The night was short! We got up at 3.00 am,
having breakfast and getting ready. We wanted to lift anchor at 4.00 am,
heading out through the Lake Worth inlet and getting underway. Things get much
more difficult and complicated, when it’s dark! All went well and we were on
our way toward West End, Bahamas. Yeah baby!!!
Out in the dark
We couldn’t see much on the water, and were
glad, Bob was doing a fantastic job, navigating us through some heavy
commercial ship traffic including a couple long boat tows on the ocean. Once we
were clear, we could turn on our course towards east. At this location, the Gulf
Steam is located fairly near to the shore. We noticed quickly, how strong the
northward push is. In order to maintain a course over ground of about 100°, we
had to steer 130°! Of course this is also slowing down the speed over ground
towards our target.
Sunrise over the ocean
It was a very calm day on the ocean. The waves were 2 to 3 feet, a bit rolly but hey, it’s the Atlantic Ocean and not Lake Zurich! After a while, we unfurled the jib, which gave us some extra speed, while the hard work was done by the iron wind down below, and the auto pilot. It was a perfect weather for our first crossing. After 8 hours, we already could see the first landmarks, belonging to West End. Finally we arrived at 2.15 pm at the Old Bahama Bay Marina in West End. Happy, and tired! Glad we had a reservation at the fully packed marina. They did not accept any boat without a reservation. Lots of sport fishing boats were docked in the packed marina. The immigration was a bunch of paper work and $300.- cash out of the pocket for the cruising and fishing permit for the Bahamas. Other than that, easy as 1, 2, 3.
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