January 8-9, 2019 Here we come Bahamas

 January 8, 2019 - Bahamas ...Here we come

4am-  We decided to cross the gulf at Riviera Beach rather than Miami.  Off we motored out early morning while the seas where calm. 



So nice to see the sunrise from the boat



 

10:00- After having a couple hours sleep, I was shocked to know Steve was listening to Howard Stern while fishing.  He was in his glory.  That is right....even out here you can get satellite radio.  Guess he figured he would drown out the sound of the engine since we could not sail due to lack of wind.  Driving up to Florida, we enjoyed listening to some of Howard's interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo.

The seas are calm and all of a sudden Steve pointed out a metallic balloon floating around.  So sad since that may eventually be digested by a fish. 

Metallic balloon floating in the water

 

1:00pm- Going by Memory Rock. Because the water is so blue and clear, you can actually see the starfish  and Sea biscuits at the bottom as you motor at 6.5 knots.  



Time to put up the Bahamian flag

4:30pm- Went by Mangrove Cay.  We anchored there 2 years ago for the night but we decided to continue on for another 4 hrs since we are going at a good speed motor sailing. I can smell the turkey meatloaf cooking in the oven.  It is so nice we figure we would eat as we go.  

5:35pm--Had a wonderful dinner and then watch the amazing sunset however so early.

This is what I look forward to.  No building or obstacles obstructing the view of the sunrise or sunset.  I just love it.

We noticed every time we are in the Bahamas, the moon is smiling

It is pitch dark and the constellation is spectacular. I forgot how amazing it looks.  I only wish I knew all the names of the constellations.  What a sight! 

7:50pm- Arrived at Great Sale Cay and covered 108.5 miles today in just over 15 hours.  We sat in he stern and enjoyed the view.  There was absolutely no wind.  It was so quiet that our ears were ringing from hearing the motor running all day. We decided to go to bed early since we were getting up early. 

January 9, 2019

4:00am- The alarm went off and once again, off we go.  Anchor up at 4:30am. The winds picked up a bit during the night around 1am and started rocking the boat. 

Off we go to Turtle Cay. It is pitch DARK.  No light coming from any surrounding Cays.  The only lights shining are from the ones from our mast and the blanket of stars hovering over us.  

No wifi, no telephone, no connection to the world except our SpotGen 3 and our AIS system which indicate our boat location. 

So breathtaking 

 11:30am-  As we were going by Manjack Cay, we noticed 9 boats anchored there.  I printed all the necessary Bahamian Customs forms before leaving home.   To save time, I filled in the needed information in preparation to report in the Country.  

12:00pm. After 54.41 km, we made it to Turtle Cay and we took a mooring at White Sound.  We got wet taking our dinghy to Customs.  I wanted to go to BTC to get my Bahamian phone activated but they were not opened today.  On the way back, we stopped in a bakery and there were nothing on the shelves.  The woman said that the baker did not feel like baking anything today.  We are reminded we are in Bahamas.  

Now we can relax.