West End to Nassau

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, January 6 and 

Tuesday, January 7

The reason that these two days are together in the subtitle is because we made a 24-hour passage to Nassau and it seemed like the two days were just one very long day.

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The early morning was cool (67 degrees) when we woke up. At 6:45 AM the sun was’t quite up yet but the wind had died to less than 10 knots when a boat (a big Beneteau with a young couple and two small children onboard) in a neighboring slip motored out the marina. (All the sailboats in this marina will probably leave today.)  We are planning to leave at noon.
  

We had breakfast at the on-site restaurant—we were their only patrons. As we were having breakfast four more sailboats left the marina, including our friends, Adrian and Sam. We were the last remaining sailboat in the marina.

At 9:30 AM we paid our bill at Old Bahama Bay Marina ($648!) and prepared to leave (filling water tanks, etc.).

s/v Rainy Days was the last sailboat 
to leave Old Bahama Bay on 
Monday morning.

When 10 AM rolled around I couldn’t wait any longer.  We gathered up our fresh water hose, our shore power cable, and removed all our dock lines—we were off two hours ahead of plan. (We decided to each do a one-hour watch before our pre-planned 3-hour watch schedule began.) 

Exploratory oil drilling platforms erected
on the southwestern coast of
Grand Bahama Island.

We passed by Freeport at about 1 PM and were headed to our third (of five) waypoints to Nassau but it was about 12 hours away according to our chart plotter. (Our third waypoint was just off Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands.)  We wouldn’t reach it until after midnight!

There were at least a dozen ships in the 
vicinity of Freeport Harbor when we 
came by.  (This image was taken 
from our chart plotter with the 
output from our AIS.)

The afternoon high temperature only reached about 70 degrees but it was nice and sunny—very comfortable! The waves were next to nothing—maybe a foot high at the most.

As we passed Freeport, we started to experience about a 0.5 knot opposing current.  Our boat speed dropped to 6.1 knots (and it never recovered.)  The wind was about 35 degrees off our port bow, just enough off that sailing was not practical. The wind and resulting wave action (now about 3 to 4 feet) caused a lot of uncomfortable motion all night. It seemed to take forever for us to reach our third waypoint off the Berry Islands, at about an hour after midnight. 

At one point during the night we noticed a lot more vibration than normal (and a greater loss in boat speed).  I thought we may have picked up a bundle of fishing line on our propeller—I took the transmission out of gear, thinking that the propeller blockage may just drop off but not much had changed. The vibration may have been reduced a little but our boat speed was still negatively impacted by about 1.5 knots or more.

Most of the night we had moonlight which allowed us to see the ocean around us and the horizon. My shift between 3 AM and 6 AM seemed the worst because there was no more moonlight and the wind velocity seemed to have increased to 15 to 17 knots.  Knowing that when my shift was over, it would become light, made it easier for me to tolerate the bad situation. To this point, I didn’t get any sleep during my off watch periods.

We arrived in Nassau Harbour at 9:45, yielding to Carnival Liberty, a large cruise ship that was entering the harbor at the same time. We had VHF communications with the cruise ship to coordinate our harbor entry.

As is customary, we requested permission to enter the harbor from Nassau Harbour Control on our VHF radio. Harbour control, in their classic British accent, wanted to know our boat’s documentation number, where we had cleared into the Bahamas, and where we intended to stay in New Providence.

After harbor entry, we motored the complete length of the Eastern channel (between Nassau and Paradise Island) and out around the eastern end of New Providence Island to get to Palm Cay Marina. (Lola had stayed outside in the cockpit with us the entire trip, some of the time spent on the cabintop inside the dodger and most of the time spent on the aft deck inside the enclosure.)

While we were on route to the marina, we were told that the marina was full because of the cold front that was approaching. (This is when we discovered a problem with our new BTC SIM card.)  

As we were motoring from the east end of the East Channel out of Nassau Harbour, we encountered quite a lot of coral heads.  Not knowing how close to the surface they were (it was low tide), we motored around them. There is no way of motoring in a straight line while avoiding them. (This is something we didn’t experience during our two seasons in the Abacos.)

Soon after finding that the marina was fulll, they found a slip that we could use for the duration of the approaching cold front (about a week)—it was a slip whose tenant had his boat out of the water for maintenance.  We chose this marina because of its proximity to the Exumas and we learned of it through watching the La Vegabonde YouTube channel. (Ullian, the dock master, could not have been more accommodating to us!)

After docking and getting much needed hot showers, we splurged on a $100 lunch (for the two of us) of hamburgers, (alcoholic) drinks (just one each), and we split a dish of ice cream for dessert at the on-site restaurant. (Pizza, our sought after choice for lunch, was not available on Mondays and Tuesdays.) The hamburger platter was $18 each!

After getting settled in the marina we found two more flying fish that met their demise on our boat’s deck. Maggie also identified (looking at the prop from the dinghy) a bundle of seaweed (that we later identified as sargassum) that was wrapped around the base of our propeller but we decided to put off removal until tomorrow morning because we were just too tired to address it today. (In fact, I slept very soundly all afternoon AND through the night!)

During our 23-3/4 hour (138 nm) trip between West End and Nassau, our average boat speed was 5.8 knots.  In the beginning of our trip I know our boat speed was varying between 6.5 and 7.1 knots, according to our chart plotter.  After we discovered the abnormality, our boat speed was showing at between 4.9 and 5.4 knots. So, we must have had the mass of seaweed around the base of our prop for a long time, at least half the length of our trip.  We topped off our primary diesel tank when we entered Palm Cay Marina--it took 21.7 gallons to fill the tank.  So, during our 23-3/4 hour trip, our rate of fuel consumption was 0,91 gallons per hour--52% higher than normal!  As hard as it is to believe, the mass of seaweed wrapped around the base of our propeller cost us 13.34 gallons of diesel fuel (or $52.55)!

In retrospect, I believe we made the correct decision to leave earlier in the day and make the overnight passage to Nassau in the only weather window available in the coming week and a half.  It was not fun.  Over the next few days and weeks while we lick our wounds and vow not to do it ever again, we will think about how we could have made our trip more enjoyable.

Wednesday, January 8

The first day of our stay over in Nassau was sunny and cool and the first thing on our agenda after breakfast (pancakes!) was removing the bundle of seaweed that was wrapped around our propeller.  Below are some pics that we took with our GoPro:

Maggie suited up in her new shortie wetsuit in
preparation for diving on the propeller.
(She loves being in the water!)

This is a picture from aft of the mass of sea weed that
was tightly wrapped around the base of our propeller.
(The black rope was used solely for the purpose
of quickly relocating the prop on subsequent
dives to clear the obstruction.)

A side view of the mass of seaweed
that was tightly wound around
the base of our propeller.

Another view of the mass of seaweed that
was tightly wrapped around the
base of our propeller.

We (I should say Maggie) completed the task of cleaning the mass of seaweed from our propeller by 10 AM.  It had to be cut off with a knife!  The water was cool and Maggie was glad for her new shortie wetsuit.

The only way we could have avoided this mass of seaweed from accumulating around our prop was to have installed line cutters just ahead of the prop.  We may consider this during our next maintenance haulout this summer because the next time could be a lot worse and require us to dive the prop in the middle of the night in the ocean.

The inside of the on-site cafe that is
open for breakfast and lunch.

After lunch at the on-site cafe (a different and less expensive on-site restaurant than we ate at yesterday) we got the marina's loaner car to go to the nearest BTC office to try get our cell phone situation fixed. They couldn’t fix our phone on the spot but they promised (remember that it was a "Bahamian promise”) to call me with a fix. We stopped in a nearby liquor store for our liquor supply replenishment before returning to the marina—we purchased a locally-made coconut rum, a locally-made dark rum, Kahlua, some vodka at very reasonable prices since we weren’t in a touristy area.  (The locally-made rums were under the Ricardo brand.)

Since it was nearing 3 PM, we decided to start Happy Hour--it keeps getting earlier every day!  Nothing productive could be expected after today's Happy Hour. I mostly read our Bahamas guide book on the places we expected to visit in the Exumas and stayed away from any onboard electrical or mechanical equipment.

Thursday, January 9

The wind increased in velocity during the night, our dinghy was banging into our swim ladder and making a clunking noise, our spring lines were creaking, and once in a while, our fenders would shift and our rub rail would rub against one of the pilings, making a squealing noise. (It was a bit like I imagine it would have been sleeping in a barnyard.)  In the morning, I arranged everything a bit better to stop the noises and improve the protection of our boat.

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In checking the weather forecast in the morning, our next weather window is Thursday, January 16, five days from now.  Until then, the high wind (from the North, Northeast, and then, East) will continue.  Further, the day after we get to Highborne Cay (our first destination in the Exumas) another hard blow (2 or 3 day long at 24 knots, gusting to 27 knots) is expected from the Northeast and, then, East.  Fortunately at our Highborns Cay anchorage, we should be well protected from both those wind directions.

This was our view during lunch-
-we had pizza!

Our waitress for lunch (her name was Nisha) came to New Providence Island from Marsh Harbour with her mother after Hurricane Dorian.  She recounted the experience of having part of her home's roof ripped off by the 200 mph winds and seeing the sun through the roof as the eye of the hurricane passed overhead.  She remembers seeing neighbors with wounds and the widespread devastation of her home town.

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Again today we went to the nearby BTC office to try and resolve our account issues since we got no phone call yesterday.  We finally got the issue fixed (I think?).  On the way to the BTC office I got some pics of what appears to be middle class homes a mile of more from the ocean:

These dogs were getting a little
aggressive with me.

A beautiful house and grounds!

Another beautiful house
and grounds.

Maggie was driving (you drive on the left side and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car) but I was the one that was a wreck when we returned.

Maggie at the wheel of
our loaner car.

People chartered a catamaran for the week.
Instead of blowing the week completely,
they hired a captain to get them
to the Exumas,

It is clear that we will be staying here in a slip at Palm Cay Marine for the next five or more days.  I couldn't think of a better place to be stuck though (except for the expense)!  Our next blogpost will cover (new and exciting?) things that we do in Nassau.


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