Weeks 6 and 7: Taxes, Maintenance and Exploring Further Afield: Powell Cay and Treasure Cay

Our time in the Bahamas is passing quickly.  We blinked and found ourselves in April! After Brenda and Mike left, we spent the next week - true to our pattern - doing maintenance chores, paperwork and other "fun" stuff while still keeping an eye open for good weather windows.

Up until now, we have stayed within a fairly short distance from Marsh Harbor (black loop in screenshot below) to make sure not to jeopardize our guests' flight schedules.  With a week or so before our next guests would arrive, we decided to travel a bit further north to have a look at some of the cays that we passed by on our journey from Florida to Marsh Harbor.

We chose Powell Cay, an uninhabited island which offers an opportunity for hiking and beautiful, unspoiled beaches. Powell Cay is the "t"-shaped cay shown at the top of the red loop in the screenshot.  

Bluff at Powell Cay

Screenshot of Our Latest Destinations

The hike up to the top of the bluff was pretty short, but the view was nice.  The hike to the Atlantic side of island was a bit longer and the beach did not disappoint.

Atlantic Side Beach on Powell Cay

View of the Atlantic from Atop Powell Cay

Gorgeous Pink Hues

We were serenaded on our hike back to the bay side which was a nice diversion from the seagull calls we're accustomed to hearing.

Songbird on Powell Cay 

There were reports of some really large snapper near a submerged wreck near the island but, once again, no joy.

We had planned to go to a few other cays during the week but, having learned our lesson about how quickly weather forecasts can change, we faithfully check the updates daily and found that heavy winds were headed our way and would last longer than originally predicted. This would mean our exploration of the northern cays would be cut short.

Morning View from Powell Cay

Rather than head straight back to Marsh Harbor, though, we decided to try someplace new:  Treasure Cay.

We found a very protected anchorage, and figured it would be nice to hang out somewhere new for a change.

We motored to Treasure Cay on Sunday, with the winds expected to be above 25 knots on Monday.  We found an anchorage, but were shocked to find that the marina was still completely destroyed three years after Dorian.  There were quite a few nice vacation homes with luxurious boats, but it seems that the marina and its restaurant were not a priority to rebuild.  There was one small restaurant that serves pastries for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, but we didn't find any other restaurants on the island that were open to the public

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Treasure Cay Marina

The winds remained about 25 mph, with gusts of 37 mph,  for three days.  The highlights of our days were taking Jake for his twice daily walks.  It seemed that every time we got into the dinghy, the wind picked up and it started raining. Since the marina was in disrepair, there was no dinghy dock available so Steve had the unenviable task of standing on a moving dinghy and lifting Jake onto the dock, where I was waiting to receive him. I was not, of course, able to photograph this feat but you can get the idea by noting in the picture below where dock level is and imagining where the boat deck on the left is. 

View of Starry Night from Treasure Cay Marina

We spent the rest of the three days doing routine chores, working puzzles, and riding out the storm.

Finally, on Thursday, the wind subsided and we took a walk to the beach and looked around a bit. Jake fully approved :-)

Beach on Treasure Cay

Jake is Loving Life

This brought us to Friday, and after our walk on the beach, we weighed the anchor and headed back to Marsh Harbour just in time to prepare for Sunday's arrival of our next guests!