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Gulf Stream Crossing - Check!

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Synopsys: I would be lying if I said it was smooth sailing.  

Left Thunderbird

We left Thunderbolt, a suburb of Savannah, around 10:00 on the 20th and started the two hour motor down the river to get to the Atlantic. We got a nice send off by dolphins on the way but quickly remembered how far Savannah is inland for such a major port.

Anyways we made it to the Atlantic and the waves had certainly settled down from where they were a few days ago, but that's not really saying much, as we later found out that cruise ships were waiting in Freeport extra days for the weather to calm down!

Waves were pretty short period and around 4-5' close to shore.  They got larger, but at least longer period as we got further offshore. They were hitting us on the beam, maybe a little forward, which does not result in a super pleasant sail. This was proved out because Abe became seasick soon after we entered this weather and went down to his cabin to rest around 1PM on the 20th.  Sue starting feeling less than ideal around 5PM.  

No problem, I'll buckle down and take some longer shifts until they started feeling better. That was a great plan in theory.  In practice, I decided to check on Abe 24 hours later when he hadn't surfaced since. He was awake, but every time he tried to get out of bed, no bueno. Sue was a little better. She was feeling off, but was able to take couple hour shifts at the helm before needing to take a break.  

Single-handing?

Long story short, Abe was basically confined to his bed for almost 72 hours because of how hard this bout of seasickness hit him!  Sue starting doing better on the third day as we made it across the Gulf Stream and things started to calm down.  This is all relative, we were done with the 8-9 foot waves and back to 3-5 footers.

We did manage to sail for almost the entire time and were making good progress if not for the current, which ran at up to 4 knots against us at times.  The expected 48 hour trip turned into 72 hours.  



Land!

We got into Bahamian waters around midnight on the 22nd and still had about 6-7 hours to get to Lucaya, a suburb of Freeport and a friendlier place to clear-in than the very large, commercial port of Freeport.

Navigating close to shore in The Bahamas when dark is generally considered a terrible idea. While there are channels between islands that are a mile deep, as you get close to land, that can quickly drop to 5' or less and there are coral heads. They are not soft. We were happy to be arriving near Lucaya just as the sun was rising, so we wouldn't have to just wait around for daylight. Actually, thinking back and through sheer luck, the timing was pretty much perfect.

The Bahamas

The weather the day we arrived was really nice. We made our way into the relatively narrow channel that goes to Lucaya, then a quirk turn to starboard and the Grand Bahama Yacht Club, where we could check-in to the country, was right there. 





We used their online portal to enter all of our clearing-in information so the visit to the Customs and Immigration office only took about 20 minutes. $300 and we are good to be in The Bahamas for up to 3 months. Of course, as we are on our way back to the boat to shove-off and go the last little bit to the dock-space we rented, the dockhand informed us that they now charge a $50 landing fee.  Of course everything online and in the cruising guidebooks says no charge. After arguing for a few minutes got nowhere, we paid and moved on.  

Scarborough Docks and Villas

We try to anchor whenever possible, however, that's not an option in Lucaya. Fortunately, we stumbled across an entry in AquaMap (BTW, we love this app; if you are a cruiser, you need to use this software!) for what ended up being a fantastic stop for a very fair $75/night, including water, trash and electricity. The owner, Giles, met us at the dock and we were quickly tied up and the trip was done!




Time to Recover

After securing lines and making sure everything was situated, I crashed for a few hours! Abe had a flight the day we arrived and Giles was nice enough to offer to drive him to the airport, so we did make sure we were up to send him off and thank him for travelling with us and then I'm pretty sure we turned in super early to get ourselves back to good.
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Location: Lucaya, Freeport, The Bahamas

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