Down the Abacos and onto Treasure Cay

We waited out a long blow in Manjack until the Whale Cay cut finally seemed to be laying down enough for us to head south.

The cut beside Whale Cay separates the area south of Treasure Cay from pretty much everything north of it along the Abaco Sea. At Treasure, the edge of Grand Abaco shoals out from Treasure Cay’s famous beach almost all the way across to Guana Cay, meaning no boats drawing more than about three feet can transit. The passage is known as the “Don’t Rock Passage,” after an appropriately named tiny island right off Treasure Cay called the “Don’t Rock.” So most boats don’t. They (and we) have to go outside into the Atlantic beside Whale Cay and then come right back in at Loggerhead Cut. From there the entirety of the the southern Abacos is accessible.

The Whale Cut can be problematic, though, as it’s fairly narrow and has reefs on either side. Even worse, if the wind sets up from the northeast, all of the energy in the ocean swells expends itself in the form of breakers right in the channel. The locals call it a “rage sea.” While at Green Turtle and Manjack we had a North – like wind shrieking in the rigging all the time North – that lasted the better part of two weeks.

There’s worse things than being at stuck petting stingrays at Manjack, for sure, but we were glad when the weather began to change up and the cut became passable.

We lifted our anchor in the morning and headed out and south east, passing Green Turtle and Noname Cay on our left, and then edged out into the cut and the Atlantic.

Which turned out to be as smooth as silk. No problems at all. Nice easy swell in the Deep Blue for about a half an hour, and then a quick turn back through Loggerhead, right beside the Bakers Bay gazillionaire side of Great Guana Cay.

We took the route back to the southwest and towards Treasure Cay and its famous beach.
As at Green Turtle the entrance to the harbor is pretty alarming – very narrow and only about 6 feet deep at low tide, but we had enough water under us to glide in and pick up a $25 per night mooring, which came with access to the marina pool (fresh water!), wifi (wifi!), and showers (Ahhhhhh… Ahhhhhh…yes!).