Day 107 February 15, 2012 THE CROSSING . Well, we thought the day would never arrive. But it finally did. I didn't sleep much this night as I kept having things run though my head about the weather, boat, ship traffic and the like. So finally I got up at 4:15AM. We were shooting for leaving at 5AM. Another boat from our marina had left at 4AM and a fast boat was leaving at 9AM. We actually left the dock at 5:06AM and crept out the channel in total darkness with my spotlight lighting the ICW channel markers and the channel around Peanut Island. And then we hit the Lake Worth Inlet. Still pretty calm. BUT, we had an outgoing tide hitting the incoming waves. And, did I mention it was dark?. And there was the cruise ship, Bahamas Celebration, skulking out there waiting to come in. That ship caused a delay in our departure on the first crossing attempt. So, I wanted to get out the inlet before he came in. The wind was blowing 7-10 knots out of the east. So, it was going to be on our nose. Did I mention it was dark? My AIS indicated the cruise ship was headed 270° at 6 knots. They were waiting for a pilot boat and were not entering until 6:45. The inlet got rougher and rougher as we got further out the inlet. We were OK but bouncing up and down quite a bit. The worst part was "did I mention it was dark?" and we could not see the waves coming at us. The spotlight shone on whitecaps and I didn't think that was a good sign. After we got past the last entrance marker for the inlet I turned to my selected course of 118° T. I was expecting this course to be correct for the 094° to correct for the 2.5 knot Gulf Stream current flowing to the north. We were making 3.5 knots into the pounding waves. And then it got a little better as we broke free of the turbulence at the inlet. But still after revving up to my 1800RPM engine speed I was making only 5 knots with plowing into waves slowing me. This meant I needed to turn a few more degrees to the south. I had the autopilot doing the steering for me and it was having trouble coping with the course getting knocked about by the near shore waves. After we got out about 6 miles things started to settle down. It was pretty amazing watching the depth meter go to about 700' and then stop working as it could not read any deeper. It was over 2500' deep in places.
The rest of the day was spent watching the GPS, compass and autopilot and the northerly set of the Gulf Stream. I finally got up to 6 knots and then as much as 6.8 knots. I checked our position and we were as far as 4 miles south of the straight line between Lake Worth and West End, Bahamas. The current began its real effects about 10miles out and the 4 miles south started to decrease as we were being swept north. With about 10 miles to go, I reset the autopilot to run straight to the West End entrance and we got a good push from the Gulf Stream to our destination at 3:20PM. I didn't mention this earlier, but the GPS was telling me what time we would hit the West End marker. During the turbulent part in the beginning of the Ocean it indicated it would be 9:30PM. But once our speed got up it said 3:20PM which was what actually we did. Did I mention it was dark in the morning when we left and the thought of actually arriving at 9:30PM was not comfortable. I knew it would change and it did. But, still?!?!
Things also got better when the dawn was breaking and finally the sun came up. We enjoyed watching the flying fish jump ahead of the boat and then skip from wave to wave. Sometimes it was a whole flock or should I say school? They looked like hummingbirds!
So, enough about crossing.
Once we entered into the Old Bahama Bay Marina, we hoisted the yellow quarantine flag and got tied up. We were faced with the admiralty paperwork for entering a foreign country. The master of the vessel (YEP, I am the master. I'm not sure what status that gives to Susan) reports to customs and immigration. The master is the only one allowed off the boat until the customs officer stamps everything and issues the cruising permit. Then the quarantine flag is lowered and up goes the Bahamas courtesy flag.
Then we caught up with our new Canadian friends, Ron & Donna, who invited us over for fresh lobster. The Bahamian guy who comes by the marina boats daily, selling his wares, cleaned them right in front of our eyes and Ron had them on the grill still wiggling! They were great. Susan had been looking for a flat, pretty conch for a doorstop. This same guy had a huge pile of them on his boat. He cleaned a beautiful pink one for Susan for just $2. He was very careful to get all of the 'stinky' out, as he called it!! We gave him $5, anyway. We watched him eat a piece of raw conch, just as we do oysters!. And just a little bit of wine and all of a sudden it was time for bed. All of us got sleepy at the same time. We were all glad to be in the Bahamas finally....