Our provisional date for shipping was 20th June
and although a month away we felt under some pressure to have good
communication links so that the shipping company could contact us, we knew that
the Exumas would not give this to us so if we had reasonable weather we would
just sail to Miami and prepare ourselves and Magnum for the trip.
We left Black Point with about 20 knots of wind and bashed
up wind, with not much chop on the bank we made good progress and even enjoyed
tacking in as close as we could to the anchorage at Bell Island
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| Huge Ugly building on Bell Island |
Next day with 15 knots of wind we had a glorious sail, the
seas were flat the sun was shinning and we remembered how much we loved sailing
in the Bahamas . We had a bit of an issue with some tangled
reefing line and Mark demonstrated what a monkey he is by climbing onto the
boom.
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| Monkey Mark |
We whizzed along hard on the wind, it was nice after so many
weeks of sitting in Georgetown , enjoyed a
wonderful 20 miles sail on one of our last days in the Bahamas
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| Amanda enjoying being at the helm |
As we approached the anchorage at Shroud Cay we saw
Oystermist anchored in prime location, it was weeks since we had said goodbye
to Wendy and Graham in Gerogetown. It
was nice to catch up that evening and were really grateful for the distraction,
we had both been feeling pretty stressed.
Next day we were up with the sun and motoring out of Shroud
Cay.
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| Sunrise over Shroud - Silhouette of Oystermist |
The sail/motor to West
Bay on Nassau was a frustrating one, we had 60 miles
to travel and very little wind, we spent the day trying to get any speed we
could from the sails but having to motor.
It was baking hot and we were both a bit sad to say goodbye to the
beautiful Exumas. We spent most the day
in 3-4 metres of water and it was really good when we had to skirt around the
end of the Tongue of the Ocean and were suddenly off soundings. The anchorage at the western point of New Providence Island
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| What is this place at West Bay, New Providence |
We had a peaceful night at anchor but were again at first light to start our passage to Miami . We hoisted the mainsail and pulled out the
foresail to make the most of any wind but it was very light and we were
motoring. One other boat followed us out
of the anchorage and there were 2 catamarans off to port and we were all on a converging
course at the North West Passage. We
were quickly off soundings but the see what flat and glassy with no wind, we
had around 50 miles to get to the Grand Bahamas bank and unfortunately the
conditions did not really change so we were unable to sail but we still made
progress. This part of the journey was
brighten by the sight of one or more whale on the horizon, in the flat sea they
were easy to spot, it must have been 3 metres long with a short fin sitting
quite far back, we had the book out to try to identify and we think it was a
Beaked whale of some description, quite exciting.
As we reached the Bank the water came up quick to around 4
metres, this felt like the second leg of our journey. By this time there were a few more sports
fishing boats around and some sailing boats heading in the opposite direction
but winds were still light and we were still motoring. The highlight of this part of the journey was
the sight of a very large loggerhead turtle which surfaced to say hello and
then was off out of sight.
As the night approached we sat down to a delightful meal
prepared by Mark, Courgette Omelette (aka egg mess in a bowl), baby carrots and
roasted sweet potato, delicious and the seas were that flat we even had the
table up, this never happens at sea!
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| mmmm yummy dinner |
As night fell it was sad to think this was our last night in
the Bahamas
probably ever, not sure we would have the chance to return here when there are
still so many other places in the World we have yet to visit.
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| Beautiful sunset |
Amanda went to bed with Mark on watch as we crept across the
shallows in never more that 4 metres of water until we reached Riding Rock
where we left the bank we soon off soundings and into the Florida Straits. Mark headed off to bed and Amanda was on
watch as we headed towards the Gulf Stream and
on the last leg of our journey to the States, still motoring!
Overnight there were a few tankers and cargo ships, ever
glad of our AIS to tell us how far away there would be, always difficult to
judge speed and distance, some passed under half a mile away which always seems
relatively close.
As the sun came up the number of fishing boats buzzing
around started to increase, we had not picked up as much Gulf Stream as we had
expected so we had to start to alter course to head directly to Miami . With such a prominent skyline we could see Miami for hours before we
actually arrived into the harbour, it is so disheartening when you are
moving at 5 knots towards your
destination!
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| Miami on the horizon |
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| Downtown Miami getting closer |
As we entered Miami
harbour it was bumpy with the tide and the wash from the hordes of passing
powerboat, you feel pretty close to the towering hotels and condos.
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| Entering Miami harbour |
There were powerboats everywhere plus small ferries and
various working boats, it was a challenge for us to drop out sail when we still
in the channel. We knew it would be busy
at the weekend but we did not realise it was Memorial Day weekend, it was
manic! It took a good hour to manoeuvre through the harbour through 2 bridges
and various very very shallow patches to reach our anchorage at South Beach or
SOBE as the locals call it, we were glad to be here but in for a bumpy few
hours with the holiday traffic.
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| Anchorage overlooked by downtown Miami |
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