Crossing to the Abacos

On Saturday Nov. 13th we saw a weather window opening later in the week and decided to leave the delights of Vero and get on down to Lake Worth where we could position ourselves to leave should it actually open. This was a sudden development which caught many of our friends unprepared to pull up their hooks. But after talking to both “About Time” and “Tally Ho” we found them ready and willing to head out too. It was sad to leave so many boats behind but as we pulled away we received radio calls from Kinverra, Antares, Discovery, and Kokopelli, wishing us “fair winds and calm seas” and promising to look for us later in the Bahamas.

The first night we anchored in Hobe Sound with “About Time”. Unfortunately however, their bilge pump began malfunctioning and so we were forced to part company early the next morning with them heading off to West Marine and us continuing on with Tally Ho to West Palm. We had planned on heading straight to the anchorage at the Lake Worth inlet to wait for a chance to jump out into the Atlantic--anywhere from one to two days away but “Tally Ho” had other ideas. Better ideas. They knew of a “secret anchorage” not on the charts which put us into a watery cul-de-sac in 12 feet of quiet water in an upscale neighbourhood of multli-million dollar mega-mansions. We luxuriated in these opulent surroundings for 2 days waiting for the seas in the gulf, which had been stirred up to dangerous heights by previous horrendous weather, to calm down. On Wed. Nov.14th conditions were absolutely perfect! We headed off to Lake Worth Inlet and anchored with half a dozen other boats waiting to cross too. We went to bed early, but kept radio contact open with the others during the night. We set our alarms for 4:30am and by 5:30 were heading out in a procession towards Memory Rock, and the Bahamas.

There was no moon and the waters were black but the lights of Palm Beach shone behind us and we could see signs of the sky beginning to lighten ahead. Wind was about 5kt from the SW and the sea was virtually flat! We entered the gulf stream an hour later and 6 miles out and were amazed to find no change in these benign conditions. And it continued all day!! We put up our mainsail to steady the boat but ended up motoring all the way to Great Salel Cay across water smooth as silk. The only sign of “activity” on the ocean were small schools of flying fish which accompanied us on the crossing, skittering along side us like stones skipping across the water.

We arrived at Great Sale Cay at 10:30pm joining about 8 other boats already at anchor for the night. Among them was “Antares”--our old friend from Vero who decided to head out a day after us. We fell into a deep sleep the moment our heads hit the pillows that night and 6 hours later woke to find the flat, calm conditions still persisting. And so it was another motoring day all the way to Green Turtle Cay--our final destination. This was such an easy passage!! Nothing at all like the trip from Florida to Nassau. Once past Great Sale Cay in the Abacos you feel like you’re cruising down a channel through islands dotting both sides of the boat to the north and south in the distance. And it is a very comfortable feeling to be able to see land on both sides of the boat. We arrived at beautiful Green Turtle Cay at 3:00pm and cautiously entered the well marked channel into White Sound on a rising half-tide seeing no less than 7.2’ of water all the way in. After tying up in our slip, we set off in our dinghy for the town of New Providence where we cleared customs and then returned to the comfort of our boat to unwind with a cold drink in the cockpit. We are here at last! Bahamas is beautiful. It’s warm and sunny and our surroundings are breath-taking. But more about that in the next blog.