March 10-25
25 March 2012 | Bahamas & the US
On Saturday, March 10, with a further break in the winds, we left George Town to go as far north as we felt we could make it. Winds were northeast, 15-17, gusts 20. Good sailing! It looked like a small armada out there - about 30 other boats were taking the exit window too. Then to add to the enjoyment, WE HOOKED A MAHI!!! (You can tell we're novice fishermen, huh?) We stopped just south of Black Point, Great Guana Cay, in an area called Little Bay, and we asked friends on Audacious to come over and show us how to properly clean a fish. (For those who have not done it...Yuck). Several of the boats in our group got together later to celebrate a birthday, but we begged off. So we missed the excitement when they were ready to break up and found that two of the dinghies had gone on a `walkabout'. In pitch dark, with strong wind blowing, with the dinghies left, about 2-3 miles away, they were able to find one that had a small solar garden light showing; everyone guesses that the second one was well on its way to Cuba or South Andros. On Sunday, the 11th we moved a little north to Big Majors Spot, Staniel Cay.
On Tuesday, March 13, we split from the rest of the group, who wanted to do more stops, and headed on to Norman's Cay. All the forecasts called for continued east winds, so the next day we went on to Nassau and into a marina, accompanied by CalaLoo, friends of Bob & Julie Norman, returning after 5 years in Europe and the Med. A marina!! What a change! Our chart plotter had hiccupped on Tuesday; we suddenly lost satellite reception, our position was wrong, lat & long readings were unreliable. Kind of nerve-wracking when it happens, and more so when we considered that we were going to be relying on it rather heavily to get us between rocks and back to the US! This is when we found out that our backup GPS receiver was not going to work , making our computer software programs unusable.
So, in Nassau, we made contact with another boat, Pinnacle, who was making the same trip back as us - from Nassau, past Chub Cay and Great Isaac and into Lake Worth. FL. After our second conversation with Les on Pinnacle, we found out that they were good friends with the two couples from Massachusetts with whom we finished our 2009 cruise. Such a small world.
On Friday, March 16, we took off from Nassau, in east northeast wind, 13-15 k, and a fair amount of swell. We kept the motor running, with full sail, and were doing 7+ to 8 k; we had left a little ahead of Pinnacle and needed the head start and all speed we could get to keep ahead of and then keep up with their Hylas 49. After the Mackie Shoal area, we shortened the sails because of oncoming darkness and a change in the wind direction, and turned off the motor; we also told Pinnacle that they should keep on moving at their own speed because Chris, their second person on board, was suffering from a `bug'.
The chart plotter did not fail us; we got past Great Isaac with no problem and pulled into Lake Worth around 11 AM on Saturday, March 17. Between Great Isaac and Lake Worth, the area was well populated with tankers and cruise ships, which we were able to dodge or keep track of with the AIS information from the radio.
Yes, we were very tired Saturday morning. Check-in with US Customs & Immigration was very easy; we had signed up for the Local Boaters Option, which can (and did) allow everything to be taken care of with a phone call. And our Verizon phone service had been turned back on, automatically, about three days prior to our arrival. Fortuitous, unplanned timing. Afternoon naps, and later an early-to-bed night.
On Sunday, with east winds still blowing, we took off from Lake Worth, and went outside, north to Fort Pierce. This time, sails only and great speeds. 7-8-9, and Tom swears he saw a 10 on the chart plotter SOG.. A little problem with the auto pilot chain drive had us hand-steering almost the whole way. In at Fort Pierce around 3:30PM and north on the ICW to Vero Beach.
And here we still are. Tom has repaired the auto pilot chain drive, repaired the head (which we did not know had a problem), changed engine oil and fuel filters; we rented a car and did some long distance shopping (we now have another handheld GPS, with nautical charts). So we have been busy.
We anticipate leaving here, on Monday, March 26, first heading north on the ICW and when we can we will try to jump outside. At least, now, with our Verizon service we should be able to get to Internet more frequently.
P. S. We heard that Sunday on the cruisers' nets that Pepa II went down near Cave Cay in the Exumas. Though email with mutual friends, we have confirmed that Goran and Barb are okay and were taken to Farmers' Cay or Black Point. The boat hit something in the water and went down in less than 30 minutes. We met Pepa II, a Canadian Whitlby 42, through other Canadian friends, traveled with them to Long Island, and shared our Red Shanks anchorages with them several times.