Back in the Bahamas

We left Key West early Saturday morning and had a fairly inauspicious start to the trip (at least for me). We rounded the island and entered seas that to most people would be benign – 3-4 feet chop. But I didn’t know that my sea sickness patch had fallen off and within minutes I was green. So I was down for about 15 hours while the guys drove.  By that night the seas had calmed down and I felt much better so I took some Stugeron and was able to take my midnight to 4am shift and the guys got some sleep.  A fellow Nordy owner told me about getting the patch med in gel form and I really wish I had done that. For this trip I’ll play around with the 2 new meds I got in the UK and try putting the patch on my arm where I can see it rather than my neck.

Conditions remained fine though it was a little bumpier than we’d expected as we crossed the bank north of Andros and went into the Tongue of the Ocean. This is where the water below goes from 20 feet to 2,000 deep. Very cool! Since we have a several tracks from Nassau to Black Point and it was a clear night, we decided it would be okay to run the bank overnight and we arrived at Dotham Cut around 3am. Weather was showing 1 foot seas in the sound and there was no appreciable wind. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about the cut but it was fine. We were at maximum flood and had 3 knots against us. We bounced up one rolling wave just outside the narrowest part and then voila - we were through and had calm seas the rest of the way down. 

Our view

Blossom at anchor

We arrived in Georgetown around noon and snugged in as close as we could to shore with the boats that were already there. We were very near to our last anchoring spot, about where our friends on Vector had anchored last year. We ended up next to a brand new 76 foot Nordhavn, Ivanhoe.  We went into town to check in (curiously they said we all had to come to immigration when previously we were told only the captain should go to shore) and got our BTC sim cards so we’d have internet. By the time we returned from town the anchorage had filled up quite a bit. Then we washed Blossom down - she was a salty mess - and made a couple hundred gallons of water. We ended the day with a steak and what we call Bahamian potatoes (boniato potatoes) on the aft deck. Life is very good and we were all sound asleep by 9:30.

At the dinghy dock

Our first day in paradise we made a list of all the things we’d like to accomplish with Jim aboard. Then we put out our floppers in preparation for some winds that were due that evening. We played with our new Anchor Buddy which worked like a charm (thanks Kristina & Atle!) The Anchor Buddy is a system where you anchor off the stern of the dinghy with a bungy cord about 30 feet from shore. Then you drive into shore, exit in shallow water and tie off the front of the dinghy to a tree or with a stake in the sand. When you release it, it pulls the dinghy out into deeper water. This way the dinghy won’t get beached if there’s an outgoing tide and you can get in and out of the dinghy in much shallower water.

Martin & Jim as we play with the Anchor Buddy

In the afternoon Jim took me out and I practiced driving the dinghy. This is one of my goals – to get proficient driving and docking the dinghy. It was a bit windy so it was a good day to practice. I’ll be spending time each day driving when the dinghy is down so I should be a pro in no time J

Doesn't Jim look calm?

That evening we were invited over to Ivanhoe and met the owners and their friends who they met up with here.  We had a fun evening meeting everyone and enjoyed the tour of their spectacular boat.

Ivanhoe in a sunbeam

The winds came in last night and we were all up quite a bit. Plans for today are to work on more boat tasks, head into town looking for a 20amp breaker and maybe walk around town a bit. I’ll be driving the dinghy of course J

We’re trying to figure out when to leave and where to go next. There’s an even bigger blow coming in this Sunday, again from the NE/E. We may go to Long Island, or Cat Island, or stay here. That’s still TBD…

Boat Business: Blossom ran well for our 52-hour trip. We had no alarms or glitches other than a drawer that broke free.

• Drawer. Jim fixed the drawer under the stairs as well as he could. There’s an issue with the latching mechanism so it’ll require a better fix once we get back to the states.
• Dive Compressor. The guys got the compressor going and topped off our dive tanks.
• Missing items found. Jim found our electrical diagrams and helm manuals which Martin and I have been looking for - for 3 months.