2022-05-12 Treasure Cay to Green Turtle to Check out, finding lost anchor and planning trip of Bahamas to the USA

We stayed at Treasure Cay for a couple more days.  Had one night with an incredible lightning show.  It was great, because it was not near us, but many many flashes in a short time period.

Took a nice beach walk while at Treasure Cay.  They were hit hard by Hurricane Dorian, and lots of rubble, and partial buildings left.

Nice beach at Treasure Cay (northwest side)

Rubble and partial building left of what was nice big marina

Dip in the pool look inviting?

Once the north winds stopped, we headed over to Green Turtle Cay to check out.  Motored over, and took the "Don't Rock Passage".  This is a shallow passage, that we can only use at near high tide.  It was quite rough, with a 6' north swell with about a 3 second period for a short section.   Maybe not one of our smartest moves, but at no time were we out of control or in danger, just uncomfortable and bouncy.

Don't Rock Passage on Chart

Don't Rock

After the rough passage we anchored for the night off of Green Turtle Cay, had a pleasant night, and then into town to check out.

Waiting for the official from Customs to arrive on the ferry and check us out.

Once check out was complete, we have 24 hours to leave the Bahamas.  We upped anchor and headed to Powell Cay, to spend the night before heading out to sea.     Had very calm flat seas, and you could see the bottom, 12' down pretty clearly.

Flat water

Bottom going by as we motor at about 6 knots.

Now way back on December 10 of 2021, we visited Powell Cay, and on our way out, had a little incident, which involved the dingy flipping sideways, and losing our dinghy anchor, a rubber coupling, and a woven rope basket over, along with some flip flops.  We recovered the flip flops, as they floated, but in the recover of the partially flipped dink, we failed to notice the anchor and basket missing, until the next day.    

On our way back into Powell Cay, we followed our track out, scanning the bottom, but too much wind chop made it hard to see.  So, we took the dinghy back out after anchoring, with Kris steering to the track, and Dean being towed behind with his snorkel equipment on.   It took two passes, but we found our old anchor and rubber coupling, but no luck on the basket.    We were quite happy.  You can get these for about $35 in the states, but we paid around $60 to buy a replacement in the Bahamas.  Now we have two, but still happy.

Success !

In addition to finding our lost anchor, we did laundry, and baked a bit, to make goodies for the 3 to 4 day offshore trip ahead.

Deans cinnamon rolls before going in oven.

They really plumped up in the oven.

Kris's cream cheese spinach and artichoke heart dip

Deans bread, and Kris's low sugar dark chocolate, almond flour cookies.

You would think that would be enough goodies, but while at Green Turtle checking out, had to buy a few more.

Nice snack for last day in the Bahamas, Coke for Kris, Mt. Dew for Dean (not pictured), and Goose Turds!

It is only 470 miles ish from the Bahamas to Morehead NC.  The weather is going to be 10 to 15 with winds and seas from the SE so a nice gently ride.  Well that is the wish.  You can see the route we are planning on taking, winds and seas might have an impact on the trip but it looks like it should be a straight shot.  We are leaving on Friday the 13th at 6am and should pull into Morehead City NC on Monday between 6am and 7pm depending upon our boat speed.  The difference from 5.5 to 6.5 knots is 85 hours vs 72 hours.

Some weather reports call for 24 hours of no winds, some say up to 35 knots with rain and thunderstorms, and some say a steady 12 to 15.  I guess we will see, and let you know once we arrive back in the states.

One thing is for sure - we sure will miss this clear water.