February 12 - 17 CROSSING THE GULF STREAM, THE “BANKS”, AND ANDROS ISLAND, BAHAMAS

First land passed after crossing Gulf Stream, lighthouse on Gun Cay



Relaxing on gulfside beach in Marathon before setting off for the Bahamas

February 13 After yesterday’s uneventful day sailing and then motoring to Rodriguez Key (I have to mention the beautiful turquoise color of the water all day in Hawk Channel) we are up at 4:30 am today and find that the wind is now changed and is coming from the north. We have been warned innumerable times not to sail to the Bahamas if the wind is NW, N, or NE! Seven or eight other boats are calling on the VHF radio in the dark, talking about what to do. The north wind could make the Gulf Stream almost impassable with huge waves and buffeting winds. The Gulf Stream always flows north and can be between 2-7 knots of current. In the end six of us decide to try it. “You can always turn back” is our thought. However, the one boat that we have designated as our buddy-boat, SERENADE, feels strongly about not going and so we are parting ways, and we feel badly about that.

The start of our day at 5 am is difficult because of the dark, but we are for a while able to follow the first 5 boats through the opening in the reef outside of Rodriguez Key. After that it is a great trip, as the sun came up around 6:30 am, the north winds were light and the waves in the Gulf Stream were small. We altered our course from heading for the southernmost entry into the Bahamas Bank so that we’d follow a boat from the group what was going to the middle entry (Gun Cay and Cat Cay) and the rest headed for Bimini, the northernmost entry in this area.

By 4:00 pm we reached the cut between the cays and entered the Bahamas Bank. We had decided to find the Customs station at Andros Island, on the other side of this part of the Bank. So all we need to do at this point is anchor for the night and then sail for Andros tomorrow. One little challenge lay before us, however, as the Bank in this area is very shallow (no where on the Bank is it deep, averaging between 4 - 14 ft. at low time). We inched our way through the beginning of the channel that our chart suggested, but went aground at about 5:00 pm. After a half hour of gently running the engine we did get off and gingerly moved the boat to 8 ft of water and anchored just before sunset. We now know that if our depth-sounder starts reading 6.1 ft. that we are about to hit bottom -- which luckily is all sand here.

Just as it gets dark we hear voices and see a light maybe a mile away -- another boat anchored on the Bank. Otherwise there is nothing around for miles. We are about 5 miles east of Gun Cay and Cat Cay at this point.

Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day After checking the charts we can see that we will be on the Bahama Banks all day and won’t reach Andros until tomorrow. The weather is warm and sunny and the water is crystal clear and about 10-13 feet deep all day. We motored in the morning, sailed slowly in the middle of the day and then motored again in the late afternoon as there was not much wind. We have seen a few sailboats in the far distance and one or two motorboats pass on our course but that is all we see above the water. Below is sand, some grass, starfish, and some small shiny fish that jump out of the water and skim the surface for about 2 ft before diving back in. It is like dropping RISING TIDE into a stretched out version of Snow’s Pond back home. We anchored at the end of the day for our second night on the Bank.

Feb. 15 For another sunny, warm, light-air day we travel to Morgan’s Bluff on the northern end of Andros Island. To get there we are in the Tongue of the Ocean, which is in the middle of the Bahamas and is 600-1800 meters deep. This was a shorter trip, about 6 hours, and Ken saw Customs when we got there and anchored. After that we exchanged our quarantine flag for a Bahamian flag, flown above our U.S.flag. Morgan’s Bluff is a small town, seems to have about 4 small buildings and a park that they use for their annual regatta. Further out on the back side of the bluff is a dock for water tankers that come from Nassau to fill up with Andros water and take it back to Nassau. Our second day on Andros we watched a gang of local boys prepare to go out for some diving, then sailed to Fresh Creek which is 2 towns, Andros Town and Coakley Town. The wind kicked up and we had a lively sail down there, another 6-7 hour sail.

Fresh Creek is also small and there is only room for shallow-draft boats to anchor. We are therefore docked at a small marina along with about 7 sailboats and 7 power boats. It is windy and clear. We will probably stay here one more day until the wind dies down to medium strength. Our first night here we were given fresh fish from the local guy cleaning it for the power boat owner who caught it. We watched 3 bull sharks circle near the fish-cleaning station. Other activities in town are a factory that makes batik fabric and clothing, and several bonefishing lodges that cater to fishermen who fly in to fish for the week. Between the 2 towns there are about 5 restaurants, and 3 small grocery stores, plus 3-4 other small stores. We are happy that the marina has wifi so this information can go out and we can check our email! We are planning to switch from phoning to email and texting as phone charges are very high here.

Our introduction to the Bahamas and Andros Island has been great and we look forward to more interesting days in the Exumas where we will be heading next.