05/05/2008, Charleston
Well, we left the Bahamas on May 1st for Fernandina Beach,Fl. I guess someone was sleeping at the helm and we flew right by Fernandina and ended up in Charleston on May 3rd. Gotta run right now, so I'll fill in a little more tonight.
It's tonight. The jacuzzi was calling my name (There are certain advantages to staying at a 'Resort & marina').
We left Great Sale Cay at 0800 on the 1st of may with winds E@10-15. There were about 12 boats that left before us with destinations ranging from Fl to NC. I had Gizmo ashore and couldn't leave until I got him to do #2. We approached the end of the banks around 1400 and the seas built up quite a bit - 8' with white caps. Doesn't sound like much, but when you go from 2' seas to 8' seas in a matter of 1 hour, it's noticeable. Once we got off the bank, the seas settled down to a bumpy 8' seas with white caps (yea, same number) for the next 30 or so hours. We only saw 1 ship until we were within 100 miles of Charleston, then we had 5 more (one was an aircraft carrier doing manuvers - they don't drive in a straight line like the freighters). It was a very good run, although very tireing. It takes a few days to get a rythm up. Gizmo wouldn't pee on the boat which caused more stress than anything else. The damn broke after 34 hours (makes me want to go just writing about it).
Comming into Charleston Harbour was a walk in the park. Comming into the marina was a little bit of a challenge. We had 15-17 kts of wind off the stern and 2.5 -3 kts of current pushing us forward (I was running 5 knts in neutral) and a very abrupt end at the end of the pier. I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to stop the boat and even walk it sideways right up to the dock ( and I wasn't even drinking!).
This place isn't cheap, but we got a nice swimming pool & jacuzzi (they even supply towels) and a free shuttle over to Charleston.
Now for a brief update on our last month in the Bahamas...
I had this dream. It seemed real enough, but I'm sure it was just a dream. (plausable denyability) The immigration girl in Bimini gave us 90 days (April 12) until our visa expired. She said you can stop anywhere anytime to get an extention.
So, at Georgetown, we went in around the 1st and she said it was too early and we had to come back within 2 days before, but that it was Ok to come in a couple of weeks late. Well,I can only take so much nagging, so we left Georgetown around the 2nd and headded north.
We arrived in Marsh Harbour on the 21st and went in to see immigration on the 22nd. We were denied an extention because we were late. Time to work our way out...
....then I woke up.
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| Offshore-Abacos to Charleston |
04/25/2008, 26.40.7N; 77.08.5W
So, we made it to the Abacos and are now working our way north for our eventual crossing of the gulf stream to land back in northern Florida. And yes, there are more beautiful beaches here as well although I must say, we did get spoiled by the Exumas so the Abacos are a bit of a let down from that. The shades of the water are a bit more green so it doesn't have all of the vibrant turquoise hues and the beaches on the ocean side (at least the ones we've seen so far) aren't as nice as the beaches on sound side of the Exumas and of course it's a lot more crowded up here w/ a lot more restrictions on where you can go ashore. Oh well..... But life is good and we'll just have to suffer through this as well :)
Bakers Bay 042208-042608
P.s.
In the photo you can see the waves comming over the reefs in the cut. We need to go out of that cut, around the little island at the top of the picture, then back in again through a tighter cut. I could take a bit of pounding on the way out, but comming back in is a problem. Tomorrow, 0426, we hope it will lie down enough to make it safe.
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| Bakers Bay_042508 |
04/25/2008, Abacos 26.32.9 N; 77.03.2 W
Marsh Harbour 042108-042208
Michele needed more smokes, so we left the very pleasant beach we were parked at to come to Marsh Harbour. How lovely. They have cars, and horns honking, and all that usless noise. It's not easy integrating back into the real world. I don't think we'll get any growth on our anchor chain from sitting here too long!
The picture doesn't to the harbour justice. There was a ton more boats in here when we came in to anchor. I swear! Took me three times to get a spot that I felt we weren't going to swing into someone. Finally ended up near a boat that was un-occupied (if your going to swing into someone in the middle of the night, an un-occupied boat is the best choice:)
We did take time to hit the grocery store and top off our gas and diesel for the ride north.
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| Marsh Harbour 042108 |
