Nassau 24-25 Mar

      After 2 days of strong southeasterly winds, the conditions were acceptable to push on from Morgan's Bluff to Providence Island but, rather than go directly to Nassau and then have to wait several days to push on to the Exumas, we decided to anchor off the west end of Providence Island for two days, then proceed to Nassau.

   West Bay provided a comfortable site to anchor with protection from the easterly winds. There were resorts along the north shore and a national park and beach along the south shore seen here. 

  Some unfortunate sailboat got blown up onshore probably in one of the recent hurricanes.

   When it was time to go on to Nassau a couple days later we had a slight problem. Our anchor picked up an old hawser line a good 3inches in diameter. It appeared to be a pendant line about 15ft long that a commercial vessel would use to connect to a mooring ball - long since gone.

   Fortunately it wasn't connected to anything heavy or on the bottom and it only took us a few minutes to get it off the anchor fluke and we were soon on our way to Nassau.

  We had another "boisterous" sail to Nassau from West Bay as the forecasted 15kt winds turned out to be 20kts gusting to 25. Fortunately the waves were not so large as we were transiting close to shore just outside the reefs. Sailing with a reefed main and staysail only we still were making 6 to 7.5 kts and the trip only took a little over 3 hours. We were soon approaching Nassau Harbour and passing by the landmark lighthouse on the eastern point of the harbor entrance.  We counted 5 cruise ships in port, all of which were gone the next day.

    We had two critical objectives that required us to pull into Nassau and grab a slip at the Nassau Harbour Club. First, Rivah had an appointment with the Vet. She was just not acting right at Morgan's Bluff, very lethargic and clearly not herself. Before proceeding on to the Exumas where there is no Vet care, we needed her to be checked out. Of course by the time of her appointment she was back to normal, but it was very reassuring to get a good health check from the Vet. Seems she was suffering from some serious sea-sickness from our very rough passage to Morgan's Bluff.

    Our second requirement in Nassau was to pick up our new 15hp, 2-stroke Yamaha outboard. Our new hard fiberglass bottom dinghy (to protect from the beach coral) was heavier than our previous inflatable floor dinghy and our 8hp outboard was not up to the task to get it up on plane. We needed some more hp. 

   However, you cant buy 2-stroke outboards in the USA anymore, only overseas, so the Bahamas is a convenient spot to pick one up. We were very lucky to get one as COVID has also interfered with outboard motor deliveries. The dealer initially told me he would have one by 1 April, then said sometime in May, then emailed to say he had a cancellation and had one available for me. We quickly snatched it up.

   We have been zipping around the anchorages now and it is scary fast but unfortunately uses about twice the gas of the 8hp. Oh well, that's a trade-off.

   

   For our Yoga friends, Nassau is the place you want to go to get Yoga instruction training. Right in the middle of Nassau Harbour with its own boat landing is the Yoga Retreat center.

   The timing of our stay in Nassau was just right to coincide with the visit by Prince William and Princess Kate.  The Bahamian Police force were dressed up in their traditional garb to impress the Royals. Unfortunately it rained heavily most of the day and the parade and other festivities were cancelled.  But William and Kate did participate in the sailboat races that went on in spite of the showers.

   Sue and I were out grocery shopping at the end of the day after the rains stopped and happened to see the police stopping traffic over the bridges to Paradise Island so we suspected the Royals must be over there. We were correct and while standing on the bridge, along came the motorcade. William and Kate are in the first black car and William smiled and waved directly at Sue as they passed us by while I snapped photos. 

   After a quick 2 day stop it was time to finally head out to the "real" Bahamas and crystal clear waters of the Exumas. We had one of our first days of light northerly winds allowing us to motorsail down towards the Exumas. What beautiful waters....

Arrival Bahamas - Finally! 18 Mar

   

   We finally made it after only two and a half months since departing New Bern, NC, on 3 Jan. Of course a month of that time was spent in Fernandina waiting for our transmission to be repaired. Another 17 days was spent in Miami waiting for a weather window to transit easterly to the Bahamas.

 The weather window finally came on 17 March and we set off early in the morning for the Bahamas. We arrived at Morgan's Bluff on the northern tip of Andros Island about 4pm on the 18th.

   Morgan's Bluff is a very small harbor that is mainly used by the Bahamian's on Andros as their main supplies port. The supply ships arrive about every other day bringing everything that is required to live on the island.

   For us cruisers, the port is a convenient site to check in to customs and obtain your cruising permit. 

   Other than a place to check in to customs and sit out the next two days of easterly winds, there is not much to do in Morgan's Bluff. We did peer into Morgan's Cave but didn't see any buried treasure.

 

   We decided to walk to the nearby Nicholls Town which turned out to be not really a typical USA town but rather a typical Bahamian settlement. It was a spread out residential area with a few houses converted into stores. There was no commercial district. We saw a sign advertising Conch Sound so we walked down there and discovered one house converted to a restaurant/bar, one house as a fishing supply store and a large conch cleaning station. There was a great view of the shoreline and offshore reef line. 

   It turned into a 15 mile walk and fortunately a nice lady gave us a ride back the last 3 miles or it would have been 18 miles.

   Sue had a really tough time not picking up several of the conch shells many of which had 4-6inch lips and beautifully colored interiors, but we decided it was better to collect our own in the Exumas, where we are heading next.

   After 2 days of brisk easterly winds, the wind eased off and veered to the south-south-east so it was time to set off for Providence Island and Nassau. We had originally planned to bypass Nassau, but Rivah seems a little under the weather, which could just be seasickness from our rough passage, but we want her to see a Vet before we move on to the Exumas where there is no Vet care available.

Staged for Crossing to the Bahamas -16 Mar

 

   We're anchored just off Key Biscayne staged for departing tomorrow am for the Bahamas. 

   We moved over here from Miami South Beach this morning. Stopped at Crandon Marina to top off gas, diesel and water. Too bad we were delayed a couple weeks here as we had to pay the Ukraine crisis price for fuel, basically 6$ a gallon for gas and diesel. Fortunately we only needed 5 gals of each.   That's all the fuel we've used since departing Vero Beach on 28 Feb. Joys of traveling by sailboat.

    Goodbye view of our anchorage spot at South Beach. Was a good spot with a relatively short dinghy ride to shore. Only detractor was the extensive boat wakes from the speed boats passing by.

   Yesterday we did our final grocery shopping and laundry ashore.

   Last night we had to obtain our Bahamas Health Visas and Cruising Permit via the new Bahamas websites. Took about 3hrs to get it all right. Next time ( next year?) it will be about half that time now that we know the problems and mistakes easy to make. But all good to go today.

    Transiting from Miami to Biscayne Bay. Monument Island is a favorite party spot for the boaters here in Miami.

   At this point our chart plotter stopped working and we had to make a decision to continue or abort, but ultimately decided we could make it to the Bahamas without it. Later in the day it was working again. Perhaps an electron glitch.

   This will be the view starting tomorrow for a couple days. We should arrive at our checkin point on Andros Island (Morgan's Bluff) about noon on Friday the 18th. Across the Gulf Stream and down the Bahamas Bank then a right turn to Andros. Winds are forecast to be light from the south. We'll see. Rare for the forecast to be exactly right.

Miami 1 Mar - ??

    We are now sitting at anchor in Miami on the inside of South Beach and will stay here until we get a weather window to sail to the Bahamas. Right now it is looking like Fri/Sat the 11th of March. This is quite typical as the frontal systems that provide safe winds to sail east to the Bahamas come through about every 7-10 days. We found a good place to get on wifi and grab a coffee at Whole Foods near where we can land the dinghy. Sue also found a Trader Joe nearby. Yesterday was a 10mile walk along the beach walkway.

   We found a place to get our COVID tests here which we need before we can apply for our Bahamas Cruising Permit. You are required to provide them a negative test taken within 72hrs of arriving so we will get our tests next Wednesday, then get on Internet to complete our Cruising Permit forms, then hopefully depart on Fri and arrive at Nassau on Sat. That's based on todays wind forecast for the next 10 days which are rarely accurate beyond 72hrs - but that's typical and we are always flexible. We'll see.  Meanwhile, its 78 degrees during the day and low 70s at night. We had a light shower the night after arriving which washed the salt of the boat. All systems are operating properly on the boat and we are enjoying our time here. 

   Now March 9th and we are still here in Miami. Moved our anchorage up a few hundred yards to try and find some waters with less wake reflections. Looking like we may have a weather window to cross to the Bahamas Next Tuesday the 15th. Cutting into our days in the Bahamas as we would like to be home by May 1st, but still will provide a nice visit to the Islands...

Fort Pierce to Miami 28 Feb - 1 Mar

         Finally, a smooth offshore passage with winds actually more favorable than what was forecasted. This is our 3rd trip south after returning from working in Brussels and basically the first comfortable offshore passage we have made with conditions better than predicted. Its nominally a 18-24hr passage from Fort Pierce to Miami depending on wind conditions and we made a leisurely 24hr passage.  On a southbound passage we stay relatively close to shore staying out of the Gulf Stream, initially about 2-3 miles out but coming in to less than 1/2 mile once south of Palm Beach. 

   We departed Vero Beach at 0700 and exited the Fort Pierce channel to sea at 0930. The current had already started to ebb at nearly 2kts but the winds were light and truly from the north perpendicular to the current so the waves were only 1-2ft, nothing like the 6-8ft waves we had leaving Georgetown.

 The forecast winds were 5-12kts from behind us to the northeast, then shifting to the northwest later in the evening, so we setup our Whisker Pole to pole out the genoa to the starboard side. 

   The actual winds started close to the forecast with 10-12kts from the northeast but quickly veered to the East as the sea breeze kicked in. We were able to sail along at a nice 5-6kt pace on relatively smooth seas. Several hours later the wind died to near zero and we motored for the next 4 hours.

  Then the northwest winds arrived and shifted to directly west. We left the pole extended (its a 2 person job to adjust it and not a great idea during the night) and just pulled out the genoa to the port side. Fortunately the wind never went forward of 60degrees so we were able to secure the engine and go back to sailing at 5kts with a couple reefs in the sails to keep our speed down so as not to arrive in Miami before sunrise. The winds remained relatively light and coming right off the shore and with us transiting within 1/2 mile of shore the seas were nearly flat. It was a nice smooth transit and we arrived at the Miami channel about 8am, safely after sunrise, and were anchored off South Beach by 10am and ready for a nap.

     Enjoyable passages like this one are what keeps us sailing. The crew had a good time and there were no seasick induced trips to the gunnels throughout the trip.

 

Vero Beach 25-27 Feb

 

   Next stop down the ICW for us is Vero Beach (otherwise known as "Velcro Beach" by cruisers because it is hard to leave the conveniences).  Vero Beach has the advantage of offering low priced mooring balls, but the main draw is full protection from strong winds or storms from any direction. Add to that you can walk to the beach or to shopping malls with a West Marine and Publix. We of course did the 8mile walk to Wawa for coffee. For the non-walkers there is a free public mini-bus (last year called the COVID coach) that goes to the same locations.

   

   Across from our mooring ball under the bridge was the Riverside Cafe. Last year during COVID it was nearly deserted but was a great spot to grab a beer on the outside deck. This year it was packed and drinking only was not allowed on the deck, only dining guests. Drinking guests were directed to the inside bar but we had Rivah with us so passed and went back and had a beer on the boat.

  We stayed on the mooring ball for 3 days waiting for our weather window to make the offshore passage from Fort Pierce to Miami. That gave us plenty of time to fill up on gas and water, do several loads of laundry and get hot showers each day. Soon it was time to push on further south.

Cocoa Village 23-24 Feb

 

   Next stop down the ICW road from Titusville is Cocoa Village. They have a free city dock there where you can stay for up to 48hrs if space is available. We were able to pull right into the end of the dock, which provides us an easy exit when it time to leave.

  The previous  day we had anchored on the other side of the Cocoa bridge when the winds were blowing strong from the southeast. We dinghied ashore and checked out the Merritt Island side of Cocoa. There is a nearby West Marine and Publix and Home Depot within walking distance but we didnt need much of anything from those stores, so the next day when the wind dropped down we moved over to the Cocoa Village dock.

   Here's a view of the dock and bridge from the Cocoa Village shore. We stayed a couple days and checked out the Dirty Oar Brewery - (very good stout and IPA) and burger at the Amercana Pub - (good but not as good as First Love in Fernandina). 

   Each day was a walk to Wawa to get our 5-8miles in and for Sue to get her coffee. 

  Unfortunately it is not a good idea to walk across the bridge as there is only a small bike/pedestrian shoulder  area with no separation from the traffic. 

After a couple days enjoying Cocoa it was time to move on.