Stats for Sunday, April 14, 2019

Origin: Marsh Harbour

Destination: Green Turtle Cay

Distance: 25.7 miles

Speed: 8 mph

Time on the Move: 3 hours and 12 minutes

We were S-L-O-W to leave Marsh Harbour because it was windy and we weren’t quite sure where we were going. There is a famous (infamous?!) pig roast at a beach bar around here on Sundays and I’d hoped to go, but the wind was pretty stiff out of the south and that wasn’t going to work with the anchorage options there. So we sat and debated what to do for a while until finally, around 1:00 pm, we decided to head out. To where, we weren’t sure, but we knew we’d figure it out…eventually.

We headed west with our sights set on Treasure Cay. We hear it is beautiful there, but you pretty much have to go to the marina or hope a mooring ball is free. If not, there are not many options for anchoring. We dragged our feet long enough, that an open mooring was not likely, but again, we’d figure it out.

On our way to Treasure Cay, Mike threw out the possibility of heading through Don’t Rock passage to avoid a very tricky cut in the area. It meant passing Treasure Cay, but the weather was favorable, and later in the week it might not be. So, after debating it for a while, we went for it.

The water through this passage is very shallow, so you should only pass through on a high tide with settled water. The fear in cruisers’ voices as they discuss the larger passage and this short cut are interesting. People make it sound like it’s Armageddon if you choose the wrong day to travel this area. I sure hoped Mike knew what he was talking about when he decided to send us through here on a whim.

It was a “sit down and don’t talk” moment for the kids, and Mike and I held our breath a few times as we crossed over the very shallow areas. Charted depths through here are about 3 feet at low tide and you have to go surprisingly close to that big rock. Our boat sits in the water 3 feet 6 inches, so we needed at least 6 extra inches, but plenty more would be appreciated. The tides (if we were reading them right) told us we had an extra 2-3 feet of water at this point during the day, so we should be fine. There was a swell of 1-2 feet coming from behind us, which meant in the trough of a larger wave, we would be close to the bottom, but the captain was confidant. Sure enough, we didn’t see less than a foot and a half of water below our props, even in the skinny spots. We let out our breath and took a sigh of relief just in time to realize that we were heading in to some squalls that had developed. It’s always something!! And now, where in the world were we going?!

We decided we were going to Green Turtle Cay to attempt to drop anchor in the one little spot of sand that reviews said had good holding. Of course we had done no research on this place because we originally thought we would be miles back, in another location, and certainly not trying to choose an anchorage in a thunderstorm. But some days are like that. Lucky for us, the one spot of sand holding was available and we got a good set on the anchor.

We went to explore the shallow lagoon next to the anchorage by dinghy and we were surprised to see a ton of sunken/washed up boats. The reviews said it could be a hurricane hole for shallow draft boats, but we counted at least a dozen boats washed up that we could see and we accidentally crossed over a few more completely sunken underwater. Afterwards we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

I have to admit, that night I was a bit crabby with the fact that we were already at Green Turtle Cay. It was always our plan that we would zip through the Abacos quickly, but I felt like a series of unfortunate events led us to skip past several areas that we hoped to see. Between the generator quitting and a sparking stove, some strong south winds, and a calm opportunity to head through Don’t Rock Passage, we just ended up missing a lot of what we wanted to see. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, but it is unfortunate that we didn’t get a chance to stop at Tahiti Beach, Hope Town, Great Guana, Treasure Cay, and several others before getting so far west. Can’t be crabby for long, though, this is the Bahamas, mon.

The next morning was windy as can be and more wind and storms were expected throughout the day. I didn’t imagine we would be heading very far from the boat in that wind. But luckily we had friends nearby!! We headed into the marina to meet up with Deena and Jerry on Mahi Mahi, other loopers we met in Florida that are actually from just a few miles down the road from us at home in Michigan. The cruising community really is a small world!

Deena and Jerry showed us around their boat and around the marina, but they were getting ready to head out. I thought they were crazy to go out in that wind, but they weren’t scared. We saw them off with hopes of crossing paths again soon. Then we did some more exploring around the marina.

Later that afternoon a wicked squall came through the anchorage and a total wind shift sent us spinning around our anchor. We sat up on the flybridge watching the boats around us and making sure we weren’t dragging on our anchor. Lots of captains of neighboring boats were up in their flybridges as well, all on the ready in case boats started moving. One sailboat in the anchorage did swing uncomfortably close to another boat, so they picked up anchor and motored around the anchorage until the storm ended. Then they dropped anchor right in front of us. Luckily the storm was over, but you don’t really want the guy who just dragged anchor to set up right in front of you.

Thanks so much for reading and following along on our adventures!!