Spring Break 2011 - Back to Treasure Cay, Bahamas

It's Abby's Spring Break this week and we decided many months ago we were coming back to stay at the Sanddollar Dreams condo in Treasure Cay, Bahamas. It is the first time flying the Lance to the Bahamas and she did great! I had removed the middle row of seats to gain some payload capability that we desperately needed to support our week in paradise. On Friday, as a test, I did all my eApis and international flight plan filing using the iPad. I worked great and since we have wireless here at the condo, I'll be able to get everything done for our departure just as easy.

We left the house yesterday morning around 8:00 am and we were loaded up and rolling down Runway 32 at Craig Field shortlly after 9:00 am. In no time we were cruising down the coast at 6000 feet enjoyoing the smooth morning air. We turned out at Melbourne and shortly after going "feet wet", we climbed to 7000 feet. About 45 minutes later we were over West End on Grand Bahama Island. I was surprised that with all the smoke and haze in Florida I was able to still just barely see the coastline of Florida when we first caught sight of the Bahamas.

After crossing Freeport, we made our final turn towards Treasure Cay. About thirty minutes later we were in the pattern overhead and had a decent landing on runway 14. My two worst landings ever have been at Treasure Cay. The winds are almost always a crosswind, and it swirls or gusts so much, experiencing a little bit of wind shear seems to be the norm. I kept my speed up this time knowing I had a long 7000 foot runway to use and still felt wind shear effects, but we settled down easy on the runway and taxied to the ramp. From startup to shutdown in paradise was 2.8 hours. Not bad at all!

The ramp was only about half full. There still is no avgas available at Treasure Cay, but we have more than enough to make it to Fort Pierce when we depart. We acquired extra immigration forms from our last visit and since we had everything pre-filled out, we made it through Immigration and Customs pretty quuick. Sidney was already there waiting for us, so as soon as Abby and I got the plane tied down and covered, we were all on our way to the condo.

My Dad, stepmom, and her mother are joining us on this trip. They all flew in commercially aNd we were able to find them another condo in our complex so we can be together. We were all finally together by dinner time and enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Bahama Beach Club. Saturday nights they have an all you can eat BBQ dinner served family style. We had pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob, BBQ beans, garlic toast, ribs, chicken, pork chops, and cake. Yes we at it all and them some! Of course the rum punch made it all go down pretty easy.