{"id":3478,"date":"2022-04-28T15:59:51","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T19:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2022-04-28T19:06:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T23:06:26","slug":"days-gone-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/?p=3478","title":{"rendered":"Days Gone By…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Waiting for weather (again \ud83d\ude44) kept us in the Berry Islands for another 10 days. We moved from the anchorage to the marina so we could break out our bikes and explore… and, actually, happily, we came to really like Great Harbour Cay and our time spent there. The island’s history is fascinating, we met, and traded stories with, fellow travelers and discovered Great Harbour Cay’s stunning beaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great Harbour Cay Marina is a hurricane hole for the Berry Islands; it is accessed through this slim, man-made cut from the Great Bahama Bank to the inside of the island – Great Harbour Cay. Great Harbour is the largest of the Berry Islands and home to Bullock’s Harbour, the seat of the government in the Berry’s and the largest settlement with a population of 350 people.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The island is only 7 miles in length and 2.5 miles wide. It runs approximately north-south between the Great Bahama Bank and the Northwest Providence Channel (open to the North Atlantic Ocean which is why we were waiting…) It is considered one of the “out islands” as commercial development is minimal and it is not easy to access except by small plane, or, of course, by boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelling Beach<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We rented a noisy, finicky golf cart to find Shelling Beach on the east side of the island. At the end of a bumpy road, through everything but beach vegetation, we ended at the peninsula with Shelling Beach on one edge and the exit from Little Shark River on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The mouth of Little Shark River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Around the corner…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… to Shelling Beach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The blue water in the background is the Northwest Providence Channel; only this small shelf protects the bay on this side.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The clearest water and the whitest sand since Santa Rosa Island<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anderson Cay Beach<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You can cut through the cays from the Great Bahama Bank to the Atlantic by traveling the Little Shark River. By dinghy. Only at high tide. We were up for the challenge and headed out the day when the east winds were too strong to do much else on that side of the island. Unfortunately, even the high tide was too low so we visited a beach on the Great Bahama Bank side of the cay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Mushroom. This is at about 1 hour before high tide… a perfect illustration of how low it was that day…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The beach was deserted except for the natives…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Ruins<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is a wonderful history of Great Harbour Cay at https:\/\/www.greatharbourcaymarina.com\/history<\/a> which details the rise and fall of the island’s development by outsiders. What is left today are the physical ruins of The Clubhouse & The Sugar Beach Lodge and the stories of famous people who sunbathed here…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the Old Clubhouse, the original Rat Pack were rumored to be guests back in the ’60’s. Our marina was part of this development effort, as were the airstrip and a golf course. The “airport” is still operational and 9 of the 18 holes on the golf course are still maintained by the island’s residents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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These are the Sugar Beach Lodge ruins. Hidden down a driveway from the main road and almost at the northern tip of the island, the lodge was secluded and private. Brigitte Bardot was said to have enjoyed the Lodge’s hospitality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Caves<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The spectacular Sugar Beach Caves are a mini version of the northern California coastline!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sugar Beach, from the Caves, looking north to the Lodge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Little Shark River<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We attempted the Little Shark River dinghy trip a second time with some veteran Loopers and this time we were successful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Entering the river from the Great Bahama Bank side.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The river bottom and why high tide was important…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The river narrows down to a “dinghy-width” where the mangroves are the densest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The kaleidoscope of colors on the Atlantic end.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The peninsula at Shelling Beach again…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… and the Atlantic breakwater from the dinghy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The New Beach Club’s answer to “too much sun”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waiting for weather (again \ud83d\ude44) kept us in the Berry Islands for another 10 days. We moved from the anchorage to the marina so we could break out our bikes and explore… and, actually, happily, we came to really like Great Harbour Cay and our time spent there. The island’s history is fascinating, we met,… Continue reading Days Gone By…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-bahamas","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3579,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions\/3579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svaurora.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}