Month: February 2020

It’s hard to believe that it has been a week since we left Ocean Reef Marina. We were very lucky to get a good weather wind to head south from Grand Bahamas to the Berries. We had north wind and all sails up which got us into Great Habour Cay by about 5 pm Saturday, Feb. 15.

It’s an interesting anchorage that is very wide open but also quite weedy. We had a difficult time setting our anchor and as it got dark, we were still fighting to get a good hold. It was a windy night but eventually our anchor grabbed and we were good for the night.

Since that crossing, the winds have gone back to the prevailing direction, mostly east, but with relatively low speed. We took advantage of this to travel east and south around the islands of the Berries. We spent one night at Soldier Cay. This was a very interesting spot. It had a nice beach and lots of marine life. We saw turtles, sharks, a stingray and lots of fish. Mark also went up the mast to install the pulleys for our new Mack Pack sail covers. While up at the top, Mark took some awesome photos!

Unfortunately Soldier Cay was quite rolly so we left Monday after lunch and headed further south the Bonds Cay. Bonds Cay had a large anchorage that looked shallow on the charts but in reality had lots of depth. This spot was perfect for us to spend a few days and wait for a good north (ish) wind to sail down to New Providence (the island that Nassau is on).

So here we are in West Bay at New Providence. We had an awesome sail yesterday with good wind in a nice direction. We arrived here just ahead of a cold front that has now moved into the area. It’s windy and terribly rolly. We are getting strong wind from the north/north east but the swell is coming from west/north west. Sometimes we roll so aggressively that we have to hold on and stuff goes flying. It was very difficult to sleep last night but the good news is that our anchor is holding well!!

The exciting news is that Caroline arrives in Nassau tomorrow!!! We’re super excited to have her on the boat for the 3rd time. We’ll probably spend a day here and then travel a little further east to Rose Island. We can’t go too far because our friend Jim arrives on Thursday. Once Jim is onboard, we’ll head up to Spanish Wells on Eleuthera. Very excited to have guests onboard!

We made it! It seems like a long time coming but we’re finally here. We had an interesting journey from Fort Pierce to Grand Bahamas. I’ll try to remember it all for you.

Our sail down from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth was awesome. We had all 3 sails up and we’re able to sail all the way to the Lake Worth Inlet and we entered that inlet on the ingoing tide in the daytime – couldn’t have been better. We anchored just south of the inlet opposite the “big boat” marina. Man oh man, these boats were crazy and all lit up at night.

We decided to take the ICW from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale. This was a first for us because the last time we went on the outside. Well I can tell you it will be the last time we ever go on the inside for this stretch! There were 20 bridges- all bascule which means a lot of waiting around for the bridge to open (18 out of 20 opened at specific times so if you didn’t make the opening, you had to wait for the next one). We also made that trip on a Sunday! If you’ve ever been on the water on a Sunday then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Now imagine all those crazy boaters in a fairly narrow river racing from bridge to bridge. It was exhausting.

Our plan was to do the approximately 40knots over 2 days just to give us a rest. The first day we did 12 bridges and stopped in a crowded anchorage (for lack of a better word – it was a small shallow bay surrounded by apartments and expensive homes) in Boca Raton. This was not a great experience! Just as we were cooking dinner, our anchor let go and we started to drag!! Thankfully Mark looked out and saw us getting dangerously close to a large motor yacht. We then spent about 45 minutes trying to settle our boat into a good spot away from other boats and where the anchor would hold. It was also super windy that night – needless to say, we didn’t sleep well that night.

The next day (Monday) went much better and we reached our anchor in Fort Lauderdale by about 1pm. We had a good rest that day and got going slowly on Tuesday because we were planning on sailing overnight from Lauderdale to Freeport, Grand Bahamas. We left our little anchorage by 2pm and caught the outgoing tide which made getting out the Port Everglades Inlet much easier. We got out on the ocean, put up all sails and turned on course to Freeport. Well the Gulf Stream had other plans for us! Our boat was pointed at Grand Bahamas but the Gulf Stream was taking us sideways, further north making it difficult was us to sail with the winds coming from east/south east. We ended up motor sailing and doing a very large arc to get across. At one point, it looked like we were heading to Bermuda, then West End and finally we curved around and were headed for Freeport. We made great time and had to hang out near our inlet until the sun came up!

We are staying at a resort called Ocean Reef Yacht Club and Resort. It’s very nice with 2 pools and lots of other amenities. Before we could tie up at the marina, we had to sail 2 knots further east to another marina called Grand Bahamas Yacht Club to clear into the country. That process took a few hours (waiting on a form that the office didn’t have) but once completed, we headed back to Ocean Reef. It was so good to finally tie up and relax. Our friends Jane and Steve are here so we had a great reunion and a nice lunch on their boat. Then Mark and I returned to Crimson Kathryn and slept!!

Now we’re making plans to get to Nassau for Feb. 23 to pick up Caroline. The God of Winds has been working hard against south board sailors this season. Lots of people are complaining that they can’t get any further south because the wind won’t cooperate. We think we’ll be able to jump down to the Berries (or the Banks) on Sunday (Feb. 16), that’s about 60 knots. This will leave us a whole week to travel the remain 50 knots (or so) to get to Nassau – very doable.

Our stay at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce has been a welcome break from our journey south. The marina is very nice with lots of luxuries. There is a restaurant at the top of our dock (we didn’t eat there this time but have and it’s good), a pool and the nicest individual toilet/shower rooms I’ve ever seen ( they have granite counters and ceramic tiles everywhere!). The docks are well kept and our neighbours are very friendly.

We now have 2 new batteries (adding to the one good one) and are ready to continue our path to Fort Lauderdale. We’re leaving here in the morning and going on the outside to Lake Worth. The weather looks good for us to sail along the coast to Lake Worth. It will be great to get the sails out!

Most likely this will be the last post until we reach the Bahamas. We’re still planning to get to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday and then sail to Grand Bahamas as soon as weather permits. Unfortunately we will not have wifi again until we reach the Bahamas (unless we go into a marina in Fort Lauderdale).

Here are a few photos from Stuart, Florida and a repair of our wind meter (this repair deserves its own blog – maybe later!)

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Well this has been a crazy start to our 2020 sailing season. An injury to my back before Christmas delayed our return to Crimson Kathryn by almost a month. Fortunately, the marina she has been resting in, is excellent and they were very willing to let us stay an extra month.

We returned back to our winter home on Jan. 25th, after taking a slow drive down (it was better for my back to do short days so we stopped twice – spreading our drive over 3 days). It sure is nice to be back aboard and getting ready for our journey to the Bahamas.

Our plans have changed quite a bit because of our delay in returning to the boat. We are still heading to the Bahamas but not Turks and Caicos. Caroline and our friend Jim Ryan are joining us at the end of February. They both changed their flights to Nassau from Turks and Caicos. We will probably spend the bulk of our time in the more northern part of the Bahamas. We’ll visit New Providence (that’s the island Nassau is on), the Berries and Eleuthera. Not sure we will make our way down through the Exumas but we might go to Cambridge Cay.

We have spent the past week getting ready to leave Jacksonville. We did our provisioning yesterday (Friday, Jan 31) and that was lots of fun!! Our boat has added several pounds – of food, alcohol and water, and we are now ready to head south along the ICW (Intracoastal waterway). We hope to make our way down to Fort Lauderdale by next weekend and then jump across to Freeport, Grand Bahamas as soon as the weather permits. Our goal is to get to New Providence before Feb. 23 – that’s when Caroline arrives. We have given ourselves lots of time to get there so now we just need to get the weather to cooperate!!