Voyage 2002-2003: Chapter 5

We arrived in Vero Beach at 5:30 am after an exhausting 17 hour drive from Vienna VA. We were in Vienna as Bob mom's was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She died on 4 Feb at 1007. We had other family business that kept us up there until the 14th. We are glad to be back but our black cloud continues to follow us. Samantha Jane (cat) has developed the sniffles. We don't know how serious it is, so we will be taking her to the vet tomorrow.

On a brighter note, our good friends and our god-kids came to visit us here at Vero. They live in Orlando now and it is a painful drive. We really appreciated their company. Harry and I have known each other since 7th grade. As we are both older than fossils, that has been a long time! More good news! It appears that a good weather window will open up Tuesday through Friday. We hope to leave here early Tuesday, go on the outside at Ft Pierce, hang a left at Miami and enter the Bahamas Banks sometime Wednesday. Hopefully, we will be at Chub Cay by Friday. That would really be kewl!!

19 Feb 2003, Grand Bahama Bank, 25 44.400 N/ 078 45.799 W

We left Vero Beach yesterday at 1200, traversed Fort Pierce Inlet (following tide) and headed down the coast. At 0500 today, we left the coast at Fort Lauderdale headed for North Rock on the Bank, We arrived there at 1600 today and now we are headed for Mackie Shoal light. If everything goes as planned, we will leave the Bank at 0600 headed for Nassau. That's a lot of traveling but we have a two to three day weather window. Not much sailing (of course) but at least we are getting to where we want to go.

The Gulf Stream was still churning from the last cold front but it was manageable. The SE wind on the bank was actually worse as wind and waves were on our nose. Our last hurdle before Nassau is entering the Northwest Channel where the waves can be quite mean. Sleep has been our main issue. We take turns going to the mid berth for cat naps. Neither of us has had more than 2 hours of continuous sleep since we left Vero. Got to go. Have to make a course change at Mackie Light.

24 Feb 2003, Life in Nassau, 25 04.549 N/ 077 19.010 W

Last Thursday we passed Mackie Point on the Banks. We were ahead of schedule and Bob was concerned about arriving at the Northwest Light. There are a series of shoals there followed by really deep water (Northwest Channel). We heard reports from other cruisers that this transition can really cause nasty waves. If this was our fate, we wanted to see them in the light. Bob throttled down to 2 kts for about an hour and a half. As the eastern sky was showing some light, we came to the Light. No big waves. Life is good. We spent the next seven hours motoring (yep, the wind is still in our face) in 4-5 foot waves. We found a couple of hatch leaks due to waves covering the deck.

We arrived at the entrance of Nassau Harbor at 1600. Ann contacted Nassau Harbor Control and requested permission to enter. This was a first for us-requesting permission to enter a harbor. Lots of interesting sites (we were too busy navigating to take any pictures). A seaplane landed 100 yards behind our stern. Fact: seaplanes must yield to all other vessels. There are not many navigation markers in the harbor. The occasional 'stick' in the middle of the harbor indicates the center of a shoal. Fortunately, you can deduce the depth of the water by its color (sometimes). We will have to build on that skill as we head south.

We tied up at 1630 without incident. Bob was concerned that we would do something stupid as we were so tired. We didn't. We stopped at the Nassau Yacht Haven, a pleasant working marina with several cruisers. We waited for Customs until 2000 and then we put up our courtesy flag.We then went to bed after we had some home cooked hot dogs!

On Friday, we hiked to downtown Nassau and looked for the Catholic Church. Before we left, we had lunch at the Poop Deck restaurant which overlooks the marina. Ann wanted to do some window shopping and Bob didn't. The people here drive crazy. They are much worse than the drivers in our area (Washington DC). The people were friendly even in the high tourist districts. The Catholic Church was over an hour hike from our marina. And we will have to do this again on Sunday! Did we say it was hot? Well, it was hot.