3/23/15
Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas
Posted by Bill

We really hadn’t intended on staying in a marina much here in the Bahamas, but when we got here, the forecast showed 2 periods of heavy wind that we figured we would ride out here versus be at anchor. The marina is really nice, and so are the people. The slip rates are much better than in Florida, and we found out from one of the residents that we can explore most of the Berry Islands by dinghy here or by renting a small power boat for a day. As it turns out, the forecast improved, so we didn’t need to seek a more comfortable place to stay, but now that we are here we will go with it.

Yesterday we took the dinghies out of the harbor and on to the banks. A couple of miles from the harbor entrance there is a plane wreck in about 10 feet of water which was pretty good snorkeling. Then we landed on a small remote beach to wallow for awhile. Not nearly as pretty as the big one, but we had the place to ourselves. Matt and Kurt have fishing and spearing gear, so on the way back we looked for some coral heads to snorkel and fish. I am not sure who found it, but there was a small patch of sand (most of the bottom around us is thick grass) with the remains of a car where Kurt and Matt speared 8 lion fish. Lion fish are an invasive species that have no natural predator, and they will kill all the fish on a reef, eventually affecting the health of the ecosystem. When you see them, you are encouraged to kill as many as you can. They have spines all over them that are venomous. With the help of a neighbor, the guys filleted them and Matt cooked them up for appetizers. They had a buttery taste and were delicious. Here they are before they were cleaned and filleted:

Today we got the clown bikes out of storage and taking our snorkeling gear, we rode over to the point of that lovely crescent beach on the ocean side of the cay. We learned that it is really good snorkeling at low tide. It was a long ride and there wasn’t much snorkeling to do as the tide was too high. We started back and stopped at The Beach Club, which is a beach bar with great spicy chicken wings and rum drinks. Then we went to the Monday night pot luck at the marina, and ended up playing Cards Against Humanity (a really fun card game) till after 10.