Palominoto

Early in the morning we took the dingy to the ultimate kitch island of Palominoto. It has a bunch of palm trees in the middle and is surrounded by sand. This is exactly what you envision when you think about the Caribbean. We spend an hour there completely alone body surfing on the waves until some other boats arrived. This was paradise.

Helena

Isla Palomino

Is this paradise or what? By lunch the kids had already been snorkeling three times and taken several dips in between. Palomino is an island owned by a hotel in Fajardo so every hour or so a boat brings hotel guests and other paying visitors over from the big island. This means that they have toilets!!!, showers!!!, a bar!!! and a restaurant. However we mainly stayed in and around the boat the get used to the new routines and swimming as much as possible.

Joel and Noah can be very creative when it comes to playing. They used the dingy attachment device when they jumped in the water. In combination with an arch bomb it makes for quite a splash when they come into the water.

A new concept was also introduced to us: salsa boats. This means that large speakers are installed on a motorboat and that in order to be heard one needs to speak very load. 

This does not end when the sun goes down when all other boaters go to bed and could go on throughout the whole night. Since Palomino is a very short boat ride from Fajardo, we experienced quite a few of those boats. Ria has prepared us for that if we spend the weekend in Culebra we will experience the ultimate salsa boat night.

Helena

The stinking boat crowd is joined by the stinking flight crowd

We have now, after 21 hours of travel, finally arrived in Fajardo Puerto Rico. It is nice. It is very nice to be here. Our dreaded five hour stop-over in Newark was very smooth and we even managed to look at Bayern Munchen – Manchester United. The kids managed to sleep on the flight from Newark to San Juan but I, even though I could lie down and stretch my legs, had to listen to Puerto Ricans “talking.” Slightly louder than the average discussion level in Switzerland!!!

Today’s attack plan to fight the jet-lag included a couple of hours in the “El Yunque” rain forest. That was a very special experience. Green and lush with more tree species than all other American forest reserves combined. We heard the national pride, the tree frog “coqui.” Since we arrived from Switzerland we where more impressed by the root systems of the trees than the waterfalls unlike the rest of the visitors. 

We have now filled the boat with food for the next couple of days and a very happy Helena even bumped into a Clark’s outlet. Just like the one in Pleasant Prairie. We are now waiting for the Pizza that Mark and Chuck are picking up. Tomorrow we will figure out how seasick we get and take the boat to Isla Palomino.

The mosquito spray we brought will not be needed. We have been informed that each t-shirt has to be worn for three days before it we are allowed to wash it.

Guest-blogger Helena

Stops on the way

Ponce was next, the anchorage was full so we went in the marina, was a little expensive, but we had showers and that was nice. We rented a car and tried to find a place to store the boat over the summer. In Fallardo the answer was still no, but there was a place in Salinas that could do it. We tried very hard to find downtown Ponce, but other than all the outskirts we could not get in the right direction and only things like this happen.

Coffin Island, very nice anchorage, swimming and snorkeling.

Salinas, the place where we have now decided to store the boat during the summer, to get to downtown you had to walk a few miles, so we visited only the stores and restaurants in the near of the harbor

Cayos Caribes-Boca del Infierno, here we anchored between the mangroves and waited for the wind to go down because we wanted to go from here direct to Vieques. We left on March 25 as soon as the sun came up and arrived at Punta Arenas around 3:30. The beginning went very well, then we had a few hours of high waves and wind, but the last hours were very much okay and were happy to have conquered another hurdle. Magic had arrived a few hours earlier and had a bottle of champagne cold to celebrate our arrival in the Virgin Islands; we did so at sundown on the beach. It felt really good!! (till we got chased away by a lot of sand flies.

Esperanza was a cute little town, I bought a book on Vieques at the historical Society and that was an eye-opener, the military have really behaved very badly on this island, practically until now

Puerto Ferro FANTASTIC, we had of course read all the books about the luminescent bays Puerto Mosquito and Puerto Ferro and wanted to explore the phenomenon. At 4 a.m. when the moon went down we dipped into the water and the water lighted up and sparkles stayed on your arms when out of the water. Like tiny fireflies. Because the entrance to these bays is very narrow the bio luminescent algae cannot leave the bay and gather in large quantities so that they become agitated when the water is stirred. It was a great experience.

Ensenada Honda. This bay is bordered by mangroves and not good for snorkeling so we left after the wind calmed down and went to Salinas del Sur. Until 2003 this bay was a navy training area for bombing and we were not allowed to go onshore because of the presence of unexploded bombs. Jacques pulled the boat close to shore to clean the bottoms of a thick layer of barnacles and other growth. He saw a projectile sticking vertically into the sand and this one was clearly a bomb that didn’t explode.

After a couple of days we sailed to the Island of Culebra and went to town to buy groceries and go online to download the latest weather forecasts.

Ria

Boqueron to Guanica

After a very good night sleep, the next morning we had to tackle the immigration issue. Several people had told us that you could check in in Boqueron. Dennis from our buddy boat Magic came in the morning with his dinghy to tell that he had tried several times, but they really wanted to send him to Mayaquez, he asked if Jacques could give it a try, but he also got a no, so in the afternoon the four of us took a taxi to Mayaguez. 

They drive a little bit wild here on very small roads. (Not as bad as in the D.R. because there you had a lot of small motorcycles, who function as taxis, mothers with two children and a big bag of groceries on one of these “taxi’s” was rather normal, really scary!!!!!!). After we were completely legal and back at the boat it was time for a big nap, we were still enjoying our feeling of accomplishment having come this far. We anchored there for three days, visiting the village, doing laundry AND I got a haircut!

The tactic of sailing the south coast of P.R. is that you leave very early in the morning, when the winds are still calm and arrive around ten in the morning in your next anchorage, before the trade winds start blowing, directly from the east (where you need to go). So we did just that and arrived in Parquera at around 9:30 am. (Paul has birthday, but there is no internet here, still congratulations). After a nap we re-anchored, because the winds had really picked up and we had a peaceful day on the boat.

Next day we went into town, you walked that in 10 minutes! Eat an ice cream, the most wonderful treat for a boater, and tried to find an island where a lot of monkeys supposed to live. We had a wonderful dinghy ride through all the channels of the mangrove islands, but did not see or hear any monkeys, although Jacques tried to call them and made a lot of monkey moves….(you know, playing Tarzan!!).

We are now since a few days in the Bahia de Guanica, we did not go to town, but anchored of the Cayos de Cana Gorda (Gilligan’s Island). The island is originally called Cayo Aurora for a woman, who at age 40 escaped misery and mistreatment at the worker’s barracks of the nearby La Bellena farm and swam to the island, where she lived a Robinson Crusoe live and became quit old. None of the books tells exactly how old, but I would say "go girl!!!"

Ria

Bahamas to Puerto Rico via Turks & Caicos and Dominican Republic

We stayed about a week at South Side Marine in Provo. This marina is managed by Simon Anderson and his wife Charlyn helps out. They are extremely helpful with rides to downtown, etc. Every night we had happy hour and met many interesting boaters. After the barbecue I went to the boat by myself with my hands full of half empty bottles, etc. and slipped off the boat and hurt my wrist pretty badly. The next day we went to a clinic to have an X-ray made which fortunately showed no fracture. I am still very handicapped at the moment of writing 3 weeks later and Jacques has to do the household things.

We crossed the Caicos Bank to Ambergris Cay with the wind on the nose but had a restful night at the anchorage. The next day we shortly stopped at Sand Cay in the Turks Islands but the swell was too large so we went on to the Dominican Republic. We had a good night sail and arrived at Ocean World at 8 a.m. The next day we went on a tour with other cruisers to Puerto Plata and visited the local Rum factory, a cigar “factory” and some other shops. Friday we went to the casino at Ocean World with dinner and dance show. Saturday was the national holiday because of the liberation from Spain 62 years ago. We watched the parade and also made a visit to the very very poor Haitian part of town. On Sunday we had a meeting with other cruisers at the pool to discuss the strategy to sail to Puerto Rico across the Mona Passage. Three of them left the same day but we found it better to wait another day.

The second half of the trip from Ocean World to the Mona Passage was horrible, 17 hours with high waves, we planned to anchor half way, but that was not a good spot at all and we decided to go to Samana. Half way one of the motors stopped, we put up the sails, because with one motor we would not have enough power against the waves and the wind (between 16 and 20 knots). That also meant constantly tacking. After the motor had cooled off Jacques tightened the water pump belt, but after 15 minutes it stopped again. We were hoping that after rounding Cabo Samana the wind would be with us so we could sail into the harbor and luckily it was. 

After several tries we were on a mooring ball and were immediately visited by “Joe” in a little motor boat. “I will help you with everything, I speak good English!” He went away letting us guess what would happen, he was back in five minutes with three other guys, he suddenly was in need of a driver, than there was a helper and two guys from the navy, we had to fill out paperwork again (we had already checked out in Ocean World but this was an other entrance, he explained.) After they were done Joe wanted to know what we thought about some gifts!!!! I played dumb for a little while but we had read enough about this to know we had to give them something, so we had to open the wallet again. After we sat down we were thinking this is it! We were so tired, did not even eat and at seven we both were in bed. But you see what a good night sleep can do for you, now we are on the most difficult passage of the whole trip, the seas are smooth, only some swells, the moon is nearly full and we enjoying the trip very much.

It is 7.00 in the morning in the Mona passage and I have slept at least four hours, we are still going smoothly and are about halfway! Our buddy boat is about 4 miles ahead of us and will soon be out of our radio reach. We should have the radio checked because people can easily hear us, but we can not hear them, is a little frustrating. About midway the wind got stronger but we could still motor sail. Then when we came in the near of Isla Desecheo and were boarded by the P.R. Coast Guard who checked our bilges for drugs, holding tank system and safety equipment. We couldn’t find the flare Jacques bought in Miami so we got a warning. Later we found the flares. 

Then when we were about 10 miles from Boquerón we almost hit a large tower of which the light was not working. I immediately wanted to put my life vest on and at 11 p.m. we entered Baya de Boquerón after 31 hours where we anchored between some boats without anchor lights so that was a little challenging. We took a well deserved arrival drink, did hi-fives. We had conquered the Mona!!!

Ria

Rum Cay to Mayaguana

We left Rum Cay at 8 a.m. on Feb. 10 to sail the 140 nautical miles to Mayaguana. It was an overnight sail and turned out to become almost 180 miles because we had to tack during the night and following day despite the engines running. But we made it in one piece, arrived at 2 p.m. on Feb. 11 and are now anchored in a large bay inside the reef on the south side of Mayaguana. Jacques had not slept at all (except for perhaps an hour) and when we were done with all the anchoring chores and he sat down to drink his arrival drink, he nearly got sick from tiredness. I sent him to bed for two hours, I would wake him up, but I also fell asleep on the couch, but at six we had dinner and a nice evening listening loud to our favorite music.

Somewhere during the night we passed the tropic of cancer, that’s where the sun is at his highest point during mid summer, so we are getting south.
After a good night sleep, we feel back to normal and are already planning where we will stay in the Turks and Caicos.

It is blowing 20+ knots and therefore we stay on the boat because of the chop. We plan to clean the fridge box and to read. Tonight the wind will shift to the NE and the water will be calmer to dinghy the half mile to the Abraham’s Bay settlement to clear out of the Bahamas. On Thursday we went to the customs office to hear that we had to come back on Friday. We used the wi-fi facility of the Batelco phone company which was a wall outside of the building being the only spot to receive the internet for E-mails and weather forecast. We also went to the local restaurant and had a pretty untasteful meal. 

Friday night had 50+ knots (80 mph, 95 km/h) winds in the NE Bahamas, a record low pressure for February. Fortunately for us it was only about half at Mayaguana. For peace of mind we put out a second anchor and did anchor watch. Saturday it was still blowing 20 knots but it will likely subside on Sunday when we stage to the SE corner of the island in order to cut about 20 miles off the trip to Providenciales (Provo) in the Caicos Islands and leave after midnight to Sapodilla Bay.

Ria

Conception Island to Rum Cay

We had to leave at one time, so when the wind called we left Emerald Bay on Sunday Jan 31 to go to the north point of Long Island. The wind was fantastic, coming nicely abeam and we went 5.5 to 6.5 knots. Because it went so good we decided to go on to Conception Island. After 4 hours of fantastic sailing the wind said it is enough for me today and we had to motor sail the rest of the way. We were a little short on time, arrived at about 5 o’clock, which is a little late to have good light to see the coral heads in the water. When we were already on our obligatory arrival drink, two young men who were snorkeling around, told us that our anchor was not in the sand, so we took the anchor up and again down about twenty meters further.

The next day we went for a walk on the ocean side of the island, was a real adventure, on some places we had to use a rope to climb the rocks! After a peaceful day doing nothing we left on Wednesday to go to Rum Cay, where we are now.

We are in the harbor but when the wind is calm there some nasty no-see-ums, so we go outside to anchor for a few days. We have luckily internet here so we have updated all our mail and can always go with the dinghy inside to connect again. The showers here are $10 per person!! The water is taken from a sweet water pond in the middle of the island and trucked to the marina.

It is now Saturday and we are back in the marina, it really was a little wild outside, so yesterday we waited till high tide and went back inside.We had a wonderful dinner at Kay’s restaurant. The picture shows Delores, the mother of the owner and Dick and Nancy our neighbors in the marina. They have rented a golf cart, running on gas, and we went today with them to the other side of the island, again wonderful and deserted beaches, we have done some intensive shelling, but I still have not found my conch shell, I don’t give up hope.

On this island live about 60 people of which 20 are children. They can go to school here till they have to go to high school, for that they have to go to Nassau. The government is more then willing to give the kids the opportunity to get high school here, but the parent have to apply for that and until now they have not done that. I know all that because we had yesterday dinner at Delores (the matriarch of the whole island, see photo) and there was the school supervisor for three islands who just had a school meeting on Rum Cay.
It was really interesting.

The harbor master here is a very nice guy, called Rasta and is just filling in because the harbor is sold and the new owner first went on vacation before he would do something. Rasta is also an artist and carves wonderful pieces from death coral.

Tonight we have rain, after a long, long time and we hope that the boat will be cleaned from the salt water and I caught my first cup of rainwater to drink. Tomorrow we will go to the marine office and will check email and face book and will post this part of the blog.

Ria

Emerald Bay, Great Exuma Island

The cut to the outside of the islands went very good, it was about an hour before low tide and the wind was calm, so a new experience added to our list. There was not much sailing so we motored and when we arrived in the near where the harbor should be, we just could not see the entrance, the binoculars were glued to my eyes, but you had to get really close to see the buoys, after locating them everything went well.

Did I not talk about the simple life of sailing? We have now arrived in a first class marina; after they helped you put the boat on the dock they roll out a welcome mat on the dock; that is very cool. The harbor master’s office looks like a five star hotel lobby, upstairs is a game room with pool table etc, then an office and bar area, all furnished with really nice furniture and the lounge area with sofa’s and big screen TV. The showers are every boater’s dream with several soaps and lotions and after looking around and we were back on the boat we said to each other that we could get used to this. Most of the women and some men told me their stay here will take a little longer then was planned. We are really enjoying this, the people are very, very friendly, and they really make you feel home. The most intriguing part was the charge of 50 cents per ft. per day.

We took a taxi to Georgetown, because we had to see that and had some shopping to do. The taxi driver was a very nice guy and very knowledgeable about politics and history of the Bahamas, the drive was too short (an hour!) to take on all the topics he and we wanted to talk about.

In the restaurant we met Katera, who was from the big city, which means here Nassau, but was really enjoying the easy going life of the Exumas. She is opening her own restaurant in about two months and after talking a lot that evening we are now friends on face book.

Anchor watch at Galliot Cay

It is Monday Jan. 25, 7.30 p.m. and I have taken the first anchor watch. After a some what bumpy ride we are now anchored between Big Farmers, Little and Big Galliot Cay. It is not a really official anchoring spot (no signs on the map) and the wind is still going pretty strong, so for the first time we will take watches during the night and I am the first one to look if everything is staying okay. 

Well I have a book to finish on my Kindle, have to play a game on my Nintendo (I can not seem to beat Karyn in “word search”) and a few dishes to do. To save water we first wash them with salt water and then I only need a little drinking water to rinse them of. When sometimes the drinks tastes a little weird you know that the rinsing was not done very thoroughly, but you learn to live with that, just as laying in your bed with just a small light in the middle of your forehead to read by! Everybody who wants really to think about saving energy should live for at least two months on a sail boat.

We are anchored here, because tomorrow we will make for the first time ”THE CUT,” lots of stories about the cuts, we have to get to the other side of the islands through a small opening in between the islands and because the tides are very strong here, it seems to be a rather exciting experience. We read that the wind would turn to the north-northeast and when we then wait for a low slack tide (will happen in about twelve hours), we will have the best conditions to go through. We are a little anxious about it, so we wanted to have the best conditions, the wind is not very much turning around until now, but we have still ten hours to go. And then we hope to get to Great Exuma Island tomorrow and plan to stay for about three nights in a harbor, there seems to be a new harbor and when you do not need water or electricity they have dock spaces for around 20 dollars, would not be bad.

I am going to give myself a drink, look around outside, finish my book and hope that it is then about 12 o’clock and I can go to sleep. Sleep well everybody!!

Ria

Compass Cay to Big Majors Spot

Compass Cay is an example for the Bahamas, there only live 5 people, even had an airstrip, but that could only be used at low tide!!!!!! The island has at least six wonderful beaches where you are completely by yourself. We anchored outside (the prices for the harbor were a little bit steep, $2.20 a foot and nothing else to offer) and went with the dinghy to the harbor. There we were very surprised to see at least 10 nurse sharks, wow!!!









The owner Tucker Rolle has fed them for many years and now they stay at the marina dock all the time.

When we left the anchorage at Compass Cay I had to stand at the bow of the boat, my right arm loosely around the forestay, to spot probable trouble spots, like coral heads, sandbanks etc. I give the impression like I know what I am doing and I look really cool (that’s to reverse the manatee feelings from yesterday). I am not 100 percent sure if I would have spotted something imported, because the water here has so many colors and light (sand) and dark (could be just grass or a coral head!!) shadows. In the books we have read about sailing in the Bahamas they talk about learning to read the water, I am afraid I am still at chapter one!

It was a short hop to Staniel Cay, the books were telling about the Thunder ball Marina, where there would be mooring balls. After calling several times on the radio, somebody felt sorry for me and told that the Marina was not open anymore. Then we tried to call the Staniel Yacht club, but after several trials to get somebody on the radio we gave up and anchored west of Big Major Spot. This was the first time we were in an anchorage with at least twenty other boats. The island is not inhabited except for pigs, as soon as they hear the sound of a motor they come running to the beach and even swimming towards you, just to get some food. Only when we went they were napping, so I have no pictures, but it was very funny to see.

This was the place I wanted to go for the Thunder ball Caves, must be something fantastic, the fishes come to eat from your hand, especially frozen pies. So we eat a dish with some pies in it and I had the rest frozen for the fishes. But the next day was very stormy and you can only get into the caves with low tide and calm waters, so we had to forgo the caves.

We for sure are coming back to the Bahamas and the caves will still be there.

Ria

Compass Cay/Anniversary

It is today our anniversary, I only thought about it because the radio said the date out loud, so I was the first to remember it!! We went for a dinghy ride to the Rocky Dundas, a place were you could swim in a cave. I took my snorkel stuff with me, but was not sure I would go in the water, there was tide and going into a cave sounded a little scary to me.

There were mooring balls for the dinghy and Jacques was soon in the water. I was looking through Paul’s box with a glass bottom and what I saw was fantastic, so after exciting words from Jacques I put on my flippers and snorkel. The problem was how to get in the water; I still not jump free fall in the water. Now comes a whole movie, I laid myself queer on top of the little boat and let myself slowly slide into the water, even that went not without problems because my swimsuit got two times stuck on something?! 

Can you imagine how I got back out; it probably looked something like a manatee coming up to breath!!!!!!! Jacques had made a little rope ladder and "you just step on the first step and pull your feet straight underneath and then you take the second step etc." I do not know why Jacques feet had no problem listening to him, mine did not and I was all the time laying flat in the water with my feet glued to the first step and that to the underside of the dinghy. So it took a LOOOOOOONG while!!, but I made it.

I was so happy I went because the snorkeling was so GREAT! I have nearly never seen so many different fishes and corals on a rather small spot. And the cave was a really fantastic experience, full with stalactite and it had two holes in the ceiling where the sun came through. I must say until now the Bahamas has everything to offer you can imagine. 

On our way to the boat we checked out the way out of the anchor spot because it was full of sand banks there. Back home I made 'roesti,' I had brought that back from Switzerland and it made a special ending of the day. 44 years is a long time, but we felt good, still doing new and exiting (sometimes a little scary) things, that makes you not feel elderly at all.

Ria

Highbourne Cay and Warderick Wells Cay

Sunday 1/17

It is 10.45 and the wine and dinner we had yesterday on the beach (organized by the marina, paid for by ourselves) clearly has done Jacques's back good, because we are now in an intense cleaning mode. The master (that is how he has called himself in the official paperwork) has taken the water hose in his hands and then you better hide inside. Even when captains never would clean anything, on board they get dangerous and they really like it!!!

We went for a walk on the island and had the neighbors over for some wine and crackers. Their son has a Swiss girlfriend, you would not believe it, but works for Swisscom in Bern, where Mark also works. We had a nice evening. It is now Tuesday 1/19 and we are on a mooring ball off Warderick Wells Cay, the headquarters of the Exumas Land and Sea park. Because there is a ranger station here, we could again buy some internet time, great!!

The trip to this very wonderful place was not without stops. We left the harbor around nine o’clock, had soon the sails up, motor off and enjoying a perhaps not so fast but very peaceful sail ride. Then came from the harbor a motorboat, going really fast, I was already complaining that that would be a big wave maker, but he came straight to us and started talking something in his big horn. He wanted us to put the motors in neutral, the only problem: the motors were not running. To show some cooperation we put down the foresail and tried to get the boat into the wind, to stop. Then we asked if they wanted us also to take down the main, but after some discussion, everything was fine. 

They came with three men on our just cleaned boat, (big black boots and several guns). They first wanted to see our paper work of course, filled out new papers and did a tour of the boat. I think they soon felt already a little stupid, it was very clear we were just two elderly people enjoying their life. They were very friendly, I must say, and in the end we had to sign a paper if they had done a good job and asked us if we had seen suspicious boats, I told them I have no clue how they would look like!!

Because we had the foresail down, we wanted to try the spinnaker again, after all the preparations, he went up and was at least till halfway completely twisted, down, a few twists back, up again, still twisted, down again, after more of this the captain shouted “motor on!” So the rest of the way we motored. And here we are, Jacques looks like he is into S&M, he cleaned the propellers today and the barnacles were razor sharp. Tonight we saw a shark next to the boat, about five feet, GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

Ria

Exumas

Allen’s Cay - Jan 13, 2010
We had light winds from Chub Cay to Rose Island, E of Nassau. At one time we put up the chute but this was no success. Atlantis dominated the skyline of Nassau, we have a picture included. 

Because we had no need for shopping we anchored south of Rose Island in a little cave, was very nice and left for Allen’s Cay the next morning on Jan 13. We had a great sailing day (the best till now) on a beam reach; we just kept on going 5 to 8 knots, fantastic. After the anchor was set, just in between two little islands, very cute spot Jacques had unfortunately a strained back muscle and could hardly move. 

Ria saw the first iguanas for which Allen’s Cay is known. Jacques went for a rest to see if that would help his back. The next day we hopped, with me you can not really talk about hopping) in the dinghy and went to the beach where we were between about 30 iguanas that came out of the bushes to get some food. We only had some apple peels and an egg sandwich. But it was grandiose, great!

Jacques & Ria

Bahamas Bound

4.38 AM
We have left key Biscayne behind us and also most of the red and green lights to mark the entrance. The engines have been started, I rolled out of my bed at 3.30 and the coffee was ready, I have a prima captain on board. I have to go outside. The anchor will be raised. Helmi (the automatic pilot) is doing his job and Pim (the chart plotter) is making its money’s worth. It is half clouded with a half moon, so we have some light from above. The water temperature is 71 degrees, that is important, because the gulf-stream is much warmer, so we think that the water temp will be the first indicator of having arrived at the gulf-stream.

5.25 AM
We have been singing “on the boat again” to the music of “on the road again” from Willy Nelson and have done some high fives, we are happy we are on the way. Yesterday we left Dinner Key Marina around eleven to go fill up the gas and water, at the gas dock they did not sell water, what gave the captain a serious fit, so we had to go back to the marina to fill up the water tanks. Then we went to “No Name Harbor”, it is really the name, a very nice inlet at the south end of Key Biscayne, so that we could get out quickly in the morning. After us at least seven more boats arrived, of which at least four left the harbor this night ahead of us. And on one of the boats were Doris and Dennis, with whom we had Thanksgivings dinner in Boot Key Harbor, was really nice and special to see them, they wait for the next weather window (that is what all insider crossers call the time when there is no north wind and it is good to cross the gulf stream) and we hope to see them again somewhere in the Bahamas.

5.54 AMIt is a little choppy, leftover wave from yesterday, but the foresail is up and when daylight comes the main sail will also have to do some work. I am going to make the second pot of coffee, what will for sure not be the last one. We just saw the first big freighter (we thought it was a shrimp boat till we got closer!) I got the message from outside that the water is 78.1 degrees, so I think we are getting there. Now first the coffee.

6.15 AM
The last measuring of the depth meter was 567 feet and now we can not see how deep it is anymore because the depth sounder doesn’t show depths below a certain depth, the water temp now is 79.1.

6.27 AM
Ahead of us the sky is getting lighter and there is a wonderful red horizon, this is one of the moments that make this way of life so special, it seems the sun is coming up just for you, GREAT!!!!!

8.20 AM
The swells are getting somewhat higher and the water is a wonderful deep blue, perhaps like midnight blue, really fantastic. I have tried to lie down on the couch, because I am still not feeling very good, but I am so afraid I will miss something, so we are sitting peacefully outside in the cockpit.
Pim tells us that we have done about a third of the way and we are already turning a little bit to the North. The wind should have changed directions by now, but as is always (so it seems) the weather channel is more often wrong than right. But we went because there would be only light winds, and there they were right, so it does not matter a lot.

11.25 AM
I had to do a short nap and feel a lot better, it is warm outside and the water temp is 83.6, the wind has changed and there are practically no waves, just a little bit. Jacques has already put up the yellow flag, because we are officially in the territorial waters of the Bahamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The yellow flag tells the authorities, that we have not checked in and they can come to us to do so (I think that is about the meaning) We probably can soon loose our thick sweaters, GREAT!!!

12.30 PM
We see since about half an hour land and because we have not seen other boats we still can feel a little bit like Robinson Crusoe. The sweaters are off and it is wonderful weather, I see a lot of small flying fishes, but nothing big so far on this trip, I for sure will not give up hope.

14.00 PMWE HAVE ARRIVED IN THE BAHAMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are in the Cat Cay yacht club and are filling out about ten pages of paperwork, the harbor is practically empty, is very nice and the people till now very friendly. The colors of the water are spectacular, from dark greenish to swimming pool blue.

Saturday, Jan 9
It is 6.00 in the evening and the day today did not go as we wanted. But first the rest of the day yesterday. After filling-out the paperwork we proudly raised the Bahamian guest flag, took a long shower and noticed that there was exactly nothing to do there, you could not even go for a walk on the island because the people really want their privacy. So I made a spectacular dinner with two steaks (left from Karyn and Paul’s visit, a tomato salad with white and green onions sprinkled with a bourguignon sauce (I think I can start writing for a food magazine), it was a perfect ending for a perfect day.

We also noticed that we are in the islands now because when we complained to the dock master that the internet did not work, he looked at us with "do you expect me to do something about that" eyes? In the end he murmured perhaps the tower or the signal!! We gave up.

We knew this morning that there would be some wind but because it would come from behind, we expected a sensational sailing day, even thinking of the spinnaker. The beginning was good; 7-8 knots, the first Bahamian dolphins came to welcome us, and swam a little while with us. But the sky soon became dark and the wind meter showed 20 to 25, even 30 knots, to be sure we took the mainsail down, it started to rain at around 11.00 and it is still raining. 

At three o’clock the "master" found it was enough and we put out the anchor. We are now in the middle of the Bahamas banks at 25˚28’N/78˚36’W, really, really in the middle of nowhere, are securely anchored in 20 ft. of water. We haven’t seen a single boat since leaving but found it wise to move two nm south of the shipping lane to the NW channel buoy at the east point of the "tongue of the ocean" and are going to sleep and hope that tomorrow the rain will have stopped. We hope to get to Chub Cay tomorrow and will be trying an internet connection there.

Well, it didn’t turn out as we hoped. This morning, Sunday Jan 10, the wind is piping 30 knots plus from the NNW so we have decided to stay at anchor until tomorrow when the last forecast said that the wind would reduce. When looking at the chart plotter we see that the anchor is not dragging but we are in for a bumpy day and night. The boat is bucking like a bronco but takes the short waves well. The advantage is that we immediately see what is not stored correctly and will correct this today. The rain has stopped, the barometer is rising and we see some blue sky. Ria tries not to look outside at the waves but fortunately none of us is susceptible to seasickness.

Monday Jan 11We had two miserable nights and the day was not much better. We were seriously thinking about going back, No Name harbor felt sooooooo very comfortable to us. Last night at 1.00 I saw for the first time (even if it was for a very short time) winds under twenty knots and after that came immediately 30 again, not good. We saw nothing, not a fish or a little bird, anything would have been welcomed. This morning winds were between 20 and 25, first we wanted to wait out another day, but decided we could at least try to get a little further on the banks toward Cub Cay. This was a wise decision, although we had to take the mainsail down (too much wind and waves), with the foresail and the motors and a declining wind it became soon rather comfortable.

It is now 1 o’clock in the afternoon and we have seen the first boat and Land ahead! We hope to anchor off Chub Cay around three o’clock and will have a immediately a nice drink, we have deserved it. We will see how far it is to dinghy into the harbor, where we could get maybe, internet or make a phone call, but we are not sure. For now we think we had our portion of bad weather for the whole trip!!

Jacques & Ria