Off To The Bahamas April 13

FINALLY...the weather window of 2-3 favorable days to stage for and cross the Gulf Stream arrived.  Any wind from the north really riles up the Gulf Stream seas, and it takes a day or two after north winds to let the seas subside.  We departed Fort Pierce and ran down the ICW to Palm Beach, anchoring in Lake Worth behind the barrier island just south of the inlet.  There was enough dredge activity and dredge pipe in the area to almost walk across; it would have been roomier than the open water in which to navigate!  I very carefully accessed the path to the anchorage, so that if we departed during the dark it would be easy to safely follow the chartplotter's "bread crumb" path back out to the inlet.

About 0330 the next morning Kay awoke, and asked if we were ready to go.  Always the "morning person", I, of course, acceded to her request, and before she was awake enough to consult her clock, the engines were starting!  The anchor was up, and by 0400 we were underway.  By 0425 we had cleared the Lake Worth jetties and sea buoy, and were underway across the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  I had hoped to leave early enough to travel directly to Port Lucaya, rather than having to spend a night in West End to clear customs and immigration, and then travel to Port Lucaya the next day.  The sun rose beautifully over the Atlantic before 0700, but Kay was already back asleep!

It was a glorious, beautiful, and perfect day for a crossing, and my accurate navigational plotting to account for the northward flow of the Gulf Stream current placed us on a perfect course for entry into the Northwest Providence Channel and arrival at Port Lucaya.  We passed West End, Freeport, and entered Bell Channel about 1530.  We docked at the Customs and Immigration dock, satisfied the bureaucracy as to the submission of adequate repetitive duplicative (or "triplicative"?) paperwork and cash.  With my immigration papers, cruising permit, and fishing license in hand, we then proceeded around the harbor to our dock at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club.  It's not what it may have been at one time or was imagined to be, but at least the docks are substantial. 

Sailors Centuries Ago Saw Clouds Before Land

Approaching Port Lucaya

Grand Bahama Yacht Club

Docked in Port Lucaya

Sprint has a Global Roaming Plan that allows us (for free) to roam onto Bahamas Telephone Co.'s system with free data (at 2G), free texting, and 0.20/minute for voice phone within the Bahamas or back to the U.S.  We walked a couple of miles to the BTC office for Port Lucaya to purchase a SIM card and (faster) pre-paid data plan for Kay's I-pad.  Alas, they were out of about 80% of the phones that they had on display in the store, and were out of SIM cards!  However, the store in downtown Freeport had SIM cards, and so we caught a bus (alias a minivan) and for $ 1.25 each, they transported us to the Freeport store, where we procured the SIM card.  Return was the same $ 1.25 each.  Needless to say, with this and a half-dozen other stories I will not relate, we are "adjusting" (with some resistance from the 'type A" personality of our duo) to "island time".