Little Harbor Cay
We continued on down the Berry Island chain, and came to an interesting area called Little Harbor Cay. The ‘harbor’ itself is nestled in-between numerous little islands, and to get to it you have to meander through at high tide – and even then it’s pretty risky. With our short 4 1/2ft draft we even ended up touching bottom at low tide when we were at anchor. A big African American man named Chester Darville, came on the radio and directed us…”keep the large rock about 30ft off your port side, then take a sharp turn to port…” it went on for about 20 minutes. Danny is a most excellent Captain, and got us in safely.
After dropping anchor in 5ft of water, we looked up to where Chester had been radioing from, and saw his little homestead which consisted of several small buildings. One particular building is a restaurant named “Flo’s”, after his mother, Florence. Aside from burgers, they serve conch fritters, pan fried conch and his famous rum punch. Their yard is littered with ducks, chickens and roosters, and in the mornings we were woken to the roosters crowing (not something you hear on a sailboat very often.)
At the dock, Chester prepares the fish and conch for his daughter, Lovely, to cook, and then throws the remains into the water below.
Four Lemon sharks were waiting ready for the easy meal, and each came in quickly when they heard the splash. I placed my foot in the water and splashed the waters surface, and one of them came over to investigate.
My Mom and I lowered a paddle board and with her kneeling in the front and me in the back, I paddled us over to get closer to the sharks, but they were a bit unsure of the paddle board.
On Chester’s property there are massive piles of conch shells from over 100 years of conching, and beautiful flowering cactus. My Mom fell in love with some tiny purple flowers that covered the ground in whispy stalks.
We went for a walk, and Aidan and his Ouma explored the trail together.
Little Harbor Cay provided us calm waters and wonderful shelter, as well a a beautiful setting to soak in. I will never tire of the blueness of the water here in the Bahamas.
Adventures of a Tribe 