Sailing hard to Florida

We headed out from Puerto Rico on Saturday afternoon. We figured we were going to do 48 hours to Grand Turk before heading on to San Salvador, Bahamas. However, quickly after setting out on that first day we started to wonder if we might be better going a little further to Mayaguana, Bahamas. As that evening and the next day progressed, we realized that we weren’t going to make it to Grand Turk during daylight. Since it is surrounded by reefs, we didn’t want to make this approach and anchor in the dark. We would be arriving in the dark partly because we had left later than planned, but also because we were a little slower because the winds weren’t as strong as predicted. Furthermore, we were sailing almost directly downwind which meant a lot of gybing. However, we also discovered that our next destination, Mayaguana, was not a port of entry to the Bahamas like it used to be. So, we couldn’t go there either. And to really seal our need to go further, it was raining and not a great time to visit an nothing-but-beach island. So we decided to keep going to San Salvador, Bahamas. This meant a four day passage.

The first few days were about us getting our sail legs again. Owen, Halyna and I tried meclizine this time and it seemed to work! We had a much easier time and after two days, we found we no longer needed it. We still had our dill pickles at luch time, just to make sure. By the end of day 2 we were settled into the thought of sailing for four days and were able to get things done during the day.

Most excitedly, we got our gennaker sail up and working. It is a larger light fabric sail used for light wind when you are going just about downwind. Similar to spinnakers, it is brightly coloured and billowing. It was so beautiful to see and did a lovely job of letting us actually sail. When we sail, it is peacful because there is no noise from the motors or the slightly diesel smell you get from running the engines (this bothers Owen the most). We were hopeful that it would also mean a chance to see more sealife, but unfortunately, we really only saw the sea and nothing else! There was even very little boat traffic. We got into a good routine after the second day as well. We did a better job at our night shifts, making sure that each of us got some sleep. Halyna usually does an hour or so in the late evening until 10pm or 11pm. Then, Owen does two hours until 12 or 1am. Kevin is on watch next for three hours before waking me up for my three hour shift at 3 or 4am. I must admit, I like this shift because it means I get to watch the sun come up. We have also gotten into the habit of setting alarms to get us checking on things every 12 minutes while on watch. When it is quite, so we can rest/dose in between our checks. However, on nights when there is a lot of traffic, you have to watch things more constantly. It is really reassuring that we have so much instrumentation to help us at night. There were a couple nights that the skys were full of lightening storms around us and those were a little unsettling, but we managed to stay out of the actual lightening clouds.

We reached San Salvador on Wednesday midday. It was a very narrow entrance to the marina and the marina itself was very small. We planned to stay one night. We needed to fuel up and were hoping to get rid of some garbage and get in some beach time. However, it was still raining when we got there so instead we got fuel and worked on splicing some ropes. Norah and Simon manage to play anywhere and everywhere now. They got off on land and explored a little around the marina in the rain. Kevin and I also took a walk to town to get some bread. It was interesting to note that although very sparcely populated, the houses seemed well-cared for. The people also seemed very friendly. On our 20 minute walk to the store we were offered rides by several locals, and then more on the way back, especially since it started to rain. We declined though, happy to stretch our legs finally.

We managed to check into the Bahamas in San Salvador. This was the first island where they came to us for customs and immigration. Usually Kevin goes into the office on his own (or we go as a family like we did in St. Thomas). Two customs officers came to the boat but didn’t bother coming on the boat, which we here they do in some places, but rather asked Kevin to come with them to the office. They drove off with him and brought him back 30 minutes later. It was a bit strange to have Kevin go off at somebody elses command. To make it even more ‘interesting’ not only did he have to pay the more than $350 to enter the country, but he also had to pay them $50 each way for the ride over. Not that he had the option to decline the ride and find his own way there!

San Salvador also had so many mosquitoes! We are still each scratching at our dozens of bites that we got that night, even though we ate dinner inside for a change. The beaches looked beautiful though and I am sure the snorkeling would be fantastic. The marina was full of fishing boats so I suspect there is also good fishing around the island.

We left the next day to make the overnight passage to Nassau. We were going to leave first thing, but a big thunderstorm rolled in so we waited for it to pass before heading out at 3pm. We timed it well and managed to leave in calms seas. We wanted to stay ahead of further storms though, so we motor-sailed for most of the passage. This stretch of the journey and the the next one we saw the most boat traffic so far! We had to adjust course a couple times for cruise ships and had to talked with a cruise ship to make sure they saw us were passing us on our port side, as per the regulations. It is amazing to see the monsterous cruise ships passing. Even on the big open ocean they dwarf our boat. They are so bright we can see them from far away. Our passage from San Salvador to Nassau was otherwise smooth. It lasted just over 30 hours. As we go further north into more populated areas we get more practice using the VHF radio as well. We called into Nassau harbor to get permission to enter the harbor as it is very busy with cruise ships. They also like to know where we are anchoring so they can give advise as needed.

We managed to spend a day of entertainment in Nassau. We got more fuel (a never ending tasks when motoring as we had been). Then we went into the maintown and wandered around a little looking for someplace to grab lunch. After a heavy downpour that kept us under awnings for 15 minutes we found a little restaurant off the beaten path (just beyond the facades for the cruise shippers) serving bahamian food. We had some tasty grouper done several different ways. It is quite an oily soft fish. Then we headed to the Queen’s staircase. We thought we were in the wrong area at first because it is located just beyond the hospital parking lot and there were no other people heading that way. However, when we got to the top there were a bunch of souvenier stands that were packing away their stuff (it was 3:30pm and the cruisers were headed back to their ship). Fort Fincastle is located at the top but it was small and cost money to go in, so we decided to forgo it. The staircase was pretty cool though. It was a 66 step staircase and passageway carved into limestone by hand in the late 1700’s to provide a direct route between Fort Fincastle and Nassau city. It is overgrown with jungle plants now and is very picturesque.

After the staircase, we head to the grocery store. It turned out to be a very hot longer-than-intended walk. We went through several different neighborhoods, some looked like rundown Caribbean streets and others like they were in the suburbs of North America. We even went down a street called “Dead Cat Alley.”

After picking up groceries we headed back to the dinghy and boat to drop the groceries off and then head right back out again to visit Paradise Island. This island is connected to the main island with several bridges. Historically it has had resorts and casinos on it and more recently it is primarily occupied by the Atlantis Resort. Wow, is this place a spectacle. It is a cross between Disney World and a Las Vegas Casino. They have beaches and a waterpark and aquariums on site. It is huge with a large associated marina. We tried to get into the marina because if you are staying in the marina then you have access to all of these features at no added cost (the marina is a little expensive but not outrageous). Otherwise, it costs $195 a day for one adult to have a pass to the aquatic park. Unfortunately, they didn’t have space for our wide boat. There were plenty of megayachts docked in the marina and it was pretty entertaining just looking at them. The Bahamas and Florida make you feel like there are a lot of people with a lot of money, given all the megayachts you can see here. We wandered around and saw one free aquarium before heading back to our boat for dinner.

The next day we headed out to go to Fort Lauderdale! It was stormy! We got out of the harbor and the clouds really started to roll in. Plus our port engine bilge went off and it turns out the port engine shaft seal around the prop shaft was spewing water! Why was it that everything seemed to be going well when we stop the boat, but then when we start it up again something decides to break?! Luckily, Kevin is getting pretty good at doing on the fly repair jobs. Turns out the set screws around the shaft seal weren’t placed properly (they were loose and let the color on the shaft slip) when they replaced the boot on the tube that the shaft goes through, back in Carriacou. Kevin wisely bought extra set screws at the time, and tightened the existing ones and added additional set screws that were missing, all while we motored out. It was also while we were motoring into the storm. We did adjust course slightly to avoid the worse of it but we still felt the downpour, 30 knot winds and rough seas! It lasted about 30 mins and then we managed to slip between the next storm clouds. The rest of the passage was pretty uneventful other than the dozen of cruise ships we had to navigate around.

We then crossed the Straight of Florida going against a pretty significant current and motored (a combination of laziness and weaker winds) into Fort Lauderdale! We have reach the mainland!