Passage to the Bahamas

Having heard a lot of horror stories of the Gulfstream swallowing many boats, we took this passage very seriously.  We knew if it looked too bad, we could turn around and head back or stay close to shore in Hawk Channel.  We made the turn from Boot Key Harbor into Hawk Key Channel at 11:00 a.m., facing 15-20 knot winds and 3-5 foot seas.  This gave us concern as we didn’t know what the open gulfstream would have in store for us.  So, we set out the jib and decided to head east along the Keys to see if the wind would calm down before entering the gulfstream.  We were making good time at 6+ knots, but the seas were still a bit heavy.  We had to dodge a few reefs on the rum line, but by the afternoon, about 3:00, the wind started to die down and we were at Alligator Reef.  This was decision time... “go" or “no go.”  Being that the winds had dropped to just over 10 knots, with 15 knot gusts, the seas 2-4 feet, we decided to go for it.  We hammered down and hit the gulf stream.  It actually took several hours to get to the current, but once we hit the gulf stream our speed went from averaging 5 knots to averaging 7 knots.  As the night came on, the wind actually died down to a constant 10 knots.  Surprisingly, the seas were at 2-3 feet, with 5-10 knot winds, which stayed constant throughout the night.  We went into our passage mode of 1 hour on, 1 hour off shifts. The first 2 shifts you don’t sleep much, but after the 3^rd shift comes and you are on your rest period, you fall asleep quickly. One of our difficult situations has been dealing with our autopilot.  It is a Raymarine X5; however, it is very sensitive and was giving us fits on this trip; therefore, we were stuck with another of hand steering, which makes it difficult to stay on course.

We finally made it to South Riding Rock at about 8:30 a.m.  This was a welcome sight for us as it is amazing that you can go from 3,000 feet deep seas to a 15 foot bank within a mile.  This completed the first segment of the passage at a little over 112 miles.  Now came time for us to cross the Great Bahama bank. This is a huge flat sandy patch that runs about 50 miles to the Northwest Channel at the Tongue of the ocean.  We were blessed with flat seas; however, cursed with no wind.  Thus, we had to motor the whole way.  It was a beautiful run as you can see the bottom all the way.  With the sun shining and flat seas, there is nothing more liberating than sailing naked in beautiful waters.  We made Russell Beacon (no longer there, but still reflected on the chart books) at 3:00 pm.  We made the decision that we would anchor on the bank at the Northwest Beacon for the night before venturing onto Chub Cay.  The idea of being in the tongue of the ocean at night and not knowing where we were going was not on our fun meter.  We hit the northwest beacon (which isn’t there either) at 6:00 pm.  Just as we were preparing  to set anchor, we looked to the north only to see a northern front bearing down on us hard.

South Riding Rock
 

Crystal clear water of the Bahama bank
 

Beautiful weather on the Bahama banks

 

The decision was made to set a second anchor on the stern just in case the first one failed to hold.  The bow anchor was let out with 150 feet of all steel chain rode and the stern anchor with 100 feet of rope rode.  Being that we are still learning what to do, an all chain rode anchor without a snubber is not a good idea in 3-5 foot seas.  

 

*Note to self: Make anchor snubber like Butch has on their boat.

 

After a rocky night, we awoke to find the anchors had held, but the boat had bounced miserably all night long.  As the sun rose, we heard a crackle on the VHF radio of two boats talking, with one of them being the s/v Sanctuary.  We weren’t sure whether this was the same boat that was with us in Boot Key Harbor so we took a chance and hailed them on the VHF.  It was them.  They were headed to Chub Cay.  After a few minutes of talking with them, we decided we would try to catch up to them.  They were a good hour ahead of us.  We weighed anchor, which was very difficult with the amount of rode we had out and we were pulling against a 15 knot head wind.  Sherry did an excellent job winching in the stern anchor first.  Jim  climbed onto the bow and winched in the chain rode anchor, which was quite a chore.  We were off and running with a pleasant sail all the way to Chub Cay, which we made in 3 hours.  We had heard that Chub Cay was not cruiser friendly so we made the decision to head to Frasiers-Hog Cay to stay at the Berry Islands Club.  It may sound very posh to say were are staying at the Berry Islands Club, but don’t be misled.  It is however for the Bahamas, a very nice place to stay.  We hailed the Berry Island Club at Noon and were met at the dock by Howard, the operator of the club, along with David and Pat from the s/v Sanctuary.

The Channel leading up to the Club is quite shallow and littered with numerous sandbars.  This meant Sherry on the bow, shouting directions to Jim on which path to take.  It is very true what they say in the chart books, “stick with the green water.”  We tied off to the dock.  We were very happy this passage was over and we were officially in the Bahamas.  The next passage of any length will be to Nassau.