Stay Over in West End

—Blogpost written by Bob

Friday, January 3

Rather than bashing into 15-knot southerly winds, we decided to stay put in West End for a couple more days. We have a weather window coming up on Monday and Tuesday and our current plan is to travel to Port Lucaya (on the southern coast of Grand Bahama, near Freeport) on Monday and, then, onto the Berry Islands on Tuesday. The weather, particularly the wind, dictates our travel plan more than anything else while here in the Bahamas.

Even though the water in the basin was
cloudy it still had beautiful color!

This morning at 9:30 the marina store still didn’t have my BTC SIM card—so, another promise was made for the afternoon. Since this was the last business day available to us for awhile, I considered renting a car and driving to Eight Mile Rock (the name of a nearby community) where there is a large BTC office and getting a SIM card there.

After checking at the lobby, the cost of a rental car (including insurance) was the same as the cost of the resort shuttle. We decided to rent a car but there was none available for the day. So, we took the hotel shuttle (with Adrian & Sam and split the cost with them) to the BTC office in Eight Mile Rock and got our SIM card.

During our return trip from the BTC office, we learned that building lots near the main road currently sell for between $7,000 and $15,000 and even less further away from the main road. (Oceanfront lots at Old Bahama Bay originally sold for $275,000, by comparison. ) The eastern end of Grand Bahama Island is still economically depressed and hasn’t fully recovered from Hurricane Matthew four years ago. About one in every three or four homes looks to be in an almost “bombed out” condition.

Back at the marina we shared lunch (with Adrian and Sam—Sam is short for Samantha) on our boat (Maggie’s lobster mac-n-cheese) and then visited their boat, a nicely appointed and very comfortable Slocum 43. 

S/V Neva

Afterward, we rejoined at the tiki bar. I had two bushwhackers today! They are getting addictive! (A bushwalker is an alcoholic smoothie that is a lot like a chocolate-flavored Pina Colada, without the pineapple of course—it contains dark rum, coffee liquor, Creme de Cocoa, coconut milk, ice, and maybe some chocolate syrup, all blended together.  However, it only contains 13 carbs--so, how bad could it be?)

We make sure Lola gets plenty of outside
time but we supervise her closely
while outside. Today was her first
time jumping onto the dock.

I haven’t discussed the weather much since arriving but it has been in the mid 70’s to low 80’s and mostly sunny which is rather perfect. We’ve been using our onboard A/C to keep the boat cool for the very best sleeping conditions.

Saturday, January 5

The wind howled through the boat’s rigging during the early morning hours, waking me from a very restful sleep at 6:30 AM. By 7 AM the sky was getting light and I was yearning for a hot morning beverage—I think it is more ritual than physical need.

My morning routine (after breakfast) here at West End has been to go to the lobby to update this blog, get the weather forecast, and get up-to-date news using the stronger internet signal in the lobby. (We can get some internet signal in our slip but it is not as strong as in the lobby, except this morning for some strange reason when I was able to do everything from our navigation station.)

We use the marina-provided weather forecast as our
secondary source.  Our primary weather information
comes from Weather Underground and WINDY,
for which we need internet access.

This morning, I took Lola out on deck for some exercise and this couple walked by our boat and asked what type of anchor we had on our bow. The couple turned out to be Emily and Clark from s/v Temptress of some YouTube notoriety.  (Their most recent episode on their YouTube channel can be accessed at this link.)

Emily and Clark of s/v Temptress stopped
by our boat to chat for a while.

I walked out to the end of the seawall to evaluate the state of the sea about mid-morning.  On the western end, the sea was quite rough. 

The sea was quite rough hitting the rocks
on the western end of the breaker.

A catamaran came into the
basin this morning.

We had lunch at Teaser's Tiki Bar again today with Adrian and Sam.  I had an excellent cheeseburger and french fries along with two bushwhackers (again)!

The garnish with Maggie's
lunch was so pretty!

The afternoon was kind of a blur for me. (I'm writing this the following morning. Could the blurred time period be due to the two bushwhackers?)

Sunday, January 5

Today was another morning that I woke to the wind howling through the rigging! We expected the blow (30 knots of wind out of the north northwest) but it was still surprising how much the boat rocked in the slip. I should have tightened the starboard aft dock line because it allowed the boat to rotate slightly within the slip. The wind was predicted to gradually decrease throughout the day. There were white caps inside the marina which is surrounded by a sturdy sea wall made from heavy boulders and concrete.

There were whit caps in the marina's basin
first thing in the morning.

As soon as the wind diminished to about 23 knots, we were able to fix the tautness of the stern dock line. We accomplished this by tightening the stern spring line using our starboard jib sheet winch which pulled the boat closer to the dock and aft. We were then able to take up the slack in the stern line.

We spent a lot of time considering our travel plan in the morning.  We have a 48-hour weather window of light winds (Monday and Tuesday) and, then, four days of high (20+ knots) of northerly, northeasterly, and easterly winds.  The Berry Islands (our original destination from West End) does not have many anchorages protected from these directions.  Therefore, we have decided to do an overnight motor trip from West End to Nassau which will take between 21 and 23 hours.  We plan to leave West End at noon on Monday and arrive an hour or two before noon on Tuesday.  We don't particularly like overnight passages but, in this case, it seemed like our safest and most comfortable alternative.  I spent about an hour creating waypoints to Nassau and then to Palm Cay Marina on the southeast corner of New Providence Island.

----------

I found out that Teaser’s Tiki Bar uses the following ingredients for their bushwhacker recipe: Kahlua, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Meyers Dark Rum, and Ice (all blended together). So, it is not as complicated as I was first led to believe. (The drink is very similar to a mudslide which uses vodka in place of the Meyers dark rum.)

Teaser's Tiki Bar is the small building in the dark
area on the right side of this image.

Teaser's Tiki Bar is still in the
dark area of this image.

Here we are with Adrain (on the near right) and Sam
(on the near left) at this picnic tables
at Teaser's Tiki Bar,

I had three bushwhackers today!  I needed some (minor) guidance walking back to the boat. but I made it.

Tomorrow, we leave West End (hopefully)...stay tuned!


Thanks for following our blog!