Wildcat-April 27, 2005

April 27, 2005

We went to a cruisers get-together in Nassau and met fellow cruisers, each of us going in different directions. We also saw our ham radio friend Carolyn, C6AGG, and her husband Nick. They have devoted the better part of their lives to making sure cruisers in the Bahamas receive weather. They also are very active in their help of the National Park system in the Bahamas. They are formerly from England, but New Providence is their home now. Our last day in Nassau was spent provisioning. As we expected, we wanted for nothing in the Nassau grocery stores.

So, off to the Berry Islands. Coming in and out of Nassau you must contact Harbour Control and ask for permission to either enter the harbor or leave the harbor. Even if you up anchor and move to another spot in the harbor, you are responsible for contacting them. When we left the harbor we passed 2 cruise ships heading to Nassau and listened on the VHF as they asked for permission to enter Nassau. One was the Disney cruise ship and they had over 3,000 people aboard, including crew. That was the small Disney ship!

We had a decent motor sail up to Little Harbour. Winds were light and their was no sea to speak of. We had no trouble navigating into Little Harbour, but the tide was low and we had to temporarily anchor outside of the nice protected anchorage for a few hours. So we went diving and found hundreds of helmet conch right under the boat. I don't know of anyone who eats them. We luckily also found some Queen conch, which we do eat. So dinner was acquired fairly quickly. We entered the protected anchorage at mid-tide and still went aground several times. But with perseverance we finally got to a nice spot. Because it was tight we put out a bow and stern anchor. This kept us in the middle of the channel. There is room for only a few boats but not many people come here.

For the next 3 days we got to see a lot of the Berries by dinghy. We found good fishing spots and Chris did a wonderful job catching them. Chris was getting ready to fillet one of the fish and it jumped out of his hands and went overboard. He debated diving in and trying to retrieve the injured fish but in the meantime we watched as a shark swam over and helped himself to our dinner! Later on we took the rest of the fish carcasses away from the boat to release and waited around to see what would happen. First a barracuda came by but was leary of the dinghy. Then we watched as some manta rays started swimming over. But, lo and behold, we saw the shark's fin (just like in jaws) and everyone moved off while the shark got the prize. Interesting hierarchy in the sea.

There is only one extended family living on the island of Little Harbour. The matriarch, Flo, serves lunch and dinner with 3 hours notice. She will also bake bread for the next day for you. We decided to eat there with another couple on one of four boats anchored there. We ordered our choice of dinner in the morning and went up at 6 to eat. It was just the 4 of us eating dinner there and we had a wonderful time. Flo, her son, and nephew sat and talked with us over dinner. The yard is filled with ducks, chickens, roosters,and a peacock. It's such a unique and different life they have on the island.

A weather window for crossing opened up and we, along with lots of other cruisers, decided to take it. We sailed around the southern tip of the Berries past Chubb Cay to enter the Banks. While 10-15 knot winds were predicted to come up we found the day pass with light and variable. We motorsailed but listened to another cruiser who had to sail because their engine wasn't working consistently. We got to the Bimini area around 10:30 pm and were able to navigate through a rocky bar only with the aid of our GPS, Global Positioning System. The Explorer charts have verified GPS way points. These are very accurate satellite based navigation coordinates. What a wonderful help to cruising GPS is and we owe it all to our US military. As we entered the Gulfstream waters, we were hailed by another vessel. It turned out it was the US Coast Guard. They asked lots of questions about size of vessel, number of people on board, departure point, destination point, and then let us go on our way. We assumed they were there for drug interdiction.

The stream on the Bahama side was just lovely. Small gentle swells and the wind out of the SouthEast. The only rougher part of the crossing came in the middle to the stateside of the stream, where we encountered 6 foot seas and stronger winds. But it wasn't bad at all, it just kept you on your toes. Coming into Fort Lauderdale it was hard to pick up the buoys because of the millions of lights. Inside the harbor multiple security boats with blue lights and strobe lights were crisscrossing the harbor checking out each and every boat entering. It turned out we arrived during Fleet week and the security was really tight. We crossed the stream so fast it was still dark when we entered. The good news though was that it was before 7 am, so the bridges opened on demand. We whizzed up to Pompano Beach and our much appreciated dock on 24th Street. Mom, Dad and my brother, John, greeted us on our return to the USA.

So here we are, back in the states. We'll be running up the coast as we make our way back to Virginia. We have reserved a slip at the Salt Pond Marina in Hampton for the whole summer. We plan to spend time with Justin before he heads off to wherever the Peace Corps sends him. We hope you'll come and visit us if its possible. We'll probably close the journal for a while until we head south again. Justin has just installed Version 3 of the website and I must say it is awesome! He has superimposed our journey on satellite images. The three of us will do a final edit once we get to Virginia. To view the site go to www.cs.odu.edu/~wild/travels. Thanks Justin.

Thanks again for going on the journey with us. We wish everyone fair winds and smooth seas.

Pam and Chris