Gulf Crossing
On December 17th we left St Augustine at sunrise.
We sailed to Ponce Inlet and found our depth finder was failing. Suddenly we hit bottom and were aground. Even though our boat is actually made to ground during low tides, it is never a good feeling to unintentionally get stuck. Luckily the tide was coming in so we just needed to be patient. Nate did jump in to check the depth finder and forgot how little water there was. Luckily he didn’t break an ankle jumping into such shallow water. Josephine was very amused! Within minutes of jumping in a dinghy arrived from a near by anchored boat. The occupants promptly told us that the area was “shark bite USA.” Nate quickly jumped out and we waited for the tide to rise. Before sunset the boat came loose and the same dinghy was nice enough to lead us to a safer spot to anchor.
We had time to let Queso run free on the sand bar and chatted with a family who lives on their boat with two small children. The parents hoped we would be staying longer so Josephine could babysit, but this was not to be since we would be departing in the morning.
On December 18th, we checked the weather a final time and felt safe to commit to our passage across the gulf stream to the Bahamas. We were excited! As we left our anchorage one of the cartridges in the life preservers set off which is connected to AIS and can send an alert to the Coast Guard. We called the Coast Guard on the radio to let them know everyone was safe.
Our passage was going to be a long 30+ hours so we began 1 hour shifts for the daylight hours. This allowed time to nap, read and eat throughout the day. We passed Cape Canaveral in the afternoon.
As the sunset we started our 2 hour shifts and the night went smoothly. As the sun came up and we were half way between Florida and Bahamas, our Starboard engine began vibrating severely. We discussed the situation as a family and decided that proceeding to the Bahamas with one engine would not be safe. Before turning around Nate decided to jump in (with boat idled) and check the propeller. He held a rope off the side of the boat to hold onto while inspecting the propeller. It was clogged with seaweed and Nate was able to clear the mass away. We were back in business and resumed our course Eastward. We were all so glad we did not have to turn around!
We arrived in the Old Bay Bahamas Marina on the West End of Grand Bahamas mid-afternoon. A sweet sight to see land! We were instructed to tie to the seawall and raised our yellow quarantine flag. This flag indicates a vessel that has not yet cleared customs. We took our paperwork to customs, signed the paperwork, and exhaled when Queso’s papers were accepted. The custom agent had a tip jar! We were granted a 100 day visa.
Upon returning to our boat we took down the yellow flag and gleefully raised the Bahamas flag. A load of laundry was washed, Josephine studied and Nate and I took Queso for a walk. That night we ate at the marina to celebrate our arrival.
