Great Harbor Cay

Got up rather late at 7:30AM and had a good breakfast. We were one of the last boats to leave Bullocks Harbor and head into Great Harbor Marina. Great Harbor is a very protected Hurricane hole.

Entering the cut into Great Habor

Great Harbor Cay, like many places in the Bahamas underwent lots of development in the late 60's and 70's only to go bust due to mismanagement and underfunded projects. It was a popular spot for many celebrity's like Cary Grant, Walter Cronkite, Brigitte Bardot, Jack Nicklaus, Joe Namath, Ingrid Bergman, and the Rockefellers. The 1973 Arab oil embargo, precipitated an economic recession which pushed up interest rates to near 20%. The main investor abandoned their development here and left millions of dollars in debt. By the late 70's the economy had shifted to cocaine smuggling. Most of that activity went away in the 1990's due to efforts of the USA DEA. Interestingly the original 18 hole golf course is now a 9 hole course that local home owners pay to have mowed and is free to use. Bring lots of golf balls, because you will never find most of the ones you slice off the fairway. If I had only known, I would of at least packed away a 5 iron and putter and a bag of balls. There are a lot of abandoned buildings, homes, a hotel, golf course club house, etc. 

In the last 10 years or so Big and Little Stirrup Cay just off the north of Great Harbor Cay have been under constant development as a day beach for a couple different cruise lines and provides some employment to the locals. There are a number of boats in the marina here, snorkeling, para-sailing, etc that head over there most days. The government collects about 2 million dollars a year in departure taxes from the cruise ships. There is even a wholesale store in the village to supply chotchkies to tourist shops on Big and Little Stirrup Cay. Pretty amusing place to walk through looking at all the

tacky, tasteless memorabilia. The owner tells us prices shown are the wholesale prices, if we want anything it would cost us double. No problem there.

Shelling Beach

In the afternoon we walk to Shelling Beach on the Atlantic side of Great Harbor Cay. I find my first sand dollar and some sea urchins.