Crossing to the Bahamas

Catatonic on her way to the water

Hi All,

It’s January 1, 2008 – always amazing writing that new year the first time. We expected to be in Miami, but plans kept on changing and so we ended up in the Bahamas for New Years! Lots of exciting things happened along the way.

First we launched the day after Christmas because of all the extra work needed on the boat – the mechanic finally finished rebuilding the carburetors on our engine ( 25 HP Honda), and it’s been running great. Our son Ben and his girlfriend, Dawn, joined us for the first 2 days going down through the Lock on the canal to Stuart and then to Lake Worth in West Palm Beach.
Ben forward in the St. Lucie Lock
They decided that they would rather have a party at Dawn’s house in Fort Lauderdale for New Year’s Eve than be in Miami. Simultaneously, we saw a good weather window beginning to open, so with the help of Ronnie’s Mom, we transferred our crew to shore and bought some last minute necessities and went to anchor where cruisers wait to cross in Lake Worth.

Our original plans had been to go to the closest spot in the Bahamas, which is about 55 miles (West End), but all of the cruisers who were about to leave told us to avoid West End and instead go 45 miles further to an uninhabited island to anchor. Since they all said the same thing, and we would have an additional 4 hours of sleep ( original plan was to leave midnight – now changed to 4 AM), we decided to go for it. At worst, we knew that once on the Bahamas Banks, we could anchor anywhere, since it is shallow everywhere ( 12-15 feet).

We ended up leaving about 4:30 AM on Saturday morning with 2 other boats – one in front and one behind us. The seas were a little rough for the first few miles, but as we got off the Continental shelf, they calmed down so that we were bucking a 10 knot wind and about 2-4 foot waves. Bumpy, but acceptable. We motored all the way for about 10 hours until we hit the Bahamas banks, where the sun was shining and the wind clocked a bit and we were able to actually sail for about an hour. Flying fish were everywhere – we had seen them before, but they are really amazing. They fly LONG distances – hundreds of yards.

The last 4 hours we ran behind one of the boats in total darkness, watching his lights all the way. The stars were all the way to the horizon. It was totally surreal. We were also following our GPS which blinded the helmsperson from everything but it and the boat in front of us, about 1 mile away. We made it to the island about 10:30 PM – a total of 100 miles in 18 hours – Long day, but we were happy to be there, along with about 6 other boats who had also anchored there for the night.

The weather is beautiful now and has been for the past 2 weeks – 75-80 degrees and sunny. We pushed on for the next 2 days, waking up early and traveling first to an anchorage at Crab Cay, planning on clearing Customs the next morning and getting much needed gas at Spanish Cay. Spanish Cay is a quiet piece of private island paradise, but very expensive gas ( $5.65/gal), and the Customs people were not there until later, so we left and went to Green Turtle Cay, where we are now. A total of about 175 miles from Lake Worth.

A storm is coming in tonight with gale force winds predicted, so everyone is heading in to a safe port. We ended up at a small marina, tied to a dock. Nice people, showers, laundry and a short bike ride to an incredible pastel colored town.

Ronnie on Catatonic in Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay

We ended up today at the annual Junkanoo parade in celebration of the New Year and to rid the island of bad spirits. It was incredible – music,, costumes, dancing in the streets for the entire parade of about 2 hours all over the island. Looking forward to fireworks tonight.

New Year's Day Junkanoo Parade

We will check in with you again when we get the opportunity – probably next week, although getting on the internet has been a bit challenging, as has been getting on our satellite phone – when it works it’s great, but it often doesn’t work! Well we are still happy to have any communications.


A Happy and Healthy New Year to all!

Arnie and Ronnie