Escape from Palm Beach and Crossing the Florida Straits

Departure from Palm Beach and arrival West End Bahamas (finally)

Crossing the Florida Straits and the Gulf Stream

Our Stay in West End

18-25 January 2017

West End:

Latitude 26 degrees  42.2 minutes North

Longitude 78 degrees 59.5 minutes West 

With winds forecasted from the South for about 3 days around January 19^th, we began to prepare for our departure.  We went through our checklist, but the night before departure planned for the early morning of the 18^th, Elena reported that the fires went out on the stove and would not relight.  Out of propane!!  We debated whether to wait until the Bahamas using our backup propane tank or fill the next morning in Palm Beach and delaying our departure, possibly forcing an overnight sail.  We decided on the later, went ashore at 8:30am and picked up an Uber ride to the propane dealership.  We were back on board by 11am and underway in the afternoon. 

We made the bridge opening at 3:15 and  exited the Palm Beach inlet at 4:15pm. 

Late in the afternoon, after putting sails up, we began to seen shipping southbound and turned north to go astern of these large ships.  Elena noticed that we were making 9 knots and before we knew it we were well north of our intended track.  I turned southeast and eventually almost directly south in the face of the Gulf Stream, at one point crawling along at 1.5 knots.

While seas were calm (as required by Elena for our first crossing), winds were light and we motorsailed almost all the way across.  Elena turned in about 9pm and for the first time since we started this trip, slept well underway.  I took the watch for the evening, at least until moonrise at midnight.  Our watchstanding routine is scheduled so that Elena has some light on her watch and I take the dark hours.

The first half of my watch was uneventful and very calm.  Every once in a while, a light would appear on the horizon that my instincts would interpret as an anchor light.  But of course, there are no anchored ships in the Gulf Stream in over 2000 feet of water.  They all turned out to be airplanes low on the horizon, until they passed overhead,

I was unintentionally sailing in company with another sailboat we had seen in Vero Beach (identified by the Automated Identification System (AIS)) as well as several that were not visible on AIS.  I could hear them chatter between themselves on the VHF radio.

The clouds blocked the moon and I decided to let Elena sleep in.  About 2am, I noticed an AIS target “Queen Elizabeth” who was going to pass close to our compatriots.  I called them on VHF and asked them if they had noticed us (they had not). 

About 3am, the Queen Elizabeth passed her closest point to Sophia about 3 miles on QE’s bow.  She was of course lit up like a small city, as all the cruise liners are.  The rest of the watch was uneventful for the most part.  Elena relieved me at 3:30am, slightly perturbed I had not woken her up for the QE. 

Elena woke me at 7am and we pulled down sails at 9am in preparation to sailing into West End.  We finally got the dockmaster on the VHF, got the OK to sail in, circled around for about 30 minutes while they tied up other boats and finally got pierside about 11am.  We checked into Customs without incident.

All in all, the crossing was pleasant and rewarding experience.

On Friday, Elena and I got a ride down to the phone office (about 15 miles away and halfway to Freeport) to get our Bahama phones and internet connection.  There was major damage from Hurricane Matthew all through the “settlement” at West End, the worst we have seen in all of our travels.

 

Also on Friday, Elena received notification of her citizenship interview (a little late, but still welcomed).  She will fly back in mid-February for about a week or perhaps a little more.

In our small bit of protest (in addition to leaving the country, of course), Elena and I turned the news off for 3 days including and especially, the 20^th (Inauguration Day), although the news was on at the phone office, so I did cheat a bit while waiting for Elena to set up the phones.

On Saturday, we went to the beach and I scrubbed the waterline of all the algae and moss we had collected since October.

 

Sunday, we did laundry, breaking out the hand washer that Jamie and Manny gave us for Christmas a year ago.  It took us all day, but the hand cranked operation worked well. (The marina has no electricity on the docks or the laundry room as a result of Hurricane Matthew.)

 

 The local fishermen brought in fresh conch (a large sea snail) and lobsters, selling them around the docks.  We bought four lobsters and grilled them on Sunday which Elena enjoyed immensely.

The weather was forecasted to turn bad on Sunday night with the same system that killed 20 in the Southeast US.  Winds were forecasted to be up to 50-60 knots.  We had been watching the system for some time, which is why we chose to check in at West End, the closest port, giving us an opportunity to stay put or move on.  We chose to stay put, putting out extra mooring line (10 instead of our normal 4) and tying everything tight.  Sure enough, we saw winds pick up on Sunday and by the early morning hours on Monday, winds were consistently 30 knots and gusting to 40 (one of our marina mates here recorded 50).   Tuesday the winds continued at 20-30 knots.

We buddied up with “Kaiulani” (Rob and Lynn).  We had crossed paths with them first in Coinjock NC and then in Oriental NC.  Rob was generous with his huge stock of beer and Elena taught them how to drink Russian vodka, Russian Standard to be exact.

During all of this weather, there was some poor sailboat out on the bank about 2 miles off the jetties, aground.   He was heeled over at about 30 degrees and starting to take a beating.  At some point on Monday afternoon, a fishing boat pulled him off, but it was too late for him to get into port, the seas running 8-10 feet in the inlets, whose transit is necessary to both get out of the bank and then to get into West End, a very dangerous maneuver.  He stayed anchored out there in all that wind for two days, a single lonely boat during the day, and a lonelier single anchor light at night.  I want to run into that guy later, buy him a drink, and get the full story.  Just glad it is not my story.

 Note:  I spoke with the crew of “Wild Blue” while doing this post.  The boat has a leak at the keel and a damaged rudder.  “Wild Blue”  will have to be towed back to the states for repairs, ending the season for the crew.  We are happy no one was hurt.  I must say the crew seemed in good spirits for all they have been through.

The winds will turn to veer to the south on late on Wednesday (January 25^th) and be steady out of the south on Thursday.  Most of the 9-10 boats here in the marinas are planning to leave on Wednesday some south, some east, but since our first leg is to the north, we are going to wait for the fair winds on Thursday.  Our next stop of significance will be Green Turtle Cay (pronounced “key”) with several short stops on the way,