After a five day passage, we arrived in the Bahamas on the morning of January 9th. As always, the passage went to plan — and didn’t. We’ve been really pleased with the weather routing service we use and have found that in combination with our own review and planning, we have a generally good idea of our route and length of our time on the ocean. Of course, the longer the days at sea, the less accurate the weather forecast can be. We’ve found anything beyond a 3 day window has some variability built in based on how much weather systems do or don’t follow predicted patterns. Thus, we get updated forecasts every 12 hours or so and also pay for additional updates upon request from our service along the way.
The direct route from Beaufort, NC to the Abacos is about 470 nm. Due to weather systems and the Gulf Stream we did not take the direct route. Instead, we planned to dogleg around a large weather system with gale force winds and to cross the Gulf Stream when conditions were right.
A few days into the passage, because of having to motor more than we’d expected, we calculated that even though we left the mainland US with full tanks and extra diesel containers, we might not have enough to get to the Bahamas if the wind didn’t pick up. Rather than cut it close, we chose to detour about 50 nm (that’s 9 hours for us!) to Hilton Head, SC to fuel up. We were fortunate to arrive there during regular business hours, so we were able to fuel up and immediately head back out. Even so, a long detour.
Of course, once we had topped up our diesel, the wind turned on. We had a spirited 24 hours of sailing and crossed the Gulf Stream without incident. It can feel discouraging when we motor a lot (WHY do we have a sailboat?), but times like these are an utter delight. As the wind built we kept reefing our sails (that makes them smaller) and the boat kept going faster and faster. We had the fastest sailing we’ve ever done with sustained speeds of 9 kn and peak of 11 kn.
But…. With wind comes waves, and the 24 hours of sailing also created some seasickness amongst our crew. The wind eventually blew itself out, and the gorgeous warm weather and calm seas on the other side of it were that much sweeter because of the experience.
As we got close to the Bahamas, we had made such good time that we had to shut off one engine and run the other barely above idle forward to slow the boat down! We didn’t want to arrive before daybreak and navigate an unfamiliar cut in the dark.
It was been great to have Brian join for the passage. We all got plenty of rest despite needing to maintain a 24 hour watch, and he is delightful company. The dinners we pre-cooked came in handy, and a shared hot meal each night kept our morale high.
We landed at Spanish Cay, a tiny island on the north end of the Abacos. Clearing in was very easy — Jim simply went to the office at the marina and was done in 15 minutes — which is one reason we chose to arrive at Spanish Cay. Spanish Cay caters to a lot of fishermen, and it’s off-season for fishing, so there were just a couple of other boats in the marina. The island itself is owned by the marina (except for a small handful of homes on the island), and we enjoyed exploring the very quiet island with its beaches. It was especially nice since we had spent the previous five days on the boat at sea. We wrapped up our first night in the Bahamas with a fun and yummy dinner of conch, grouper, and tuna at the marina restaurant — we had to order by 2pm so they knew what food to prepare — and followed by a great night’s sleep tied up securely in the marina.
