Part 9

We had intended to spend only two nights in Nassua. The wind thought differently though: “Going to blow like stink for several days” was the word from one of the Chris Parker subscribers. The Windfinder forecast was for it to blow south, then quickly around to west and north. It looked like we would have one day to get to the Berry Islands, but would need to sit there for a day or two of west and north winds. Looking at the chart, there aren’t good anchorages there for our draft except in the slough to the southeast of Frazier Hog Cay and perhaps Great Harbor. Chub Cay has a marina, the going rate there starts at $4/ft which seemed pricey to me. In the slough there is the Berry Island Club, described in the guide as having 23 moorings, a dock, restaurant, and uneven holding; and though the entrance was thin (1.9m on the chart) I thought we might go there. By now more experienced, I called to see if they DID in fact have moorings. I called the number in the Explorer Chart book and got an indignant gentleman in Luisiana. I called the number in the Pavlidis guide and got a disconnected number. I found a website, called the number listed there and got someone who - when questioned - admitted to being part of the Berry Island Club. He wasn’t there right now, they had 3 moorings one of which might have a pennant, and wasn’t sure if anyone was on them or not. It’s the Islands, right? With uncertainties mounting, we decided to stay put in Nassau for the west and north wind, meaning two more days.

To kill time we went over to Atlantis on Paradise Island. You can visit the casino and some of the grounds for nothing, but the limited aquarium pass costs $45/person, so we anted up. It takes some time to go through it all, sort of a Las Vegas experience with a little Disney mixed in. I think we could have taken the boat into the marina at $4/foot for a night and been ahead (the unlimited grounds pass is then included, a $135/person 'value'), however there were no sailboats in there at all, and few motorboats less than 100’. Anyway after spending the afternoon we felt we had finally had the True Bahamian Experience - after all that is what was promised in the brochure!

Finally on Thursday the wind was predicted to go south and then east, 15 - 25 knots. Peter, the harbormaster at Nassau Harbor club cautioned against leaving and I asked why? He showed me his sources of information (Windfinder, Passage Weather, and NOAA) and but as we looked at it he agreed that it would be OK if a little windy. We decided to go over the top of the Berry Islands in the blue water directly to Florida, as the banks were likely to be pretty choppy in 20 knots SE or E. Peter is an interesting character, and one of the few harbormasters who understands how a sailboat will behave entering or leaving a dock. He is Greek, and no doubt a friend of the wealthy Greek gentleman that owns the place whom we met at one point. The family money comes from the sponge trade, one of the many boom/bust industries that have swept the Bahamas.

There were reports of the east Paradise Island bridge not really being 68’ clearance and perhaps only 65’, so we waited to leave until about 11:00 to be nearer low tide. Peter was not available to push us off, the other dock hands did not notice my inflatable fender and held us close to the pilings as I backed out. These fenders seemed nearly indestructible in the past, but we snagged one of the wooden bracing and it tore right in two in a second. Trailing the remnants of the fender, we went under the bridges (there was plenty of clearance), past the cruise ships, and out into the Northeast Providence Channel. We were headed NW and the wind was SE - nearly a dead run - but the swell was left over nearly abeam making for some uncomfortable snap rolling for the first 6 hours or so. As we rounded the Berrys, we got a temporary respite as we squared off with the seas, the wind backing into the east to follow us. Occasionally kicking up to 25 knots or so and with seas beginning to break, we got some surfs well into the 11 knot range. As we passed the north end of Great Harbor Cay the sun set and we ran dead down wind through the Northwest Providence Channel between the Berrys and Grand Bahama.

Traffic is squeezed through here, cruise ships, freighters, and tankers steaming every direction. Most of the time there were 15 or 20 targets on the AIS display (and our green running light had gone Tango Uniform on the passage down from the Carolinas). The cruise ships were courteous, calling or responding to VHF calls. They seemed to be able to see us on radar at 10 miles or more (I had the SeaMe transponder turned on). However there were strangely behaving tankers: One was drifting sideways at 2 knots with a status of “Not Under Command”, another passed us going east then circled around and slowly paralleled us along the Banks, yet another was running straight for us lights blazing and did not respond to repeated VHF hails. I was running by-the-lee in 25 knots and a seaway trying to get out of his way. Reluctantly I had to gybe away to keep separation, just before he passed all his lights went dark. By dawn we were near the gulf stream and were entertained by a pod of porpoises, finally raising the high rise hotels of Palm Beach. The Lake Worth entrance was a bit rough, breaking on both sides with the odd breaking sea in the middle but fishing boats were going through and so did we. We dropped anchor near Red #6 day marker before lunch. We had done the 185 nm run in less than 24 hours.

I called Customs, and though the officer was friendly and appreciative that I had all the numbers and decals at my fingertips, still said we had to report in person, either at the Riviera Beach office or at the airport. Active Captain said it was possible to land a dinghy at the Palm Beach Sailing club and then take a taxi to the airport. But with working smartphones once again, a little Googling revealed that the Riviera Beach office was at the cruise ship terminal, two blocks down the street was the Riviera Beach Marina and Tiki Bar restaurant about the same distance by dinghy as the sailing club. This made it easy: we tied up to the restaurant dinghy dock, had lunch, walked down to the Customs Office and it was done.

What they think they are accomplishing buy this clearing in procedure remains a mystery. They asked the same questions as always - “Where do you live? What do you do? What’s your address? Where do you live again?” - thinking, I suppose, that if you are a particularly stupid terrorist and forgot what you put on your forged passport they would trip you up in an instant. “What is your favorite color?” “Blue……no.. GREEN!” Of course the boat remains completely unviewed and could be packed full of all sorts of contraband and stowaways. They are keeping law abiding citizens from breaking the law but seem to have little effect otherwise.

We were back in the USA.

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