We’ve been in The Bahamas over a week and most of it has been spent enjoying the beautiful weather and clear waters boating theBerry Islands.
Great Harbor Cay
Though adjacent to a cruise line-owned island and home to an airport, Great Harbor Cay feels remote. A great introduction to the Berry Islands for us, we spent 3 nights anchored here. The island is occupied by only 350 or so people, and all of those we interacted with were warm and open; two different people gave us rides. We spent an afternoon traversing the island and the town of Bullocks Harbor by foot, visiting a couple of restaurants, a stunning beach, the marina, and the grocery store.
You know when you are trying to get away for a holiday or long weekend and everything takes so much longer than it should? That was us trying to get to Bahamas last Saturday, only our problem wasn’t traffic, it was the Gulf Stream.
Longer Than Expected
We figured the 40 nautical mile (nm, or knot) trip would take us 8 or so hours. Nope. With the wind at our front and the gulf stream pushing us north, we had to give up on sailing and turn on the engine. We discovered that the engine overheats when we go too fast. That 8 hours took 12. We cut it short and stopped north of our destination and anchored in the dark. But we made it to Bahamas in one piece! Success!
One of the requirements of UDC’s Divemaster program is to participate in a beach clean-up, which is a great way to ensure all the students are aware of the environmental problems with our oceans. Last Monday, I participated in my first beach clean-up with Utila Dive Center. It was enlightening and a little bit depressing but ultimately rewarding.
Getting to the beach clean-up
We met at UDC and drove in a van to the beach at the southeast end of the island, where I had never been. From Google Maps, I guess it is Iron Shore Beach. There’s no road across the island, so we went all the way south and then back up the east side.
UDC to Iron Shore Beach, Utila
Advance preparation
One of the UDC instructors, T, led the group and she organized everything, providing gloves, garbage bags, rakes, and trays to put special types of refuse on, like glass bottles (of which there were few) and bottle caps (many). We were prepared and we needed to be. The amount of trash that washes onto that island from the ocean has to be seen to be believed.
Organized into teams, we competed with each other a bit: for most trash, and most of each type of trash. It was just one element to keep people involved, but most of us didn’t need the game.
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