Finally! The Bahamas

Our Christmas wish comes true and we finally have a weather window to cross from West Palm, Florida to West End, Grand Bahamas. Almost our whole group of boats ventures out eager to finally get to warmer weather and that fabled blue water. With some knots in our stomachs we head out – afterall this will be our first experience with the Gulf Stream – and after having had too much time to contemplate what it might be like… I don’t know about you, but I seem to always have to think through all the worst case scenarios in order to feel I am ready – but that also doesn’t help with butterflies.

So on Boxing Day there is a constant stream of boats exiting the Lake Worth Inlet, parading by our boat. We holler “Fair Winds and Good Luck” to our friends on Keeper and Willow as they pass by a few hours before we leave. Then we and Foggy head out at about 3:30pm, Yannick and Dominique on LaLoup are just behind and Adam in See Adler, a young solo sailor from Quebec. It’s exhilarating to be part of so many boats heading out and there’s some comfort in the feeling we are not doing this alone. But it’s a big ocean and everyone travels at their own speed and their own course. Some of our friends are taking a longer passage to the Berry Islands, a little more south in the Bahamas. We are going pretty much straight across 58NM to West End, literally the most north westerly Harbour in the Bahamas.

The night is clear with stars but the swells are still more than 1.5m. We are able to sail for the first couple hours in the 10kts NW winds. As they diminish and the sun sets, we dowse the sails and turn on the motor. In our calculation, we were trying to get to West End in the first daylight, but knowing that we would be getting pushed north off our course once we hit the Gulf Stream, we added extra time into the crossing. We also had to keep an eye out for all the commercial boat traffic in the Gulf Stream. Once in a while a freighter would appear on the AIS, but they were easily avoided with small course corrections. The same was the case with the brightly lit cruise ships that frequent this area on their way to vacation destinations. Especially at night they look quite ridiculous – like huge bright city blocks with amusement parks on the roof. One of these was the “Disney Wish“, which had a lit up Santa Sleigh with reindeer on the top. This particular boat is 1,119 feet long, 128 feet wide, 221 feet high with a 27.2 foot draft. The behemoth weighs 144,000 gross tons, carries 1,550 crew and 4,000 passengers at a cruising speed of 19.5kts. Wow! And Disney has 5 ships in their fleet right now, with 3 more being added by 2025! And that’s just one cruise line – what are we doing to our world!

As we were making steady progress, the Gulf Stream current was not pushing us north as much as we had anticipated, so while we were correcting for it’s slight northerly push we were still easily making 5 kts headway towards our destination. By 3am we were just in front of West End. The water had shallowed to about 20 feet in a matter of minutes, coming off the Florida Straight. It was still 4 hours before daylight. The entrance to the cut into West End has lighted buoys but it’s narrow and rocky. We had been told that it was no problem entering and that there would be a wall at the fuel dock to tie up to. But we had never been through before, didn’t know the exact layout of the cut and how many boats would be inside, plus the entrance was exposed to the west wind and waves. As Dave made our approach with me standing on the bow, I freaked out: All I could see in the dim moon light was a rocky wall with no entry. I yelled: “Abort! Abort!”. At the last second Dave pulled the boat around and we went back out into the open water. A catamaran that had been following us and was waiting for us made his approach and disappeared into the cut. Through the binoculars we could see his mast light going back and forth in the harbour behind the rocks. He had made it in no problem, but we weren’t a catamaran. There was an anchorage marked just south of the cut. One sailboat was anchored here, rocking and rolling in the waves. It was not an ideal spot but our best hope to get some rest. We circled around, trying to stay in deeper water while the waves were crashing onto the shore in front of us. Luckily, our Rocna anchor found a decent hold in 22′ of clear warm water. We put an anchor alarm on and tried to get a little bit of a rest until day break. Our friends pulled in beside us a little later and faced the same uncomfortable anchorage as us.

As soon as it was light enough, we both hoisted anchor to get into the harbour. Although we were still rolling in big swells, the scenery was gorgeous – the water stunningly turquoise blue and we could see some pretty houses along the shore. The entry into the harbour was so much easier in the daylight. We would have been fine with Dave following the charted channel – I had been fooled by the little jetty inside the harbour which had made it look like there was no opening when in fact a slight curve to starboard reveals the rest of the basin. The little basin was busy with boats anchored all along the way. While we made a coffee and had some breakfast in the calm, a local came up to let us know that customs was opening. Both Shane and Dave were the first ones through customs and immigration which are both in one convenient location here. There was no extra charge, no issues with the cat permit, that they didn’t even look at and we got our 3 month cruising permit for the Bahamas (US$ 300). A piece of cake.

By 10am we were on our way again. We did not have far to go. The waves were still bashing this shoreline so we took shelter at Ginn-sur-Mer, just a little over 3 NM further down the coast of Grand Bahama Island. The entrance to this failed resort development looks narrow but it’s buoyed with plenty of depth. Even with the westerly winds that were to increase, we hoped it would be calm here. Chris and Allison, who we had met in Port Washington while we were stuck there during a September storm and who had been in the Bahamas many times, hadn’t steered us wrong. Once through the reef lined entrance channel we turned and the water turned to glass. Foggy and Vitae were soon anchored and after a quick celebratory drink, we could finally have a little nap to make up for the night before.

There had been no other boats in the anchorage when we arrived but during the day we were joined by a few others and had 9 overnight. Ginn-sur-Mer is not particularly scenic. As we explored by dinghy, we could follow many little channels up from the main basin, all cut into the rocky, overgrown shoreline. In 2005 plans had been drawn up to build a $4.9 billion 2,000 acre resort with 2 golf courses, a 400 unit condo hotel, 1000 private homes complete with Tennis and equestrian centre, a Monte-Carlo style casino, and a 500 slip marina. You get the picture. The website for the development is still available online. However, the development was halted when the real estate developer Ginn – LA (Bobby Ginn and financial partner Lubert Adler) defaulted on their loan payments. Apparently, it was quite a scandal and I am sure some people made money on it. Even in 2022 attempts to sell the land to other developers have failed and so the basin just sits but makes a perfect, sheltered anchorage for the wayward sailor.

We slept like logs that night and woke to a rainy, windy morning, so we stayed put – Shane and Lori served up a delicious Eggs Benny breakfast and planned our escape to the Berri Islands. Later, what a happy surprise, Jon and Cheri, pulled in on African Queen. Yeah! They had stayed behind in West Palm needing to do another last minute repair on their water maker. For once, repairs had gone well and here they were!

As the weather was improving, we all made plans to get further south quickly. Even at the end of December it was not particularly warm yet in Grand Bahamas and all our other friends had recommended the Berry Islands. We wanted to make it to Great Harbor Cay on the North end. In order to sail there, we hoisted anchor in the dark at 3:30am, following the southern shore of Grand Bahamas until we turned more S toward the Berry Islands. The winds were from the NW at 12-15kts and once we turned we were sailing just under jib at 7+kts. When we surfed down the waves we made it to 9kts. Conditions were steady and the waves decreased a bit over the day to about 1m. It was a good sailing day on a broad reach and when Dave played some Vivaldi Concerti, a small pod of dolphins played around the bow of our boat for 15min, jumping and diving. That never gets old! Sorry, I still don’t have any good footage to proof it. I am too excited to watch them. There’s nothing better for the soul than those moments, I swear!

It ended up being a long day before we rounded the north of Great Stirrup Cay (which is mostly taken up and owned by the Carnival Cruise Line) and followed the east coast of Great Harbor Cay down to the Beach Club anchorage. As we followed Foggy and African Queen along the coast more and more familiar AIS signals from our friends boats were showing up. Awesome, they had moved to this side of the island to avoid the NW winds, but as we had not gotten our cell connection working very well we had not been able to follow the group messages, so we did not know they were there. Slowly we made our way into the anchorage in the dark. Our friend Jon on African Queen was already anchored and gave us directions to a good spot between the various boats. I was at the bow shining a flashlight in the water, so I could see the sandy patches to drop the anchor in. The water was crystal clear. Tomorrow we would finally get to explore this beautiful place.

And it did not disappoint. The whole bay had a beautiful white sand beach, the water was warm enough to jump off the boat and swim and so clear, it looked like our keel was sitting on the ground. Very easy to dive on your anchor to check if it is set. It was a little rolley from the swell wrapping around into the bay but Jon helped us set up a swell bridle, which really helped put the bow of the boat into the swell rather than into the wind (here is the link Jon sent us to explain the process. )

We spent the next 2 days here. While many of our friends were enjoying spear fishing and catching huge lobster. We went for numerous walks along the beach and even across the island checking out the protected marina of Great Harbor Cay, the little A&L Grocery store (“No, sorry, no fresh veggies – the mailboat hasn’t been here in almost 3 weeks because of rough weather!”). We met Alec from Soul Fly Lodge, a small fishing resort right on the beach, with a funky bar and great pool lounging area. The resort was deserted though, because he closed for the holidays so his staff could enjoy some well earned time off. Nice guy! Too bad, we had half hoped we could maybe do a New Years party by the pool!

We did learn that the actual New Beach Club also know as “Da Beach Club” was the place to be on New Years Eve. It is the only restaurant/bar on this side of Great Harbor Cay and also the place where all the locals celebrate. Come sometime just after sunset – we were told – that’s about 6pm. Mmmh, maybe a bit early but ok.

At 7pm Jon and Cheri picked us up and we headed over to Da Beach Club. We could barely find it, all was still dark. So we headed over to Keeper, where the rest of the gang had been polishing off a big lobster and a dinghy full of coconuts, Adam had gathered all day. Rum and Coconut water was being poured generously to get everyone in the spirit. It was amazing to see how many people Megan and Andrew’s Pan Oceanic 43 named Keeper could absorb without being crowded.

At a little after 9pm we finally saw some lights coming on at Da Beach Bar and we headed over in our dinghies. That night was a great party, and I could probably tell lots of stories, if the rum punches and mixed drinks hadn’t been so potent and I could actually remember it all. We’ll let the pictures tell the story! And how we all got back safely in our dinghies is a pure miracle.

With a bit of a groggy head the next morning, we still managed to get our selves organized and left the anchorage before 8am to head to Nassau. Not a place we were really eager to visit as the Canadian government had published safety warnings to Canadians travelling there. However, since our SIM card experience had been dreadful and hadn’t given us much usable data, we were hoping to get a portable mifi router from Aliv which would be our internet for the next 3 months.

It was a 9h straight run along the east side of the Berry Islands and then across to the North end of New Providence Island and the nations capital Nassau. To put it in perspective 70% of Bahamas population lives on this island, with 296,522 living in Nassau (according to the 2022 census). It is a major port for cruise ships and we saw 5 or 6 moored at the same time while there. We anchored next to African Queen, just west of the Sidney Potter Bridges in 10′. It was a tight spot just outside the channel and close to the entrance of the Bay Street Marina with constant traffic of big motor yachts. Loud music was blaring off some of the boats and the current runs through here quite strongly. It was a relatively convenient spot to be able to use a dinghy dock at the marina for a day use fee. For regular dockage they charge a ridiculous $5 per foot, too pricey for us. This marina had no diesel, but next door at Harbor Central we were able to get water for free when we filled up our gerry cans with fuel. And the dinghy dock allowed us easy access to grocery stores (Solomon’s Fresh Market) and a great marine store Harborside Marine, where we found all kinds of goodies. We spent the day shopping with Jon and Cheri, and finally getting a mifi router at the aliv store that solved our connectivity issue. Nassau was a necessary stop to get what we needed but we were soon ready to leave this busy, noisy port. Next stop would be the Exuma chain of islands which promised to be lots of shallow blue water, beaches and snorkelling.

Date	Description	Distance	Travel time
Dec. 26/23	West Palm, Florida to West End, Grand Bahamas; anchored at 3am SW of the entrance channel until 7:30am; tied up at the fuel dock at 8am	58.93NM	11:20h
Dec. 27/23	West End, Grand Bahamas to Ginn-sur-Mer, Grand Bahamas	3.76NM	0:55h
Dec. 28/23	stayed at Ginn-sur-Mer, Grand Bahamas
Dec. 29/23	Ginn-sur-Mer, Grand Bahamas to Great Harbor Cay (East side – Beach Club anchorage), Berry Islands	88.86NM	15:00h
Dec. 30 to 31/23	stayed at Beach Club anchorage, Berry Islands
Jan. 1/24	Beach Club, Berry Islands to Nassau, New Providence Island (West Nassau Channel, anchorage west of Sidney Poitier Bridge)	50.74NM	9:17h
2/24	stayed in Nassau
8 days	Total	202.29NM	36:32h
206	Total trip so far	3611.53NM	716:20h