Bahamas At Last!

1.6.11

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!
Whew....what a stressful 16 hours this has been! We stayed the day in Rodriguez Key and made sure everything was outfitted - the outboard and dinghy were hauled on deck and B and I fitted ourselves with lifejackets, harnesses and jacklines - safety first afterall!! We left Wednesday evening at 4:30pm so that we could get outside of the reef before sunset. We barely made it - we were just skirting by the reef marker as pinky time was ending. The wind was much higher than we had anticipated it being and we even debated turning around and waiting for a better window, but decided to press on.
It was a good thing we did. The wind was light - less than 5 knots - and was variable. Which, although we were hoping for light winds so as not to stir up the Gulf Stream waves, makes for difficult sailing. With the wind not coming from one certain direction, we were moving the sails constantly. We knew we were in for a long sleepless night if the wind continued in that fashion. After a few hours of adjusting the sails and listening to them pop back and forth as they tried to catch whatever light breeze flew by, we opted to turn on the motor. It was 10:30pm and we were a bit behind schedule due to our determination to sail. We had only been averaging about 2-3 knots and really needed to be going 5-7 to make it to Bimini before the following afternoon.
We motored for a bit, taking turns steering while the other dozed nearby. The evening was a bit chilly, but compared to our trip down the west coast of Florida, the weather was perfect!! We entered the Stream with no problem (didn't even know we had entered it except for the increase in speed!) and carried on with our journey. Except for the dusting of commercial traffic the only other ambient lighting was from the stars and the trail of phosphorescence we were leaving in our wake.
On a sidetrack - those of you who spoke to us before we left know that we have been very worried about crossing the Stream and also that some of our instruments are malfunctioning at this moment, but we said Oh Well! and went anyway. We were a bit nervous because our autopilot didn't work, which meant lots of manhandling the helm in the case of rough seas and our radar didn't work, which meant we couldn't see other ships around us. We had heard that many of the container ships and barges were not lit up and didn't care if you were in their path. We, LUCKILY!, found this to be false information. Every boat out there was lit up like a Christmas tree and everyone did a great job of moving comfortably around each other without disaster.
Until...Enter Cruise Ship Stage Right. Around 1:00am, with me behind the helm, I noticed a brightly lit boat approaching off our starboard beam. I kept track of him as our paths converged and as he got closer I realized there was a very real possibility that he might actually run me over! (I knew from sailor rumors that cruise ships did not run over sailboats in their path - too many witnesses) I waited a few more minutes and when I looked back over, I could very clearly make out the tail on the uppermost deck of the Carnival Cruise Ship. Whoa! Too close for comfort!! I immediately turned down our engine and hailed the large approaching ship on the VHF. He very lazily responded in a foreign dialect with "Who is calling Carnival" (read undertones: "What measly pion of a ship dare disturb the great and fabulous Carnival (pronounced "Cah-NEE-vaaaaal")?!) I thought him a bit pious, but answered in kind that I was the small little sailboat on his port bow and that I wanted to make sure he saw me. He acknowledged and that was that. We stayed in idle while he passed no more than half a mile off our bow. Let me tell you, 10 decks of blazing glory is a bit daunting - even from 1/2 mile away!!!
After that debacle, I handed the helm over to Brad while I went below to check our course and determine what adjustments should be made. It was so cool to see that even though we were on a heading of due East, the Stream was pushing us in a directly NorthEast direction. So, we were actually traveling 45 degrees more North than our course - luckily we had factored this in...we're so smart!! The Stream was also giving us a boost of speed and was getting there a bit faster.
Wind finally piped up around 2:00am and we were able to cut the motor and sail the remainder of the trip. Everything was going great until about 4:00am. I don't know whether he plans it or it's just dumb luck, but I always get stuck with the 4:00am shift!! And invariably, as he is snoring away, the wind pipes up and my eyes start to get blurry from sleep deprivation and the start of the sunrise and the pitch black of the night start playing tricks on my eyes. This time was no exception. The wind really piped up around 4:30. I managed to get the sails in the right position and not steer us too far off course - all while Brad slept soundly beside me. And then the boat started heeling over more than it should, which meant that I was really tugging and pulling on the helm to get the boat to do what I wanted it to do. After about an hour of wrestling with the course, Brad finally woke up enough to help me reef the Mainsail. Although that helped tremendously, the wind and the wave were continuously building and I was having more and more of a hard time keeping her on course.
By 7:00am, we were only an hour away from Bimini. We could see the flashing beacon welcoming us and were eager to get into port as the waves had picked up to around 6-8 foot seas. We were now being battered by waves and rocked from rail to rail. Brad took over sailing and got us to the entrance of the channel. The channel had recently been dredged and we knew there was a new entrance, but it wasn't marked well. I got on the VHF again and requested information on local knowledge of the channel - meaning, where the heck do we go so that we don't hit bottom! We had been told that the majority of navigation in the Bahamas was eyeball; you have to pay attention to the colors of the water to determine the depths. Well that is all well and good until you are in 8-10 foot seas and you can't see the bottom until you are in the trough. Not hearing anything back on the radio despite desperate pleas for information on my part, Brad wrestled the sail down and headed in. Brad took the helm and I spotted as best I could. We hit bottom once when we dropped into the trough of an 8 foot wave and landed in 5 feet of water (less than what we draw!). The waves were both a hindrance and a savior as they picked us up off the bottom and then slammed us back down again on the next trough. The next few waves washed sideways through our cockpit, but also pushed us off the sand and into the deeper water. We blind-lucked our way in through the channel and thankfully into calm water.
I hailed the local marinas on the VHF and not one of the 3 responded. We were unsure what to do next! Did we just pull into a slip and then check in? Would the depth be ok or were some slips deeper than others? Thankfully there was a guy on one of the fishing boats who yelled over to us and told us to hail the marinas on a different channel. They immediately responded and helped us into a slip. We couldn't have been more thankful to be finished with the passage.
Brad went ashore and checked us into the Bahamas with customs with no difficulties and it was official! We were all set to stay for a year! The water is beautiful and you can see straight through to the bottom. We are so excited to be here and now we are going to crawl into bed....

Bahamas Bound

1.4.11

Greetings faithful blog followers! We left Marathon New Year's Day and made it to the back of Long Key where we anchored for two nights and worked on a few small things around the boat. The anchorage was great and protected us from the East winds. The winds ended up being lighted than anticipated and the current actually affected the direction the boat was facing more than the wind!
After a perfect day of sailing today, albeit light winds, we have finally made it to Rodriguez Key, which is a small island used as a "jumping off" point for Bimini. We have carefully tracked the weather and will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and traveling through the night to get to Bimini by Thursday morning!!
We are both excited and nervous to be making our first Gulf Stream crossing, but the winds should be light and with luck, the seas as well! We have met several boats along the way who are also making the crossing, and although we won't be going at the same time, we have plans to link up with them in Bimini. We are realizing that the sailing world is small - we are starting to recognize other boats and other boaters are starting to recognize us! It is really cool to pull into an anchorage with a few other boats and hear one of them hailing you on the VHF because you had been in a previous place together.
Funny side note story - while in Marathon, we met another young couple and when we told them what boat we were on, they said, "Oh, everyone knows your story!" Brad and I looked at each other trying to figure out what our story was and why everyone knew it!?! I finally asked him what he was talking about and he told me that everyone in the mooring field was saying that we had gone to Las Vegas and won big in poker - hence the boat and its name! HA! Who knew we were so famous!?!
Anyway, we are very excited to be making the crossing and even more excited to think that this time on Thursday we will be sipping sundowners in Bimini!!