From Snead Island to Nassau, Bahamas

Our big adventure really took off on December 2nd, as on the first day away from the marina, we only we went up to Snead Island, so we could get an early start the next morning to make our destination of Venice, Florida. We got up at day break, the wind was pretty strong, but we went anyways. As soon as we left the protection of the river, the waves started building, and we got tossed around a fair bit. But not knowing any better, we kept going. I got a bit seasick, not just from the motion, but I guess from nerves as well, as I was scared. Come to think of it, I been scared for most of the trip down, but that comes with the territory. "No pain no gain" , or "no scare no sail"!  After a few hours, things got a bit more comfortable, less wind, an we started to enjoy the sailing. Sometime during this first day at sea, a pod of dolphins came to join us and swam alongside the boat, a beautiful sight to see. We overnighted at a marina in Venice, as there were no proper anchoring spots. Next day we moved on down the coast on the Gulf of Mexico, our destination Charlotte Harbour. We anchored on the ocean off off a beautiful beach, nobody around, we were all alone. We had been listening to the weather, and knew that there was a "weather window" coming up soon to cross the gulf stream. We felt we needed to get to Marathon, Florida Keys, sooner than later, so we could catch this window. So we decided to dare our very first overnight passage. (remember, it get's dark at night). We sailed from Charlotte Harbour to Marathon in about 29 hours. We had to time our arrival at the Seven Mile bridge just right (this bridge is near Marathon connecting the various Keys down towards Key West), we needed daylight and a low tide, so we would have enough clearance to go through. Our mast is 62 feet, clearance is 65, should be enough. 
Sailing through the night was nice, but makes you real tired. We took two hour "watches" each, made it through Seven Mile Bridge with no issues and arrived at Marathon around noon. We refilled with diesel, and then took a bit of a rest. We thought we would be in Marathon for a while, but it turns out, our "window" was right in front of us, and we had to decide when we wanted to tackle the oh so scary Gulf Stream. We left the next day at noon, with our next destination of Cat Cay, in the Bahamas. Go ahead, look it up, I dare you! It's just a fleck of a place in the middle of the ocean, not even the "real" Bahamas yet. 
The crossing, as everyone calls it, went well, with a few minor inconveniences. For a couple of hours during the early part of the night, we got some fairly large rollers (waves) hitting the side of our boat. (It's called on the beam of the boat). Those rollers tossed some stuff around, although I had stowed better than on the first day, still not good enough. It's all a learning curve, and I am getting there. But again, after a few hours it all calmed down and we had a very pleasant night. We arrived at Cat Cay tired, so after checking in with customs and getting our clearance, we decided to take the next day off to recuperate. Bad decision!
The next night, the cold front we successfully avoided in the Gulf Stream, had caught up with us. 5 AM, we woke to see our anchor had dragged, in direction of shore, towards a rock wall. We quickly pulled anchor up, drove out a bit further, tried to set anchor again, waiting and watching, but the winds were very strong and we did not hold. We asked the marina if we could have a birth, but Cat Cay is a private Club and we were send packing. Another boat asked if they could buy diesel, they were sent packing, too. Warren said we were going to go back through the cut (a cut is a small opening between two Cays) and find shelter on the other side of the island. I was very scared, mostly of going through the cut. The waves were large, the wind was howling, gust up to and over 30 knts! We made it through no problem, and found a very good spot, the anchor held and we waited for 3 days for better weather. No internet, no cell, no nothing. (But lots of food, water, and wine). Hardest was not being able to contact family to let them know we were safe. Once the weather improved, we took off towards Nassau, a two day trip from Cat Cay. We are now here inside Nassau Harbour, at anchor, right across from the famous Atlantis hotel. The next week or so we are relaxing, catching up with boat cleaning, emails, blog, laundry, and excursions around Nassau. Once the weather looks right, we will head off towards the Exumas, more about that in my next post!

First day out on the open ocean, rough weather, and not stowed properly, my laundry soap fell and spilled. Boy did the boat smell good! Thankfully it happened in the "head" (wash room)

Our chart plotters, a Garmin and a B&G. We also have as back up two ipads, and several stand alone GPS's. You can never have enough back-up!

 

The sun is setting, soon it will be dark and we are sailing through the night. We need those instruments!

Our first dinner on passage. I prepared a double portion of spaghetti the day before, so all I had to do is warm them up. Worst case, we could have eaten them cold!

Seven Mile Bridge, I was glad to see daylight, and happy once we were through.

Cat Cay, just a little speck within a big, large ocean

Taking down the "yellow courtesy flag" (when entering foreign waters you put up the yellow flag until you have been officially cleared into the country) and putting up the Bahamas flag. We are officially in!!!

And now we celebrate! We are very proud, made it all the way from Palmetto down the Gulf and across the Gulf Stream....

Approaching Nassau Harbour, you can see the cruise ships from a few miles out...

...and here we are anchored safely inside Nassau Harbour, right in front of Atlantis!

Thanks for following along, see you next post!