Rock Out With Your Conch Out

Treasure Cay – A quarter mile, swinging around on anchor all day

The locals have been telling us that March is a terrible month for weather in Abaco. Funny, none of the guides we purchased or websites we researched in advance of the trip mentioned anything about that. We have spent half of our time in the Abacos dodging weather and it’s become quite annoying. We have really loved the towns here, and both Hope Town in Elbow Cay and Man-O-War Cay are the nicest we’ve seen, but generally Abaco has not been our favourite island chain. We were really hoping to get to explore the islands of Green Turtle Cay and Manjack Cay just north-west of here, but we’ve been unable to get decent enough weather to pass through the dangerous Whale Cay Passage. It looks like there may be a window Saturday morning to get through, and once we do we plan to continue the long run west across the Little Bahamas Bank, hang a right at the Gulf Stream, and sail northwards to Fernandina Beach in northern Florida. We estimate it will be about a 50-hour trip if all goes according to plan, and right now the weather looks promising. If things change, then we will sail to the town of West End on Grand Bahama and wait there for a weather window to shoot back to southern Florida then start working our way northwards. In either case, our adventures in the Bahamas are coming to an end…for now.

The wind blew like stink all day so we kept busy on the boat preparing for the long trip back to the US. I did some work on the engine - tightening, cleaning, adjusting, testing. Ana cleaned the boat and had a long chat with her parents. We spoke to both the kids. Then, at around 4:30, the wind finally dropped and I took the opportunity to smoke a big fat cigar while relaxing at the bow of the boat. I’d been carrying that thing around for days, waiting for an opportune time, but none had arrived until now. The outside temperature was 22 degrees, and I was comfortable in shorts and a tshirt as the sun was shining and the wind was warm. I didn’t think about much as I watched my feet rising and dropping with the boat, the outline of SV Waddington anchored off our bow, dipping down between my toes where I tried to grasp it, then squirming out with the next wave. The luxury of being on a sailboat in the Bahamas continued to dazzle and impress me, even after being here for nearly three months. I looked around at the ten other vessels in this anchorage and wondered if they felt the same way.

Our trusty companions from SV Waddington rowed over for sundowners, bringing a bag of Harvest Cheddar Sunchips to add to the bountiful snack plate Ana had assembled with veggies, cheese, salami, and crackers. Dinner is served!

We sat, we talked, we laughed. As the sun dropped into the horizon Ben and I whipped out our sizeable conchs and did a duet at the bow of SeaLight. However, the instruments were not exactly in tune and my ear picked up some distasteful reverberations, so I will have to seek out a professional conch tuner at the earliest opportunity. Still, the conch calls were loud and proud and all other sailors in the anchorage appeared on the bows of their boats wearing their best whites and sailor hats as the saluted the sun and enjoyed our sweet melodies. Ben then took it too far when he started playing Jingle Bells on the conch, which drove everybody back inside their boats with horrific images of snow and snow shovels.

I had gathered up all the Bahamian coins we had on board to give to Ben and Kate but had put aside four shiny ten-cent pieces for us to make wishes. Shortly before hugging each other and having yet another in a long series of hasta luegos, we each made a wish and tossed a coin into the water.

Ben wished that we would meet again, in the North Channel of Lake Huron, for a fresh water summer sailing adventure.

Kate wished for safe travels for us, and the many others we’d all met and traveled with during our time in the Bahamas.

I wished for continued good health for all of us, because without that, not much else matters.

Ana wished that the bonds we’d built with each other and the many other incredible people we had met throughout our travels and adventures in the Bahamas would never be broken.

By the time we went to bed the wind had completely dropped and the boat sat still in the water. We would need a good sleep before the long journey ahead.

No Treasure in Treasure Cay

Great Guana Cay to Treasure Cay – 9 nautical miles sailed, 2 miles in dinghy, 1 kilometre walked

I visited Treasure Cay once, over 25 years ago. I came for a weekend trip with my brother Curtis, two Aussie buddies Johnny and Todd, and Steve from Scotland who I worked with in Nassau, all of whom remain good friends to this day. We had an amazing time as we performed death-defying stunts, drank one bar completely out of Kalik Gold, had our rental boat catch fire, and trampled all over Treasure Cay, which was a tropical paradise with restaurants, bars, boat rentals, stacks of condos and apartments, luxury homes, and loads of crazy tourists. We had a lot of fun here.

Today I returned, and the community is still reeling from Hurricane Dorian. The first thing Ana and I saw was the remains of a waterfront bar and restaurant, which the boys and I visited during our trip and dropped some serious coin at on Kaliks and conch fritters, but it was now an ugly scar on the land and a miserable reminder of what Hurricane Dorian did here in 2019. The densely packed housing corridors and commercial centres were now sparse, with small clusters of new housing slowly growing back, but the entire area was unrecognizable to me.

Waddington had rolled in early afternoon so Ben and Kate joined us for a walk around town. Besides the rotting and rusting destruction and empty lots, we did find one newly built strip plaza with a liquor store, real estate agency, small café, ladies clothing store, and a convenience store. We also found a spectacular beach with a surprising number of people on it, some walking up and down the two mile stretch while others just sat in the sand. We stood for a very long time, feet in the water, just looking out on the ocean, talking.

I felt more than a little bummed out visiting Treasure Cay so wasn’t in the greatest of mood, but my temperament improved markedly when Kate and Ben joined us for dinner and extended sundowner drinks in the comfort of SeaLight’s cockpit. Ana made a spectacular veggie pasta and rack of garlic breads that we demolished, leaving about 12 noodles of pasta and 7 grams of sauce for a midnight snack later. We had a great time with our friends and are going to be very sad to be leaving them as they have another month to go in Bahamas while we plan to start a long sail back to northern Florida on Saturday morning, weather pending (as usual). We may see them along the way north, but we may not. In either case, I know we’ll be hanging out with Ben and Kate somewhere in Canada before long. We haven’t seen Kevin and Ana for a few days as Kevin is holed up at Man-O-War Cay and Ana took a short trip to Florida to visit family, but are going to miss them too and suspect our paths will cross soon, in the US, Canada, or elsewhere.

For now, we have zipped SeaLight up tight in advance of the strong west and north-west winds due to arrive in the middle of the night and persist into tomorrow. We are hoping to get out on the dinghy to do some exploring, but that will depend entirely on the sea state as it could be too choppy. We’ll see.