Powell Cay to Green Turtle

We arrived in our next anchorage, Powell Cay, around 12 PM.  We had a little less than 1/3 of a tank of water left, giving us just enough water for a 2 night stay.  It was an absolutely beautiful day to take the dingy around the island to look for the perfect spot to enjoy the afternoon.  The water in this cove was beautiful. 

In our prior trip to the Abacos, this is the location where, during a large storm, we drug our anchor when a squall came through.  This time, with the sun shining bright, we were able to pick our anchor dropping point more carefully.

After lower the dingy and getting ourselves ready for a wonderful afternoon, I noticed a rather strong holding tank (sewage) smell coming from our hallway, when our front head (toilet) was flushed.   When we opened the access hatch in the wall where the vent is located, the unmuted smell was pungent.  We proceeded to spend the next 2 hours, of this very beautiful day, trying to troubleshoot and fix the smell in the boat – to no avail.  When we finally decided to stop and schedule ourselves an appointment in March Harbor for someone to fix it, I took a quick glance at the water gauge and saw we were almost empty.  Did we leave a water tap on?  Did we accidentally use fresh water when trying to flush the sewage system? Do we have a water leak somewhere in the boat?  All I know is that we are now almost out of water and cannot stay in this anchorage.   We decided to go to the nearest inhabited island and fill up with water.  We put the dingy back up on the boat (which is about a 20 minute process), picked up anchor, traveled 45 minutes to Spanish Cay, added 149 gallons of water to the boat, traveled 45 minutes back to our anchorage, dropped/set the anchor again, and dropped the dingy back in the water (well over 3 hours).  

Needless to say, between the sewage issue and water issue, our beautiful afternoon was wasted (literally....with waste and wasted water).   Please note, we only added 149 gallons of water to the boat.  We have a 200 gallon tank.  We found the water issue...a faulty gauge.  We didn’t really have to go and add more water, it was in the tanks the whole time.  There was no leak, no faucet left on, no accidental misuse of fresh vs. salt water.

We took a quick dingy ride, let Sydney run on the beach, then enjoyed the sunset, some appetizers and a much needed cocktail (after the generator issue the night before).  Sydney wasn't very happy how we spent the day either.

The next morning, we headed out to enjoy the beautiful day that we hoped for the day before.  We were not disappointed.  We found a beautiful small island right behind Powell Cay that had crystal clear water, a nice sandy beach, and some stunning rock formations.  We spent the afternoon on this secluded little island enjoying what makes the Abacos so wonderful.

We reluctantly left our private paradise, stopped by a wreck where Dan speared a couple more snappers for ceviche (we had run out), and went back to the boat.  Sydney was absolutely exhausted from all of the fun of the day.

The next morning, we proceeded to Turtle Cay, our first marina in 6 days.  I was finally able to do some washing, give the boat a good cleaning and enjoy a relaxing shower.  We enjoyed some happy hour rum cocktails at the marina bar, then headed over to the settlement for dinner via the dingy.  The last time we were here, we found this, for the lack of a better word, dive bar/shack on the water’s edge that served cold beer and was a great place to view good sunsets.  Both held true again.

We finished the night by going to Harvey’s for their Thursday special, Lobster night.  We had over 20 different preparations to choose from.  It was delicious.  More importantly, I didn’t have to cook/serve/cleanup after dinner for the first time since we left Florida. We headed back to the boat in the dark, navigating by moonlight and channel markers. 

The next day, Dan and I walked to the beach on the east side of the island and stopped by the farmer’s market next to the marina.  The owner cut a fresh head of lettuce right from the pot for me to take.  I’ve never had such fresh lettuce in my life.