YACHT "WANDERING STAR": Treasure Cay & THE PLAN

Treasure Cay - myself with Holli,Shirley and Marita

Treasure Cay is one of those places I have wanted to visit for some time. It is supposed to have one of the best beaches in the Bahamas. In my book if that’s not a good enough reason to visit, I don't know what is.

The boys - John, John, Allen and Sim

The anchorage though not much to look at is surrounded by holiday apartments, it is well protected, private and belongs to Treasure Cay Marina. So if you want to visit here you have to pay - $20/night for a mooring or $10 to anchor but that allows you access to all their facilities....pool, showers and WiFi etc. Sim and I were ready for a bit of relative luxury for a few days and for the of change of scene. There is a laundry, a well stocked, but incredibly pricey supermarket, a bakery with amazing cinnamon rolls and a liquor store (you ask for an off license here and no one knows what you are talking about). We filled up with water and fuel for our upcoming trip to the US - Treasure Cay is one of the cheaper places to do this in the Abacos. Then were shortly joined by our friends on 'Hunda', and then 'Khaya Moya' and the crews of 'Shiloh' and 'Alley Cat' plus a couple of other boats.

Waiting for 'happy hour' to start by the pool with Duncan and Dorothy

It rained and rained for a day giving us a chance to collect yet more water. Eventually the sun broke through and we were able to enjoy some great (but exhausting – soft sand & midday heat = hard work) walks on the absolutely stunning 3 mile Treasure Cay beach. If ever changing shades of turquoise blue gently lapping a white sand beach are your cup of tea then this is the place. It is breath taking and a view you simply cannot get enough of. But being boaters we are not big on full on beach days and unless it’s for a walk or a swim, we won't stay long in the sun. Instead we hung out at the marina pool and bar and enjoyed long hot water showers! What a treat.

The pool before it gets busy

After almost a week of this Sim and I were getting itchy to leave. Our time in the Bahamas is coming to an end, hurricane season has officially started and it’s time for us to get out of here. We are looking for a weather window to get halfway up the east coast of the US somewhere between South and North Carolina - a four or five day trip.

OUR PLAN: From there we will continue up the 'inside' moving daily up the ICW to avoid Cape Hatteras where nasty weather often prevails, perhaps doing the odd over night to get up to New York as quickly as possibly taking a couple of weeks but knowing us probably longer. I'll fly home from there to see my new little niece. Then Sim and I will "do" New York before making our way a little slower back down. Sim would like to include another quick haul out...by quick he means a month before our six months visa in America expires and we have to leave.

Of course we need wind to do this, preferably with very few squalls. We thought there might be a 'window' now to get state side so we legged it up to Powell Cay to be in a better position to leave by and said goodbye to all our friends. But having spoken to our weather man Chris Parker on the SSB several times, unless we want a fair bit of motoring (we don’t) and a night riddled with 50kt squalls in the Gulf Stream (we most certainly do not) then there really is no window at all. We are a little disappointed. We were all psyched to go. Now we are playing the waiting game with the weather and resigning ourselves to hanging out in the Bahamas a little while longer! ;-)