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Our journey from Green Turtle to Treasure Cay, Great Abaco was uneventful. The temperature was in the 70s, sunny but surprisingly cool in the shade. After passing through the Whale Channel (easily done with only a few feet of swell and long periods), we turned to head for Treasure Cay. Treasure Cay is not an island, but a resort with a marina, anchorage, and vacation homes on Great Abaco Island. It’s probably the largest resort in the Abacos. It’s about a 40 minute drive north of Marsh Harbour, the Bahamas’ 3rd largest city (~5000 people).
The first thing you might notice entering the channel to Treasure Cay are the signs warning you that a cable blocks the channel after 10pm, after which you need to radio for entry. Once in the marina, you will see that the gates to the docks close at 1am, security guards are on patrol, and the marina advertises itself as the “safest.” What in the world could be so bad here that made all this security necessary?! The Bahamas overall comes across as an extremely safe and welcoming place, so we were a bit confused. From our Googling, it looks like some years ago there were several boat thefts in a very short period of time, so we’re guessing that for the sake of the resort’s reputation, they wanted to make sure this would not happen again and took it to the extreme.
What Treasure Cay has going for it is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – white, white sand and blue, blue water. It has a restaurant at the beach, an Italian restaurant, and a large bar with food stands and a pool at the marina. There is an onsite shopping center with cell phones, car rentals, bakery, and gift shops. There are also some massive Tarpon hanging around the fish cleaning station.
What Treasure Cay doesn’t have going for it is that it just didn’t seem very exciting. We had heard we’d just missed the crowd – all the sailors hiding from a month of bad weather had departed the week prior – but this was still spring break time, and the place just didn’t seem that lively. To be fair, everyone at Green Turtle kept telling us how it was the busiest March ever and we couldn’t figure out where everyone was hiding, or maybe our idea is busy is just different from the island version of busy – a definite possibility. The other thing Treasure Cay doesn’t have going for it is their not-so-nice bathrooms. Now, I’m not really complaining, because they have showers and my boat doesn’t! It just seemed strange that for a place that comes across as fairly upscale, the bathrooms would be dirty or malfunctioning. Plus, the marina showers were in the same restroom used by the bar, and it’s just a little awkward to be naked with drunk people coming in from the bar. Without a rental car you are pretty much stuck on the resort property since it’s a heck of a walk to anything. It didn’t matter to us though as we specifically came to Treasure Cay to rent a car and go exploring!
A large amount of cars in the Bahamas are used imports from Japan, and our Honda rental was no exception. What does this mean? Well, the steering wheel is on the right hand side and the GPS nav system is hopelessly in Japanese and has you positioned somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. Some of you used to driving on the right side of the road might find this opportunity to drive on the left at highway speeds with no navigation terrifying, but we found it to be great sport. Plus, passengers got to yell our “left to live motto” at every turn. Over the next couple of days we explored a bunch of places on the island of Great Abaco, a.k.a. “the mainland.” Funny thing is, when I asked locals what there is to do here, the most common suggestion was to hop a ferry to another cay, so we were somewhat on our own to find the fun. Here is our summary of the spots from north to south.
Treasure Cay Blue Hole
This inland blue hole is not on the resort property and therefore open to all. You can find it a few miles north of the resort turn off on the left hand side. If you hit the airport you went too far. There is a small sign that denotes the turnoff. The blue hole is located several miles from the sea with a diameter of about 100′ and a depth of 254′. It is luxuriously filled with copious amounts of clean clear freshwater. While a bit erie due to its depths it is very safe with no currents or marine life. Its a unique and free experience that we would rate a must see. (On our visit, we had the added bonus of a wild fire having just roared through the area, so there was still smoldering underbrush and burning telephone poles – but luckily no houses appeared to be damaged. While we’ve been in the Bahamas, it seems there is always at least one part of Great Abaco on fire).
Marsh Harbour
Marsh Harbour is the 3rd largest town in the Bahamas at a whopping 5000 people, but it feels like it has half that population. It is, however, the main supply point for all of the Abacos. Food and goods are significantly cheaper here and they have several large grocery stores with reasonable (almost mainland America) prices . We like to shop at Maxwells grocery and pick out things we wouldn’t normally buy at home, like lamb chops and goat. When we are done we call a cab on VHF 6 and for $6 they take us to the Union Jack dinghy dock. At the dinghy dock, little kids hang out, swim, and play on boats. They’ll also gladly help you tie up, unload groceries, or carry your luggage, and although they accept tips, they seemed at least equally interested in snacks. The Abaco Asian Market is fun stop where you can buy pre-made food or ingredients for your own dishes. Beware: If the guy says the hot sauces are “not too hot,” he means “not too hot if you like really hot things!” The Coin Laundry in town is closed so we do laundry at Harbour View Marina. We always anchor out because the holding is good in Marsh, but the cheapest marina in town is Marsh Harbour Marina. On calm days it can get very hot in Marsh and swimming is not recommended due to water quality. There is a large hardware store called Standard Hardware and many other shops. Marsh gets a bit of a bad rap from locals for being the big dangerous city, but we had no issues and while not as fun as many of the other islands there are still a few interesting things to do.
Mermaid Reef is a small artificial reef just outside the harbor with lots of fish. Its a good spot to cool off or take small children but not something we would seek out. Restaurant-wise, Marsh is home to the only fast food in all of the Abacos – KFC! While not exciting normally, after a few months on a boat some good cheap (by island standards) fried chicken is a welcome relief on your way to the grocery store. Mangoes was our favorite restaurant. Wally’s was good as well and the most upscale. Snappas is somewhat of a hangout because of their draft beer (a rare find here) and good food. Jib Room at Marsh Harbour Marina has a guy who limbos under a flaming limbo stick after Wednesday and Saturday dinners. Jake’s has great reviews but we didn’t find it exceptional. We were told Colors by the Sea has great food but haven’t made it there. If you are into shopping, Marsh has a variety of small gift shops and clothing stores. Liquor stores abound; our favorite is right behind Harbour View Marina but selection varies. Lindsey is in love with the banana rum. Beer and wine are expensive but rum is pretty reasonable. Marsh is not really a place we go except for supplies.
Little Harbour
Going south the next stop is Little Harbour. We highly recommend visiting this idyllic harbor by either car or boat – just be aware it’s a bumpy ride by car. It is is home to Johnston’s Bronze Art foundry and Pete’s Pub. The bronze art is world class and really spectacular. It’s a must see.
Cherokee Sound
Cherokee is only a few miles from Little Harbour but it is outside of the Sea of Abaco and too shallow for most boats to enter, therefore few cruisers know about it. It is however our favorite spot in all of Great Abaco. Home to the largest wooden dock in the Bahamas at ~700 feet long, the extremely shallow bay offers beautiful crystal clear baby blue water and fluffy white sand that you can walk in for about 1000′ offshore. The town is very laidback with a small but well appointed grocery store (including reasonably priced souveniers – and fireworks!). If you want a spectacular beach day this is the place to do it.
Schooner Bay
This is a real estate development community. It’s still in the early stages of development and wasn’t really worth a stop. The tour is free, and supposedly there is a restaurant but we don’t know how they stay in business. We didn’t see a single resident, just maintenance workers. We did get to see a house owned by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.
Sandy Point
Sandy Point lies at the southwest tip of Great Abaco. We didn’t find much to see here, other than Gorda Cay a.k.a Disney’s Castaway Cay off on the horizon. We tried to find something worth doing but came up blank. We read some articles about the town’s big plans for a new high speed ferry that would bring in bonefishing tourism – the articles were from 2007, so I’m guessing the recession squashed those plans. We passed a National Park en route to Sandy Point – habitat for the Bahamian parrot! – but the road into it is 4-wheel-drive only and rental cars are specifically not permitted to drive that road. It sounds like it could be fun to explore as there is a blue hole and a lighthouse.
We had a great time exploring Great Abaco by car. We didn’t drive all the way to the northern towns, like Cooperstown and Foxtown – maybe we’ll catch those next time, or by boat.
With our road trip complete and one last night of conch fritters and lobster dinners to top it all off, it was sadly time to say goodbye to my dad. We dropped him off at the teeny tiny Treasure Cay airport before returning the rental car. Lindsey and I returned to the boat and readied it to go explore another island.