The Crossing

Land Ho! West End, Grand Bahama Island

Log – Sunday December 18, 2005


Awoke to a decent day with fair south-east winds. After months of planning and preparation, this day could be the one. We were in close contact with our weather router Capt Bob Cook from Ocean-pro who had been looking for a decent weather window for the crossing. The Gulf Stream can be seriously bi-polar. Light southerly winds can make the Stream manageable, northerly winds can make it very ugly as the winds oppose the warm, strong current heading all the way to Europe (ever wonder why there are palm trees on the southern end of Ireland?). Bob Cook was watching the approaching front due that night and found that we had a nice window to cross ahead of the front. Squall lines were behind the front instead of ahead of it and they were further north. One last check of the weather radar at 9:55am and he gave us the thumbs up. We cast off at 10:00am and were on our way. Heading out the inlet we ran into some steep waves around 4’ but they were manageable – just lots of spray over the boat. The steep waves settled down after 10 miles and the ocean slowly calmed down. Tide Pool was in her element and took the 2-4 seas on the forward quarter beautifully. By this time the seas had rolled out a bit, my sleep count was at 5/5 (that means that everyone including Grace and the dog were asleep).

About 22 miles away from West End we picked up a radio transmission from the boat that was docked behind us at Sailfish – Lazy Bones – a Gulf Star 44 was ahead of us by 14 miles and was calling into Old Bahama Bay. We were able establish contact with them as they were approaching the marina. At this point, we also came across a line of sailboats which were marching towards West End. We were very lucky to hit this weather window on the first day we were ready to go – many of these boats had been waiting for a week or two.

At 1:15 PM, I spotted the water tower at West End, Grand Bahama. This was such an incredible event that the girls jumped for joy – OK, maybe they were half asleep. The waves were on our aft quarter at this point and the helmsman was having fun surfing down the occasional wave as Tide Pool surged forward an impressive knot or two.

We tied up at Old Bahama Bay at 2:30 and checked in to Customs and Immigration. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that I was able to decompress. After months and months of outfitting the boat, researching Bahamas cruising grounds and getting the boat and my family in position, we were actually here. The hardest part was behind us. Now I could spend my time contemplating the next legs of our journey including transiting the Indian Cay Channel onto the Little Bahama Bank – basically this is a narrow, shallow pass through the reef where the ocean meets the bank. We have about 100 miles to Abaco. But for now we had arrived, and could rest for a day or two. We are in the Bahamas!