Last 3 Weeks in Paradise: 25 Bahamas Experiences

Disclaimer: Since it is hurricane season, we wanted to clarify that our boat is safely stored at an inland marina in Florida. This post covers our Bahamas adventures back in May. We’ll update you on the current situation soon!

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After leaving Grand Cay in March, most of our travel decisions were based on the idea of revisiting that particular island.  It is a jump-off point for scuba diving at Walkers Cay, which is supposed to be one of the best dive sites in the Bahamas. We’d provision and start to head north, only to realize we weren’t going to get a clear enough stretch of weather to make us feel good about venturing back into the more remote, less protected northern Abacos.

Once again, we were facing a nasty forecast in 3-6 days, so we decided we’d head south to provision in Marsh Harbour and then attempt to make it to Grand Cay. Ah, the sailing life – where it’s normal to turn grocery shopping into a multi-day adventure.

Spoiler alert: We never made it to Grand Cay! However these few weeks were the best of the trip. Here are 25 experiences from those weeks (in generally chronological order):

  1. We tried our Monitor windvane for the first time ever.  Can we say – WOW!
    The Monitor at work behind Paul

    The windvane is essentially an autopilot – it’s a wing on the back of the boat that you angle into the wind and connect to the steering wheel, and it steers for you. People told us we would love it, but really, wow! Normally this would be used in open sea to allow you to focus on tasks other than steering or to just take a break, but we continued to watch our course carefully and frequently adjusted the windvane since we were in a narrow area. It was just so cool to see it working!

  2. We had the most gorgeous day of sailing.  It was the only time in the Bahamas that we put up both foresails. Weather was sunny and beautiful. The water was paradise blue.

    This photo is from the day before…. only 1 sail up then haha

    We sailed at 5+ knots the whole time. The swell across Whale Channel was perfectly timed for a comfortable ride. It was a great reminder why having a sailboat is amazing!

  3. Dolphins escorted us into the Marsh Harbour anchorage. They were a mama and baby pair, and they played in the bow. We’ve had so few dolphin sightings in the Bahamas compared to the US! We also saw sea turtles and a nurse shark in the anchorage.

    Nurse shark
  4. We realized it’s a small world after all. We ran into a catamaran from Bass Lake, CA, a town near Paul’s hometown. We drove up to them in our dinghy, and it turns out they know a lot of people that Paul and his family also know.

    These snails agree its a small world!
  5. I tried to watch sunset and instead saw a big fat waterspout. That one disappeared before I could get the camera, but a second, skinnier one formed on the horizon – not nearby thankfully! We’d met the couple who owns the powerboat in this picture earlier that day, so I emailed them the photo. Their response: “Holy shit!”

    Left side of photo… the skinny water spout below the clouds
  6. We dined with cool cats at the full moon party at Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarters. We were greeted at the dock by one of their many bar cats.
    The welcome committee at Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarters

    We got there before the crowds, when they were still making frozen drinks, and they were SO GOOD (not sure how much alcohol was in them but yummm). It was $25 for an all-you-can-eat-buffet that they kept refilling for hours and hours. By Bahamas standards, that is not an expensive restaurant meal and it was actually REALLY tasty – the chicken was excellent; the grouper and pork were good; the coconut conch was interesting.  Beer was overpriced, but otherwise this was one of our best meals out in the islands. The place has a little beach and paddleboards, so it would be fun to check out during the day next time.

  7. We accidentally attended another full moon party.
    Noticing some movement on the beach at our Mystery Island X anchorage, we got out the binoculars (are we creepy?) and saw several people building a beach fire. We were tired, but we decided to eat dinner and then drag ourselves to the beach after we saw what we thought was fire dancing…. which turned out to be a light-up hula hoop that I was required to use as initiation into the party.  There was singing and guitar playing and people from Chicago who had literally planned their Bahamas charter around attending this full moon party because they loved it last time they were here…. 12 years ago. Attending this fire ended up being the best idea because…
  8. We made friends who weren’t on the move! At the party, we met S & J, two experienced travelers and sailors who had been staying at this anchorage long term. As soon as J invited Paul to go spearfishing, I knew we’d be staying here a while, no matter how long Paul had to wait out the weather! In addition, we got to know the island’s residents who hosted the bonfire, and they were incredibly interesting and generous people – these are people who bought raw land and built it into a truly magical destination over the course of decades, with materials, groceries, and supplies they could bring in only by boat.
    Many people stop at this island to go walking, so there was always someone to talk to if you were hanging out on the beach. We met a lot of Canadians, including a family of 4 on a boat around the size of ours. They were homeschooling for a year while giving their daughters the adventure of a lifetime. The weeks were filled with dinners on boats, birthday celebrations, and more bonfires. Especially with S & J around, we got to experience the sense of community we really missed since we’d left the dock at Pineapple’s. We’re really so grateful to them for hanging out, showing us around, and tolerating all the times we yelled “ahoy” into their boat while S was on the phone!
  9. We swam with the “tame” sharks and rays. S told us about a spot where the tour boats feed the sharks and rays.
    One common activity is to put squid between your toes and let the rays suck it out. We didn’t try this!
    No one was feeding the animals when we arrived, so Paul put on his snorkel and headed in, while I stood in the shallow water trying to work up some courage while also keeping a close eye on the rays and sharks (lemons, reef, and nurse) that ventured in looking for tasty treats.
    Eventually, after seeing Paul not get eaten, I went in too. We tried to get cool pictures but the sharks were way too timid to pose for photos. I acknowledge calling them “tame” is a joke and there might be some stupidity in swimming where the animals are used to being fed, but like I said, there was no active feeding going on and unlike this woman who got bit by a nurse shark, I kept my arms to myself and my eyes open!

  10. We watched our boat neighbors battle a shark big enough to keep us out of the water. There was a big boat  anchored next to us a few days, and we later learned they were filming a pilot for an Amazon TV show (gotta get that boat tax write-off somehow, right?). We watched as one guy caught something huge on his fishing rod – he fought it for half an hour while people on the boat hooted and hollered and filmed whatever he was valiantly trying to reel in. After he gave up and caught the line, we took the dinghy by and shouted, “What did you have on the line!?”  He yelled back, “A 10-foot tiger shark!” We didn’t take any sunset swims after that.
  11. No-see-ums are way worse than mosquitoes. All of a sudden, it got warm enough for the bugs to come out in full force. We discovered this when a walk through the woods turned into a race to the beach as we tried to outrun the mosquitoes. Little did we understand that the no-see-ums would be the true enemy. For a week I’d wake up in the middle of the night as the little itchy bumps would suddenly fire up again. The boats in the anchorage kept moving farther out to sea, as they tried to find a spot far enough from the island that the mosquitoes wouldn’t come for dinner.
  12. We got to do some sweet scuba diving! Island X’s reefs are beautiful and full of little caves.
    Paul and I went diving on a rare calm day and spotted a magnificently huge elkhorn coral. J and I went the next day – he took me through some little caves and swim-throughs, where we saw a giant urchin, a moral eel, a big lobster, good-sized trigger fish, and a shark egg.

    Shark egg?

  13. The slipper lobster reared its ugly head. Have you ever heard of a slipper lobster? Neither had we. But they’re so ugly that they’re cute. And they taste good too.
  14. Bohnanza turned out to the be the world’s best card game. I’m not even joking. You get to be vicious and sneaky, but only if you want. Throw in a waterfront cabin and mojitos made with limes and mint straight out of the garden, and you pretty much have the best night ever.
  15. We discovered foods we’d never heard of. We met some folks kind enough to share from their garden. When going to the grocery store presents you with soggy potatoes, soggy onions, and broccoli, being gifted fresh food is like being given $1000, and we are forever grateful.
    And to see the  amount of hard work and love that these people put into their garden was pretty amazing. In our tour of the place, we discovered fruits we never heard of, such as the sour orange, surinam cherry and the chocolate pudding fruit! J kept insisting that 1 of every 7 surinam cherries is sweet and delicious instead of bitter. I ate like 30 of them and haven’t found the sweet one yet!
  16. We went land crabbing! J rolled up to our boat one day and asked if we wanted to go crabbing. Imagining this to include a trap being dropped in the water, I asked, “What does it involve?” He answered, “A canvas bag, long pants, long sleeves, flash lights, and bug spray… oh, and lots of rum. We’ll pick you up after sunset.”  When I told Paul, he said, “Oooooh, we must be going land crabbing!” I had no idea this was even a thing.land crab Abacos Bahamas
    On our ride to the scene of this activity, S & J gave us instruction on how to step lightly on the crabs’ heads and grab them behind the claws. Next thing we knew, we downed some rum and took off running down the trails, flashlights in hand. Soon enough, we’re busting through brush and diving into holes grabbing crab after crab, throwing them into bags and buckets…. and re-capturing the ones that managed to escape! The rum is an essential part of this because you have to give the grabs some sort of advantage.After caging and feeding the crabs for a few days to “clean them out,” a feast was had. I think we cooked something like 10 crabs for 11 people – those suckers are huge!

    I make ridiculous faces when handling crabs.
  17. Bioluminescence lit up our world. Have you ever seen a fancy power boat with decorative blue lights under the stern? That’s what bioluminescence looks like. Microorganisms in the water produce light when disturbed. We’d just barely seen this before in Puerto Rico and Florida, but then it was like a little green glitter in the water. Here it was like having a blue flashlight under water. We drove the dinghy in circles to make it glow. I would entertain myself endlessly by leaning over the boat and bouncing fenders in the water, watching the it light up and giggling. We couldn’t get the camera settings right to capture it in a photo, but google it and you’ll get the idea. We thought it would be so cool to swim with our bodies glowing, but then we’d start thinking about that tiger shark….
  18. Paul learned the art of spearfishing…. and shark fighting. When the weather finally settled, Paul went spearfishing with J. J knows the reef like the back of his hand, will chase fish into deep holes, and can hold his breath for several minutes, so Paul went truly as the student.In the Bahamas, you aren’t allowed to spearfish with scuba equipment, so you must hold your breath as long as it takes you to find, spear, and retrieve the fish. Paul’s spear is a pole attached to a giant rubber band. You pull the pole back to use the power of the band to launch the spear, but the band stays around your wrist so you don’t lose it.
    Problem number one – sometimes the fish fight back! Paul shot a fish, but before he could grab the end of the spear, the fish started to swim away, loading up the tension on the rubber band. The fish broke free and – “pop!” – launched the dull end of the spear right back into Paul’s chest. He recoiled, resisting the urge to gasp while 20 feet underwater.  Luckily, his only real injury was a bruise that lasted a week.Problem number two – the sharks know where J hunts. As soon as they hopped out of the dinghy into the water, the reef sharks were there, waiting for the spearing to begin. Normal protocol would be that if one person spears something, the other person acts as shark lookout/defense as you work to get the fish back to the boat. When Paul got a fish, he looked for J to signal it was time to roll, but he noticed that J had just speared a fish too!
    With 2 flailing, bleeding fish, they surfaced, trying to hold the fish out of the water as they swam for the boat, which now somehow seemed to be 100 yards away. The sharks were in hot pursuit, and the guys were ready to give them a good whack if they got within arms distance (don’t worry, they’re tough and wouldn’t be harmed). Though the sharks get close, J said they’re typical behavior is to look at you like, “What? You’re not a fish!” and then to swim off to the spot where the fish was originally speared.Trying to imagine what this is like? Here’s a picture from someone with a very similar experience:

    Sorry Joe, I stole your photo cause it’s just too cool
  19. Paul never looks happier than when he’s been fishing. :::love:::


  20. Nature is so freaking awesome. And sometimes you just don’t have the camera ready. Paul tossed a scrap of fish off Miss Fe into the water. Instantly, a shark darted out from under our boat and grabbed the fish – then a barracuda larger than the shark came out and stole the fish from the shark!
  21. We enjoyed the view from Foxtown. This little town on Abaco wasn’t originally in our list of places to visit, but as we made our way back towards West End to depart for the US, it offered us protection from easterly winds. The view from here, with all the rocks, made us feel like we were suddenly in a different country. And from the tall town docks (where the water is quite shallow, so dinghies only), we could see the sharks waiting for the fisherman to drop their scraps.
    Sharks and more sharks

  22. Bahamians don’t approve of Paul’s beer choices. Food was surprisingly affordable in Foxtown at Da Valley Restaurant – and holy crap the fried food platter was the best we’d had. And beers were $4, except for one called Bushcrack, which was only $3. Curious, Paul ordered a Bushcrack and the patron at the bar says to the bartender, “Did you warn him?!” Paul didn’t understand what the fuss was about though – it tasted light but still had 5.7% ABV. Plus the name is just funny.

  23. No boat repairs! They say cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic places, but after leaving Florida, we were fortunate to have no real problems. Here we were, 2.5 months in the Bahamas, and the only thing we were doing was splicing a bad section of our jib sheet. It probably could have made the trip home, but we didn’t want to risk it since we wanted to head back to Florida with some actual wind so that it wouldn’t take 19 hours (unlike when we came to the Bahamas).While we were splicing , I pulled up the charts and realized we were still 2 days journey from West End, not one day. We’d gotten so spoiled in the populated part of the Abacos that we’d forgotten that not everything else was just a 10-20 mile hop.
  24. We practiced our “rough weather” sailing. OK, I suppose it wasn’t actually rough weather in the mind of most cruising sailors, but it’s not a day the recreational folks would normally pick for “fun.” We had around 15 knots of wind and 3-4 foot waves as we headed from Foxtown to Great Sale Cay. There is no cell reception in Great  Sale, so the other boats were all over the radio discussing weather and Gulf Stream crossing plans. Despite the rough seas there were several boats who had just come from the US. The next day, en route to West End, the wind and waves had calmed down on Little Bahama Bank, but the waves were annoyingly choppy – I was fine with this as I still wanted to get used to rougher waters before we crossed. Paul even sailed through narrow pass near West End, and we had a big dolphin swim through our bow wake to say “farewell.”
    Checking the weather

    Once we were within range of cell phone service once again, we checked the weather again. Chris Parker’s forecast showed more intense conditions than previously predicted for Sunday night into Monday (we planned to cross Monday morning) – he now recommended crossing only for “Salty Sailors” with 5-6 foot waves and winds 14-19 knots, gusting to 24. This was about 5 knots and 1-2 feet more than we were hoping for. We debated waiting. We debated changing our haul-out date in Florida (a schedule is the enemy of sailors). We decided to wait a few more days. Then we questioned our decision. We researched some more forecasts. We consulted with J; he said we’d be fine.As we headed to the West End anchorage, we were exposed to the waves rolling in and they were about 6 feet. Getting to experience those waves made me feel better – they seemed manageable. We decided to head out Monday morning.

  25. We managed to anchor at West End, but it was hard to sleep as we thought about coming back to the US.
    Crossing the gulf stream
    Way too amped up to sleep – bye bye Bahamas! We’ll be back soon!

    Though we heard other sailors say that West End is “the worst anchorage ever,” we’ve actually had good holding both times we anchored there.  We also tucked back in far enough that we weren’t exposed to those 6 foot waves. The problem is the current. After emailing a float plan to Paul’s dad, calling my parents, and prepping the sails for easy deployment in high winds, we attempted to sleep but the current moved our boat in a crazy pattern all around our anchor and kept shaking the snubber lose. The chain would then start rattling, waking us from whatever almost-sleep we were getting. Add in the anxiety of a big crossing, and we most certainly weren’t asleep until after midnight.

In conclusion, these last few weeks were amazing!! Here a bunch more photos, and stay tuned to hear about our adventure crossing back through the Gulf Stream to Florida!

Little fish swimming through a wrecked barge

Angel fish
Nassau grouper
Huge puffer fish
Our first sighting of the invasive lion fish
Paul trying to kill the invasive lion fish

 

Upper left corner… this fish kept attacking the camera, haha
Heading to Cracker Ps

Our Guide to Great Abaco

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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).

Whale Cay from the Atlantic side on a calm day.

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.

Paul and the Tarpon, having a stare-off

 

The idyllic beach at Treasure Cay

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!

Lindsey driving on the wrong side.

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 Marsh harbour
Mermaid Reef

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.

Mermaid reef Marsh Harbour
2 Sergeant Majors at Mermaid Reef

Little Harbour

Bronze Artwork at Pete’s Gallery.

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.

Pete's Gallery little harbor Abaco
Turtle Sculpture

Cherokee Sound

Lindsey and Dave on the longest wood dock in the Bahamas!

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.

Baby conch!
Lone fisherman in the knee deep water

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.

Dave and Paul at Schooner Bay

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.

Cruise ship at Disney’s Castaway Cay (Gorda Cay)

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.