After spending a quiet winter enjoying the sunshine and warm Florida temps we are finally ready to set sail on our annual Bahamas Cruise. Chris has been busy provisioning for a three month sail and the boat is loaded and just awaiting favorable weather.
The winds over the past few weeks have been blowing strong from the east and the ocean has been very rough. The weatherman has promised a break by this Sunday so we are off on another adventure.
Friday March 13th- Going against sailors superstition of never starting a journey on a Friday, never mind the 13th we head south to meet up with friends Greg and Duwan on Blue Wing at Pecks Lake. They normally winter in the Bahamas but have opted this year to stick around and are now heading for the Keys.
Sat- As much as I hate traveling the Intracostal on a weekend we head south for Lake Worth (Palm Beach) where we will anchor near the inlet for an early start. As expected tons of boat traffic has us bouncing along most of the trip. About at Jupiter I realized I left our spare propane tank sitting in the shed at home, not a disaster but nice to have a spare as most of our cruising is away from the populated areas. A call to our long time friend Bob LaRoy was all it took for him to rush down and meet us with the tank. As we call it an early night the winds are finally subsiding but I can’t imagine the seas will calm down by morning.
Sun- Up at 3 AM under starry skies and calm wind. We head out and much to our amazement the ocean has settled down to a manageable 3 ft swell. The south wind that we had hoped for barely materialized but we would much rather motor across than pound into rough seas.
In the past one of our greatest concerns as we cross the shipping lanes has been trying to calculate how close we will be to the giant freighters and Cruise ships in our path. In the dark we both have trouble telling distances and these ships are the size of 3 football fields and moving at 20 mph. My solution this year was to update our chart plotter/fishfinder with a larger unit that I was able to add Radar and AIS (automatic ident. System) to. The AIS is amazing in that all commercial vessels broadcast a signal that gives their name and ID # and the unit then displays a ton of data most importantly their course and how close we will approach them. This along with the radar really took a lot of the anxiety out of the crossing as we were in the path of at least 8 huge ships during the crossing.
All went smoothly until about 25 mi out I notice a steady stream of water coming from our bilge pump. As I step below I am greeted with the sight no boater wants to see of water flowing across the floor. This led to a few anxious seconds until I realize the water is hot and coming from our water heater. A broken fitting and 35 gallons of our precious drinking water was all that resulted from what at first seemed like a major catastrophe.
Not long after the engine, which had been purring along smoothly faltered and died. It only took a few minutes to find our diesel filter/water seperator was full of water, but the fix took about an hour of sweaty work replacing both filters, purging the bad fuel from the system and bleeding the system. I have been thru this procedure on other occasions but this time it took a major effort to get running again. Never mind being nervous wondering if we would be stuck 30 miles offshore with no wind.

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| sailing into the sunrise |
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| the admiral (napping) at the helm |
Our luck turned around when I decided to wet a few lines. The first fish on was a nice skipjack tuna (bonita) which are very bloody and not good table fare but make great bait. Within minutes of the bait hitting the water the rod started to scream. After a long battle we were able to board a beautiful Mahi (dorado or dolfin fish) which is one of our favorites. With hardly any extra freezer space this early in the trip I called a halt to fishing. We treated ourselves to a feast of fresh dolfin for both lunch and dinner and still froze fillets for 8 more dinners.

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| this will fill the freezer |

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| hurry up I can't hold it! |
Even with our engine troubles that had us drifting north about 3 miles in the gulf current we still made landfall at our anchorage at 5:30 making the trip of 77 nautical miles(about 88 statute miles) in under 14 hours. We topped of a near perfect day with a dip in the warm clear water and a few cocktails as we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
Monday- After a peaceful night we set out under brisk winds and full sail. All to soon the winds veered to the east and we were now what beating into wind and seas, this called for a change of plans and after 24 miles we headed for the protected anchorage at Great Sail Cay. This uninhabited island is a favorite stopover for boats along this route and we spent a peaceful nite at anchor. Adding to the excitement of this sail was catching a huge barracuda (released) and a fat mutton snapper that made a great dinner plus 2 dinners in the freezer.
Tuesday- Light winds find us motor sailing east for most of the day. Thankfully there was plenty of exciting fishing to break up the trip. We brought aboard two big barracudas and a Spanish mackerel. The barracudas were both way to big(any over 30 inches can build up toxins and are not fit to eat) but we had a fine lunch of the Spanish mackerel. Spent a rolly night anchored in Allens-Pensacola Cay as the wind that was promised all day finally materialized.

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| another few dinners, where do we keep it? |
Wed- Lite winds plague us yet again as we turn south along the Abacoes. Motor to Green Turtle Cay where we clear customs, pay for our cruising permit then head in to a mooring at our old friend Donnies. Caught another nice mutton snapper and another Spanish Mackerel which may have to go into chowder as the freezers are overfull.
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