We spent two nights decompressing at the Conch Inn adjacent to the Marina where The Moorings and SunSail are based before heading out on our sail. Marsh Harbor is your standard mishmash of messy Caribbean vitality. The restaurant, Curly Tails, is right here and it had a lively bar scene and excellent food. Snappas is down the street for live music and Mangoes,next door, where we ate a great lunch.

Marsh Harbor International Airport

There were a few other places near bye as well as a couple shops. Groceries were another matter. The store was a cab ride away and the selection of food was very minimal due to island holidays. We slept aboard on our third night in preparation for an early start the next day.

Day 1 – Marsh Harbor to Fowl Cay to Fishers Bay on Great Guana – light breeze

We sailed out of Marsh Harbor and across one of the wider points of the Sea of Abaco to Fowl Cay just above Manjack Cay. It is a marine preserve, so after lunch on board we got the dingy’s out to make our way to the ocean side of the cay and the reefs.

The second I went underwater I knew we were in for a magical week. The fish and coral were stunning.

But our first foray got cut short by a squall which were very prevalent the first days of the trip. We headed on up to Fishers Bay on Great Guana where we anchored just off of Delia’s Cay. Once ashore we made our

way to infamous Nippers where we were too late for the Pig Roast. So we went back down the hill to Grabbers where we had a nice meal and kicked back until a huge squall drove us back to the boats for some hair raising time, as both boats dragged across the bay in the 35 knot storm. We learned that getting your anchor to hold in these waters takes talent and patience!

Day 2 – to Spoil Bank Cay then to Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay

We had a leisurely morning departure and made our way to Spoil Bank Cay for shell collecting. More than a few treasures were found.

From there we went through a very calm Whale Passage up to Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay. But we had to wait outside first for the tide to change as it is very shallow at the entrance. There was a good grocery store in the town of Settlement, so we bided our time by shuttling food and ice between town and the anchorage. At 5pm the tide was flooding in and so did we. Black Sound is a long, narrow bay. It almost felt like we were on a river! But we found mooring balls and I got a great nights sleep after a feast of stone crabs on board.

Day 3 – Green Turtle Cay to Powell Cay – no wind

We got an early start and decided to move along North about 20 miles. We motored as there was no wind.

We made it all the way to Powell Cay where we found a deserted anchorage with a beautiful beach for exploring which we did for several hours. If we had had a few more days I would have liked to get even further North as this part of the Abacos is virtually uninhabited. The water temp here was perfect this time of year. It was just cool enough to refresh but not so cool that you couldnt stay in for hours on end, which we did.

Day 4 – Powell to Cooperstown to Treasure Cay 

The refrigeration on our boat was inoperable so ice was a necessity. We pulled anchor at Powell and sailed across the channel to Cooperstown; a dusty hamlet far from the maddening crowd. After a very pleasant conversation with the 3rd generation dockmaster we were on our way back South. The people of the Bahamas are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They are happy to meet you and seem to be as inquisitive about us as we them!

Heading South, we stopped at No Name Cay for more snorkeling. Light winds gave us the opportunity to have a lazy sail through the Whale Passage which zigs out to the Atlantic before zaggin back into the archipelago. It can be very hazardous but our two crossings were flat water and beautiful. We decided about half way through our 20 mile day to make Treasure Cay the destination. It is a sport fishing resort. More importantly for us, it had big bags of ice and the most complete grocery store we found on the islands. The theme of the night at the resort was “pizza night”, so we joined in and chowed down on decent pizza which was followed by what I can only call a hillbilly hoedown as the sport fishers got fairly serious about their Karaoke and line dancing…to ease the pain the Lakers were busy beating Orlando which left most watchers subdued and the Cali crew carefully happy.

Day 5 – Treasure Cay to Marsh Harbor to Matt Lowe’s Cay

With our refrigerator kaput and the other Cat having an engine overheating “issue” we made our way from Treasure Cay back to The Moorings Base for repairs and the free water and fuel the base provided. Then it

was a short hop to Matt Lowe’s Cay where we had a fabulous grouper dinner prepared by Chef Jim and a very tranquil evening in a most idyllic setting.

We attributed the lack of any other anchored boats wherever we went to the tough anchoring conditions which by now we had mastered. It pays to have a couple “young bucks” with you willing to dive the anchor, set them by hand and monitor the backing down procedure which had to be accomplished gently. But we never spent an evening in a marina the whole trip and only had moorings in three locations.

Day 6 – Sandy Cay to Lubbers Quarters – Good Sailing – Cracker P’s

Up early with a nice 15 knot breeze. As luck would have it the wind actually blew in the exact direction we needed to go to thread our way through the shallows of Lubbers and Tiloo Banks. Our mid-day destination

was Sandy Cay, another marine reserve. Here we found an astonishing coral reef for snorkeling. After the snorkel and lunch we made our way back up to Lubbers Quarters Cay and anchored just off of Tahiti Beach. Having been in Tahiti last year, we agreed that it did have the look of a French Polynesian anchorage minus the towering mountains.

We took an exciting dingy ride to Cracker P’s and had a wonderful group dinner overlooking the anchorage and Lubbers Channel.

Day 7 – Lubbers to Sandy Cay to Little Harbor 

It was up early so we could return to Sandy Cay for more snorkeling in the morning calms. This reef extends for about a half mile and is about 100 yards wide. The sea life is remarkable and the coral is very healthy with an immense area of staghorn coral and “fields” of fan coral. I’ve never seen such an array of soft and hard corals like this area has. After lunch we sailed and motored all the way down to Little Harbor with its exceptionally shallow keyhole entrance which we hit at high tide.

A party of us dingyed around the outside of the harbor to another reef for more snorkeling in a smaller reef than Sandy Cay but no less remarkable. This was my favorite snorkel spot as it was completely calm and the fish were so tame we werent sure who was falling who!

Little Harbor

We had an unimpressive but fun grouper dinner at the famous Pete’s Pub and slept very soundly on a mooring ball. beware though, Little Harbor was more than very buggy…

Day 8 – Little Harbor to Hopetown

After an early morning snorkel at our private reef, we got a fairly early start and found 10 knots of wind outside of Little Harbor so we decided to go out into the Atlantic and sail outside to Hopetown instead of

winding our way through the shallow banks. As the morning progressed a huge squall presented itself which drove us back inside at Tiloo Cut. I was very happy we made it back inside before it hit as  the visibility went to zero and the wind howled over 25 knots for a half an hour. The rain was torrential and I chose to find us safe water in which we circled about 2 miles from the Hopetown Harbor entrance until it ended.

Once inside the harbor we picked up moorings and rambled around town picking up trinkets. We settled into the SipSip; a tiny watering hole with wines and Cold Kalik Beer on tap.

Then it was back to the boats for a impromptu champagne party on the shady side of the boat for a couple having their third anniversary. We recalled their wedding in the Virgin Islands three years prior that seemed so long ago.

Then it was back into town and to the recommended Harbour’s Edge Restaurant for another great group dinner which did not disappoint at all. The boys pulled an all-nighter with the locals (girls,girls,girls)

Day 9 – Hopetown to  Marsh Harbor

The last day arrived way to soon and we made our way the short distance from Hopetown back to the base at Marsh Harbor. We quickly checked out and got to the airport

with time to have cracked conch one more time at a nearby eatery before catching the puddle jumper back to Miami where we spent a very lively evening on South Beach before heading cross country the next day. This annual flotilla has migrated from 7 nights the first year to 10 nights the past two years to the point that now we are demanding a full 14 nights for future Captain’s Cruise itineraries. We are ticking off our bucket list of sailing destinations one by one. its back to the Med next year!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS