Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands

It was a long 11 hours traveling 85 mi from Bimini to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands. Not surprisingly, it was rougher than forecast and Scott and I took turns feeling kind of yucky…but we didn’t throw up! Hooray! It was a relief to dock at Great Harbour Cay Marina which is completely surrounded by land with small hills, really small hills. Our “plan” was to stay 3 nights.

Our first morning we enjoyed a nice walk while exploring the island and ended up on a lovely beach located at the “Beach Club” restaurant. In the afternoon we got out the boat bikes and road to Batelco, the Bahamian telephone company for Scott’s 4^th visit to one of their offices. He continues to spend hours every day trying to resolve all of our communication issues.

In the marina office we were advised that we should do our grocery shopping that day because the mail boat had arrived the previous day. The mail boat also delivers the groceries, I believe every other week. On Bimini we peeked into a few tiny grocery stores and saw bare shelves. We walked into the only one that appeared to have full shelves. The shelves were full, in fact, there was more rice in that store than any 10 grocery stores in the states all added together. (One of the most common side dishes here is pigeon peas and rice which is quite tasty!) In perusing the small “produce department” I saw that every single item was well past it’s prime. The refrigerator was getting bare so we were anxious to find more fruits and vegetables.

We rode to the “village” and visited the best grocery so far. I spent $42 and bought 6 small peaches, a cauliflower with only 1 brown spot, 6 bananas (1/3 of each banana is a bad spot), a small container of cherry tomatoes, 3 small oranges, and a good size bag of grapes. I considered the spinach but it had expired 3 days prior. Right after we walked into the store the electricity went out. We were told it was the 3^rd time it had gone out in about 15 min. and it was quite normal. There was an amazing selection of foods and sundry items, even ice cream, all in the space of a small house.

That evening the marina was grilling pizzas and one of the choices was conch/mushroom. We HAD to try it and we were sooooo glad that we did. That was the best pizza we had ever had, better than New York, Chicago or Ft. Myers. I would love to learn how they made the light and crisp crust.

The next day was a dinghy ride to a different beach where we ate a picnic lunch. I had packed our next to last salad (possibly until we return to the states) and had stupidly forgot to pack the plastic forks. Thus, we ate our salads with our fingers!!!! It was so funny I had tears running down my face while watching Scott. Let me tell you, eating foods like quinoa, hummus, and quartered cherry tomatoes with your fingers is no easy task!

We had planned to leave the following day but the wind forecast looked ominous and foreboding. Plan B: postpone departure until possibly Tuesday or Wednesday. Thankfully, the marina affords great protection and Scott might find some time to finally relax.

How long will we be stuck amidst these gorgeous beaches?