Bahama Breezes

Cancel the alert!! All hands safe at sea. Our Gulf Stream crossing was a benign adventure with light winds and fairly comfortable seas. We left Fort Lauderdale late in the afternoon and sighted land the following morning at dawn. We had to putz around until daylight before we crossed from deep water into the Bahama banks, but then it was smooth sailing in shallow, turquoise waters until after noon. The Gulf Stream was as advertised… a river of water flowing north. In the early hours before dawn we needed to motor sail east lest we miss our landfall, but overall it was a pleasant trip. Our crew (Tom Hanna) and our pilot (Otto, as in autopilot) did most of the heavy lifting while I did most of the sleeping.

The Sea of Abaco comprises the northern most waters in the Bahamas (Eleuthera and the Exumas are to the south) and we were entering the Sea at its northwestern boundary. For three days we sailed to windward with overnight stops at well protected anchorages before reaching Green Turtle Cay where we would check in with Bahamas Customs. This was good sailing, and it was about the only time we sailed to windward on the entire trip.

The Sea of Abaco was possibly the best sailing we have ever experienced over a long period of time. We spent six weeks in the Bahamas (sailing only the northern and southern Sea of Abaco, but putting off the Exumas until next year) and except for a few days of rain we had the sails up the entire time. Most of our destinations were close together so that we could set sail in the morning and still reach a protected anchorage in the early afternoon. Our shallow draft catamaran was ideal for sailing in light winds and in waters that were frequently less than 8’ deep. We seldom had to worry about course or obstacles sailing over sand bottoms covered by clear, clear water, and because we were sailing inside the reefs in the Sea of Abaco the waters were generally calm with few waves. I thought Belize was good, but this was indeed the best extended sailing ever.                                      

You can’t beat the weather either (at least this time of year). Best ever weather for any of our sailing trips, not the hot humid weather we had been used to in the western Caribbean. We have had cool sleeping nights, warm sailing days, plenty of sunshine, and only occasional rains. We had one early sub- tropical storm move through the area with a tremendous amount of rain, but that was a very welcome rain that cleaned the boat and helped us to fill our water tanks. Yes, water is in short supply here

While the Bahamas were ideal for both weather and sailing we were less thrilled with the shore side attractions. I’m not sure that was the Bahamas’ fault. It is more that this area is so different from out previous stops in the Pacific and in the western Caribbean. English is the language here (along with some local patois) so we did not have to try to cope with our busted Spanish, but we did realize that using another language was part of the adventure of foreign travel. Also, because almost everything is imported into the Bahamas the prices were a little steep and bar tabs frequently required at least a couple of $20 bills. Certainly not the $1 rum of Guatemala, $2 beers of Panama or even the inexpensive boat drinks in Belize. Also, the Bahamas have very little history and native culture so this was not the exploring experience that we had found in the Mayan ruins of Mexico and Guatemala and the colorful native markets of Central America. Much of the Bahamas was settled by British Loyalists escaping the US after the revolutionary war and there were few settlers here even into the 1900’s.

There are LOTS of boats here, particularly in the southern Abaco towns of Hopetown and Marsh Harbor. There were many, many more boats than we were used to seeing on our travels. Canadian boats by the hundreds and many boaters from the US east coast flock to the Bahamas for the winter months, and because we are so close to Florida the power boats are more prevalent. We heard the area called “East Florida” more than once. What makes the Bahamas so popular for boaters is that it is “mini-cruising”. It is so easy to get here (a power boat can cross from Miami in 7 to 8 hours), so safe to be here (we never felt we had to lock the boat or worry about where we were walking), many protected anchorages, easy to check into with Customs, safe to drink the water, plenty of fishing (plenty of fish to eat), English spoken, US dollars in use, and great weather.

 
But it is hard to beat the scenery, the sand beaches, the amazingly clear, turquoise waters or the interaction with many very, very friendly Bahamaians. Teenagers saying “Yes, sir” and “thank you, sir” whenever we stopped to talk was surprisingly refreshing. We visited Hopetown and Marsh Harbour in the southern Abacos for a taste of the Bahamas ashore and we stopped at Great Guana and Little Harbor for their bars and barbeques. Nipper’s Sunday BBQ is renowned throughout the islands and Pete’s Pub in Little Harbor is as nice a beach bar as you will ever visit. We found nice snorkeling in several spots and in the northern Abacos the islands were much less crowded.

We did indeed lose track of time and found it hard to believe that six weeks had passed since we left Florida. We had planned to exit the Bahamas sailing south through Eleuthera and the Berrie Islands, but we got lost along the way (actually we got winds from the south) so we altered course and enjoyed several days of downwind sailing to the north before exiting the Bahamas and crossing to Cape Canaveral… but let’s save that for the next blog installment.

Tom and Andrea

What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been

It has been almost a year since we arrived in the US (in the Dry Tortugas off Key West), leaving behind the Western Caribbean sailing adventure for the more mundane “Florida experience”. To say that “not much” has happened in FL would be an understatement. We moved the boat from Ft Myers FL to GA in September, and we enjoyed some nice sailing and tropical anchorages in the Florida Keys along the way, but much of the trip was a motor trip along the Atlantic Coast. 

GA was a good choice for “storage” while we were at home, but it turned out that we were way too far north when the cold weather set in.  We flew back to the boat in December and immediately regretted our timing as we encountered an unusually cold cold spell for southern Georgia. Life aboard a catamaran is designed for the tropics, not the winter.  We have no heat and little hope of warming both hulls or the center cockpit. When we got back to the marina we did attend a very nice Bon Voyage party hosted by several Australians aboard Nootka Dancer who were celebrating getting off the docks after three years of repair work (Nootka Dancer headed for the Bahamas and sank shortly after the “Voyage” started), and we celebrated Christmas at Brunswick Landing Marina hosted by a great marina staff (thank you) before heading south to St Augustine, FL for some long delayed maintenance on our own boat.

We had not painted the bottom of the boat in almost 5 years and we were long overdue for a haul-out that would include bottom paint, polishing the hulls, servicing the engines and any of the hundreds of little projects that got put off while we were afloat. Unfortunately the balmy Florida temps that we had anticipated were non-existent and we spent much of January shivering at the beach. Okay, can’t fool us. We headed home for the rest of the winter, leaving the boat in St Augustine, figuring that late March would be a lot warmer.

NOT! On March 23 we flew in to much the same weather that we had left… cold! The boat was ready (great boatyard, St Augustine Boat Yard) so we splashed quickly and headed south just as fast  as we could.  Still we experienced cold day time temps and colder nights.  Finally, south of Cape Canaveral the weather warmed and we happily continued south towards Miami where we will set out to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas for a two month cruise in the islands.  Along the way we did happen to spot several Manatee.  In one spot at least a dozen of these huge, slow moving water elephants were lolling in the sun near the surface.  Manatee are protected here in FL and they seem to be flourishing.

Depending on how slow we move our Bahamas trip will take us to the Abacos and the Berry Islands and maybe Eleuthera and Exuma between now and early June. There are over 700 islands in the offshore chain of reefs, cays and islands that comprise the Bahamas. Only a fraction of these low lying islands are inhabited and the draw is white sand beaches, quiet anchorages, and quaint little towns with some very friendly people. The beer is expensive (otherwise everyone would want to live here) and the prospect of buying shower water at $.50 per gallon has us worried, but we will try to substitute a generous daily rum ration for both water and beer. We should survive.

It is Easter weekend and we are waiting patiently for favorable winds to cross the Gulf Stream.  The stream is like a very big ocean river that is 60 miles wide and moves south to north at about 2.5 knots. North winds are a no-no for the quick overnight passage so we wait.  The next blog should cover either (1) the very benign Gulf Stream crossing or (2) the harrowing Gulf Stream crossing.  Whichever, it will be an adventure. Happy Easter.

Tom and Andrea