Time is much slower on the boat and in the Bahamas.
We left Riviera Beach Florida at about 3 PM planning to leave when the current in the marina was slack as we had watched many boats coming and going and getting swept into the boats docked across the way as the current can be very strong on the incoming or out going tide. We got out of our slip in the marina with no problem and as is usual in the boating community had some help from one of our neighboring boats to make sure we got clear. Of course our major concern was the current and we hadn’t really considered this was low tide slack and the depths might be kind of shallow. Oops, we hit bottom just was we were clearing the marina, fortunately just sand and a little redirection of the boat fixed that. As per our plan we anchored out in the little bay near the marina to wait until 11PM. We figured the crossing would take about 12 hours and we wanted to arrive in daylight at the other side.
The crossing was uneventful, smooth water and no big wind. We had to motor the whole way but it wasn’t bad. It is only 60 miles from Riviera Beach to West End Bahama and all things being equal we should have made it a bit faster but between here and there is the GULF STREAM. It moves fast and you can’t just point straight across or you might end up in Bermuda instead of the Bahamas! We had to angle almost 45 degrees south to end straight across from where we started. We just kind of slid across sideways.
West End (Old Bahama Bay Marina) is a nice little marina with fixed docks so the boat goes up and down with the tides but the dock does not. The deck of the boat is either about even with the dock or way down low making getting on and off interesting.
The hurricane Matthew took a toll on the Bahamas in general and did a lot of damage in West End. The docks stayed intact but the electricity was destroyed so there was no electricity at the docks. They had managed to get electricity to the bungalows and the marina office. The town (very loosely a town, one small grocery store, a grill/bar/cafe, 3 churches ,a police station, school, and the remnants of a hotel.) There were houses too, some with no windows, some with no roofs or windows and a few intact, kind of sad but the people seemed happy.
We met a bunch of people there at the marina.

 

The weather was not cooperating and so our two day stay extended to 5 days as we sat out a cold front that brought lots of wind and waves. No one minded it was island time. We went out to dinner at the little restaurant at the marina , about 8 of us and just shortly after we sat down the lights went out, no electricity. We had candles and flashlights and it worked. While we waited one of the waiters came and sang us a song. Great voice and accapella too. The dinner took about 3 hours (island time). We could have anything fried as the only thing that worked was the the propane fryer.
Another day we had conch salad. One of the locals on the dock offered to make it for us and even made it to our specifications , not too much onion. It was fresh and very good.
The bikes at the marina were free to use so we rode them to town and also down to the beach to collect sea glass. I am going to have to watch what I collect or the boat won’t float.
Once the wind dropped everyone left and headed on their way.
We crossed Indian Rock Cut which is a very shallow shortcut. We timed it so we would cross just before high tide. It got very shallow, the closest we got to the bottom was 0.2 feet but that was close enough. Pucker power.
We went to Great Sale Cay and met up with a few other boats from West End. Two of them were catamarans and so could leave earlier than us as they could pass the Cut at lower water. We spent the night and then went on to Fox Town the next day.
We had thought about staying and visiting town but it was Sunday, so not much open and oh by the way another windy storm was due. It wasn’t expected to be too big but the wind was going to change direction and we needed a place with protection for a NNE wind.

Off we took from there to Manjack Cay (pronounced Munjack) where the protection was better. We had met another sailboat, Kintala with Deb and TJ. They have sailed the islands before so we appreciated their advice about where to go.

While in Manjack we took a dinghy ride up a little river that went into the mangroves. We came upon one spot where we saw about 20 turtles. Some were dinner plate size but others were huge , about 18-20 inches in diameter.
We then stopped at a little beach to look for some shells and found wild pig (really feral pig). There was one big one who looked very thin and about 9 of her piglets. I was worried she might be aggressive as she had the babies but she seemed okay. She sniffed at me and then walked back to see T.J. and I thought she was gone but all of a sudden I felt something touch my leg and I jumped straight up.

So much for moving quietly and not startling the pig. Also saw a crab swimming, weird, never had seen one swim before, just walk.

Onward and upward, another storm is due, so time to find a place with Green Turtle Cay Marina. Again the approach has to be at high tide as there isn’t much water. We felt our way along and made it in with no touching but did see a 0.8 below the keel.The dock is an interesting place. The fingers for the dock are very short so the area where we have a gate in a lifelines does not come close to where we can get on to the dock. We have to climb over the lifeline and then jump over to the dock as the boat is not close to the dock but kind of suspended between pilings.

Very interesting.

Much more interesting than at West End . Even more interesting we unloaded our bikes, that was a bit tricky.

I rode my bike into town in the morning as the big rain storm was expected in the afternoon. I am not the best with a map and just listened to Hartley who said, just follow the road it will go right into town. Not quite so. I made a wrong turn and ended up on the “Beach Road”. It was very nice as far a scenery but it was very sandy, deep sand, so I had to walk quite a bit as the sand was too deep to ride in.

It took half an hour to get to town. This one is called New Plymouth and is much bigger than West End. It has a couple of grocery stores, just a little bigger than a Seven-Eleven, several restaurants and some craft stores plus a bakery. I stopped in one of the grocery stores and she told me the supply boat comes on Thursday (this was Wednesday) and the boat with fresh produce and milk comes on Friday. Oh well I guess I’ll need to come back another day. On to the bakery!!! “Do you have any coconut bread?” I innocently asked. No not yet, we will have it in two hours. (Coconut bread tastes like white bread but the coconut makes it keep longer. )Oh well. The good news is I went the right way home and the road although not paved most of the way was packed sand and I could ride my bike. In addition the route was much shorter. I was not planning on going back in 2 hours but since the trip had been so much better going home I decided after I would give it a try. So two hours later I show up at the bakery. “Do you have any coconut bread?. No. They were just ready to put it in to bake. Ohhhhhhhhhh. (Island time) But the white bread was just about ready to come out of the oven. So I had an ice cream cone while I waited for the the bread and then put the warm bread in my backpack and and rode home.

I am very proud of myself as I did not eat the bread on the way home even though I could smell it tempting me whenever the wind blew from behind me.
As soon as I got home Hartley and I cut two big pieces of bread and added some butter and it was good. Guess no dinner tonight!

Today was clean the boat day as we have electricity and can run the vacuum. Tomorrow we leave about 7:45 AM to catch the high tide and then on to somewhere else, not quite sure where yet.