The next day, Saturday, Dec 1st, we lifted anchor and once again made our way down the intercoastal to Lake Worth in West Palm (Florida) where we leave from for the crossing over to the Bahamas! The wind was blowing 15 knots with gusts to 20 knots. Not so much fun as we had several bridges with openings on the hour or half hour.
Without much room to turn around it makes it difficult to
hold a position in the current and a strong wind while waiting for the bridge to open to let us through! The 65 ft fixed bridges are not an issue as our mast is only 57 ft off the water.
We spent a full day anchored in Lake Worth the next day waiting for the planned crossing on Monday, Dec 3rd.
The day has arrived....we are finally going! We lifted anchor at 5:30 am, motored out of the Lake Worth Inlet channel by 6:00 am, hoisted the sails and we were on our way! The wind was SW at 6 to 10 knots and the seas were 1 to 2 Ft. I was thrilled as some weather sites predicted much more wind and much higher waves!
The sunrise was spectacular! We were not alone but it looked that way at first.
The waves also showed up....at first 2 to 3 ft, then 3 to 4 ft with the occasional 5 footer. We continued to sail with our jib and mainsail 60 degrees on a starboard beam reach.
Our depth finder's last reading was 445 ft. After that, we were in the deep sea crossing the gulf stream. I hesitated to take pics of the large waves as a few of those waves splashed me as I sat on the combings. We were happy to be tied to the jack lines! So no big wave pics!
We had our course set for "Memory Rock" at the edge of Little Bahama Bank. There we went from thousands of ft of sea under us to 18 ft in a matter of minutes! So amazing! The colour of the water goes from a deep dark blue to a beautiful light turquoise!
I really wished it had not been a few weeks away from the shortest day of the year! I am not fond of anchoring in the dark with just a sliver of a moon!
The banks can be tricky so we stayed to known safe routes on the Banks. When we approached Great Sale we didn't see any other anchor lights in the bay where we were going to anchor. It was soooo dark we couldn't see 10 ft past our bow. We crawled in at 1 knot putting along using the chart plotter as our eyes. Louise on the bow with a searchlight revealed nothing. The darkness swallowed her light. I was staring at the chart plotter in the cockpit. Then I heard Louise yell,"STOP!!!" Not more than 50 ft in front of us was a blue and white trawler dead ahead. I quickly turned and full reverse and we just missed the trawler. The combination of Louise screaming and the searchlight scanning the boat woke up the captain and crew in the trawler. I couldn't help but call him a total moron!!! He had not one light in or outside the boat turned on. No anchor light! If I hit him he would be at fault and would be responsible to fix both boats. It could have ended our winter fun.
ALWAYS have an anchor light on. Even if you are the only one in an anchorage . It is the law!
After we calmed down and anchored and had a few cold beers we crashed in our bunk dead tired.
The wind is in our favour again and we sail with the main and jib all the way to Green Turtle averaging 7 to 8 knots.
Captain Guy is looking scruffy (needs to shave) but happy after our crossing! Glad he did not take a pic of me! LOL!
It's a great day on the water!
I happen to look down at the cockpit floor and gasped when I saw this little stowaway crab. He must have crawled up a dock line and into our boat while we were in Fort Pierce at the dock! He is a Bahama citizen now lol.
We arrived in Green Turtle at 3:00 ish, 2 hours before high Tide. Having a 6 ft draft, we worried about our entrance into the Black Sound Harbour. We noticed a boat ahead of us going in, so Guy radioed him and asked if you wouldn't mind giving us some depth readings as he entered! The lowest he had seen on his depth sounder was 6.1 so we slowly went in!
New Plymouth is a small establishment on the other side of the Harbour! Small, quaint, and mostly original.
We hoisted our Quarantine Flag as per the Bahamian law. As it goes, by the time we anchored, dropped our dingy in the water, then it's motor, it was 3:55. Too late to clear customs. We could not get off the boat for yet another night! Now that makes 5 days/nights with no dirt under our feet!
The next morning we got up early and made our way to New Plymouth to check in. After lots of repetitive paperwork to fill out, we were granted a 90-day permit and gave them our $300.00 US
.
On our return to Miss Ellie, we took down the quarantine flag, and hoisted up the Bahamian courtesy flag!
After our customs check-in, we were ready to get off the boat.
Clean shaven Captain Guy had a craving for a lobster wrap and fries at The Green Turtle Club restaurant in White Sound Harbour nearby! Wouldn't be complete without an ice cold 'Kalik' beer. I had plans to do laundry so we did the laundry while we had lunch!
While the laundry was in the dryer, we took a walk on Coco Bay Beach nearby! Low tide and lots of beach to walk on.
We marvelled at the colour of the water!
If you look closely to the right, you can see Guy carrying the clean laundry back to our dingy in the water on the left! A great 1st day on land in the Bahamas! Guy and some buddies, have a gig (guitar) Saturday night at Sundowner's here on the island. It is a bar and restaurant on the West side of the island hence the name. After that our plan is to move on down the island chain.
Our next blog will be from Hope Town where we will spend most of the winter.
Have a great weekend!
Guy and Louise
