January 19 to 21, 2020 At last...off to the Bahamas

January 19

What to do .....what to do?  Big decision whether we leave before the next cold front.  After talking to other boaters, we decided to go.  

Made all the sandwiches, crackers and ginger ale all ready in case of sea sickness.  Took my sea sick pill also.  Here we go! 

Left 9:46 with 2  other sailboats.  Seaven  and Seadragoness.. Seadragoness(Ron and Viv) live in Oakville and it will be their first time in the Bahamas. 

Navigator of the Seas Cruise ship passing by

The waves ranged from 4-6ft and the sun is shining.

We are heading to the Berry Islands  

11:00pm-  I took over. Figures shortly after a cruise ship came on to say we were going port to port and to stay clear.  Steve naturally got up and told the Captain we would go above him. 

Looking at the ‘Navigator of the Seas’ cruise ship, it brought back memories of when we used to take cruises.  I particularly remembered looking at a sailboat going by while on the cruise outside deck and wondered how that would feel like.  

Now I know.

January 20, 2020

Midnight- Lots of traffic so Steve stayed up and I was relieved. The Carnival Sunrise and Norwegian Sky cruise ship went by.  Figure I would take advantage and lay down until my next shift. 

2:00am-  Seeing that the traffic died down, Steve managed to lay down. SO MANY stars. Steve said he saw a falling star.

The moon came up around 4:30am. It’s half smile shined across the sea.  It was very picturesque along with all the shining stars.

We communicated on and off with Seaven and Seadragoness throughout the journey.

The sail was unbelievable.  We had to take in reef and were still going over 8.5 knots,  

Steve managed to get a few hours of sleep.  I kept pumping in crackers and hydrating so not to get sick. 

9:30am- Arrived at the Great Harbour Cay Marina.  Good thing we came early since others reserved ahead of time and we managed to get one of the last available spots. 

Since we have not cleared Bahamian Customs, we had to raise our quarantine flag.  According to the dock master, the Customs inspector comes to your boat within the hour.  Steve and I took advantage of the time to catch up on some sleep.  After a couple of hours, Steve went aboard to ask about Customs and found out thru other boaters that they went in the office.  By the time Steve got there, there was a line up. During that time, I hooked up the power and washed off all the salt from the boat.  Funny to see crystallized salt on our new Bimini.  

1:15pm- There was no need to wash the boat since we got a down pour as Steve came back from Customs. Time for lunch.  We are starving since we haven’t eating a proper meal since we left.  

6:00pm- We were invited to a pot luck at the marina. What talent. There were professional singers playing guitar, ukelele and open mike   What a great night, great people and food. 

Enjoying meeting new people even if we are tired after a long journey

Pot luck and music in the gazebo

January 21, 2020

Steve and I had such a good night sleep and felt really good after a shower.  Sun is out and now it is time to explore.  Internet is a little slow but I can update my blog once in a while.

We took the dinghy out for the first time and explored the area. The marina is very protected here. Came back to the boat and decided to go bike riding. We must of pedal 5 miles. Gorgeous scenery along the way but didn’t find the village we found out we took the wrong turn. That’s ok since we’ve earned our lunch when we came back. One way to get fit. 

3:00pm- Fiesta time. 

We had Ron and Vic from Seadragoness boat drop by on their dinghy and later I met Butch and Lynn and Marc from Seaven on their dinghy. It is nice to put a face to voices since I talk to them on the VHF radio crossing the gulf. 

I practiced my ukulele while Steve read. 

We had a great steak dinner before the cold front hit. Just as Steve was shutting the barbecue, the wind picked up and you could feel a temperature drop. We went inside the cozy boat and watch a few Netflix series which I downloaded previously.