The Sea of Abaco is a Bunny Hill for Cruisers
Cruisers
I thought I’d start by explaining what a “cruiser” is, since I use the word several times in this blog. A cruiser in this context is someone who owns a boat and lives on it for a significant portion of the year. Several months at a time or maybe even full time.
They are distinct from “liveaboards” in that they move from port to port or anchorage to anchorage relatively frequently, staying a few days or a few weeks in each spot. Cruisers can also be sailors, but they don’t have to be. Lots of cruisers have motor vessels – cabin cruisers or trawlers. Not all sailors are cruisers – you can be an accomplished sailor but live on land, or not even own your own boat.
Typical cruiser activities are: fixing your boat, waiting for parts for your boat, cleaning your boat, hanging out at beach bars, making friends with other cruisers in beach bars, taking dinghy rides to get groceries or do laundry, going for hikes on islands, walking on beaches, swimming, snorkeling, and fishing. YouTube cruisers claim to spearfish, scuba dive, kite board, etc etc, but I yet to meet anyone who do these activities in real life.
Terri and I are cruisers now, I guess? Wild.
Hurricane Dorian
It is useful to know a little about Hurricane Dorian while reading this blog. The Abacos are still recovering from Hurricane Dorian and there is demolition and reconstruction going on everywhere. Dorian was a Cat 5 hurricane that hit the Abacos head on in 2019, with sustained winds of 185 mph and a storm surge of 20 ft. 84 people were confirmed dead, with an additional 245 missing and over $US 5 billion in damage done.
At one point I was drinking in a beach bar with a fellow we’d just met, Clem, who has been spending time in the Bahamas for 20 plus years. The hotel we were at looked to be in pretty good shape. I asked Clem “So this hotel seems to be in pretty good shape. Did it survive the storm?”. Clem looked at me intensely and searched my eyes for a second. Perhaps deciding if this was a serious question. Then he said solemnly, “No, man. Nothing survived. Everything you see that is standing, has been built since.”. That really struck me.
The Sea of Abaco
The Sea of Abaco is a natural wonder. It is a lagoon, very approximately 65 miles long, and varies between 5 and 8 miles across. The long axis runs northwest to southeast. It is bounded by Greater Abaco Island on the southwest side, and a chain of barrier islands (cays) on the northeast.
The water is aquamarine green and very clear. What’s cool about it, is it is 15’ deep across the entirety of the sea. You can be 4 miles offshore at its widest point, and still be in 15’ of water.
If you’ve ever skied or snowboarded, you know that every ski hill has a so-called “bunny hill”, which is a very gently sloped and flat section, typically accessed by a “magic carpet” or slower chairlift, right at the base of the mountain. That’s where the newest beginners go for their first few days of learning to ski or snowboard.
Terri and I joke that the Sea of Abaco is a bunny hill for cruisers.
It is pretty shallow. It is protected from the worst of the wind and waves from the open Atlantic Ocean. (Although it can still get windy and wavy). There are many anchorages, mooring fields, and marinas around so you can always find somewhere to stay. There are various, cute little towns, beach bars, beaches, reefs, etc – plenty of things to do and see to keep you busy for months.
Civilization (relatively speaking), in the form of the town of Marsh Harbour, is usually no more than a few hours motor away.
Marsh Harbour
At the far southeastern end of the Sea of Abaco, lies the town of Marsh Harbour. Not gonna lie, it is not pretty. It’s very industrial, with construction yards, marine parts stores, a working commercial dock, a small ferry terminal, and several marinas lining the shore. There are a lot of chain link fences guarding nothing.
But it does have an amazing harbor, The harbor is protected from wind and waves from 3 directions (everywhere but westerly), and really from 4 directions if you are tucked in toward the eastern end of the harbor. It’s a great place to hole up when those Atlantic gales blow through.
And finally, there is Maxwells. Maxwells is a grocery story that’s about a 10 minute walk from the dinghy dock. We’d read / been told that groceries were difficult to find and crazy expensive in the Bahamas, so we stocked up with a good couple months provisions while still in the US. Come to find out, this is not exactly true. Maxwells is a US / Canadian sized supermarket with prices competitive to our local grocery store in Colorado. Eggs are $4 / dozen.
Terri and I joke, this is a blue collar harbor. There are no superyachts docked or anchored in Marsh Harbour. The most expensive boat I can see from my boat is this rather modest Xquisite X5, which, depending on year, is probably worth a paltry $1.2M. (Tongue firmly in cheek here).
Hope Town
Hope Town is Marsh Harbour’s charming younger sibling. There is a little harbor there. There is one of the last operational kerosene burning lighthouses there, which first started operations in 1863. The town itself is full of brightly painted cottages, beautifully maintained flower gardens, and shell aggregate concrete streets. There are a few cars, but mostly people get around by golf cart.
We’ve been to Hope Town twice now. The second time, we anchored in the shadow of the lighthouse for a couple of days. We climbed the lighthouse, snorkeled the reef on the Atlantic side of the island, hung out at locally famous Captain Jack’s bar and grill. At the suggestion of one of our guests, we even did a dinghy tour of the harbor and checked out the various boats in there. That was really entertaining.
And we also did a walking tour of the town, and found this cute little cottage for sale:
Sotheby’s – The Lookout – Elboy Cay, The Bahamas
The Ruined Marina
Treasure Cay was really interesting. To be completely honest, I had not read much about it. Terri does all the route planning and navigating, really. So when we approached the anchorage at Treasure Cay I was initially quite put off. The canal to the anchorage area is lined with concrete and rusty corrugated metal. There was construction going on all along the bank of the canal, with all of the usual construction noises. And the first anchorage we arrived at was quite crowded.
We decided to pass on that anchorage and followed the canal a little farther to see what else was up there. We turned a corner and found ourselves in a little cove that was nearly perfectly square on three sides, each side being about 100 yards long, and it was uniformly 10 feet deep. There were no other cruising boats there. So we dropped anchor right in the middle of the square and had the whole place to ourselves.
After some googling, we found out this was the ruin of a marina, destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. It was kind of eerie. Some rudimentary wooden docks had been rebuilt on one side of the square, and there were a handful of fishing / day trip type smaller charter boats operating off those docks. There were some ruined docks on another side of the square. There was a cracked and empty swimming pool, and a destroyed dock office that no one had demolished / cleaned up.
So why stay in this ugly and eerie place? Well it was extremely well protected from wind and waves (although not 185 mph winds, evidently) and we needed to hide from a gale that was coming in. And … THE BEACH.
Treasure Cay Beach
And then we found, THE BEACH. We could dinghy the 50 yards to one of the docks, tie up, and walk a couple hundred yards across the road there, and ended up on Treasure Cay Beach.
Treasure Cay Beach is, without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful beaches I have been on in my lifetime. It is a shallow crescent, 3.5 miles long, facing the Sea of Abaco. The sand is white and soft on the feet, and extends far out into the water. Very few weeds or rocks, and no bugs. The water is crystal clear up close, and vibrant aquamarine starting yards away. The water is also shallow, so you can be 100 yards into the water and it’s still only knee or waist deep.
And best of all, there is just about nobody there. There was a single resort with a beach bar on the stretch of beach we frequented. There are no vendors selling bracelets, hats, or slightly off day old shrimp. There is no two drink minimum to be on that stretch of beach.
Terri and I had one amazing afternoon just before the gale, where the water was calm, there was enough breeze to keep you cool, and there were just a few puffy clouds in the sky. We could see maybe 10 people on the beach and nobody was closer than a couple hundred yards.
That was a magical day.
Epilogue
As usual, I have a lot more to tell, but that is enough for one blog.
At one point during our Heart of Darkness journey down the east coast, we had been stuck in freezing muddy rivers for the last several weeks, our anchor wasn’t working, our generator wasn’t working, our batteries didn’t hold any charge, and I was elbows deep in shit changing the joker valve on the toilet. Terri and I looked at each other and we BOTH said “This better be fucking worth it!”.
It was.
