Bahamas Bound

It was a very early start for our day to cross to the Bahamas. I never sleep very well before a trip like this. I was awake off and on all night. At 4.50 am I heard the engine start. Peter was making his preparations to leave.

We had spent the night at Lake Sylvia a little over a mile from the Port Everglades inlet. We planned to meet Steve and Linda there by 6 am.

As it was Saturday morning, we had to wait for 3 huge cruise ships to clear the channel.  It was still dark as it was our turn to go out the channel. Really bouncey. And you couldn't see the waves and anticipate them. Expected 2.6 foot waves as per the forecast. But all the waves were confused, no rhyme or reason to them. The dinghy was bouncing all over, so we had to stop and try to make it more secure. Just then a pilot boat came alongside and asked us to clear the channel for the next big boat coming in. Yes sir. No problem sir.

We could see all the boats in the general area thanks to a softward programe ...... marinetraffic.com ..... that tracks the AIS signals of all the equipped boats.  As we cleared the channel, we got a telephone call from Steve and Linda and they were right behind us.   It was still dark, but there was some light coming over the horizon. It wouldn't be long now to daylight.

We now know the perfect weather window for the crossing. Waves no higher than 2.6 feet, 11 second intervals.  South east, south, or south west winds all work, 10 to 15 miles per hour. The West End Bahamas will be 1 foot waves by the time we arrive.

 Pulled the sail out at first light. Over 69 nm to go and so little time. If we could maintain 6   knots or more we should arrive West End by 5 pm. Don't want to arrive in the dark. Rule #1, never enter a new harbour after dark.

 The gulf stream is only about 6 miles off shore in this area. We watched the depth sounder readings go deeper and deeper, until after about 1000' there was no reading at all. Some areas are about 4700' deep. Just too many feet to count.

Look at that blue of the gulf stream. So pretty. The stream is anywhere from 10 miles to 30 miles wide.








On the way across, early in our travel day, Peter caught a Mahi Mahi. Guessing it is about 20 lbs. Now that we have it onboard, what to do with it. Steve and Linda came back and we got the fish to them, as Steve has a cooler with ice for the fish. That worked well for us. Unfortunately it meant that Steve had to clean the fish and cut it in half to fit in the cooler. Peter caught another one several hours later but it broke the line and stole his lure. That one gets to live another day. Mahi Mahi is one of the better eating fish. He now wants to be called "Mahi Mahi Man" What we don't do to keep our captain happy.

Arriving West End right on time, about 5 pm. What a wonderful sight. It has been a long day. And there is still that Mahi Mahi to clean and eat.

 Quarantine flag is flying as we approach. We will clear customs here. The blue of the water has changed as we approach.

 We decided to spend some time at the West End. A storm with high winds is coming in over Tuesday night and Wednesday. While there are some great places to cruise, fish, snorkel and anchor in the vicinity, there are no marinas that we can get to in the next 2 to 3 days. Why not just stay here.

 Then we needed to go off for a bike ride to explore the area. Riding up the shore we would see these piles of conch shells. Now that is a lot of conch.

 This man is getting the conch out of the shell. He said if you worked on one of the boats, you needed to be able to clean 300 lbs. of conch an hour. This is definitely a learned skill. Watched him do several while we waited. Still not sure I could do it. He said that in the 1950's you could walk out from the shore, mid calf water height and get as many conch as you wanted. Today you have to take your boat out much deeper to find them. There still doesn't seem to be much of a shortage.

There was a stand selling conch salad along the roadside right on the shore. The salad was made right before our eyes. It doesn't get more fresh than this.  One man cleans the conch out of the shell, and hands it to the other man in the conch salad stand and he prepares right then as you wait. I have had conch salad before, but it did not taste like this.

Conch Salad Lunch is over, now for dessert. Apparently there is a lady who sells ice cream cones out of her house. She is near the Catholic Church and the Liquor Store.  We will hunt her out.

In fact lunch is trying to get away. You can see a tentacle ???? of the conch outside of the shell trying to move away.










This is the beach across the street from the marina and we can use it. Think we need to start some island time relaxing. There is also a pool that we can use right here also.




All right, back to the boats. A glass of cold water and a rest is in our future. Then we will make our way to the pool.

Sometime soon we need to hose the boat down to get rid of the salt that is over everything. We had to hose down the bikes before our ride this morning. It is amazing how much salt is in the water. And it also leaves an oily residue on eveything.

Mahi Mahi is on the menu for tonight. Sure hope we don't get tired of fish before the guys get tired of fishing. What do you think???
Our freezers were full before we started out on this trip, so there isn't much room for fresh fish. We will have to eat it as they catch it. What a challenge.

Steve even sacrificed his ice cubes for space in freezer for Mahi Mahi. What a man.

Oh and I forgot to mention that Linda fileted (sp?) the fish, and Steve cooked last night. What a feast. We tried to make plans about where we wanted to go and what to see, but everyone was so tired that we decided we all needed a good nights rest. These decisions could be made in the morning.

Another interesting fact. By 7 am boats are leaving the marina one after the other. By 7.30am the marina is almost deserted. What do they know that we don't. We will have to ask questions and figure this out.