In Bahamas and Catching Up on the Blog

Hope you haven’t given up on this travel blog. These entries should get us all caught up and forgiven by those of you who thought we’d quit sharing our trip. We’ll go back to where we left off—St. Augustine, FL.
Day 31 (Jan. 2)-- We left early from St. Augustine, FL and headed south down the ICW to Daytona Beach, FL. The weather turned chilly (in the 50’s & 60’s) so we bundled up, weighed anchor and headed out. Our buddy Bruce left just ahead of us heading north to Jacksonville, FL. It was great to spend some time with him and he lent us a laptop, GPS sensor, and a chart plotter program. Thanks Bruce!
We motored all day down the Florida ICW and spent the night anchored near Daytona Beach, FL.

This is our last look at the St. Augustine waterfront—what a great place!
And here are some scenes along the ICW: Some pretty condos and an impressive rookery of pelicans.

Day 32 (Jan 3)-- Although the ICW in Florida was a dream compared to the ICW in Georgia, the Caribbean Soul (and her Capt. & Crew) were ready to do some ocean sailing again. Also, the weather reports were predicting another cold front coming through in three days! If we could get to the West Palm Beach area before the cold front, we could possibly get to the Bahamas a week sooner than if we continued to move slowly down the ICW and would have to lay over in Florida waiting for the front to pass. So on day 32, we headed out Ponce de Leon Inlet into a nice, sunny ocean. The wind was right on our bow so we motored. We did put the main sail up to add a bit of stability. Pictures are of Ponce de Leon Inlet with Daytona Beach in the background and the ubiquitous brown pelicans watching us leave.

Day 33 (Jan. 4) We put a couple of reefs in the main sail and motored on through the night. Waves were 3 to 4 feet and my scopolamine patch behind my ear worked great. We took turns standing watch for 2 or 3 hours each throughout the night. Got to the West Palm Beach area midmorning and settled into Lake Worth, FL. We topped up everything—diesel fuel, gas for dinghy, and fresh water—in preparation for our passage across the Gulf Stream. After anchoring in Lake Worth, FL, we stayed a board and started studying the marine weather reports in earnest. The truth is that no predictions are 100%, so deciding when is the best weather window to cross from Lake Worth to the Bahamas is a bit of a guess. John guessed that we should head out at 10:30 PM on January 5th in order to beat the front coming through the following evening. And, a good guess it was—seas 2 feet or less and SE winds of 8-10 knots. In ten hours of beautiful night sailing (motoring) we arrived at Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama Island and cleared through customs. This was quick and easy as we seemed to be the last “Snow Bird” coming over from the states! We sailed for the next three days without seeing another boat close up—only a few in the distance.

Day 35 (Jan 6)—John hoisted our quarantine flag as we entered Old Bahama Bay, West End at 8:30 AM. After we cleared customs and changed the flag from yellow quarantine to pretty Bahama ensign, we sailed to the closest cay (pronounced “KEY”) to anchor for our first night in the Bahamas. This was a tiny cay called Mangrove Cay which might be hard for you to find on your maps/charts because it is so small and uninhabited, but it was just what we needed to get caught up on our sleep.

Day 36 (Jan. 7th—Happy Birthday Finley!) Our second day in the Bahamas was wonderful. Our task was to sail to Sale Cay which would protect us from the big bad front what had been threatening us for days. It was a great sail—main sail and jib full of wind—Caribbean Soul maintaining a boat speed of 6-7 knots! The clouds whirling ahead of the front dropped some rain on us for short periods of time, but we got to Sale Cay well ahead of the front. We tucked into an anchorage that provided good protection from the heavy W-NW winds we expected. Early that evening, the storm passed over us, but Caribbean Soul bobbed happily in her protected spot. Happy Day and a good night’s sleep.

Day 37 (Jan 8th) Our third day in the Bahamas was ABSOLUTELY OUR BEST SAILING DAY EVER! Not only did we figure out how to fly our spinnaker, but also we sailed wing-and-wing with the main and spinnaker. It’s hard to say it in words and we’re not sure the pictures give you the total feeling, but it was wonderful to have all these powerful sails out front and the beautiful blue of Bahama skies and seas all round us. Ahhhhhh! This is really what we signed up for!
These pictures were taken before we got all the kinks out of the spinnaker—but you can see how huge the spinnaker is.

This is the CENTER OF THE WORLD ROCK. At least that is what the chart says.

These shots hopefully give you a feel of the joy of spinnaker sailing in the Bahamas! Try a little “Buffet” music in the background and a tropical beverage. Ahhhhh!

Truth is that we didn’t do the tropical beverage part until we got to Green Turtle Cay the next day. On this day we anchored at Powell Cay for the night.

Day 38 (Jan 9th) We delayed leaving for Green Turtle Cay because the entrance to Black Sound where we planned to anchor is shallow and needs to be transited at high tide. While we waited, we cooked a great breakfast of Mary’s eggs and biscuits. The cockpit was sunny and the water was crystal clear. Then, we decided to bake up the Chili Chocolate Brownie mix Nancy and Tom sent from Tucson. Oh—yes—good stuff! Thanks Nancy and Tom!
We had a slow sail (3 to 4 knots) to Green Turtle Cay and motored carefully into Black Sound without running aground. We tried to anchor but the grassy bottom made it impossible for our anchor to grab hold. So, we picked up a local mooring, pumped up the dinghy and headed out to Pineapple’s Bar and Grill—our first time ashore in a week. Just so we remember that not everything is perfect in paradise, the dinghy outboard quit on us and John had to row the last hundred yards to the dock. Sorry we don’t have pictures of Pineapple’s yet—but certainly will have some later. It is a tiny little shack all painted bright yellow. A fresh-water pool is right between the bar & grill and Settlement Creek. We hit them at happy hour and sat at a bright yellow picnic table watching the sun go down near New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay. We met two couples who fly here each January to bone fish—one couple from Richmond, VA and the other from Raleigh, NC—small world.

Day 39 (Jan. 10)—We got up early to listen to the Abaco Cruisers’ Net. The Net is broadcast on VHF channel 68. Cruisers call in with weather, sea conditions, social functions, arrivals, departures, ball scores, local dinner specials, requests for local information & spare parts, and whatever! It is broadcast from Marsh Harbor about 15 miles from here, so we couldn’t hear all of it. We heard enough to know we are truly back in the Bahamas—mon!
Pictures are of John working on the outboard (and, he fixed it!), me working on this blog posting, and shots of Black Sound.