Here At Last

The Little Bahamas Bank
N 26 51 W 079 48

Well, after three years of screwing around, we finally made it to the Bahamas. It feels very very good to be here. We're sailing across the banks. The water is uniformly about 9 feet deep, much clearer than most swimming pools, the bottom is white sand with patches of coral and grass, and there are no people or other vessels or land in sight. Now is the time for you to use Google Earth to check out the latitude and longitude coordinates above. That might give an impression of what these banks
are.

The sail up here was most pleasant. We really caught the Gulf Stream good late afternoon yesterday. By midnight, I realized that we were going so fast (7.5 knots in 12 knot wind) that we would arrive at West End before dawn. That wouldn't be good, so I tried to turn on the brakes. I took down the main sail, and I reefed the jib. Finally, I had the jib down to the size of a bath towel and I couldn't go any smaller yet still keep steerage. Still, we were going 5.5 knots. But that was slow
enough. Even at midnight, it was comfortable on desk wearing only shorts and t-shirt.

We arrived at West End at 0830 this morning. Perfect timing. We put in to the harbor. The people there at the marina and at the custom house were very friendly and helpful. We filled out a lot of paperwork, and paid our $150 cruising permit fee, and it was done. We are cleared to stay here for up to a year. That was an auspicious start to our Bahamas adventure.

Now it's time for yet another paradigm shift in our transformation to the cruising life. We're going to anchor out tonight, not in any particular spot but rather when we get tired of sailing, we'll take down the sail and drop the anchor. Doesn't even matter if the anchor drags (where would we drag to?) Then I realized the real shift in thinking. We want to go to the one and only town here in the Abacos that we're likely to see. Marsh Harbor. There we can buy groceries, and fuel, and probably
meet up with some friends. However, I realized that it doesn't matter if it is takes us a day or a month or two months to get there. We have food, water, fuel, fishing poles, fishing licenses, books and magazines. We have no cell phone, no mail, no library, but we do have Sirius satellite radio. What would the point be of hurrying to Marsh Harbor.

The long term weather forecast for March is that a cold front with a little nasty weather will come through every fourth day. Not to worry, there are plenty of small cays with protected anchorages. I think most of them are uninhabited. Other than that, it will be sunny and warm. Ho hum, time for my nap.