Berry Christmas

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After we got ourselves and the boat back in order, it was time to enjoy being back in the Bahamas. The Berry Islands have always been one of our favorite places in the islands to visit. The people are friendly, the anchorages and beaches secluded, and the natural beauty and fishing abounds. Great Harbor is the biggest settlement in the Berries and has quite a friendly and tight-knit community. We spent our first couple of days there just relaxing and taking it all in. We walked across the golf-course to the beach on the other side of the island. It is a very beautiful, half-moon bay with white sand and crystal clear, gin colored water. As you look out you can see the reef, which appears as dark blue and black patches amongst the turquoise. We went to the beach bar that sits up at the top of the beach for lunch and just stared out at the ocean for hours, listening to the waves crash and watching the palm trees sway. We do believe that this is the best beach bar we have been to in all of the Bahamas, and that should say something. After our cheeseburger in paradise, we grabbed a couple of Kaliks and wandered down to the beach for a stroll. Kona was so excited to go to the beach, he just ran and jumped and swam all around, with a big goofy look on his face. He was stupid happy to be back in the Bahamas, as we all were. We found a tennis ball on the beach and would throw it in the water for Kona to fetch. We collected seashells as we walked with our feet in the surf. And we just enjoyed being here, back in the islands, finally. It was such a good day- that we did the exact same thing the following day.

The next night we went to the pool bar at the marina for some fresh cracked conch and Bahamian ribs. It was delicious. The bar tender then told us about all the holiday festivities on the island and the tradition of singing Christmas carols there the next night, on Christmas Eve, and invited us to join in. So after another wonderful day exploring the island we went up to the pool bar to celebrate Christmas Eve, Bahamian style. About half the island showed up at the bar and we all sat around singing carols into the wee hours of the night. Some of the songs are the traditional ones we know, and some of them were new to us. But we enjoyed it all the same. After several failed attempts, we were finally able to get thru the 12 Days of Christmas without a hitch, a feat in itself to remember all the words. And we counted down the seconds to midnight (like we normally do for New Year’s Eve) and as Christmas arrived, everyone went around the bar giving hugs and holiday cheer. What a great way to celebrate- I think we will have to adopt this tradition. And around 2 am the party dwindled and we headed back to the boat and crashed. We woke up the next day to beautiful weather, it was calm and sunny out. So we decided to take the dinghy out and explore a bit. As we were riding around in the shallow waters of the bank we could look down and see all kind of wonderful things, a nurse shark hunting for scraps, a ray gracefully swimming along, big bright red starfish everywhere, and conch. Wait a minute… conch! The fishing laws changed this year so that we can once again collect conch- yohoo! So we started Christmas Day Conching and ended up with 7 big, beautiful conchs. Unfortunately it takes a lot of work to get the conch out of the shell and clean this slimy but tasty bi-valve, so Jay had a lot of work ahead of him. But it was worth it- we thoroughly enjoyed a cracked conch dinner. And that, my friends, is how we celebrate Christmas in Great Harbor.

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Photos

Beach Walk
Walking on the beach in Great Harbor, enjoying the gin colored water, the whaite sand beach, and a couple of Kaliks.

Kona
Kona, stupid happy to be back in the Bahamas.

Playing with Kona at the Beach
And I guess I am stupid happy too!

Jay Chillin' at The Beach Bar
Sitting on the deck at the Beach Club- the best beach bar in the Bahamas.

Sunset
Sunset at the Beach Bar.

Dinghy Ride
Going on a dinghy ride on Christmas Day- check out the cruise ships in the distance.

Christmas Day Conching!
What fun!

Comments

[heather]

Golf?
Did you play a round of golf? Was Kona playing for Jen or Jay? Merry Christmas. Love you guys!

[Chris]

Love you Guys :)
So glad you're back and happy! Merry Christmas, sorry I missed you by phone before you left, but I'm glad you're blogging again! Love, Chris

[Margie]

Winter in the Bahamas-way to go
Hi, Glad you are back in the boat and having fun.Time to relax after the rough ride there.We dream of the warm water and weather.Have fun!!

[Rum Runner]

Golf
Unfortunately we didn't play any golf this time, but certainly thought of you guys while we were out there. We had so much fun with you all last year in the Berries.