Little Whale Cay is a small

private island A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and som ...

. Little Whale Cay is located southeast of

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, Florida, in the

Berry Islands The Berry Islands are a chain of islands and a district of the Bahamas, covering about of the northwestern part of the Out Islands. The Berry Islands consist of about thirty islands and over one hundred small islands or cays, often referred t ...

chain of the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

History

Little Whale Cay was developed in the 1930s as a private island residence by

Wallace Groves Wallace Groves (–30 January 1988) was a prominent financier, who, after his release from federal prison in 1944, moved to the Bahamas and there founded and operated the free trade zone, resort, and casino development Freeport on Grand Bahama Isl ...

, a US businessman with a strong interest in the Bahamas. He sold the island in 1985 to the current owner, Peter Austin, a British Millionaire with connections with the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), an ...

. Residents and employees during Groves' ownership report that he ran the island in police-state fashion. The island is as of December 2020 for sale with a listing price of US$60 million. The island is commercially hired to paying guests.

Facilities

The island is served by the Lt. Whale Cay Airport and by a small harbour. Travel to the island is easiest from Nassau or Ft. Lauderdale (mainland USA) either direct to the Cay (in the case of Nassau flights) or via the local customs office on Chubb Cay (In the case of Miami flights). The island has three houses for guests to hire; Little Whale, Peacock and Flamingo. Guests can use facilities including a sea-view infinity pool, fitness centre, tennis court, harbour and boats for fishing, cruising or water sports. The establishment has 8 full-time staff, 2 full-time managers, 2 full-time engineers for the maintenance of the generators and boats, 3 full-time gardeners. When guests are present on the Cay these are supplemented with maids, chef, stewardess and masseuse bringing the staff to 13. In the past scuba instructors have also been made available for guests.Little Whale Cay website
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Wildlife

Manatees and green turtles are sometimes present in the waters surrounding the Cay. Birds found at Little Whale Cay include flamingos, Bahamian duck and Bahama woodstar hummingbirds and domestic peacocks. The origin of many of the birds present on the Cay can be traced back to Wallace Groves' bird collection. In the past many of the houses in the small "downtown" area were bird houses.

External links

Little Whale Cay website

References

{{Reflist Berry Islands Private islands of the Bahamas