Cat Lady of Harbour Island

While running around the Harbour Island shops and restaurants, Deon and I were followed by a team of cats, and no, we were not hallucinating or grossly intoxicated. The cats and dogs, as well as chickens, are basically running stray on the island, and poorly cared for by the locals. They lurk around restaurants in every little corner looking for you to drop a french fry or chunk of meat, and their little bones are almost transparent, so obviously, you know where this is going. At first I was buying cans of tuna at the Piggly Wiggly market and pouring them over dry Purina cat chow, but they got used to the dry chow and I would leave little piles all over town for them. The only mistake on this was leaving the bag of cat chow in the back of the golf cart overnight to find little paw prints all over the seat and the bag of chow gone the next morning. So, my cat chow (yes, and dog chow too) went with us all over Briland, and I quickly was referred to as Cat Lady which I guess is a bit more lovely than Dog Lady. Upon leaving Briland, I entrusted an older toothless Bahamian lady with the food to continue to care for the dogs and cats. I think my justification for going back to Harbour Island each year will include the care of these precious little furry animals.

Harbour Island, Bahamas

Harbour Island, although less traveled and far less touristy than its neighboring Nassau/Paradise Island, is quite the quaint, friendly, upscale Bahamian island. The island is fondly referred to as "Briland" which if you say Harbour Island fast three times maybe after a few Kalik beers, you'll get Briland. Briland is 3.5 miles by 1.5 miles with no cars on the island, so you'll need to rent a golf cart to get around which will run you about 50 bucks per day. And while there are no cars, there are no parking meters or traffic cops, so driving with a beer is encouraged freely by the locals as long as you remember to drive on the left hand side of the road. The famous beach always ranked in the top ten in the world is here in Harbour Island and called the Pink Sand Beach with sand resembling pink powdered sugar. You would obviously enjoy Harbour Island if you loathe cruise ship tourists and souvenir shops as there are none here. You can grab a cocktail at sunset at the Landing, snorkel some of the best water in the world, lay on the beach as if you are the only one there, and maybe dance to local Bahamian tunes until about 11pm when everything shuts down. As for time out of the galley, the best food can be found at Coral Sands hotel with succulent lobster (lobster season started on August 1st), Sip Sip for the lobster quesadillas and fried grouper sandwich, and the Landing known for their Aussie fare but more for their spicy crab capellini and goat cheese ravioli. What did Deon & I leave with? Of course, a tender but spicy conch salad from the famous Queen Conch, a bit more bronzed skin, and the warmest thoughts of the most personable Bahamian island where we will most definitely return.

By the way, Harbour Island is ridiculously easy to access with just a short flight from Miami/Nassau into North Eleuthera where you take a 10 dollar taxi to a ferry, and a 5 dollar per person ferry into Harbour Island. So easy and so worth it! More to come on Harbour Island soon......

Yacht Life