Our first international arrival

After days of preparation we finally untied the dock lines and left Key West about 1700 (5PM) Wednesday for our trip to the Bahamas. The time and date of departure had been under discussion for a while but based on all the factors we decided that the late Wednesday afternoon departure would be best.

My estimate was a 30 hr trip so if we left Thursday morning we would get into Nassau midday Friday. But several folks suggested it might take longer than 30 hrs so we went with a longer estimate and planned to leave earlier. The earlier departure also allowed us to leave the Florida reef during daylight and cross onto the Bahama bank in daylight and probably arrive in Nassau about daybreak. Also when we got our weather data from our weather routers, Dane and Jennifer Clark, there was a forecast of rising northerly swells in the Gulf Stream building Thursday afternoon so it would be good to be mostly across before then. As it turned out we ran then engine for 34 hours from the time we turned it on to warm it up before we left our slip until the time we turned it off after cooling down in our slip. The little sailing we did didn’t really reduce the engine hours since it didn’t provide much forward progress. So my original estimate of 30-35 was fairly close.

Using Gulf Stream data from Jennifer I plotted waypoints for our trip. Our initial leg was about 50 miles at a heading off 101d. That took us into the Gulf Stream. Then our next waypoint was about 60d for about 40 miles and then turning to 77d for about 55 miles. That would get us to the Bahama bank. Then a course of about 79d for about 56 miles across the bank to the tongue of the ocean and then a course of about 120d for about 40 miles to Nassau. Our estimate was that the trip would be about 240 nm so at about 8 kts that’s 30 hrs. In actuality it was probably closer to 260 and 32 hrs of travel. Still an average of 8 kts.

We started out while the folks at Boca Chica were gathering for happy hour and there were lots of folks on the sandbar where we had gone on Sunday. There was a little breeze of about 5-6kts almost dead behind us so it wasn’t sailable but also would not cause problems in the Stream.

In about 2-3 hrs we could begin to see the influence of the Stream as we crossed over the reef and into deep water. We began to pick up speed which was good because we had been lagging in the contra current. We were initially doing less than 7 kts GPS speed but over 8 through the water but soon our GPS speed increased to 8, 9 and then 10 kts. It’s too bad it was dark because I wanted to see what 10 kts looked like. We’ve sailed in the 9 kts range but don’t think we hit 10 unless we did coming down the Bay in December.

Night sailing is always fascinating. Usually it starts with an incredible sunset. Wednesday night we watched the sun melt into the sea. As it got dark the lights of the reef markers came on as the lights onshore faded away. However, in the darkness the penumbras of the islands became visible as did the huge one over south Florida. The light pollution from urban areas drowns out the stars but fortunately we were far enough away and there was no moon that the constellations and galaxies were fully evident. Planets were clearly visible. I even saw a shooting star blaze across the sky and then disappear.

For the night sail we worked watches as we usually do. Linda napped first and came on about 1 as we were blazing through the Gulf Stream and we hit our second waypoint. I napped while Linda watched but then she woke me just before 5 when we hit the next waypoint and ships did not appear on AIS. I

This point was just north of Sal Cay where the 2 branches of the Gulf Stream merge and head north up the Florida coast. This is also a very busy shipping lane with all the traffic headed up and down the east coast to and from the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. At one point we had 4 targets on AIS. A target is a ship that is a potential threat to us. But, I was able to thread the needle without changing course.

We soon left the shipping lanes and made a beeline for the Banks. We crossed over just before 1100 Thursday pretty much as expected. 18 hrs from the time we left the dock.

Once on the Banks the water changed from large deep blue swells to turquoise chop. With little wind we motored straight to the tongue of the ocean just north of Andros Island. On the Banks we saw shrimpers and fishing boats looking for the bounty from the deep.

Our original plan was to continue on to the Island of New Providence and drop the hook in West Bay for the night before proceeding into our marina. But, the flanks to West Bay have shoals and coral heads that shouldn’t be a problem but going in at night to a place we’re not familiar with could raise risks we don’t need to take. So we passed off the Banks before sunset into deep water again and sailed or at least tried to. The wind quickly died so we began to motor. But then the wind came up but directly in the way we needed to go. Not much wind so we sailed tacking back and forth. We were able to sail 3-4 kts with about 7 kts of apparent wind. Not bad for a 35,000# boat.

About 0230 we decided it was time to get to the finish so we pulled in the sails and motored the remaining 35 miles to Nassau and as the skies started to brighten we saw the skyline rising ahead of us.

The sun came up again with red hues indicating a change of weather was due. But before it was we were able to receive permission to enter the harbor and got to our marina and added fuel before docking. Within an hour of getting in our slip the Bahamian Customs and Immigration Officers arrived and processed us into the Bahamas. Once completed the usual tasks of boat chores began to get ready for a few days in port. Amekaya’s first international excursion had begun.

More pictures to follow about our crossing.