3/24/15
Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas
Posted by Bill

Here are the directions we got:
1. Go out the cut and go left
2. Stay to the right of the little island or you will run aground
3. Look for a boat fender in the trees and then take the first cove on the left
4. Go into the mangroves and when you see a fork with another boat fender in the trees, go left
5. The creek will open up and a branch right has turtles and rays, the branch straight will take you to the beach
6. Go 1 hour before high tide and don’t stay longer than 2 hours or you won’t be able to get back

We gladly accepted Gary’s offer to follow him and he would lead us in for our first time. This was a good move. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the open area and it was well worth it! It is very, very shallow working through the mangroves, and it is only wide enough to fit a dinghy. The tidal current was pushing us around and several times we clipped the mangrove trees on either side. Pics:

The first fender in the trees (it’s the white thing near the center of the picture). I never would have seen this if Gary hadn’t pointed it out:

Working through the mangroves:

In this open area we saw turtles, rays and fish:

We couldn’t get a good picture of the turtles and rays. They are so fast! I thought turtles were slow, but these guys can crank. Kurt and Matt did some spear fishing and caught a couple of lobsters, more lion fish and some snapper. Then we motored over the to beach area:


Here we saw a couple of sharks. One was about 5-6 feet long and was in about 2 feet of water, fins protruding above the surface. It’s a good thing that the water is so clear so you can see them!

We made it back to the banks before we ran out of water in Shark Creek, made a short trip to a beach for some wallowing, and then snorkeled the sunken car for more fishing. No luck. When we got back to the marina, they were organizing a weekly event called “drink and drift”. A bunch of people go out on the banks in their dinghies, tie all of the dinghies together and drift and drink to watch the sunset. The wind had picked up and almost everyone thought it was too rough, so we went back inside the cut and drifted in the lagoon. It was fun.

Great day!