Great Harbour Cay Marina

Great Harbour Cay Beach on East Side

White Pepper has spent 3 weeks in the Great Harbour Cay Marina near the village of Bullock's Harbor on Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas.  The locals prefer the British spelling of harbor with a u.

This is longer than we had planned to stay.  We did want to spend at least a week here letting the Bahamian winter pass overhead.  We did not count on how much winter there would be to endure. 3 and 4 cold fronts lined up each week without let up.  We barely felt these  since Great Harbour Cay Marina is a virtual hurricane hole.When one weather window did show up, Jan came down with a vicious respiratory virus that sent her to the bunk for several days. It all might sound horrible, but this is fine place to spend some time.

Great Harbour Cay Marina has been greatly upgraded under the steady hand of Hans, the harbor master.  The service is first class--friendly and 'bend over backwards' accommodating. For example Hans drives us back and forth to the market on Wednesdays when the mail boat arrives and the fresh fruits and vegetables are available.  The price is very reasonable by the week--$1/ft--hardly more than a mooring ball elsewhere.Oh, and the bathrooms are new and sparkling.  They are cleaned twice a day. There is free wi-fi.

There is a family of manatees here.  They were blown over during a hurricane and have thrived.

Locals named this manatee George

We walk to the beautiful beach (see above).  We dingy out to the fishing grounds. One of our cruisers organized a trash clean up that was the subject of a previous post. Hans has a little activity lined up every day.  One Monday Jan went to an art class and made jewelry.  Tuesday some local residents instructed the cruisers in how to play the French game of patanque. Barbecue is Friday. Pot luck is on Mondays. Trivia Pursuit at the bar is Thursday.  However, it is all very low key and lots of fun.

A special one time treat was a lecture by the Audubon Society.  They were on the cay researching the rare pipping plover.  Apparently the pipping plover which had been thought to be an endangered Atlantic seaboard bird spends the winters in the Bahamas.  This was  recent discovery.  Jan and I saw about a dozen on the beach the next day.

While we were here the Frigoboat system failed.  This is the wonderful freezer/fridge machine that has worked so flawlessly for 7 years. I have ignored it until it wouldn't cool anymore. Almost miraculously (for the Bahamas) there is an excellent refrigeration man on this island of 450 souls.  His name is Gobby. He came down to the boat and got things fixed up with a minimum of fuss or expense.  I could not have had better service in Fort Lauderdale.

Finally, the weather seems to be clearing. White Pepper will head for the Exumas maybe Sunday.  There seems to be an extended period of good weather coming so we plan to try to get to George Town, Great Exuma, as fast as possible to wait out the rest of the winter.  When the fronts weaken and slow down then more adventuresome cruising is possible.