Wow. I am so far behind on my blog posts. I wrote this one back in February, soon after returning from the Bahamas. It’s now mid-June, and I am finally getting around to adding in some photos so that I can post this blog.
My lame-ass excuse for not posting it sooner is that I’ve been busy, which has only a bit of truth to it. Sure, I have been working at Za. I’ve done more than my share of yard work. I’ve even gone on another sailing trip, and I do have another one of my self-gratifying blogs in the works about that adventure as well. I do have to get my ass back in gear with these blogs. I often have ideas for blog posts about other things, not just sailing, and the only way I will get to them is by actually sitting down at my trusty Lenovo and writing them…
After 3 weeks in Arlington, I’m back in West Palm Beach sans Colleen. I will be sailing with my friends Tom and Mary from West Palm across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas on their Mason 44 sailboat.
Our original plan was to do this sail with Colleen a few weeks ago; however, battery charging issues delayed the trip. Now I was hoping to have Colleen with us to enjoy some beautiful sailing, weather, and the beaches the Bahamas are known for. It was all part of my ploy to get Colleen into the boating lifestyle. Well, I will have to keep trying. While I’m sailing, she will be working (somebody has to).
I arrived in West Palm on a Tuesday afternoon, Ubered to the West Palm Beach Sailing Club where Tom met me on his dinghy to ferry me out to Glory. I stowed my gear and talked with Tom and Mary about the itinerary, the weather, and our routing for our expected departure the next morning.
After I was in the loop, we headed to the fancy-ass marina, Safe Harbor, and their restaurant, Lamarina for some Happy Hour cocktails and sushi. We met up with Wayne and Gwyn. Wayne is the person who ultimately helped Tom and Mary figure out what the issue was with Glory’s battery charging situation.
After a couple of drinks, we headed out to Wayne and Gwyn’s boat, Gwayne, a Lagoon 45, a big beautiful catamaran. I was curious and I love checking out other boats. This one is really like a condo on the water. After Wayne gave us a tour we sat around in the cockpit and playing a few round of some card game that I had never heard of before. It was all good fun, and soon we hopped back into the dinghy and headed to Glory for a good nights sleep.
The next morning, Wednesday, February 4th, we pulled up our anchor just after 8. The 155-mile trip across the Gulf Stream to Great Harbour in the Berries, a group of islands 45 miles north of Nassau, should take us about 24 hours. Our planned arrival time is mid-morning on Thursday, February 5th.
Overall it was a very easy trip across, almost all of it was under sail. During the day the three of us hung in the cockpit, adjust the sails as needed, which wasn’t often, taking a nap and doing a bit of reading. It was a very pleasant day.
Overnight, Tom and I traded off 3 hour shifts at the helm. Again, everything was quite benign, keeping track of other boats and a couple of cruise ships making the crossing at the same time as us.
Great Harbour.
On Thursday morning, just after sunrise, as planned, we were in sight of The Berries, the beautiful, yet shallow, turquoise waters that the Bahamas are known for were sliding under Glory’s hull. By 11am, we were tucked into a dock in the Great Harbor Marina.
Clearing customs was definitely “on Bahamas time”, a process that should have taken just a few minutes, but dragged on for 3 hours. Eventually, we were cleared and could move around the island as desired.
We hopped on some marina let bikes. We were in search of a beachfront bar, a couple of cold beers, some island snacks, and a great view. Didn’t happen quite that way, though. Looking online before we got up on the bikes, we eyed a place 2 kilometers away, a short ride on a bike. The website showed us a big porch on a beach; it looked promising. When we arrived, sure, there was a big porch, and a whole lot of sand, no beach, it was on the side of what in the Bahamas would be considered a main road.
Back to the internet we went, another place also looked great, 3 kilometers in the other direction. Off we went, pedaling right on past the marina on our quest. This place was on a bluff overlooking the west side of the island; the view was spectacular. However, of course, there is a “however”; they didn’t serve alcohol. After 5 kilometers of biking, we were parched. Strike 2.
Yup, we continued our quest, another search, another half kilometer back towards the marina. We found a bar, no beach, no view, just a few locals, most of whom probably have permanent stools at the bar. Tom and I ordered beers, and a gin and tonic for Mary. We headed outside to enjoy our hard-earned beverages on the side of the road just as it started to rain. We ended up standing under an overhang along the side of the building until the rain slowed enough for us to make the short bike ride back to the marina.
We hung around the marina for the rest of the night. We needed to figure out the rest of our plan. I needed to be in Nassau by late Saturday for an early Sunday morning flight back home. We still had about 75 miles to sail and a forecast of high winds and waves to deal with.
After much deliberation, it was decided that we would go for it the following morning, Friday. The first 10 miles of our sail would be into 25 knot winds with predicted seas of 6 to 8 feet close together. After those first 10 miles, we would make a turn to starboard and have to take those seas on our broadside for just about a mile; this would be the most uncomfortable portion of our sail. We would then be rewarded with a downwind, comfortable run to our planned anchorage tucked just south of Hoffman Cay, between Fowl and Saddle Back Cays, where we would be protected from the wind and waves for the night before making our final 35-mile sail to Nasua on Saturday.
Our plan worked flawlessly, with a bit of bouncing and slamming into a couple of large waves, water shooting over our bow, we plowed forward. Followed by a few minutes of sloshing side to side, and then a smooth ride with the seas pushing us to our anchorage. Glory was in her element.
We were the only ones in the anchorage, not a soul to be seen on land either, the islands were deserted.
The winds stayed heavy throughout the night. Glory’s oversized ground tackle (anchor and chain) kept us in position, enabling us to get a restful night’s sleep.
In the morning, we pulled anchor and headed out of our well-protected anchorage towards Nassau. Once again, the sailing was magnificent, the winds were at our starboard aft quarter running in the high teens, low twenties. Seas were moderate, 6-ish feet. It was so pleasant that I decided I would try trolling for fish. After an unsuccessful try with a small metal lure that kept surfacing on me, I tried a larger wooden bullet-shaped lure weighted down to keep it from surfacing. It worked; within a few minutes, the reel was screeching, and we had a fish on the line.
With some effort, I was able to reel the fish in and get it on board. To our delight, we caught a small, about 10-pound, yellowfin tuna. I dispatched the fish quickly, settling into bucket in the cockpit. I needed to wait until the seas calmed down enough for me to fillet it.
By this time, it was mid-afternoon, and we were closing on Nassau. The seas had picked up a bit; some of them were pushing the 10-foot mark. With the wind and seas pushing us, it was still quite comfortable.
I was not able to fillet the tuna until we were inside the breakwater in Nassau Harbour. I did so on the foredeck, where there is a saltwater wash-down hose that I could use for easy clean up. When I was about halfway done cleaning the fish Mary pointed out that there was a harbor police boat passing close by. Since we didn’t have a fishing license, I stopped what I was doing and tried to make it look like I was just cleaning the bow. They quickly passed us by without a second glance, and I finished my task of filleting the tuna.
Tom had arranged a dock for us for the night. I had an early flight, and being on the dock would make it a lot easier for my morning departure. As we closed in on the marina, Tom communicated with the dockmaster, giving him all of the pertinent information, length, width, and most importantly, draft (how deep Glory is in the water), so that the dockmaster could direct us to the appropriate slip. Unfortunately, the dockmaster directed us to a slip that was too shallow to allow for Glory’s 6-plus-foot draft. 30 feet away from the dock, we gently struck bottom. Not doing any damage, just making it near impossible for us to maneuver Glory back into deeper water. At this point, we were well inside the confines of the marina with little room for us to move around, especially because whenever we were able to turn a bit we would once again hit bottom. Ultimately, with the help of another mariner using their dinghy to help push us into deeper water, we were able to get into deeper water and find our way to a more appropriate slip.
After settling in, getting Glory and ourselves cleaned up and organized, we went up to the marina, where I was able to schedule a taxi to get me to the airport at the ungodly hour of 5am. We then proceed to the bar for a few sundowners; beers on a terrace overlooking the marina.
The tuna, our dinner, was delicious, seared rare, served with some rice and veggies. There were even some leftovers for Tom and Mary to enjoy.
I made it to the taxi and my flight on time ending my time in the Bahamas.
