NautiNell

NautiNell
NautiNell in all her glory

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Leaving Hopetown and Heading to West End

One of the many ships we saw along the way
Just a sample of the beauty in the Bahamas
Just a little fishin' boat!
This was a group of American Boy Scouts
How cool is it that they can come to the Bahamas!
Here fishy, fishy
Mike couldn't get enough of all the fishing boats
Just how many rods do you really need?
There's got to be a good caption for this
but I can't think of it
Beautiful night on anchorage
Rainbow saying "good morning"!
Well, he almost got in the water
This little piggy......
He really didn't pay Mike any mind
Now here comes mama....!
Pigs Bite - duh!
Friday, May 29   We left Hopetown this morning at about 10:30.  We hate leaving such a great place but we’ve decided it’s time to head back toward the states.  It looks like there is some weather moving in here and we don’t want to get “stuck” here for too long!  So off we go – working our way west – staying in front of the weather hopefully.  Right now – it looks like we’ll be at West End by Monday evening and Tuesday looks like a good day to cross.  We’ll see……

Anyway, we only went about 20 miles back to Treasure Cay.  We made it about 1:15 and dropped the hook.  We hit the pool and checked out the neighborhood grocery store close by.  There is a Billfish Series Tournament going on here.  There are huge fishing boats here.  Mike is definitely enjoying everything going on – although the word is that they haven’t been catching that much.  It was a very pleasant night on anchor.  The wind that blew the entire time while we were in Hopetown has finally calmed down. 

Saturday, May 30   After making a fuel stop we were on our way about 9:00 a.m.  We are on our way to Green Turtle.  In order to get there we have to cross the “Whale Cay Passage” again.  It looks like it should be a good time to make it through.  It’s only a couple of miles long but it opens to the Atlantic and can quickly blow up some big waves. When this happens it is called a “rage”.  Not a good thing!  Luckily we made it through again with no problem.  There were about 6-8 foot rollers with a 9 sec duration.  The word on the VHF was that it was “do-able”.  Well, it was but I’m glad we didn’t have to do it very long!

We made it to a mooring ball at Green Turtle about 10:30.  Definitely a short day!  We needed to stop here because this would be the last chance to get Wi-Fi.  We need that to check the weather, etc.  So today would be a play day, since the next two would be long travel days.  We took the whaler over to No Name Cay where the pigs are.  We tried to make it over there when we came through earlier but we didn’t get to.  This time we made it!  Yep, there are pigs on that island!  Supposedly they will swim out to your boat for food.  However, someone had dumped a bunch of old produce on the island and they weren’t about to leave it for our treats.  So we went ashore and visited them!  Hmmmm…..  It was fun but not really all that exciting.  I’ve fed a lot more aggressive pigs when I was younger on my Grandpa’s farm.  Now that was an experience!

Oh, one thing did happen….  Our camera went for a swim.  I’m sure glad it was Mike that was holding it and not me!  AND it’s not waterproof.  At this time, it is still in a bag of rice.  We were able to salvage the card so I didn’t lose any pictures.  But the camera is shot, I’m pretty sure.  Oh well….  We can’t do anything about it now so off to Sundowners for Happy Hour.  J

Sunday, May 31   We left Green Turtle about 8:00 a.m.  We have 64 miles to go today to Great Sale Cay where we’ll drop the hook.  At our speed that’s pretty much all day.  It turned out to be a very pleasant day today – no wind!  Not good for sailboats but we love it!  We made it to our anchorage at about 3:30 p.m.  We saw several turtles and finally some dolphins.  There was some boat traffic including the National Defence Force – Bahamas answer to Border Patrol/Coast Guard.   

Monday, June 1   We left our VERY quiet anchorage about 7:30 a.m.  Our boat didn’t even move all night.  Wish all the anchorages could be like that!  We have about 56 miles to West End.  The water is so very calm and clear!  There were times when you could see the bottom at 12 feet like it was only 2 feet!  We could clearly see conch, small fish and hundreds of starfish!  It was like being a part of an aquarium.  At one time a shark came up to the boat and swam alongside for a while.  I guess he was just checking us out.  That was kinda creepy!  We also had four dolphins come up to us.  The water is so clear that you could see them swimming underwater.  All of a sudden they all swam up to each other and jumped about 10 feet in the air.  It was so very cool!  It was like watching a show at SeaWorld.  It’s like they know how and want to entertain us!  We hit the Indian Cay Channel about low tide.  That wasn’t good planning but we still had enough water.  There were times that it looked so shallow because it was so clear that it would just freak us out.  We had to keep our eyes on the depth sounder so we’d know we were okay.  What a trip!  Finally we made it through the channel to West End where we dropped a hook about 2:00 p.m.  We took the dinghy in to Old Bahama Bay Marina to check the Wi-Fi (weather).  All looks okay.  We anchored out in the Atlantic and it was a bit roll-y.  We kept telling each other it would do.  Finally after about 5 hours of that -  just before sunset -  Mike took the dinghy out to scout out a better anchorage.  He found a perfect one!  There was a new housing area being developed and they had built a canal that went into it – Ginn Mir Southside Inlet.  We had plenty of water and no wind!  We moved over there and relaxed.  We would get some sleep tonight after all!

Tuesday, June 2   After a great night on anchorage we were up early and ready to go.  We have about 67 miles to go across the Atlantic Ocean to West Palm (Lake Worth Inlet).  The weather is being nice to us so the water is calm.  We had a nice boring crossing – just the way we like it.  We made it to the inlet by 3:30 p.m.  Mike even caught us dinner along the way (tuna!)  Sorry no pics….  We decided that we would keep moving a bit longer since it wasn’t that late.  We finally dropped anchor at an area named Hell Gate just past the Jupiter Inlet.  We finally got to use our Local Boater Option (LBO) that we registered for last year.  All we had to do was call the Border Patrol and report in.  After a few questions we were good to go.  No reporting in person.  That was nice!

Oh by the way – while we were crossing we heard on the VHF that a guy was in a 27 ft boat crossing from Bimini to Freeport.  He had run out of gas and had no radio.  He had been drifting north for over 5 hours!  Luckily another boater had stopped and was asking for assistance.  One of the huge freighters came to his rescue by supplying him with some gasoline.  They lowered a tank full of gas down to the trawler.  The trawler said he didn’t have any food or water either – so they gave him some.  Then another boater who was going in the guy’s direction said he would shadow him on to West End to be sure he made it.  Can you imagine!  Luckily for that guy someone spotted him. 

Also, when we crossed back over I realized that my phone had shot craps.  First the camera now my phone.  Oh well,  we'll be back in the grand ol' USA where you can always buy what you need!
Wednesday, June 3   We had another good anchorage and left about 8:00 a.m.  We had about 40 miles to go to Ft Pierce where we planned to stop in at Harbor Town Marina.  We plan to stay there for about a month or so.  We made it there about 2:30 and unloaded the scooters at the fuel dock.  We finally made it in our slip about 3:30.  After 6 days traveling and 5 nights on anchor we were ready for a marina stop.  Our plan is to keep NautiNell here for about a month.  We will go back to Joplin for a couple of weeks.  When we get back we will ready her for our trip north to Norfolk where we’ll “cross our wake” and finally close the Great Loop!   But first we have to rent a car to go pick up our car that is still in Marathon.  We’ll do that in a few days.  No hurry!  Right now we’re going to chill.  We had a great steak dinner on the boat and toasted our great “vacation in the Bahamas”!
To all my family and friends back in Joplin - we'll see you in a couple of weeks!

Till next time!

Admiral “C”