February
18, 2005
Update from Miami
Sorry it's so long between updates! We thought we
had a method to update the site worked out, but it appears not to be
working. So we have to wait until we find a "wifi hotspot", or
someplace where we can log onto the internet with our own computer, in
order to send updates. As you can imagine, in the remote islands we are
visiting that does not happen often. I am writing this update with the
hope that we'll find one at a marina where we need to get fuel later
this week...
Well, a lot has happened in the last month and a
half! We're finally beginning to settle into the rhythm of island life,
and really enjoy ourselves. If it weren't for the all-too-frequent
battles over school and kids' responsibilities, life would be just about
perfect. We're hoping that that will get better, too, as we settle into
the lifestyle even more.
OK, so back to Miami in early January..... we
FINALLY got a weather window to allow us to cross the gulf stream. It
was not an ideal one by any means, since the wind, of course, was coming
from nearly the exact direction we were headed, but the seas were
forecast to lay down some and the wind to be only moderate. On the night of
the 6th we "staged" ourselves at Fisher Island, a little open
anchorage near the "cut" out of Miami harbor. We planned to
wake up in the wee morning hours to set off for Bimini. However, when we
woke up, the wind had really picked up. We heard several boats on the
VHF radio who had left a few hours earlier: they were reporting 10 foot
seas and at least three of them had to turn back because they had
mechanical failures and/or could not make more than 1 or 2 knots headway
against the seas. We debated some, but decided to put off leaving until
the next night.

Friday, January 7th, we upped anchor at about 0300
(3 AM). By 0400 we were going out Government Cut, accompanied by our
friends on the catamaran Alohomora, and wooden boat Linnett II
from Maine. Our friends on the C&C 48 Galadriel were a couple
of hours behind us. Going out the cut was a bit scary! It is quite
narrow, you have to pass between two breakwaters and then into a narrow
dredged channel that twists and turns a couple times. It was pitch black
and the seas were tall, steep and confused. We were passed at VERY close
range by two enormous cruise ships in the channel. It was, to say the
least, stressful! We were motorsailing with 2 reefs in the main into SE
winds and seas that moderated to about 4-6 feet after we got away from
the shore a few hours. Dawn found us in gorgeous deep blue water, and we
shook out the reefs and continued motorsailing. We tried to just sail
for a while but we had to sail so far off our course, and we'd lost so
much time against the steep chop earlier, that we were afraid we
wouldn't make landfall during daylight hours (important in the Bahamas
with no lighted bouys!) so we continued motorsailing. The catamaran Alohomora
was having some difficulty pointing into the wind, and we soon lost
sight of them. Poor Linnett has a really small motor, so they
fell behind. And big Galadriel, with her big engine, zoomed ahead
of us during the day. By late afternoon we realized we were making great
time (finally got a boost from the gulf stream) and decided to go on
past Bimimi and anchor on "the banks" overnight.

The Bahamas are made up of various islands and
chains of islands which sit on huge shallow banks interspersed with deep
ocean cuts. Bimini, the first landfall, sits on the west edge of the
Great Bahama Bank, which stretches almost all the way over to Nassau,
Grand Bahama to the east. The bank depth ranges from about 5 feet to a
bit more than 20 feet. Most of it is in the teens. It was eerie to round
North Rock just off Bimini and suddenly go from many hundreds of feet
deep to 9 feet!!! And, of course, the water is so crystal clear that you
can see each blade of grass on the bottom. It was very weird anchoring
on the banks, out of site of any land (you felt as though you were in
the middle of the ocean) with 12 feet of water under you. We had a
glorious sunset, our first sunset over the water since the passage to
Nova Scotia! When it got dark, the only lights were a few clusters of
anchor lights from the other boats who were making the crossing. It was
rather rolly, too, and after a fitful nights sleep we got under way in
the dark at 0430.
Since we had to make Chub Cay, where we intended
to check in to the Bahamas, in daylight, we again motorsailed: the
winds were nearly on the nose again and we could point higher that way.
But we had full sails up and were SCREAMING along over glorious blue
water and under bright sunshine. Our friends on Galadriel, with
similar sail/engine combo, could not catch us!! (Alohomora had
stopped at Bimini and we lost touch with Linnett the night
before...)
Here are some pictures of that day, with the Q
flag up and ready!

At Chub Cay we had to check in at a marina, a
splurge for us and the first marina of the trip. But at least we got to
take long showers!! The next morning we set off an hour or so after Galadriel
did to sail SE to Nassau. We knew that another "norther"
was coming in a couple days and we wanted to get as close to the
Exumas (our intended cruising area for the month) as possible. An hour out, Galadriel called and warned us,
"It's really nasty out here! 35 knots on the nose and confused 8-10
foot seas!! We nearly broached!) We looked at the clouds and could see
the squall line that they were under, and decided to push on
anyway. Liv and I were queasy but we reefed Zora down and -again!-
motorsailed into it. It was slow going at first, because the seas were
so steep (about 4 knots headway) but we got into the groove, picked up
speed, and made the harbor entrance with plenty of daylight. We were
glad we had sail up, we think that was the difference between our
experience and Galadriel's, since they were under power only.
Nassau was quite something. The skyline is
dominated by Atlantis, a huge Vegas-style resort on Paradise Island. The
city is very, very dirty, and the cars drive a million miles an hour! We
had some fun going to the straw market and provisioning with cheap rum
and canned butter.

One day there was a celebration downtown. It was
the opening of the courts for the year, and the barristers and judges
paraded through town to the courthouse, where the police band played,
complete with colonial leopard skin uniforms!

That's Liv and her friend Martha from Taku with a
guard at the government buildings. An interesting contrast to the US:
while we were hanging around the plaza waiting for the parade, the Prime
Minister of the Bahamas arrived in a limo and simply
got out of the car in the middle of the crowd of onlookers and walked
inside. No secret service. No guns. No problems.
Nassau was interesting, but not the Bahamas we'd
come for. So after the winds let up a bit, we decided to make a run for
the Exumas before the next big front came through. We headed first out
an hour east to Rose Island. It was our first time really using
"eyeball navigation" through the sand bars and reefs, learning
to read the depths and bottom types by the colors you see. We were
nervous but thrilled when we rounded the last sand bar and dropped
anchor with two other boats off a pristine white sand beach with palm
trees. We quickly jumped in the water and snorkeled to shore. WOOOO
HOOOO!!! This was what we came for!!!
Next page: the Exumas... |