Last year I posted weekly (mostly) updates on our trip south (my 10th) and our winter in the Bahamas. A number of you seemed to enjoy them so I’ll try to do something similar this winter. It will help keep the C in CSBB.

We spent a few days in the popular anchorage at the north end of Lake Worth waiting for a weather window to cross the gulf stream. After many days of strong north winds the anchorage was much less crowded than I had expected it to be. It seems the majority continue south to Miami and cross over from Key Biscayne. I much prefer the Abacos to that stretch of Florida between Palm Beach and Miami. We like to cross over to the Little Bahama Bank, run down through the Abacos and Eluethera, then cross over to the Exumas from the east.

Soon after we arrived at the anchorage the wind began howling from the south and didn’t let up for two days. It was too choppy to be ferrying large provision loads by dinghy so we took a slip at Old Port Cove and used their courtesy van and dock carts to stock up. We left Belfast with our quarter berth already full of all the beer and wine we’d need for the winter. Still, we filled two shopping carts to the top with all the things that are hard to find (though becoming much less so) in the Bahamas. Having the slip also let us do three loads of laundry, get long hot showers, have a pizza for dinner, and made it much easier to launch one of our bikes for a ride to the post office and pick up a package of forwarded mail.

My previous boat, Midnight Mail, had a 5’ draft so I’d usually clear in at West End then continue onto the bank through the Indian Cay Channel. Gorgeous Girl with a 5’4” draft makes the Memory Rock route more attractive. Last year we cleared in at Spanish Cay. This year we used Green Turtle.

The forecast for Monday looked like the best we’d get for awhile with 10-15 knot south winds and 2-3 foot seas. So on Sunday we staged near the Lake Worth inlet and left a little before dawn. There are times when all goes perfectly. This was one of those times.

Once offshore we caught a brisk south wind and reached, mostly at hull speed, across the Gulf Stream and onto the banks by 1:00. We kept sailing to Mangrove Cay as the south wind weakened, giving us as pleasant a sail as could be imagined over flat water. Along the way I cleaned the small tuna we’d caught, just before climbing onto the banks, and had it for dinner. That south wind held for two more days, giving us another fast reach to Crab Cay then a close reach to Green Turtle. That’s 150 miles over 24 hours eastward!, nearly all under sail. It sure is great having the weather gods on your side.

We took one of Donnie’s moorings in Black Sound to weather a strong cold front and to find a Thanksgiving dinner. When we got to the dock we found a friend from back home (Belfast, ME) who had left three weeks after us in his Bristol Channel Cutter and arrived a day before us. So we’ll enjoy a Thanksgiving feast here with old friends. What luck!