Last few Bahamas days!

The Bahamas portion of our 2023 season is quickly coming to an end. We left Crab Cay a day early – on Friday March 31 and had a wonderful downwind sail to Great Sale Cay. Our friends, Julia and Brad on Alizarin travelled with us and we had some great opportunities to photograph each other as we made our way west. We were also joined by a pair of curious dolphins who swam in our bow wake for several minutes!

We arrived at Great Sale Cay around 3pm and we ended up anchoring right beside Orkan (Sharon and Rick). It was a quiet night but a bit bouncy in the anchorage. We were up early Saturday morning and started sailing immediately after the anchor was up. All 3 boats (us, Alizarin and Orkan) were heading towards West End – a 54nm trip, so we wanted to get as far as possible while the wind was still southeast. The first half of this trip was another great sailing course. We had all 3 sails up and were making great time until we had to turn more into the wind. We took our sails down and ended up motoring all afternoon. As we left the Little Bahamas Bank and turned south towards West End, the wind and waves from the south took their toll on our speed! It was a very long, rough 4nm to reach our destination- Ginn Sur Mer.

We are currently anchored in Ginn Sur Mer with Alizarin (Orkan went into the marina at West End). This area is an abandoned development that was supposed to be a housing and resort spot with nice canals. The canals were built and a few houses went in but then the whole thing shut down. It’s a bit creepy but works well as an all weather hiding spot and a great place to wait for good crossing weather.

So here we wait!! Looks like Alizarin will be leaving for Fort Pierce Florida early Tuesday morning (maybe around midnight). It’s about an 84nm trip for them so they should arrive in the early afternoon on Wednesday. Our plan is to leave around 5am on Wednesday and sail 230nm all the way to St. Augustine, arriving around 3pm Thursday. Fingers crossed both our crossing windows hold!!