harbour Cay

Dec. 6 – Dec. 7

Another 6am start with Rum Tum Tiger in the lead. We have about 90 miles to go, this time in water that seldom gets more than 30’ deep. The winds are favorable and shortly after pulling the anchor up we turn off the engines and sail along. What a joy!

Pictures just aren’t as good as the real thing, but it was a lovely sunrise.

We got into our anchorage at Great Harbour Cay in the Berries just beating darkness.   

The Berry Islands are made up of about 30 small islands and almost 100 cays. A few are privately owned and most are uninhabited “except by birds and yachters” according to one guide. Great Harbour is the largest cay of the Berries at about 12 square miles. 

Our first stop is Great Harbour marina. Americans probably inhabit most if not all of the condos seen

pictured below.

  

 It is illegal in the States to take conch, but here it is fine and they are everywhere! This small area by the dock was chock full of conch shells.

There is some evidence of Hurricane Matthew which came through here in October with down trees, but all in all the Berries fared well. Trees on the phone lines though aren’t helping their phone or internet connectivity though!

A quick stop in a grocery store confirmed that prices might be a bit steep – a box of cereal was $15.  Sure glad we stocked up on basic provisions in Florida.

About noon we moved anchorage to the east side of the island near Petit Cay. Just can’t get tired of that water color!

This is a lovely area with good snorkeling, nice beaches and a close dinghy ride to town. The beach here was littered with shells and I am having to control an urge to collect every pretty one I see, especially conch. Almost had lobster for dinner, but the huge one Tom saw snorkeling was too savvy and disappeared under a ledge in the rocks. We settled for fresh conch fritters instead.

 In town we found another, bigger grocery (6 aisles instead of 2 maybe) with more reasonable prices (“only” $8-9 for cereal). Most the food comes from the states so the expense is understandable. Also, if you actually hope to find something, you need to remember that the boat comes only once a week. So, if a boatload of provisions comes on, say, Tuesday; locals know that and buy up all they need quickly and by Thursday the shelves may be getting bare again. The cruiser that comes on Saturday or later is usually out of luck. This store though still had ice cream! For a very reasonable $1.25 a dip, we had scrumptious pineapple-coconut and rum raisin ice cream.

Across the street was the liquor store. You can expect to pay a premium for beer or wine, but rum…that’s a different story. The only brewery is in Nassau and a delivery had just arrived with sale prices. We did a taste test of these three and have deemed them all worthy of the best pirates!  

A rainbow sent us off again next morning sailing south to Hoffman’s Cay.