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.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 