Harbour Island sits on the northeastern tip of Eleuthera, a small cay barely three kilometres long with one of the most celebrated beaches in the Bahamas: Pink Sand Beach, nearly five kilometres of naturally pigmented rose-coloured sand on the Atlantic side of the island. The beach owes its colour to crushed coral and foraminifera, and at low tide it is wide, firm and almost always uncrowded. Motor yachts anchor in the protected harbour on the western side of the island, with Valentines Marina offering fuel, berths and immediate access to Dunmore Town, Harbour Island’s main settlement. Dunmore Town is the smallest and most photogenic of the Bahamian out-island communities, with pastel-painted clapboard houses, a handful of good restaurants and a population of a few hundred permanent residents alongside a small number of discreet boutique hotels. The Devil’s Backbone, a notorious reef system off Harbour Island’s northern tip, is one of the best wreck diving sites in the Bahamas, littered with colonial-era ships that didn’t make the approach to the harbour. Motor yachts manage the reef comfortably with local knowledge, and dive guides are available from the island. Motor yacht rates in the Bahamas range from around 50,000 euros per week on a 30-metre to over 400,000 euros for 80-metre superyachts, with an APA of 30 to 35 percent covering fuel, food, berthing and drinks. High season runs December through April. Harbour Island works well as a start or end point on a longer Eleuthera and Exumas itinerary.
