aPhantom.net Bahamas - Part 2
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After ten beautiful days in White Sound we made our way (on the rising tide this time) to the anchorage just outside of Hope Town. The next morning we raised the anchor and set sail for Treasure Cay, about eighteen miles to the west. We had finally picked a destination that wasn't upwind, so we rolled out the headsail and gave Senor Perkins, our diesel engine, a rest.
The entrance channel to Treasure Cay has a few shallow spots, so our goal was to arrive at the entrance marker on the rising tide. In this case that meant we did not want to traverse the channel any time earlier than about 2pm. With the lovely east wind behind us, we actually had to reduce sail to slow our speed. As sailors are always trying to get that last tenth of a knot of speed, it just didn't seem right to be reducing sail when we had perfect wind. We arrived at the prescribed time and made our way through the well marked channel without incident.
We had decided to treat ourselves to a marina for a couple of days and Treasure Cay was definitely a treat. There are about one hundred and fifty boat slips, villas for rent overlooking the harbor and a very nice restaurant and outside bar overlooking the fresh water pool. The beach at Treasure Cay is rated as one of the ten most beautiful in the world. There is also a small shopping area with a very well stocked grocery store, liquor store, laundry, hardware store, bakery, and few other shops.
We arrived the day before the Bahamas Billfish Championship was to begin. About thirty very large and expensive sport fishing boats participated. These were serious fishing boats with multiple reels, outriggers, and other fancy fishing gear that was a mystery to us. The entry fee for each boat was ten thousand dollars and the prize money was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was a catch and release tournament where a digital photo is your proof of catching a fish. You were allowed to "boat" or keep any fish of the prescribed type that was over one hundred and fifteen inches long which translates into about a seven hundred pound fish. All others were to be released after the photo was taken.
As you might suspect, an event of this magnitude also translated into several parties. The first night was a barbeque at the open air beach bar. With the sun going down, the sea breeze, and some local island music, the setting was perfect. The beach is certainly one of the most beautiful we have seen with its sugar white soft sand and clear blue water. Poor us, we had to be here.
The next day, the fishermen were up early jockeying their eighty and ninety foot beauties out of the slips. No large fish was safe in the area today. We spent the day getting the laundry done and catching up on computer tasks as the marina had a really strong wifi signal. When we first arrived in the islands, I had purchased a subscription to a wifi service that provides a signal in most of the anchorages. I was surprised to find that I could receive a signal in most places that was good enough for email but wouldn't stay connected long enough to transfer files for something like this web site. Since our boat is a steel hull, I cannot receive any signal inside so I tried several methods outside on the cockpit table where the sun is usually too bright to see the computer screen. Shading the screen with a dark towel was about the best I could do. I've always loved those computer ads of people sitting on the beach using their laptops. Not likely.
Thursday night was pizza night at the pool bar. The pizza was actually quite good. We ordered a large just to have leftovers. At about 5pm, the fishing boats began returning. 
One boat actually caught a fish large enough to keep. The fish weighed in at seven hundred seventy-one pounds! We couldn't imagine being on the other end of the fishing reel from that monster.
The fishermen were up early again the next morning. We spent the day exploring the area on foot and by dinghy. There is a lovely salt water creek just off the main channel. There were many more houses and boat slips than we remembered from our last trip here eight years ago. The creek is deep nearly all the way to the end and a very protected waterway.
On Saturday, we decided to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the marina and explore another harbor. We motor-sailed (upwind again) across the Sea of Abaco to Baker's Bay. Since our last visit to this anchorage, an entire marina and resort complex had been built. A new deep channel had been cut through the rock and over one hundred new slips have been built. Many were empty but several were occupied by beautiful megayachts. The resort is very upscale with an indoor restaurant and the outdoor Conch Shack Bar right on the docks. We had anchored outside the harbor and were very impressed when the dock master came to take our dinghy painter and invited us to tour the facilities. There was a lively crowd at the bar, so we joined them. Coco, the chef, challenged Jim to a bar game that was sort of like vertical tic tac toe. She beat him, but very graciously. A local young man demonstrated his dexterity by jumping gracefully from the deck to the top of the railing, remaining perfectly balanced and perfectly in time with the music.
As the next day was Sunday, we decided to check out the famous Sunday Pig Roast at Nipper's Bar. We motored the three miles to Fisher's Bay, anchored, and took the dinghy to shore. Grabber's Bar, at the end of the dinghy dock, was already in full party mode with a steel drum band and a pool full of party people. 
We stopped long enough for a rum and then made our way to the beach side of the island for the real party at Nipper's.
It's not clear how all the people at Nipper's got there, but it was quite a crowd. The two swimming pools, the three decks, the beach, and everywhere in between was full of people. I'm not sure it was possible to even get near the bar or restaurant. The size and enthusiasm of the crowd combined with the ear-shattering music convinced us that the Pig Roast was maybe not the event for us. We toured the village, stopped at Grabber's for one last rum and retired to the now crowded anchorage.
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