Beautiful home across from our slip at Loggerhead Marina
We also heard from Donna and Toby, friends from a previous cruising year that live in Ft. Lauderdale and they joined us for our "Thank/Christmas" dinner. Great to catch up with them also.
Me, Rita-Kay, and Shirley
Toby and Donna
Bob getting ready to cut our turkey
We hope Shirley continues to heal and is able to cross, or fly over to visit us, this spring.
After spending several days with Mac and Shirley, we moved to a mooring field across from Las Olas Marina in Ft. Lauderdale. We spent two nights “on the hook” there watching the boats pass in the Intracoastal Waterway there. Bob needed a part, and I needed one last trip to a Chicos and a Fresh Produce (that is ladies clothing and not lettuce for you guys). So we decided to try their bus service. Bob took a different bus to West Marine and I waited for the bus to the Las Olas Blvd. shops.
Unfortunately, I discovered that if you do not lay down in front of buses in Ft. Lauderdale, they do not stop! So I started walking, and walking, and walking. It was a 2 -3 mile walk to the shops and I was pooped when I got there. Luckily, I found a couple of interesting items to purchase and was able to hail a bus to take me back to the docks. I haven’t walked that much in a long time and my feet are still screaming at me today.
We left the mooring field at las Olas Marina in Ft. Lauderdale around 6:30 on Tuesday the 21st heading to the Bahamas. Carleigh left their marina about the same time south of us and we met each other again this year at the entrance to the cut. Waves were a little higher than we like, but it was tolerable. I had Internet to 11 miles out so was able to send a few quick emails and post a message on Facebook and the blog that we had left.
Cruise ships in port in Ft. Lauderdale - some will beat us to Nassau.
Carleigh behind us leaving Ft. Lauderdale
When we hit the Gulf Stream, the water temp jumped from 79 to 82 degrees. Wish we could have gone in for a swim! That will have to wait until we reach the outer islands. We were expecting some wave action, so I secured all I thought needed to. We still had a plant fall over and an iron skillet hit the floor, but no serious damage. Opening the frig is always scary after being in waves like this. This time I was better prepared and made Bob bring all the coffee in a thermos to the pilot house and I made lunch and brought that in a thermos bag to the pilot house as well.
By the time we reached the inlet to the ocean in Ft. Lauderdale, the sun was just peeking up over the horizon. The sun bounced off the buildings of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami as we looked back and said goodbye to the states till late April or early May.
Fifty-two days after leaving home port, we finally spot Bahamian land. We spotted the island of Bimini around noon with binoculars and passed it around 12:30. Checking on Carleigh, they were about a mile and half behind us. I took a nap on the love seat in the salon for an hour in the morning. When I got up, we had our “picnic” lunch in the pilot house.
Bob said he spotted a couple of whales to port while I was sleeping. Listening to boats that were fishing, Bob heard that one spotted a wood hatch cover floating in the water. Every time they trolled past it they caught a Mahi. We also heard reports of King Fish being caught on the radio. The year we fished coming back across, there was a lot of floating seaweed and we caught our Mahi when we passed through that. We are not seeing any floating seaweed on this trip.
Some cruisers stop at Bimini to check in and spend the night. We did that our first year, but the Captain has always been anxious to move on farther south and we haven’t stopped here since. Ernest Hemmingway spent a lot of time on this island, as do other sport fisherman. Another island that attracts the Sport Fishing crowd is Chub Cay. The marina there was built specifically for that group of folks and at a price to match!
Island of Bimini
For those of you unfamiliar with the Bahamas, there are significant areas of shallow water, called the Grand Bahama Bank and the Little Bahama Bank. These vast tablelands of shallow water have a great influence on the tides and currents, marine life, etc. We encounter the Great Bahama Bank just before we reach Bimini. Being shallow, (15-18 feet deep) the waves subsided greatly to almost barely a cradle rock. We pull off the track a mile or two at night and anchor for the night on the bank. It is an experience you never forget. It is just your anchor light and maybe one or two others – tonight we will be in sight of Carleigh’s anchor light, and a soft glow off in the horizon that is Miami, FL. We set our anchor alarm to awake us if we start to drift during the night and enjoy a truly quiet and peaceful night – as long as you pick a night with low winds. We open a bottle of Champagne and sit on top the boat to celebrate a safe crossing.
I have to say the first time we anchored for this night on the banks, I was really unnerved. I was too used to being tied to a dock, or in a protected anchorage. There are no signs that say “anchorage here,” you just have to be able to read the charts to know where to anchor. To know your anchor is set, we usually pick a spot on the shoreline and watch to see if that spot moves to know if you have a set anchor. Since there is no shoreline to use as a gauge, we have to trust the GPS anchor alarm to let us know if we set it ok or not.
On the leg between our stop tonight and Nassau, we will cross what is known as “the Tongue of the Ocean.” This is a body of water that is deeper and actually part of the Atlantic that we will encounter from the Northwest Channel Light to Nassau. As a result, although it is calm on the bank, we could encounter rougher water on the tongue tomorrow.
Once on the bank, we began to spot seaweed and also saw Ballyhoo jumping out of the water in front of the boat. The sky cleared some this afternoon to an almost totally clear sky. Temps feel like they are in the mid-70’s.
WE have a slightly hazy, but cloudless sunset, then at 6 PM, while we still had a glow in the sky from the sunset behind us, we watched a moonrise to Northeast. What a sight out in this lonely place.
Day two, we are up early at 6 and underway by 6:45 with the destination being Nassau for check-in to customs and immigration. Other cruisers this year are reporting that they do not get the normal number of days this winter from immigration. We have always been given what we ask for – 180 days, but some are saying they are only getting 30 days. Just what the reason for this change is we do not know.
Bob discovered that our anchor light was not working, so now he has a repair to make in Nassau. We improvised last night by leaving our underway lights on. Oh what a beautiful morning it was. There were no clouds except for some to the West that I swore looked like islands, but Bob said if they were they had risen from the sea bed since our charts were made!
The water was so clear and calm; I could see that our anchor was running off the starboard side toward aft. Bob swung the boat around so the chain was off the bow making is easier for the windlass to pull in.
We headed south into a little fog making the horizon difficult to see, if just blended into the sky, all aqua. We saw this phenomenon once in the Chesapeake Bay two days after Isabelle. Just beautiful. It did not last long as the sun rose and once again defined the water from the sky.
We decided to forgo our usual bottle of champagne on the banks and save it to share it with our cruising buddies, Clay and Rita-Kay, once we make Nassau.
Clay called us at 6:15 to make sure we were up and getting underway. I enjoyed watching the sunrise – something I don’t often see as I’m a late sleeper! In the morning we could see the other boats anchored at a distance in the sunlight that were just a twinkle of an anchor light when we got in last night.
Sunrise on the Bahama Bank. What looks like an island in the distance is just a layer of clouds on the horizon.
While chatting on the radio with Clay while we were passing Chub Cay, we heard from our friends on Alexia, William and Frances. We met them last year. They are cruisers from Great Britain. They were anchored by Chub Cay with friends aboard at present. We will see them again in the Exumas later. It is always fun catching up with our friends along the way and making new friends.
About 11:00 in the morning, we began to see the buildings of Atlantis on the horizon. These buildings sit on Paradise Island overlooking the harbor and Nassau proper. This provides a great natural harbor for the islands. Two on-way bridges connect the two islands. Nassau, like any large city in the US, is dirty, with high crime rates, so we try not to stay in Nassau any length of time. Weather will determine how long we stay in Nassau. This is our stop to check into customs and immigration, purchase rum for the season, provision, and for me to shop the straw market and purchase knock-off purses for all the females in the family.
Atlantis from the harbor
Nassau Harbor Lighthouse
Carleigh passing the cruise ships in Nassau Harbor
Carleigh with Oasis of the Sea cruise ship. This is the newest ship coming to the Bahamas. It really looks top heavy and like the rooms are hung overboard! It also dwarfs the other ships. They extended the cruise ship dock to the point that there is very little harbor left to pass through. I think this is the maximum number of ships they could have in Nassau at one time.
Norwegian Sky Cruise ship in port. I really love the paint job on this one.
There is no natural water source on Nassau, so they provide water by reverse osmosis and via a large tanker that runs several times a week from the island of Andros where there is a natural spring. The Chinese are currently negotiating the equivalent of another Atlantis-type development on the island. I don’t know how traffic will move at all when that happens. Cars just seem to be brought to the island in numbers greater than those leaving – it can only hold so many.
Cruise ships frequent the harbor as well. If you have taken one of these cruises with your destination Nassau, then you really have not seen the Bahamas. As far as we are concerned, the out-islands are the best cruising grounds. If you want to experience an out-island, let us know and we can direct you to them. Some cruise lines own an island in the Bahamas and take the cruise there in lieu of coming to Nassau - take one of those if you want the cruise ship experience.
We arrived into Nassau around 3 in the afternoon and were checked through Customs and Immigration by 3. We were given 180 days! We had heard that some boats crossing over had only been given 30 days and were worried that would happen to us. Apparently the issue was due to the combination of immigration and customs into one organization. The agent said she had been told to only give 30 days, but that has now changed.
Carleigh in front of us entering Nassau harbor with 5 cruise ships in port.
Closeup of the Oasis of the Sea cruise ship
Rita-Kay and I went shopping at the straw market and then we met up with Bob and Clay and had dinner at a Japanese Sushi restaurant across the street from the marina. It was great Sushi, some of the best we have had. It was also encouraging to see Bahamians, who have access to some great fish, beginning to like sushi. We have found that Bahamians in the out-islands really do not like sushi and turn their nose up at the thought of it!
The Nassau Straw Market
Bob and Clay checked the weather and decided that our next opportunity to leave Nassau looks like it will be Christmas day on Saturday. So Rita-Kay and I will go shopping the next two days! Our next stop will be Norman's Cay. I do not expect to have Internet again until we reach the Exuma Land and Sea Park.
Our Christmas Tree and Parrot dressed up for Christmas
No comments:
Post a Comment