After our failure to get to the Bahamas in one go, we spent several days in Samana, at the fanciest marina I have ever seen. We did go into town one day, but mostly we stayed around the boat fixing the issues, doing chores and resting. Douglas did something to the shaft to fix it and we all felt confident moving on after a few days. So we headed back out for the Bahamas at 9AM on the 12th of January. This time everything went fine and we arrived in Great Inagua 44 hours later on January 14th, and dropped anchor outside of the harbour to wait for customs to open. We had travelled 305 Nm to get there from Samana.
Once we cleared customs and took on more fuel we went back out to anchor in the harbour. It was a real shame that we couldn’t stay longer because the island and the people seemed so lovely. A lady from the tourism department had even come down to meet us and tell us what to do on the island. There was also a group of Haitian men there loading up a ship to sail over to Haiti to unload goods there. It was sail only and everything was made out of wood. It was so loaded down with cargo that it was barely out of the water. Some people are way braver than us!
The weather was not in our favor and was forecast to get worse over the next few days so we moved on that evening, and had a rough 80 NM night crossing to Castle Island. We stayed there all day on the 15th because Douglas had a job interview. He confined Tony and I to our separate quarters during the interview so we would be quiet. But the boat had other plans. We had put out a stern anchor to keep it more level before his call, but during the interview the wind shifted and we started to swing over the anchor. My anchor alarm went off, embarrassing Douglas, and I had to climb out a hatch to go get the anchor off our keel. Everything was fine, and he got a request for a second interview!
From Castle Island we left for Rat Cay in the early afternoon on January 16th, after holding out for lower seas. It was a long 150 NM hard slog with rough seas and a lot of marine traffic. Eventually the wind shifted and we had to motor sail. We arrived at Rat Cay in the late afternoon of January 17th, just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset with small scrub islands as the backdrop. We decided to let the weather calm down a bit more before heading out, so spent a day at Rat Cay snorkeling and relaxing.
On January 19th we set out early in the morning and reached the mooring field at Shroud Cay, 68 NM away that evening. We moved on the next morning, making the 50 NM to Nassau on the 20th, just in time for Doug’s interview the next day. We rented a slip so that he could kick Tony and I off the boat this time and not have to worry about it moving during the interview. He got the job! Which was great, except that the start date was February 4th, in person, in Seattle…. Yikes! We never had a schedule like this before, and a big unpredictable passage through the gulfstream.
We knew we had to wait it out for the right weather window. The gulf stream just isn’t safe in the wrong weather. We decided to wait it out, anchored off Athol Island in Nassau, so that if we didn’t get a window we could put Douglas on a plane and Tony and I would continue on alone. We waited from the 22nd of January to the 26th in fact. The days were spent resting, swimming when it wasn’t freezing, and playing cribbage. We all watched the weather like hawks, and although we would have liked to have moved a bit closer to Florida, the more Western islands were being hammered with wind and waves and there were no good airports there just in case we needed one.
Finally, mid-morning on the 26th we had our weather window and we took off. It was a very uneventful last sail. The sunset was beautiful, the gulfstream was calm and nothing broke. We arrived off the coast of Florida the next morning and at some point while we were looking ahead of us the US coast guard pulled up a quarter of a mile off our stern. They hailed us and required all the names and passport numbers of all citizens on board, as well as our registration number. After a few minutes they gave us the green light to proceed.
We made our way into a very narrow passage to the Intercoastal Waterway, while a towboat sat by in the entrance hoping for business. I think they get a lot of it with the fast current and sandbars, but not us that day. It took a few hours to get through all the bridges to the dock we had rented a few miles up the ICW. From Nassau this last trip was 180 NM, and we were all pretty tired. Luckily, our boat broker was waiting for us at the dock and got us tied up for the very last time.
It was pretty emotional for me leaving the boat. In another lifetime with another set of circumstances I would have kept sailing in the Caribbean for years. Yet, this is the life we have, and my home is where Douglas is. Although he was ready to give up the boat life, he is very glad that we did it, and although I was not ready to give it up, I agree that it was the right decision.
All in all, we had a wonderful adventure, and we will never forget the experience or the courage it took to make it happen. My hope going forward is that we continue to do things that push our limits, and our comfort zones as individuals and as a couple. It is hard to adjust to life back on land, even writing this months after our last voyage. There is something majestic about living on the water, something freeing about travelling everyday, and something meaningful about having the time to slow down and spend hours watching birds and sunsets.
In our time living on the boat we sailed over 5,700 nautical miles. We visited 9 states in the US, plus the US Virgin islands and Puerto Rico. We entered 10 different countries, and close to 50 different islands throughout the Caribbean. Yet, most importantly we made countless new friends, became closer as a couple, and became tougher, more confident people. It was an adventure of a lifetime and a life well lived!
