It is now dark. The conch horns have been played; the sun has officially set. I open the port side pilot house door and step outside. Blue LEDs illuminate the boat’s walkway. Moving aft I climb 6 steps to the boat deck. The wind has shifted and has subsided significantly from the day-long 15-20 knots …
It is a Friday afternoon and my brother Jim has arrived in Marsh Harbor after a very long flight from Seattle. We have a late lunch at Curly Tails over in Conch Harbor Marina overlooking the bay, then spend the evening catching up. Next morning we departed Harbor View Marina for HopeTown on Elbow Cay. …
We were delighted to find the Nordhavn 40 “Uno Mas” just across the dock from us at Harbor View. We knew of the boat’s participation in the Nordhavn North Atlantic Rally (NAR) and have watched Nordhavn’s DVD documenting the trip numerous times. This trip and the solo 40 circumnavigation preceding it cemented Nordhavn’s reputation as …
We departed Treasure Cay on a high tide and ran the short trip down to Marsh Harbor. Marsh Harbor is the 3rd largest “city” in the Bahamas after Nassau and Freeport and has probably 10,000 inhabitants. Though small it is busy with non-stop traffic on its few roads and a harbor full of …
It’s a beautiful evening. It’s 6:00 PM or so and we are headed to dinner at Coco Beach. Walking up the dock I stumble on a step and fall flat on my face. Now bleeding, and no longer interested in dinner, we walk back to the boat and climb aboard. I mean literally climb aboard …
The Whale. Whale Cay Cut. Arguably the Abacos most dangerous passage. Ships have gone down with lives lost passing through this area. Northeast swells and winds can contribute to create a “rage” in the Whale. Impassable conditions. And there is no alternative route for a deeper draft vessel such as Tivoli. The sun is about …
Up again at dawn, hoisted anchor and set out on our course to Green Turtle Cay. Another lovely day though a bit more boisterous in places. We opt to take a southerly route around Great Sale then up to a waypoint called Carter Cay. The better choice would have been a northerly route where one …
Early departure. We successfully extracted ourselves from the tight spaces in Old Bahama Bay marina at West End and headed back to sea, bound for Great Sale Cay.. A couple of waypoints north and we were ready to turn east onto the Little Bahama Banks. Water depth changes from 1200 feet to 20. Color changes …
Two thousand feet under the keel. It’s a sunny morning, seas are 2 feet at 6 seconds, winds 5-10 knots; couldn’t be a better day. We have finally left North Palm Beach bound for West End on Grand Bahama Island. We follow the ICW several miles south past Singer Island and Peanut island and turn …