Crew Log for December 31st, 2022 - January 1st, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Lake Worth – Lucaya, Grand Bahama
• Trip Distance of 97.4 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,556.8NM
• Departed at 16h30, arrived at 10h30 + 1 day
A brief pause to acknowledge that we have travelled over 2,500 miles in the last 4.5 months and have now sailed in three different countries on Elizabeth M. At the risk of being overtly self congratulatory, I think that is pretty cool for 2 un-adventurous grandparents from Nova Scotia to have gotten this far, and I am proud of what we accomplished together. I am also super excited to be in the Bahamas!
We had been anchored in North Palm Beach on Lake Worth for 9 days now, the longest we have stayed anywhere. The reason we have been here for so long as we needed very specific weather conditions to make the crossing from Florida to the Bahamas.
Since we entered the top of the Chesapeake on October 16, the last 2.5 months have been all about making miles south, primarily on inland waterways and relatively protected bodies of water. Our goal had always been to get to the Bahamas, although the specifics of what our time in the Bahamas would look like has changed several times, as we talked to fellow cruisers we met along the way, and gathered new information. However, given the fact that the journey to get us to this point has taken 4.5 months, underscores that this adventure has been far more than getting to the Bahamas.
The places we have visited, the people we have met, the things we have learned and yes, the small tragedies we suffered along the way, have all been an important part of the adventure. However, it was New Year’s Eve 2022, we had a weather window, which meant that we would be spending the first day of 2023 in the Bahamas.
The Gulf Stream is a fast moving Atlantic current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows past Florida, up the US east coast to North Carolina where it tracks towards northeastern Europe. Before much was known about the Gulf Stream, early explorers noted that despite brisk winds they couldn’t move forward in the stream, given the current was more powerful than the wind. There are places where the Gulf Stream travels at more than 5.5 knots, which happens to be our average cruising speed, so the challenges of trying to sail against the stream are obvious.
In addition to the current, any wind opposing the flow of the gulf stream, is problematic. The force of the wind against the current creates standing waves making the sea state uncomfortable at best and potentially dangerous, possibly life threatening. Most sailors know the rules, never cross with any northerly or easterly component to the wind, and given the lingering sea state, the most conservative approach would be to wait 24 hours following any north wind, to allow the seas to settle.
Grand Bahama Island is straight east of our departure point at Lake Worth inlet. However, since we effectively get pushed “sideways” while we are in the Gulf Stream, we have to plot a course 40 degrees further south than our destination, to compensate. If the wind stays south east, this means we will be beating into it, which is not ideal. Remember the old adage, "Gentlemen never sail to weather". Windy, the weather app that we use, and the update we got from our weather forecasting service, all predicted that the winds would track from the north east to the south throughout the day, providing a suitable east bound travel window.
Our plan was to leave North Palm Beach at 16h30 to allow time for the wind to shift to the south, and give us time to get to Lake Worth Inlet at slack tide. We would sail through the night, and if all goes well, reach Lucaya early the next morning. Most boats leaving here would check at West End, which is closer and easier since it is a little further north. The other option would be to chart a direct course to Great Harbor Cay in the Berries , which would take over 30 hours. Our plan was to break the trip up, checking in at Lucaya on Grand Bahama before heading on, and the forecasted wind direction favored our proposed plan.
We busied ourselves with prepping the boat for the crossing. Not only had we ben on anchor for 9 days, but we hadn’t really sailed much since we left the Chesapeake, so we had to turn our home back into a sailboat. It was New Year’s Eve so most of the marinas were shutting down at noon time. Fortunately, we got into Old Port Cove Marina for fuel, water and a pumpout before they started turning people away. We were ready!
We lifted the anchor at 16h30 along with Blue Jazz and Sensai, who we would be buddy boating with, and we were joined by d’Accord, who were planning to go to West End. I immediately noticed our knot meter wasn’t working. For those of you who don't know, we have a small paddlewheel sensor that is on the underside of the boat. As we move through the water, the forward motion spins the paddlewheel, and relays that information to our instruments. If we have been stationary for a length of time, small bits of growth and other debris prevent the paddlewheel from spinning.
Our chartplotter does provide us with a more accurate measurement of speed over ground, and we can estimate distances from our charts, so having the knot meter isn't essential. However, we are more comfortable when everything is working the way it supposed to.
As Judy navigated the boat back into the ICW, I went below and pulled the transducer up, plugged the hole and went about cleaning the “paddlewheel”. I’d done this several times before, but I can assure you, starting a Gulf Stream crossing with water rushing through a 2 inch hole in your boat, is not the ideal start we were hoping for. With the knot meter fixed, we made our way towards West Palm Beach.
It was New Year’s Eve. It seemed like everyone in West Palm Beach was celebrating on the water. There were boats going in every direction at top speed and our little sailboat was taking a beating from the wakes. Several boats came uncomfortably close to us, which was totally unnecessary and left me wondering what their motive was. Our route took us around Peanut Island, a popular party spot, which was completely enveloped by speed boats. New Year’s celebrations were in full swing as we cautiously made our way through the mayhem. Our log notes simply read, “slow going around Peanut Island. Boats everywhere. People are NUTS”.
Despite timing our transit through Lake Worth Inlet at slack tide, conditions were unsettled and rough. In addition to our flotilla, there were several other boats leaving, including Parblue and another boat from Quebec.
Safely out of the channel, we quickly realized that the winds stayed more southeasterly than expected and so we couldn’t point as far south as we’d originally hoped. We decided to motor sail, while our buddy boats opted to motor on a more direct course. We had heard on the radio that Parblue decided to veer off the wind and sail on course north of West End and then tack back down to Lucaya. It will be interesting to see who’s strategy made the most sense. We very quickly lost sight of our buddy boats and eventually lost radio contact with them altogether.
It was a beautifully clear night. However, the conditions were choppy and in addition to beating into the wind, we had over 1.5 knots of current against us, which made for some really slow going.
At midnight we watched a spectacular fireworks display from Florida. Judging from the direction, it looked like it might have been from Disney World in Orlando. It certainly was an impressive show even from 25 or 30 miles away. There were very few boats around us for most of the evening, although we did see what we speculated were cruise ships off in the distance and some commercial traffic.
We had a muted New Year’s celebration on board before settling into a watch schedule for the rest of the night. Judy had prepared a nice snack for midnight which I unfortunately fed to the fish a short while later. My response was more a reflection of the sea state than the quality of the midnight snack.
As the sun started to rise, we started to notice more commercial shipping traffic and caught our first glimpse of the Bahamian coastline. We made our way up the Northwest Providence Channel, an incredibly deep body of water that runs between Grand Bahama Island that the Mackie Shoals. The water here is over 3,000 feet deep and is dark blue, a sharp contrast to the shallow turquoise waters of the banks, although both are crystal clear.
Our route took us past Freeport towards the Port Lucaya Yacht Club where we would be checking in. Our plan was to stay the night and head out early the next day for the Berry Islands, however when I dropped the mainsail I noticed a small tear along the leading edge that we would need to get fixed. We tried not to let it dampen our mood as we reminded ourselves, we were in the Bahamas!
With the sails safely packed away, we made our way to the entrance to Port Lucaya where we caught our first glimpse of the amazing turquoise waters. It was unlike anything we’d had ever experienced. The water is so clear you can literally see right to the bottom and see fish swimming by.
Customs and Immigration is right on the dock at the Port Lucaya Yacht Club. We had given them a heads up that we would be arriving that morning. They directed us to our slip and we went over to check in. We had filled out most of the paperwork prior to arriving using Click2Clear, and while it was an incredibly painful process it did speed up the onsite check. After 15-20 minutes, we had our cruising and fishing permits and were officially in the Bahamas.
The Yacht Club was showing some signs of the effects of harsh weather over the years, but is a beautiful facility with an incredibly helpful and friendly staff. We asked the dockmaster, Fabian, if there was somewhere we could get our sail repaired. “Yes man, we have a lady. Her name is Maggie. She can do it”. Maggie was enjoying the holiday break at home, but within a few minutes the marina had contacted her and she agreed to fix our sail and have it back to us later in the week.
Rather than limp around without a mainsail we decided to stay in Port Lucaya and arrange to get our Bahamian SIM cards for our phones while we waited. Sensai decided to head to Great Harbor in the morning, but invited us over to toast New Year’s before they left. Blue Jazz decided to stay with us and work on some boat repairs of his own.
Our decision to stay also meant that we could experience the local culture, including the Junkanoo celebrations the following evening.
But more about that, next time.
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