Wednesday, January 27, 2021

First destination of the season--The Berry Islands

So happy to be back in the Berry Islands! We spent one night on the hook in Slaughter Harbour, between the cruise ship islands of Little Stirrup Cay (a.k.a. Coco Cay) and Great Stirrup Cay. We struggled to get the hook to set, but finally found a worthy patch of sand between the hard bottom and grass beds. The next day we anchored on the west side of Great Harbour Cay. The kids donned wetsuits to check the anchor and clean the prop, and we had a nice, peaceful night before heading through the cut on a rising tide to tie up at the Great Harbour Cay Marina. 

Our two anchorages before heading into the marina.


We LOVED our time here last year and decided to return. It just makes getting our COVID tests super easy, we can weather a cold front or two this week, and the people are just wonderful! The next morning we knocked out our 5-day COVID tests (all negative!) right at the marina with Nurse Lorell--we celebrated with a beer run to town and a trip to a nearby beach with the whole family.



We wanted to explore a few places we didn't get to last year. As the fleet of marina bikes is in better shape, we hit the road early today to check out Sugar Beach and the caves. It's a slog to ride almost 5 miles each way on single-speed beach cruisers over hills and through the occasional rain shower, but as one of the kids said, "...so worth it." We were surprised that the water was relatively warm! We explored the cave, identified some chitons and periwinkles, and swam. It was amazing! After checking out some ruins of an old hotel nearby we rode back (through a few rain squalls!) to knock out school for the day.


9.5 miles round trip to this amazing beach!

We decided to really make this a full day and take the kids to meet Ronnie at The Brown's Garden for dinner. We went here a few times last year for conch salad, but the kids had never been (they aren't conch salad fans). While we got conch salad, Trent had a delicious burger and Katreina had a pile of peas and rice--they loved it! Ronnie is a great cook (and makes conch salad that is the standard we compare all others to), but his joyful personality really makes the experience!

A “must” while in Great Harbour Cay 


We are keeping an eye on a few cold fronts rolling through the islands--one tomorrow and another early next week. We had planned on staying a week, but maybe we will stay longer. There is plenty to do here, even during a big blow!

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