Put a notch in my belt because I finally got to cross the gulf stream! I realize this is not a big deal for a lot of sailors but I had been looking forward to doing this for a while. The very unfortunate part of the trip is that Amber could not join me because she had just started a new job and it was opening week. What terrible timing.
So Rick and I flew down ahead of the rest of the crew to Fort Lauderdale early on a Wednesday with the intentions of readying the boat and leaving early Thursday morning. The best laid plans of mice and men...
I'll preface with the boat. Its a brand new, just delivered 2 months ago, Lagoon 560 sailing catamaran. A beautiful and intimidating boat that is over twice as long as my H26 and almost 4 times as wide.
The preparations and provisioning Wednesday starts well enough. There were guys crawling all over the boat installing a new Direct TV HD satellite dish, and custom fit cushion covers. Rick and I were buzzing all over town trying to check all the items off of his mental list of preparations.
It was later that day when several things happened. Unplugging from shore power to go get fuel we discovered that the generator was running but it wasn't powering anything. No bueno. We went to get fuel anyway and managed to mangle the ladder on the side of the boat with a piling. Also no bueno. Getting fuel and returning was uneventful except for learning the docking procedures of a new, and larger than i'm use to, boat. So at the end of the day with no generator, only half of the groceries we needed, and a new ladder to buy we decided to take the Thursday to get properly prepared and leave Friday morning.
Thursday rolls around and we spring into action again. We bought a new ladder, finished grocery shopping, and a technician comes out to look at the generator issue. As it turns out, when the satellite dish was wired up it tapped into a circuit that would draw too much current for the generator to support and it would trip the breaker. The technician pulled the satellite wiring apart and wired it up correctly. Great! three things accomplished.
Then Murphy meddles in our affairs again. Stepping down on one of the aft steps the wooden plank that is screwed in the metal framework gave way. All the screws came right out. Not that big a deal to fix but surprising on a new boat to say the least. Next a metal hook that is the safety support for the tender platform fell into the water. It was barely threaded and fell out during adjustment. We were able to source another one from an identical boat for sale in town managed by the same company that manages this one. This turned out to be unnecessary because Deryck and Rick retrieved the hook later while scraping barnacles that had completely covered the underwater lights and where taking over the prop.
This was less detrimental to leaving in the morning compared to water maker and the chart system issues that also plagued that day. The water maker would start up try to run its flush cycle and then have an error halfway through. We could have left without the water maker but it was a matter of if you want to get something fixed Fort Lauderdale is the place to do it verses the Abacos. Plus we discovered the chart plotter did not have updated maps for the Bahamas. We would be going blind through areas like the west end and around whale key without those detailed charts.
After beating my head against the wall trying to install newly purchased, but wrong chip size, Navionics maps we gave up for the day. We decided to wait until Friday, get all of the final issues sorted out with the boat and leave Saturday morning. Wow what an ordeal.
Luckily everything ironed out on Friday. All of the problems were addressed, the weather was spectacular, the seas were relatively calm compared to if we had left on Thursday, and we were completely provisioned. We did have on technician out Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to replace the processor for the chart system in an attempt to fix an issue with the plotter screens resetting but this did not fix the problem. Oh well. 9 out of 10 isn't bad.
Finally we motored out into the Atlantic and left Fort Lauderdale behind. Luckily for all of us aboard our flight out of Marsh Harbour (our destination) was early Tuesday morning. We still had three full days to get the boat to her home in Marsh Harbour.
The wind, annoyingly, was a headwind for basically the entire trip. We had to motor across the gulf stream to the west end where we stayed docked at Old Bahama Bay marina for the night. We had arrived at around 4:30 and were able to clear in and fuel up. We had only used 75 gallons of diesel to get across but it was better to be safe and top up.
Later that evening after a relaxing swim and a delicious dinner the sound of drums and percussion instruments floated across the marina to the top deck where we were relaxing with drinks. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to go see what was going on. I grabbed another beer and followed my ears. Meandering through the dimly lit grounds of Old Bahama Bay the sound grew louder and more intoxicating. Soon I came up on a junkanoo in full swing at a little bar by the beach. It was impossible to not be sucked in to the rhythm and beat of the horns, drums, tambourines, and other instruments that i'm not sure I could name if I had to. I hung out for a while enjoying the music until I decided to go back to the boat and grab another beer and the GoPro. As fate would have it the party was over when I returned. I sat in a chair on the beach and listened to one of my favorite songs, the sound of waves lapping on the shore, and finished my beer,
The next morning came bright and early as we motored out of Old Bahama Bay. The wind was coming directly from the east and we decided we could head north-east close hauled. We pounced on the opportunity and shook the sails out. This was a magical time in the trip. No motor noise. Amazing scenery. Calm waters. It was only 10 miles or so before we decided that we would never make it to Marsh Harbour in time for our flight. We reluctantly lowered the sails, pointed east and motored on.
We had trolled lures all the way from Florida to the West End without a single nibble. It was in the shallows north of Grand Bahama that we started getting bites. Unfortunately they were all barracuda. Even though they weren't good eating fish it's always a thrill to have a "fish on!"
Pretty soon we decided to pull in the lines or we would never get anywhere.
It was buzzing along later that day that we ran into a phenomenon that we didn't identify until later. While I was on watch we came bearing down on an extremely shallow looking area in the middle of nowhere. We thought this was strange and as we got closer the fear of running aground grew more and more. Finally I made a decision. I clicked the auto navigation off on the chart plotter and took over the wheel skirting around the eerily shallow looking water. An hour or so later when Rick was driving we came across another shallow area but seeing no depth variations on the chart plotter he decided to creep into it. It wasn't shallow at all, just cloudy. It was later in the trip that I happened to come across an excerpt in The Waterway Guide to the Bahamas. It was "Fish Muds."
We learned something new.
That evening brought us to a a beautiful secluded anchorage on the west side of Pensacola Cay. When I say secluded I mean secluded from development but not from other boats. We shared the picturesque cove with 4 other boats. One of which was a McGreggor 26. Now i'm not a fan of McGregors because they were described to me as the herpes of sailboats, nobody wants one and once you have one you can't get rid of it. But I did think it was cool to see one because they are basically the sibling to our Hunter H26. Its the same size, water ballast, and swing keel. It was very encouraging seeing this small "category C" boat, just like ours, make it all the way out here. It gets my mind zooming with possibilities.
The next morning everyone in the cove motored out into the Sea of Abaco and made their way further along their respective journeys. Pensacola Cay was our turning point and we headed south. The wind was outrageously now coming directly from the south so we continued to motor on. We reached Green Turtle Cay and decided we were slightly ahead of schedule and a little parched so we should go refresh ourselves at on of the bars on the island. We anchored, dropped the dinghy, and ended up at the Green Turtle Club for some Kaliks and lunch. Perfect!
The rest of the trip that day went pretty smoothly. We easily skirted around Whale Cay with the guidance of the chart plotter and continued towards the house at Marsh Harbour. We made it to the dock well before sunset that day and had plenty of time to relax and drink more Kaliks. The only trouble came when docking the girthy girl in her U shaped dock. The dock was built for the old Lagoon 450 and this 560 is considerably wider. There was actually only 1.5 feet on either side between boat and pilings. Very impressive driving on Rick's part.
The morning came all too quickly and it was time to fly back to the states and resume normal life. I definitely was not ready to return and would have happily spent more time cruising around on the boat. The only silver lining to returning home was getting to see Amber. We hadn't spent that long apart in years and it was very hard for both of us. The next trip she has to come too because its not the same when you can't share the adventure with the one you love.
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| Gary on watch |
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| Rick hanging the courtesy and quarantine flags |
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| Sunrise at Old Bahama Bay |
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| Leaving Old Bahama Bay in the morning |
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| Sails up! |
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| The view through my Costas |
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| Motoring into the cove at Pensacola Cay |
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| Merica! |
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| Like a glove! |
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| Damn I love Kalik! |
