The Crossing
We spent about 8 days at the North Palm Beach Marina in Florida where I completed some engine maintenance tasks – changed both fuel filters, changed oil and filter, and installed a new raw water pump, in preparation for the crossing over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.
We stopped at the North Palm Beach marina (ICW mile number 1,014) because we have a friend we know from the Bahamas who has his US residence one block from this marina. Our friend provided us transportation to all the stores we needed to go to. We had a lot of things we needed to buy to complete our long-term provisioning for the winter in the Bahamas. Everything in the Bahamas is much more expensive than in the US, so it is best to stock up with as much as you can before you depart. One example is a box of Triscuit crackers. We bought about 20 boxes in Florida at about $2.50 per box. The same box costs $6.00 in the Bahamas.
Because this was our first Gulf Stream crossing, we had a friend of Dena’s, who is a professional delivery captain, make the trip with us. We tied everything down inside and outside the vessel. We did not have a life raft onboard so we inflated our dinghy and tied it down on the deck. We topped off the water and fuel tanks. With the extra provisions our vessel rode so low in the water that, from a distance, we must have looked like a submarine with the periscope up. We departed the North Palm Beach Marina dock before sunrise at 0600 hours. We passed through the Palm Beach Inlet at about 0700 hours. As we found out later, we should have left much earlier.
Leaving the Palm Beach Inlet at Sunrise
We hit the Gulf Stream about 4 miles offshore. The water temperature quickly rises several degrees in the stream and the north bound current gets stronger. On this day we estimated that the Gulf Stream current was moving northward at about 2.5 knots. When we pulled out of the Palm Beach Inlet, we pointed our vessel about 20 degrees magnetic further to the south than our actual destination of West End, The Bahamas. The reason for this was to allow for the current’s northward movement. That is, if there was no current, we would have steered our boat at 98 degrees magnetic to get to our destination; but with the effect of the Gulf Stream, we pointed our boat at about 118 degrees magnetic to arrive at West End. How far south of West End you steer your boat depends on how fast your boat travels. As it turns out, being a slower boat that was heavily loaded down, we spent more time in the Gulf Stream and we should have pointed our boat about 25 degrees south of our destination. This delayed our crossing somewhat.
Dena snoozing during the crossing
As the adjacent pictures show, the wave action was not too bad. Offshore the waves are normally large swells. But on this day the waves were shorter and choppier. The wave action was more like the worst day you would see in the Chesapeake Bay– waves about 4 to 5 feet high with a short duration between peaks. This is not too bad considering the water depth was over 2,500 feet. The wind was not too bad blowing at about 10 to 15 knots from the east. However, the east wind was directly on our nose so we could not motor-sail until the last three hours of the trip. This also slowed us down. We averaged about 5 knots during the 60 NM crossing.
This is what is meant by blue water sailing
The trip was pretty uneventful until we reached our destination, West End, the first port of entry to the Bahamas. Because we were travelling so slowly, we arrived 12 hours later at 1900 hours. Except for one lighted red and green markers indicating the entrance channel to the West End marina, it was pitch black out. This was undoubtedly the scariest thing I have ever done on a boat.
Our delivery captain asked us if we had a spotlight and we said no, we never travel at night. He was not happy to hear this. We did have our chartplotter, but the charts are not as accurate in the Bahamas as they are in the US and the marina channel was only about 120 feet wide. So I stood up at the bow of the boat with a standard handheld flashlight to help guide us in. The flashlight did almost nothing. It lighted maybe 20 feet in front of us. One piece of equipment that did help us and that I would recommend for people to have onboard is a pair of headsets. Dena purchased a pair of headsets from Cruising Solutionsbefore departure. These headsets allow the person on the bow of the boat to clearly communicate with the person at the helm regardless of the weather.
Odyssey taking a wave in the Gulf Stream
I do not think we could have navigated this channel without incident, except that we were helped out again by our friend Ed who I mentioned in my last post. We knew Ed was also going to West End that day from Ft. Lauderdale. Even though Ft. Lauderdale is about 70 NM from West End, Ed’s 42-foot Hallberg-Rassy sailboat travels at about 7.5 to 8 knots, so Ed had arrived about two hours ahead of us. We had radioed ahead to Ed to let him know we would be coming in late. Ed said he would be at the end of the channel on the dock with a flashlight, flashing it on and off.
I cannot tell you the relief I felt when I saw that flashlight about 300 yards ahead of us go on and off the first time. As we turned the corner into the dock area, there were about a half-dozen boats there, but it was still pretty dark as there were no building lights on at all (as it turned out the restaurant was not on the water but behind some other cottages). But Ed kept flashing the light leading us into our slip. Except for a port lifeline that broke when we left the dock in North Palm Beach (which we tied off with a line); we arrived in the Bahamas unscathed.
Raising the quarantine flag in West End
Ed even had the part to fix our lifeline and sold us an extra spotlight he had for $20 (which I hope we never use). Ed and his wife were headed for Nassau to dock their boat to fly home for Xmas. I was hoping Ed would take the “scenic” route through the Abacos ahead of us, but they were headed to the Berry Islands which is a group of remote islands on route to Nassau.
We had a celebratory drink at the West End restaurant and turned in early that night. The next morning we checked in with the Bahamas custom and immigration office. There is a lot of paperwork, but I think the $300 fee for the cruising permit is all they are really interested in. The immigration officer must have been in a good mood as he gave us permission to stay for 180 days. Ninety days is the norm.
The Bahamas flag has been raised on Odyssey indicating we officially passed customs and immigration
That was our first experience with crossing the Gulf Stream by boat to the Bahamas. It is definitely something we will remember but not necessarily something we will be looking forward to again in 6 months.
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