We upped the anchor at 4:15 am from the anchorage south east of Peanut Island and made our way out the channel on what turned out to be a very dark night. Going out the channel in the pitch black I must say was slightly eerie but we cleared the channel and set our course for West End, Bahamas about 57 miles away in flat seas and light winds.

The darkness gave way to a most glorious sunrise about 2 1/2 hours later and that led into a nearly perfect day for a Gulf Stream crossing. All three of us were enjoying the day, watching the US shoreline disappear, and marvelling at the power of the Gulf Stream even on a placid day like today. We soon found ourselves about 10 miles off the coast and we were already about 2 miles north of the rhumbline. For you non-sailors that means we were being pushed at nearly 5 knots (about 8 mph) north away from our destination. We decided to give up a little bit of our forward progress to head into the current to move closer to our course. Not only did we have a buddy boat travelling with us but there were about a dozen other boats spread out across the horizon both ahead and behind us.

Our small navigation correction was working and we were slowly making our way across and enjoying our adventure when we received a radio call from Tranquility, our buddy boat. They were about as far south of the rhumbline (a better navigational position) as we were north and a couple of miles behind us. But, they were currently adrift because their engine suddenly quit. Laurence & Joan Wright, our travelling buddies, live near the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto and I met them in Indiantown while we were both working on our boats. They bought a lovely 1984 Tartan 33 sloop that was new to them this year and they worked like crazy in the boatyard getting the boat ready for their trip. But, despite all the planning in the world any new boat will present all kinds of daunting challenges to new owners. Unfortunately, for the crew of Tranquility this current challenge came in the middle of the Gulf Stream with only light and variable winds.

Leeway altered course and in about an hour rendezvoused with Tranquility which was still without power. The decision was made to take Tranquility under tow while Laurence continued to troubleshoot the engine problems. And so, the tethered boats continued eastward towards the Bahamas.

Now, they say that you should never tow your dinghy behind your boat while crossing the stream and suddenly here I was towing a 10,000 lb boat. Oh well, we all do what we got to do and we all carried on with Leeway chugging away at about 2900 rpm to keep up a decent pace while the crew of Tranquility had to hand-steer the entire day. Anyone who has helmed a boat for an hour knows how tiring it can be and Laurence and Joan (I'm told mostly Joan) had to do so for over 5 hours.

Slowly we made our way across the stream strapped to each others' hip getting closer and closer, but Mother Nature wasn't through with us yet. As predicted the winds picked up in the afternoon out of the east (and of course, what direction were we travelling?) and slowed our forward progress to less that 3.5 knots for a couple of hours. So we all settled in for a long afternoon, but fortunately, as we got closer to the Bahama bank the waves abated somewhat and allow our speed to creep back up to about 5.5 knots.

We contacted Old Bahama Bay Marina and they were ready for our arrival and sent crew out to the dock to help the disabled Tranquility get into a slip. We entered the channel just after 6pm in rapidly diminishing light and by the time we handed over Tranquility to the dock crew, turned around and found our own slip it was dark. To say the least it was a very interesting day - good, productive, one that you have a good feeling about - but nevertheless interesting.

We hadn't even finished tying up the boats and the dock crew were hustling us off to Bahamas customs and immigration so we could clear into the country. We walked around the marina basin to the customs office and in a flurry of paperwork were cleared into the country, paid all our fees, been granted fishing licenses, and we were all back to our boats by 7pm. Try that in Canada.

So we're here. In the Bahamas. Currently residing at Old Bahama Bay at West End, Bahamas. Tomorrow we'll try to solve Tranquility's engine problem and figure out where we're going from here. But right now, I just want to catch my breath.