Bermuda leg day 1

We managed 175NM for our first 24 hours towards Bermuda. The wind died in the afternoon so we had to add some engine time to keep us moving. The wind is now forward of the beam (coming from more towards the front than the side) so we swapped the gennaker out for the code zero headsail. We've been making about 6 knots even though we have very light winds, maybe 10 knots or so. The waves/swell are minimal; about 1 meter at times but generally smaller. We placed a bet on the number of boats we would see on our way to Bermuda - Geoff 5, Doug 6, Greg 4. Losers buy the first round on Bermuda.
We've seen 4 ships so far, Helios, Osaka Express, Mol Matrix and Crystal Ace. At this pace we're not likely to have a winner so we will re-guess when we see the 7th ship. We saw a white shape off our starboard this afternoon so we changed course to investigate. It turned out to be a refrigerator.

starting the return crossing

Geoff, Doug & I departed yesterday evening at 7:30 for Bermuda. Gary, Bonnie and Sallie saw us off from Nipper's beach. Sal & I had a bit of a tearful goodbye as we won't see each other again until my return on July 19th. Once I put this wild hare to rest it will be a relief to not have anymore goodbyes on the near horizon.
We had a really nice time hanging out with our friends at the New Heights house on Great Guana Cay including a beach bonfire on the last night. What an awesome place!
The weather forecast shows moderate to light winds all the way to Bermuda which was a bit of a surprise to me. Hopefully the forecast stays consistent and we don't have a storm creep up on us. Fingers crossed.
It's now 7:45am and we are making 7.8 knots on a heading of 55M.

Group photo

Lunch at Curly Tails

Saturday

We got an early start around 7am on Saturday as Sallie's plane was scheduled to land at 11:30am in Marsh Harbor which was about a 3 hours sail away.
We made it there in plenty of time to retrieve Sallie and then we had a nice lunch at Curly Tails while we waited for Bonnie and Gary to arrive on a 2:30 flight.
Once they arrived, we got back on the boat for the one hour trip to Great Guana Cay. We had a bit of difficulty finding the house from the water, but eventually found it. We schlepped our luggage and food ashore and used our rented golf carts to transport everything the short distance to the house.

Catching up...

The day on Thursday was rainy, squally, and gray. Later in the day the weather started to clear and we dropped anchor at Sale Cay for the night. 

Friday we raised anchor at 9am and headed out for Green Turtle Cay. It was a beautiful day and we made it to Green Turtle by 6pm. We entered the harbor through a small channel of quiet water and it shortly opened up into a small basin with some moorings in the middle and numerous docks protruding out from shore. We motored along looking for a place to tie up. Near the end of the basin a small motorboat came out to greet us and we met Donny. He was super nice and had an awesome accent that strongly resembled Ted Kennedy's. He owned one of the docks and we struck a deal for $40 for the night. We walked into the little town of New Plymouth. 

The island uses golf carts as their primary source of transportation and accordingly has narrow streets and paths connecting the buildings. Most stores are obviously converted (very) small residences. We eventually ended up at The Pineapple and had dinner. We had live music by a guy that liked to try to work up the crowd over the mic. In this case the crowd was just 20 people at the most so it seemed a bit comical. 

He said, with a grin, that he was working on making a million dollars via tips. His jar was empty so I added $5. He was really happy with that and let every know that "Gregory is in the house!"

Afterward, we started the short walk back and along the way we had a couple stop in their golf cart and gave us a lift back to Donny's. 

Bahamas

We arrived in West End, Bahamas at about 8:30am on Thursday. The harbor entrance was fairly narrow and with the south wind (& waves)that had helped us overnight, the entry had some pretty big waves tossing us around as we went through. A slight white-knuckle moment for me, but little did I know this would be surpassed just a couple of hours later.
We tied up with assistance of a dock hand as it was blowing briskly even in the protected harbor. I went to Customs & Immigration which was 50 feet from where we tied up. It took about 45 minutes to make it through the paperwork and they made my wallet lighter by $300. This was by far the most I've paid for entry into any country. I think the next closest was $50 somewhere in the Caribbean.
After we had successfully cleared in, we took a very short walk around the West End marina area. There were a few small shops and some fairly new/tidy fourplex condos or rentals of some type dotted along the beach but overall things looked pretty deserted.
Knowing we had some significant mileage to make yet, we headed out. Just a half mile to the north was the first location to get up on the shallows of the Bahamas bank. We could see the waves breaking over the entire length of the bank's edge but the area where our chart said the channel was looked like it might be a little less violent so I decided to go for it. Also, the marker shown on the chart was missing but the GPS data on the electronic chart had been quite accurate so far so I decided to trust it. So with both engines on I squared the boat to the waves and went for it. The first wave was about 3 meters with a curl at the top and we were able to surf down it and stay straight down the face of the wave. By the time of the third wave though it was a completely different story. The wave was big enough (4-5 meters?) and breaking enough that I couldn't hold the boat straight down the face of the wave as we surfed down it. We started to turn sideways as we slid down the face of the wave in spite of my efforts to counteract it using the helm turned hard in the opposite direction; pretty scary for me as 1) I was worried about the depth and whether we would hit bottom due to the waves height 2)the only likely way to flip a cat is to have a breaking wave help you flip over.
I yelled to Geoff to close the door as he was inside in the salon at that moment and I was worried the wave would break over the stern and flood the cockpit and the salon afterward.
Doug happened to have gone forward to the front deck before this all started and seemed to be having a great time in spite of my personal (internal) fright.
I could feel the boat list to port as we slid down the wave and I had that really bad feeling that proceeds trouble.
But as we got to the bottom of the last breaking wave the boat straightened out and we we're successfully on the bank.
The waves on the bank were minuscule compared to what we had just been through and all was good.
Doug came aft and as is his usual sense of humor asked if we could do that again.

6am

It's 6am and all is well. We had speeds last night up to 10knots under single-reefed mainsail and full genoa. As we were leaving it rained a bit but almost none since. While many folks in central Florida saw storms sweeping through yesterday, we had the fortuitous situation develop that allowed us to ride the coattails of the passing front. That was extremely good timing; a rarity for me.
The skies are very gray, temps warm & muggy, seas have diminished to about 1 meter. Geoff & Doug seem quite comfortable with this so far; brings back memories of the times we've sailed together many years ago.
We are now at 7.5 knots with 16NM to go to the West End of Grand Bahama Island. Once there we will clear in with Customs & Immigration.

We're off!

My two lifelong best friends, Doug and Geoff, are joining me as I start the return trek towards the boat's home port in the Med. We all flew into Ft. Lauderdale this afternoon. We rented a car, bought a ton of groceries, and stowed everything away. We took the extra fuel cans in the dinghy to the local marina to get diesel but they wouldn't allow us to put diesel in a container intended for gasoline. So we took the cans to a gas station with the rental car instead. It was pouring rain so even if the attendant cared, he probably couldn't see if the can was the right color (yellow, not red). We then dropped the diesel cans back at the boat, stopped for a quick bite at Boston Market, then returned the car to the airport. D & G hadn't used Uber before so I got to show them how easy it is. We made it back to the boat by about 10pm, pulled a weather report (20 knots of wind from the south) and prepared to head out. We needed to go under the 17th Street bridge which opens on the hou
r and half hour so we targeted 11pm.
We then cast off the myriad of lines that held the boat so well for the last month. A big "Thanks!" to Barbara & Bob who kept a watchful eye on her.
As we maneuvered out of the slip I thought I had a steering problem as the wheel wouldn't turn. It felt like the autopilot was engaged. It wasn't an immediate issue as cats are mostly controlled by the two engines when they are moving extremely slowly. I eventually turned the wheel a little harder and it suddenly freed up; apparently some barnacles have been busy. Note to self: check for rudder movement before heading out. Just like in an airplane, you want to know as soon as possible if your control surfaces aren't working
We slipped under the bridge at 11pm just as we had planned and headed out to open water. It's currently 1:30 and we're making 9 knots on our way to West End, Bahamas.