Hello from the Bahamas!

Our first post from the Bahamas!

Our trip over was calm and uneventful. Seas started at 2 feet and calmed down to even less so it was a comfortable ride. We left at dawn, along with many, many boats.  It seems that everyone was heading over to the West End where they can anchor or dock at a marina and check in.  We travelled a bit farther north, entering north of Memory Rock and then turned due north toward Matanilla Shoal.  We had planned to anchor on the shore in an area known for dolphin sighting. As it turned out, the forecast was a bit off and the dolphins scarce!  We had two play on the bow for a bit and Sean saw one leap out of the water but that was it for sightings. We were essentially anchored in the ocean and it blew over 20 knots in the night so we had a lumpy bumpy night. Can I tell you how much we love our flopper stoppers?!

We headed out as soon as possible the next day and went due east towards Walker Cay. We had decided to check at Spanish Cay but then changed our minds. It’ll take a few days to get to Spanish Cay and until we check in, we can’t leave the boat. There are a few islands on the way and we wanted to get our phones sorted out so we would have internet.  So this morning, Martin & Sean headed in to Walker Cay.

It turned out that they’re rebuilding the customs building so immigration is over at Grand Cay, about 5 miles east. So Sean & Martin headed over there.  The office had to get some kind of paperwork from the next boat so they asked them to come back in afternoon. But the guys were able to get the phones sorted (hence…this blog post!).  The customers and immigration officer was really nice and checked us in as soon as the boat arrived.  We got a full 180 day immigration visa – woo hoo!  After checking in, we enjoyed a few Kalik beers and an amazing lobster dinner at Rosie’s. It was a wonderful day in the Bahamas!

The dinghy ride back to Blossom & Vector was exciting at night, through shallow water with a building sea. We got a bit wet! Now it’s Thursday morning and we’re expecting very high winds over the weekend. We’re about to leave for a well protected anchorage south of here. We won’t have internet there so we won’t be posting on the blog again until Monday or Tuesday. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my act together quickly enough so there are no pictures in the blog. The next entry will have lots of them!!

Boat Business

Blossom ran well but we have a few things to address.

• Autopilot and rudder have just not been playing well together. Martin reset everything and spent hours playing with settings and he thinks he’s got it worked out now.
• The fly bridge VHF radio is no longer working. It worked fine coming down to North Palm Beach so we didn’t think to test it, but somehow it died while we were there. This is a drag as we were planning to run Blossom from the fly bridge and now we’ll only have our portable VHF up there which has a much weaker signal. Hopefully we’ll be able to sort that out.
• We developed a slight leak in one of our main engine racors. 
• We tested our new black tank hose installation to make sure that all the clamps were on tight, thankfully they were!
• Another drawer filled with cans popped out but no damage done. I’m going to start taping the heavy ones shut with blue tape.