Lake Worth to West End Bahamas

Day 8: March 3, 2015

We are in the Bahamas.  We landed at West End, Grand Bahama at around 2:00 this afternoon. 

It began last evening when after arriving in Lake Worth, I was unable to access the weather apps on my phone for some reason.  Prior to our arrival, all indications were that we had hit upon a good weather window to make “the Crossing” but I wanted to make one last check on the winds, waves and wind direction before we made the final decision. At about 8:00 I decided to call my friend, Dwight who is also an avid sailor whom I knew had the app.  We talked for quite a while  His app showed the window showed the winds to be just outside the parameters that I have set, however, mine were just inside the no-go border. 

I crawled into bed at 9:00 hoping to get about 3 hours sleep before the made the jump.  I fell into a restless sleep that ended about 1 ½ hours later.  The go/no go question was swimming through my head.  I checked my app again and noted no change so I decided that since there was nothing in the near future forecasts that looked anywhere near better, we would go.

Janine got up at a little after 11:00 and we readied the boat to shove off.  The moon was waxing just before full and the sky was clear with a few puffy clouds.  The closer we got to the exit to the Lake Worth Inlet, the rougher the wave became and as soon as we pulled out into the open water, the boat was pounding and diving into deep short chop.  I told myself that the cause of this really disturbed water was the shallowness of water and hoped that it would get better the further from shore.  And it did, somewhat. 

The first 7 or 8 miles of the passage were over the US continental shelf and

Sunrise over the Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits.
The big bag in front of the mast is the dinghy.
I know this doesn't look rough but trust me!

relatively shallow causing the waves to build higher.  The waves were probably 3 to 4 feet in height but fairly close together.  And, they were right on our nose so we bounced and banged fairly hard for the first 7 miles.  We then entered the warm Gulf Stream which flows north at a rate of about 3.5 miles per hour.  Although the depth here is over 2000 feet, the wave action interacting with the current made for a sharper more uncomfortable wave action.  The stream is approximately 25 miles wide so we banged and bumped for the next 25 miles.  We assumed that once passed the stream, things would finally get better.  They did not. Not until the last 2 miles coming into West End did the wave finally lighten up.  It was truly a rough 14 hour trip.  But we made it.

During the night, the moon and puffy white clouds kept us company.  We both stayed awake for the first 3 hour watch.  I tried to get Janine to go lay down but she said that it would not be possible to rest so I crawled up into the v-berth with my head jammed up into the head of the bed.  The bow of the boat would raise up on the crest of about 5^th or 6^th wave then come crashing down into the trough with a loud bang.  Sleep did not come; during the trip, I probably tried to sleep 3 times

Cold and trying to keep dry from the spray

with little success.  Janine insisted on staying up all night and took only a short nap during the midmorning. 

Neither of us got sea sick which was a relief.  We have sent a lot of time on the water and that has not been a problem.  However, one never really knows and these were somewhat extreme conditions.  That being said, I had little desire for food until lunch time.  We ate a couple of granola bars during the early morning and had our typical toco/PBJ lunch.

Upon our arrival at the Old Bahama Bay yacht club harbor, we pulled into a wide open area where we dropped anchor in preparation to clearing customs.  As we were getting ready to inflate the dinghy, a young man on shore shouted that we were not allowed to anchor there.  He indicated that we must anchor outside of the harbor wall.  So we pulled the anchor and headed back out and again dropped the anchor. 

Upon entering the Bahamas, one must fly a yellow quarantine flag until you have

Officially quarantined as indicated by our "Q" flag.
Replaced by a Bahamian courtesy flag after clearing customs.

successfully pass customs.  And, no one except the boat’s “Master” is allowed off of the boat until customs has been cleared.  The “Master” is to travel alone immediately to the customs office with all of the vessel’s papers and fill out what seems like 15 forms in duplicate (not really) and fork out $150.00 for your permit to enter. 

I inquired at the marina, located next to the customs office, about fuel and dining in the area and the fellow said that he had the fuel but that they closed at 4:30 so I needed to hurry.  He also told me of the two restaurants in the area which opened at 5:30.  I went back to the boat and got my two empty fuel tanks and dinghyed them back to the fuel dock.  We used 13.1 gallons of our 20 gallons to make the crossing.  I anticipated using about 4 or 5.  We were really pushing hard to maintain a speed of about 4.3 mph. In the Gulf Stream, with the current, for every 5 miles forward travel, the boat attempted to move 3.5 miles north so we were “crabbing” across an angle to compensate.  The boat was trying to travel at about 5 mph through the water but was actually doing 4.3 mph across the bottom.

We were tired.  We decided to go to a restaurant for dinner so we got in the dinghy and started out when Janine remembered that we had not brought our life jackets.  We returned to the boat and got the jackets and as we were driving away, we noticed that we had not closed up the boat and locked it so we went back and accomplished that task.  Back in the dinghy and heading into the entrance of the harbor when the dinghy engine ran out of fuel.  So we rowed back to the boat and decided that we probably were not slated to eat out this this evening so we both got onto the boat.  I released the dinghy and realized as it began floating back that I had not secured the bow line to the dinghy. Tidal current was quite strong here and the dinghy was heading for the coast of Africa so I cleared my pockets, grabbed a cushion and dove in after it.  I was able to catch it about 40 yards or so behind the boat but, as I mentioned, I was really tired.  I knew that I couldn’t swim the dinghy back to the boat in the current and being an old tired guy, I could not get over the side and into the dinghy so what to do to keep from floating on to

View of the harbor from our outside of the wall anchorage

Africa.  I crawled over the side and got into the dinghy.  It wasn’t pretty but as I lay in the bottom of the little craft I rejoiced in the fact that I might live to see another day.  Oh, did I mention that there was a strong tidal current?  I sat up and realized I was now over 100 yards away from the boat in a dinghy with an engine out of fuel heading for Africa.  I began furiously rowing back to the boat and by the time I arrived,  I was completely exhausted and figured the safest thing to do was to go to bed! 

Janine fixed a canned steak and cheese pasta to nourish our battered and tired bodies before we ended this day.  Did I mention that we are in the Bahamas?