George Town to Puerto Rico

Wahoo!

A typical Pacific crossing from Panama to French Polynesia takes 20-something days. So theoretically our seven day passage from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico (or specifically to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra) was about a third of a Pacific Ocean passage in time if not distance. Last year, when our longest passage was three days, spending almost a month at sea seemed impossible. Now after surviving seven days, it seems doable - not fun or easy, but at least doable. This is probably not welcome news to our parents, who noticed the unfortunate failed attempt by Rebel Heart.

Wahoo and a mahi--both hit at the same time.

Before we embarked on the so-called "Thorny Path" (so named because the easterly slog from the Bahamas to the leeward islands into constant trade winds from the east is like walking down a miserable, pain-laden trail), we talked to experienced cruisers who had done the trek last year. In addition to providing lots of valuable advice they would say things like, "Better you than me" and  "That was the worst." This is because not only can't you sail very much but you're also motoring and often slamming against opposing wind waves. So when the forecasts showed a very rare reversal of the trade winds due to strong low pressure system coming off of the coast of Georgia, I stopped being so obsessed with not burning diesel and began to appreciate the upcoming opportunity to sail a good part of the way and motor in more pleasant conditions.

Best sushi restaurant within 300 miles

 

Before leaving Georgetown, we had the typical discussions about routes with the other cruisers heading our way.  Everyone had a strategy and an opinion, and they would often change hourly as the forecast changed and predicted winds shifted.  In the end, we ended up having to stay a couple of extra days in Georgetown to fix our heat exchanger on the port engine, so we missed departing with our friends on Halcyon and Waterbug.  But this wasn't all bad as we got to spend a few more days with other friends that we wouldn't see again for awhile. 

On a side note, we really need to get better about bringing a camera when we go places. Matt, Paul (Shambala) and Ernesto (Taia) were fishing in Georgetown when a dolphin showed up and swam with them for 40 minutes. Unfortunately, no one had a camera. After a potluck bonfire on the beach with friends from Shambala, Taia, Good Trade, What If, and Music (again, no pictures), we sailed to Calabash Bay the following morning. The sailing was good and the bay is beautiful but the anchorage was very roll-y and uncomfortable.

We left Calabash Bay on Easter Sunday after waiting for some squalls to pass through. We pulled anchor not really knowing the destination.  We decided to see what the wind would do and either island-hop our way east slowly over the next month or, if the forecast would stay true, go all the way to Puerto Rico. Luckily, the forecast held, and the winds were mostly with us and we made it all the way to the eastern side of Puerto Rico. We flew the spinnaker for a couple days, sailed very slowly for part of the time, sailed very fast part of the time, and ran an engine about half the time. No one got seasick or hurt, our fixes held, and nothing new broke (unless you count Matt almost knocking himself out by hitting his head into the door frame as he rushed to fix the depth instrument as we approached our destination). And we caught lots of fish: 3 wahoo, 1 mahi-mahi, and 1 tuna.

We're relaxing in Culebra for a few days before we head over to Fajardo to re-provision, get a new bilge pump for our starboard engine, and do laundry. From there we'll hit Vieques and then move through the U.S. Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands before turning south to slowly make our way to Grenada over the next couple of months.

Even more sushi!

The people you meet

We gave the mahi mahi some coconut rum that
worked great to calm it down for a few minutes. This was taken
 after it started wearing off and the fish began thrashing again.

There are lots of great things about living aboard and cruising: scenic views from your home, gorgeous sunsets, the freshest seafood you can get. But the best part for us has been the people we have met. We have made fast friendships that we hope will last a lifetime. Many of the people are from different geographical locations or have had vastly different careers than us, so its always interesting to get together.  So many people have had way more interesting lives than we have. It's both inspiring and (at times) somewhat depressing.

We have also been blown away by the generosity and kindness of strangers (both cruisers and land-based folks). It's enough to bring a tear to the eye of a cynical recovering attorney from the big city.

We met one family on the internet who offered up their car before we met in person. Last New Year's we met a family in Eleuthera and spent about an hour with them. This April when we visited Nassau, they generously spent several hours giving us a great tour of Nassau and the island of New Providence.

Chester, Elsa, and Kyle took us all over New Providence. We
stopped next to this airport to see the approaching planes. Kyle's
going to be a pilot when he grows up.

I clicked a couple seconds too soon. It got MUCH bigger.

We hung around Nassau for a couple of extra days waiting for good winds and then blew out of there on the heels of a front that was passing through.  We had a fast and bumpy 2-day sail (with a brief overnight stop near Black Point). The second day was mighty uncomfortable with the wind as far forward as we could go and 6 foot waves on the beam but it took us only 2 hours to complete a stretch that took us 8 hours on the way up. Just as we approached Georgetown, the winds abated a bit and we slowed down slightly to only 6 knots.  But it worked out as we caught a mahi right before we entered Elizabeth Harbour , after we had given up all hope of catching anything.

Here in George Town, Mark and Conrad have attached themselves to the hip of Kyler on Good Trade and his good buddy Derek from What If. Kyler, Derek, kid-at-heart Brit (Halcyon) and the kids from Waterbug have all towed Mark and Conrad around on boards for hours. Mark and Conrad are in heaven and are lucky to have such tolerant teens around.

Charles from Waterbug took some great shots of the boys boarding.

Matt has been tending to boat ills (port radiator leaking coolant, air in the starboard engine system, and water coming in through the starboard transom tread while the bilge pump is currently quasi-operational). None of the issues is critical but we want to take care of them before we start heading south and east to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. As soon as we get everything squared away, we will solidify our route and figure out when our best wind and weather will be. If we can everything fixed in time, we hope to travel with a few boat friends for at least part of the way.

Nya-nya-nya-nya Nassau

Mark, Alexis, Nicholas and Conrad enjoying sherbet in
downtown Nassau. Yes, they voluntarily chose fruit ice cream.

We had passed up Nassau multiple times in our previous trips, avoiding the city based on other people describing the city as dirty, noisy and crime filled.  But there was no escaping it this time. We were meeting friends who were staying in Nassau for a week.  So off we went.

In less than 8 hours, we had had our fill of Nassau and it had nothing to do with the State Department warnings about increased crime in the city. So what was problem? Let me count the ways...

The aquariums at the Atlantis are spectacular.

 

1. (Note to all grandparents, also known as 'our primary audience', we are fine and the boat is fine.) We took  a big breaking wave over the bow as we were rounding Paradise Island to approach the harbor from the west because we are too tall for the bridges on the direct route that boats with normal sized (or no) masts) can follow. The ocean swell was big from the strong northeast winds of the previous few days, but they were mostly following swells, which should have been okay. Or so we thought. We saw some breaking waves off in the distance, but they were closer to shore.  Suddenly a couple of larger swells passed by that had started to hump up and look like they might break, but they didn't. When the next set of swells came through, the faces was steeper and the first one looked like it was about the break. Matt quickly turned the boat to face it head on, causing an uncontrolled gibe in the process (which is not good, but certainly the lesser of two evils). The first swell passed underneath without breaking, but then we were faced with a larger wave that was already had a wall of whitewater coming down its face.  Matt yelled to hold on and the boat pitched up the face of the wave and then slammed down into the trough. We're not sure how big it was but it was several feet above Matt's head and was a scary thing to behold as it came up over the bow and crashed into the cockpit with a roar.*

2. After (what felt like) our near death experience, we motored past several behemoth cruise ships into the crowded harbor as the smell of their exhaust choked the air. We found a spot at the edge of the small and crowded anchorage. Our boat sailed around at anchor with the opposing wind and current (although nowhere as bad as St. Augustine) while tourist boats raced by and threw up big wakes. A police boat came by several times to talk to boats that were in a somewhat arbitrarily demarcated "turning basin" and told us we should move at one point when our boat swung out closer to the channel during one of its weird swings.

3. As the sun went down, we continued to swing in weird ways and boats kept whizzing by, causing our boat to rock back and forth for a couple minutes afterwards each time. Club Med or some resort started a very loud beachside party with a yelling DJ, music, and laser lights.

4. At around 10 p.m. when the boys were sound asleep and Matt was nodding off despite the noise from the party, we heard a series of huge explosions that sounded like we were being bombed. With hearts racing from the terror-induced adrenalin surge we stumbled into the cockpit to figure out what was happening. It turned out to be a barge that was about 75 yards away from us setting off an impressive fireworks display. We have never been that close to the staging area of such a big display and we were very happy to be upwind as sparks showered down around the fireworks boat. It looked at one point as if there was a medium fire on the barge and a few shells went off on the deck of the boat. The show went on for a long time and was very, very loud. Incredibly, Conrad and Mark slept through it all.

In the next week, we were chased away from one anchor spot by a construction barge, warned away from a cruise ship by a cranky Defense Force boat, and boarded to have our paperwork checked by the local police. Although they were very friendly and professional, it was still the first time we had been boarded. Several other boaters lamented how much the harbor had changed. Nassau stands in stark contrast to the sleepy islands and settlements to which we have become accustomed.

Despite the dire warning about crime from other cruisers (and a couple of local Nassau residents), Nassau itself seems to us like any big city, except with friendlier people, and plenty safe. Granted, we have only walked through during the day but we have young kids so that's how we roll.

Luckily, any misgivings we had about Nassau were completely offset by the fact that we had a blast with our friends who had come to visit us. They spent something like a gazillion dollars to come and stay at the Atlantis resort. We were very sad to have to say goodbye. As a bonus, they brought a bunch of boat parts with them.

We will start heading south again as soon as the winds turn back around.

Mark chilling in the rapids river.

*In hindsight, we should have gone a bit further south to avoid the area of waves, which were breaking across a shallower shoal area which were marked on the Navionics charts but not on the usually more reliable Explorer charts that we use most for close quarters navigation. We were following the waypoints on the Explorer charts, which are usually the safest way to get anywhere in the Bahamas.  We were lucky that the everything came out okay through the wave hit and the 2 uncontrolled gibes (the second one was after the big wave hit and we were scrambling to get to deeper water) . Water splashed into the cabin from the open cockpit door and came in through some of the hatches but everything else seemed to be working other than our depth gauge. Matt tightened up the hatch handles on those that leaked and fixed the depth gauge a few days later by refilling the mineral oil that had spilled out.