Getting settled in Great Harbor

Hello from the Bahamas!

Gerry went to shore early Sunday morning (2/1) to go through customs and immigration. We made reservations for a dock starting 2/15 and were very happy to learn that they could accommodate us on the dock sooner. Mid-morning we lifted the anchor and headed to the dock!

Below is the cut to get into Great Harbor Cay Marina. The second is the fuel dock at the power plant and finally our boat at the dock!

We spend the rest of the day getting settled in. We discovered that we were 1 of were 12 PDQs in the harbor, some coming and others going, all using this marina as a home base to explore the surrounding islands. About 7 of PDQs took off early Monday to go to Hoffmans Cay. We decided to stay put and join the group to explore other islands on the next excursion.

We took a walk to the beach with new friends we met in the marina and had dinner on board. In the Bahamas you have to pay for potable water, many boaters have water makers. https://www.rainmandesal.com/ Rainman Watermakers are a compact system designed to generate a fresh potable water supply from seawater that we have on board. It can produce 37 gallons an hour, so it’s allow us to be fairly liberal with our water use. Long hot showers on a boat are decadent little pleasure.

We needed water so we got all set up. To our surprise, the local manatee came by to enjoy a shower of the water-makers brine output hose !

On Tuesday morning, we went fishing from the dingy. The water was beautiful and the seas were calm. As we decided to head back to the boat, 2 other dinghies invited us to explore Shark Creek. We jumped on the opportunity. Shark Creek is on the south part of the island and cuts from the west to the east coast and opens up to the most amazing water and beaches.

At the east end, the stingrays were huge and graceful swimming through the water. We also saw a 5 ft shark and numerous sea turtles.

In the afternoon, we rode the marina courtesy bikes to the beach (the same area we took the dingy to earlier in the day) it was now low tide and just amazing! We walked away so many sand dollars!

During years of thinking and planning for this great adventure, we found a YouTube channel of a couple named Lori and Brian traveling on a PDQ. https://www.youtube.com/@cruisingonislandtime

They are at the same marina and have been helping us get acclimated to the area. Thank you for being our tour guide.