Treasure Cay and Marsh Harbor

Given our experience at Green Turtle – which, I know, appears to have given truth to the shibboleth that cruising is nothing more than “repairing your boat in exotic places” – I suspect many of you are thinking that the cold weather where you are is better than dealing with Drunken George. Well, this entry just might change your mind as we spent the better part of three days at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – the beach at Treasure Cay – then moved to Marsh Harbor.

We left Green Turtle on Tuesday morning and headed for Treasure Cay.   As the crow flies it is less than five miles to Treasure from Green Turtle. Unfortunately, Traveling Soul and other boats are not crows and we do not fly. The water between the two islands is very shallow, so unless you have a shallow draft boat you need to go out into the Atlantic and cross behind an island named Whale Cay. If you take the Whale Cay route, after passing the island, it is pretty much a straight shot to Treasure. The one glitch is that Whale Passage, or The Whale as it is called, can be very, very rough. In fact, about 50% of the time it is impassable to pleasure boats. (I am guessing as to the percentage, but suffice to say, it is a significant portion of the time.) Most people heading south wait at Green Turtle until The Whale looks reasonable, then cross. We had already spent plenty of time at Green Turtle, waiting for George, and were ready to go on Tuesday morning and it looked like the weather was in our favor.

Two other boats were also ready: Elegante (who left George and his drunkenness behind for a real mechanic somewhere) and The Lower Place, boaters we had met at West End. We left as a flotilla in column with Traveling Soul in the lead – because we had done the Whale in previous years – and the other two behind us had not. The passage was actually very good. There might have been a few 3-4 foot rollers, but basically we were all in good shape when we finished.  

We arrived at Treasure and took a mooring ball. The anchorage and mooring area in Treasure Cay are one in the same. It is a man-made, or more correctly, a man-improved lagoon that measures about ¼ mile on each side.  Until two years ago, the area was strictly an anchorage. Recently, however, they put mooring balls in the lagoon and increased the cost of staying here from $10 per night to $30. There is a small anchoring area, but even it costs $20.  A few years ago we were in some pretty significant weather here at Treasure, so we know that even though it is man-improved, the wind can blow pretty hard. We looked at the mooring balls pretty closely and determined that we would stay here as long as the wind didn’t pick up.

On the first day we simply checked out the local grocery store (surprisingly well-stocked), the bakery and some of the other little shops. The second day, we got the kayak down and I went kayaking for the first time in quite a while. In addition to the lagoon, Treasure Cay has a number of canals on whose shores they build houses, condos and time shares so most visitors can have waterfront accommodations. I meandered down one of these canals all the way to the end. I can tell you there are a lot of houses, some very big and expensive and others of a more reasonable size.

The canal on one of my kayak adventures.

After my kayaking adventure, Ann and I had lunch at Coco’s where I had my first meal of cracked conch since we have been in the Bahamas. It was not as good as the conch at Foxtown (where we did not get to go because of our battery issue), but it was definitely good enough. So, cracked conch with rice and beans topped off with a little coleslaw and a Kalik (the local beer). Ah!!! Vunderbar!!! After lunch we took over one of the little tiki huts and spent the afternoon alternatively sunning and shading ourselves. Ann spent most of the time reading, while I took a long walk on the beach. The weather was a little cool, but I have to tell you it was heavenly.

The following day was a little too chilly to go swimming so we limited ourselves to exploring the area in a dinghy. We not only took one of the canals to its end, we discovered another canal that we will have to check out next time.

On Friday we picked up some fuel – actually “picked up” is not quite correct, we paid an arm and a leg for fuel – and set off for Marsh Harbor.

One view of Treasure Cay

We have been to Marsh a number of times and have spent quite a bit of time there. This year we came for several reasons: (1) Change the oil. We try to change oil every 150 or so hours and that means we generally have to change it once in the Bahamas. Since Marsh has the ability to dispose of used oil, we generally change there. (2) We need to clean the boat; she is salty and dirty. (3) Re-provisioning. Maxwell’s is probably the best grocery store in the out-islands (all islands other than New Providence – which is the island on which Nassau is located). (4) Hey … we will be here on Superbowl Sunday what do you think we are going to be doing?

After arriving at Marsh (and taking a nap, of course) we strolled around a little to see what was new and what was old. We learned, for example, that one of the little gift shops we used to frequent is now a “Gentleman’s Club.” Most other things, though, are about the way we remember them.



Desmond, from the Jib Room doing his version of
"Rake and Scrape." What we used to call the limbo!

On Saturday we were determined to clean the boat (see #2 above), but after a young man visited us and made an offer, we decided to sit inside and watch HIM clean the boat. Ok, most of you know that I am not the greatest mechanic on earth. If we have a problem with the engines or with the starter (ahem!) we have to hire someone to fix it. Cleaning, though, cleaning we can do ourselves – and we are pretty darn good at it – so we usually save our money for serious problems and do the cleaning ourselves. However, this time it was hot outside and we had just had a very tiring couple of days on the beach in Treasure Cay – oh yea, and we have learned that the further you get on the northern side of sixty the difficulty of cleaning the boat increases exponentially. We paid the tariff, therefore, and a couple of young men spent a couple of hours cleaning the boat. And Man did they do a good job! Earlier in the day we had re-connected with Kevin and Margaret aboard Osprey. They asked if we wanted to attend Steak Night The Jib Room. The answer of course was yes and we had a great time eating an excellent New York Cut and catching up with them.

On Sunday, we had two tasks. First we changed the oil (see #1) and second we watched the Superbowl (see #4). Changing oil on any boat is a dirty and time-consuming job; on our boat it is even more so. We do not have the proper equipment so we have to draw the old oil through the dipstick opening and into a long cylindrical container that we bought years ago from West Marine. It kind of works on the principle of siphoning gas; you create a vacuum in the cylinder, run a hose from the container to the oil opening and the vacuum forces the oil from the engine into the cylinder. Each of our engines carries five gallons of oil, so drawing all of it out through a very tiny hole can take most of the day. In addition to sucking out the oil, of course, we had to change the oil filters. If we did not have oil under our fingernails before changing the filters, we most certainly did afterwards. Ann generally stays a bit cleaner than I do, partially because she wears gloves. And me? I don’t need no stinkin’ gloves! I revel in having oil soaked hands – not. Anyway, this is definitely a two-person job and her help is always invaluable.

After we had changed the oil and taken a shower we headed to the World Famous Snappas Bar and Grill to watch the Superbowl. Now Snappas is world famous primarily because they say they are world famous – and they say it with conviction. Neither of us had a stake in this particular Superbowl; we just wanted to see a good game – and have some nachos and pizza. We left after the third quarter fairly satisfied that the Falcons had it in the bag. As I was sitting in the boat, however, I was hearing too much cheering from the sports bar down the way, so I returned to Snappas. Those of you who care, know the rest of the story. The Patriots won in the first overtime in Superbowl history. I guess we got the kind of game we wanted to see. Oh yea, the nachos and pizza were pretty good, too!

Monday was our re-provisioning day (see #3 above). Ann was especially looking forward to Maxwell’s. She has this thing about supermarkets and grocery stores. While she enjoys buying stuff (and later cooking it), she also likes just walking the isles – kind of like I am in fishing stores. In addition, Ann took a dip in the marina’s swimming pool. One of her New Years’ Resolutions was to swim in every pool we find; so far so good. She swam at West End and at Green Turtle. I gave her special dispensation at Treasure Cay because it was so cold on the day we had designated as our “pool” day.

Tomorrow we are anchoring off of Great Guana so we can visit Grabbers and yet another establishment that is world famous by self-proclamation, Nippers. After that we head to Hopetown and then maybe a night or two on the hook off of Tahiti Beach.

Ann’s NOTES: I always love going to Treasure Cay, the beach is just so beautiful. It was named on the travel channel as one of the top ten beaches in the world. Even a picture cannot capture the true white color of the sand, and the many different colors of blue in the water. I think what is unusual is the sand is cool under your feet. In many other beaches I have been the sand is hot and you need to run to the water to cool them off.

Spot -- who usually hides when the camera
comes out, let Ann take this picture of her
on the bow at Treasure Cay

We are staying at a different marina in Marsh Harbor. We usually stay at the Jib Room but when I called and talked to Jason (he is the dock master) he said they were full. So we went across the harbor and we are staying at Harbor View Marina. I must say that I do like it on this side also. The marina staff is helpful and friendly, the bathrooms are clean and well maintained and the laundry facility has nice big washers and dryers. So when I do the laundry I can hang out at the pool. It is a very difficult life that I lead, please do feel sorry for me …NOT.

I have also made a major change in our little feline’s life. Until a few weeks ago whenever Spot was outside, she was on a leash and in her harness. Well we do spend a lot of time at anchor and I thought she needed to have a little more freedom and alone time. (All girls need alone time…right?)  Anyway, I have been letting her out on deck by herself to explore, in the mean time I have been learning to control my anxiety and heart palpations. Spot is now two years old, knows the boat and what the limits are outside. When we are docked she with one of us outside, she has never jumped ship but those docks look like it might be fun to explore.

The weather has been just wonderful, we are getting to be experts at planning where we want to be, according to the forecast.

I want to thank you for reading and following our adventure.

Traveling Soul…OUT