Hello from Great Harbour Cay!

Friday nights around here the Marina sponsors a Grill and Chill. They provide rum punch and a local restaurant takes orders for dinner. Order on Thursday early, get your food earlier on Friday evening! Local folks or those who have boats here for the winter play music and folks sing along and dance. Last night, they were singing sea shanties! It was like being at the Mystic Seaport!

At the end of the dock, there is a conch salad shack. On the weekends he is around to make fresh conch ceviche. It is so good. Also, the locals come in with fish, as I mentioned in a previous blog, but forgot to take pictures! You can also buy fish and fillet them yourself as folks from a neighboring boat did one evening.

The first two weeks the weather was perfect, warm during the day with 70 degree nights with a light breeze. Perfect for the beach or whatever! This past week, the wind picked up and a cold front came into the area. You will see we have all put more layers on. We have also been playing games! We play Left, Right, Center under the gazebo with quarters, and all sorts of other games.

Yesterday the girls came onto AdventureUs and we played the Block Island version of Monopoly! Lori won! Middle photo from left to right Amy, Kim W, Sally, Lori and Stacey! The very cute puppy is Pankcake from Island Time!

On Valentine’s Day, a large group of us went out to dinner and we had a photo shoot! (More to help me remember everyone names and faces :)

Carol and Dick Tuschick on Heron with Don Pratton in the middle on Sea Fever

Mike Hendry on Easy Rider with Tim Nelly for Onward (his wife Ellen was on the boat not feeling well)

Sally Dietterle and John Tesdorpf on Traveller (they also own condo’s here on the island and have a truck, they helped to drive folks were ever necessary!) Thanks Sally and John

Kim and Tom Whalen on Branching Out (the old Flip Turn)

Lori and Bryan Snietka on Island Time

Gerry and I from AdventureUs

The three of us, on our boats, are planning to head to the Abaco’s together…. More details later!

Kim and Dave Osborn on Bonafide

Stacy and Scott Moliror on Caddy Shack

Renee and Maurice Goneau on Nor’Cat (they came by plane to stay on the island, did not bring their PDQ in 2025)

Missing PDQ owners who came or went during our three weeks here.

Roger Moore and fiancé Julie on Alley Cat II

Lars Vilhen on Purring Away

Jimmy and Holly Stuart on Hawk’s Nest a Grand Banks Trawler

The boat two down from us is named Oz, a large sailing catamaran with a husband, wife and two kids. I get talking with Kristina Marie and she is from Norwich CT! In high school she was good friends with my cousin Ashley Gray Tuohey! Such a small world.

I got the girls together and we painted conch shells (like I do with rocks). I shared the story of my mom, Laraine and how the rock painting came to be in the first place. It was great to feel my mom with us for the afternoon! I decided to donated all of my paints to Sally who owns on the island for when her grandchildren come to visit! She is so excited to share the same experience with them.

On Tuesday mornings, a local restaurant/resort Soul Fly Lodge https://www.soulflylodge.com/ has yoga! Sally, drove a group of us over! Not only was it a great class, but the view was spectacular!

The wild life on the Island is so special. Here are two videos for you to enjoy!

Video of local sharks eating and manatee drinking fresh water. We don’t swim off of the boat at the marina!

Here are other random pictures from our time here on Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands!

The pool from the resort here is the 60’s is being rebuild, view of the inner harbor and restaurant/store at the marina.

When you walk from the Marina to the beach, you walk past the ruins from the original club house, up to the end of the road, take a right and before you reach the beach, there is a cute little beach bar restaurant that just opened this season. Next door are villas!

This is a picture from our boat of the villas across from the marina. (Nice option if you want to visit us next year)

The airport is pictured in a the middle, several flights arrive and depart daily. As we walk or bike through the island, we can see remnants of what once was. On the old clay tennis courts, locals and boaters now play pickleball daily!

Here is a bit of history of Great Harbour Cay: https://www.greatharbourcaymarina.com/history.html

The original development of Great Harbour Cay began in the mid 1960’s with a $38 million investment and the dream of creating a hideaway for a very privileged few.  Great Harbour Cay’s close proximity to the southeastern United States combined with its unspoiled beauty and seeming remoteness, made it a tropical, private and very exclusive haven for the rich and famous during the late 1960’s.

Golf course designer Joe Lee fashioned an 18-hole championship golf course on rises of land that overlooked the sea. With over 125 golf courses designed in seven countries, Joe considers the original 18 hole, par 72-regulation golf course to be one of his best. A marina basin lined with waterfront town homes and luxurious yachts became the social center of the community. A magnificent multi-story clubhouse offered sweeping panoramic views of the island from its wooded hillside.

In the beginning, famous and some say the infamous, including Hollywood celebrities, came to play in this idyllic environment. Cary Grant danced the night away in the clubhouse. Brigitte Bardot graced the beaches with her beauty. Jack Nicklaus had a house on a hilltop along the back nine. Earl Blackwell, author of the celebrity best dressed list, enjoyed a home on the island. Great Harbour Cay was popular with the socially elite Rockefeller clan, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ingrid Bergman and Hugh O’Brian were regular visitors.

Over the years, many of the original families invited neighbors, friends, and business associates, to come and share in their little piece of paradise. As the families grew, so did the history, the stories, and the love that forms the Great Harbour Cay community.

I believe tomorrow 2/23 we are taking off around 6 am to head to the with two other boats. Most likely we will anchor more as we move around and limit our stay at Marinas. This means less Starlink and WiFi to connect to the rest of the world!