While we were in Gulfport Florida we had a lot of time to think about our plans to sail south. We realized that the sail plan had a lot of overnights in it and we weren’t sure that we felt up to doing all of them on our own. Luckily our friend Don, who we had met in Racine Wisconsin, got in touch one day to say hi. We remembered that he had told us that it was his dream to sail to the Bahamas. We asked him if he would like to come help us out, and he jumped on the chance. Don has been single handing his own boat on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior for years He knows a lot more than we do about sail trim and boat cleaning! He was a great help and a great teacher.
In early January, we set out from Gulfport with Don on our boat and our friends Tony and Michelle on their boat, Reign. We did several overnight passages down the Florida coast, with good conditions for sailing even overnight. Mostly everything went well, except for Don getting hypothermic one night, and us hitting a crab trap in the wee hours of the morning another night. Both issues resolved themselves quickly, and both Don and the boat were no worse for the wear. We ended up in Marathon Florida, where we spent a few days provisioning, visiting with our Looper friends and getting the boat ready to sail to the Bahamas.
We had to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, which means south or west wind so that you are not beating into it or having wind against Gulf Stream current, which produces huge waves. We went to Rodriguez key for one night to stage for the crossing, so that we were close enough to make the crossing in one day. We set out as soon as it was light enough to see the reef outside of the anchorage. With the effect of the current in the Gulf Stream you have to aim lower than where you are intending to go. The current pushes you north so you watch your track on the chart plotter and adjust to keep your track on target.
The sail across the Gulf Stream was ideal: Great wind and a great push from the current. At one point we were pushing 9 knots speed over ground. We got in just after dark and anchored on the outside of Bimini island. It was rolly, but we were exhausted so we all slept well. The next day after Douglas went into town to deal with immigration, we swam and paddle boarded and had a great time! The water was like bath water! The following day we went into town to check it out. On our way in we saw a ton of sea glass at the beach. Don and his wife have a hobby of collecting it, so Michelle and I helped him find a huge pile of it to surprise her.
We would have liked to stay there longer but we were on a schedule because Don had to fly home from Nassau and our niece Katrina was flying in to visit. So after a day there we had to head out and say goodbye to Tony and Michelle. We planned to leave Bimini at first light but the anchorage was so rolly that none of us were sleeping, so at 5AM we decided to leave. We had no wind on our way to Chub Cay, the midpoint to Nassau, but it was pleasant motoring and we saw flocks of flying fish along the way. We didn’t arrive at Chub Cay until after dark, but we had been given advice from our boat broker Lee, and we found a nice spot to drop anchor next to the reef.
The next day we crossed from Chub Cay to Nassau harbor. It was dead calm. We were motoring in about 8,000 feet of water. All of a sudden the boat took on a terrible shake. Don and I shoved it into neutral and called Douglas above deck. Douglas put it back in forward and reverse and it shook like hell, so he jumped in to examine the prop. Sure enough our prop was encased in thick fibrous seaweed. Luckily it was dead calm. Douglas grabbed a knife and dove under to cut it off the prop. It only took a few minutes, but before he could get back in the boat two unidentifiable 3 foot long fish came up out of nowhere. They seemed curious but did not attack. The fish were scary, but also just thinking of what happens if there are a lot of waves and something compromises your prop is scary. In theory when there are waves there is wind to sail, but we all know that is not the case. You could never get under the boat with any amount of waves without cracking your head open I think.
Once we were anchored in Nassau it was time to say goodbye to Don and do some work and cleaning on the boat to prepare for our niece’s visit. We lost our starter battery right there in the busy anchorage with high wind, strong current and boats 40 feet away, meaning that if we needed to we couldn’t start the engine. Douglas came above to tell me and said he was going out in search of a new battery. I asked, “What do I do if we start to drag?”. His response was, “Try letting out scope (anchor chain), if that doesn’t work, take in some scope, and if that doesn’t work, just use the bow thruster and boat hook as well as you can to keep us off other boats.” I imagine he could hear the sarcasm in my “Thanks dear!” response! Luckily it didn’t come to that and he arrived back quickly with a new battery.
Nassau was a pretty odd city. A very weird mix of economically struggling people, diamond stores, cruise ships, pirate party boats, ramshackle houses, luxury resorts, street food stalls and touristy shops. We did find a few cool things there including a brewery owned by a gal from Canada, and a decent grocery store. Oddly we didn’t buy any diamonds, and not even one Gucci handbag….
