We Made it to the Bahamas

We arrived at Yacht Haven Marina in Spanish Wells around 9 am this morning. Our trip from Cape Fear was 566 nautical miles and took 95 hours. I am not going to lie, I am exhausted. I have been pacing myself since we arrived and I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

I felt sad when we passed by Abaco last night. We usually stop there first and like so many of the places we have visited there.. They were devastated by Hurricane Dorian this fall and we thought we wouldn’t be very useful to the residents trying so hard to rebuild. We took a photo just before sunset of what was most likely Green Turtle Cay in the distance. We thought we were looking at a sunbeams through a squall. As time went on, though, what we thought was a squall ended up looking much more like smoke. They burn their trash here in the Bahamas and we know there is a lot of debris left from the buildings that were destroyed.

The sailing conditions yesterday through this morning were great. The wind was 13-20 at about 60-90 degrees apparent. The waves still kept us bouncing and rolling, though. As we were passing Elbow Cay I had to hail a cargo ship on the VHF radio. I really don’t like using the radio, mainly because I don’t think I am very good at it. I was watching this ship on the chart plotter and the AIS said our closest point of approach (CPA) would be anywhere between 222 ft and 1 mile. I considered waking George up to make the call but then decided I should just suck it up and call myself. The captain said he would pass us on our starboard side. I was just happy that he saw us. After midnight George encountered numerous ships as he was sailing through the Providence Channel, between Abaco and Eleuthera. At one point he counted 10 ships in a 15 mile radius. As we turned to go the last few miles to Spanish Wells we rolled the jib and dropped the mainsail. As George was tucking in the sail he looked down on the deck and saw the pin that had come loose from the boom vang! It was sitting in a groove that serves as a drain on the foredeck. How is stayed there we will never know. Later on, when he was washing the salt off of the deck he found the split ring that was supposed to keep the pin from coming out.

Our marina attendant arranged for the customs official to visit us here so that we could get cleared into the country. He was so nice and made everything so easy. George found the energy to wash the salt off of the boat while I went to take a shower. Later we treated ourselves to lunch at the restaurant here at the marina. I think an even earlier-than-usual bedtime is in store for us.

Tomorrow we plan to wash our winter clothes, finish cleaning the enclosure panels and put all those cold weather things away. The forecast for the next 7 days calls for a high on 79 and low of 72 each day!