Sunday, November 15, 2015

We left the Lake Worth inlet (West Palm Beach, Florida) at 4am on Thursday, November 12.  Our destination was West End on Grand Bahama Island where we intended to check through Customs and Immigration.  We had never been to West End before so this would give us an opportunity to travel a different route.

The travel from Florida to the Bahamas Banks can often be difficult as the Gulf Stream pushes through the Straits of Florida at 3-4 knots and can build rough seas.  This time, the seas were about as smooth as we've experienced with about 2 foot swells.

Unfortunately, even with the gentle swells, the wind/swells/currents made travel to West End slightly difficult so we altered our course and headed for Memory Rock, our usual arrival point on the Bahamas Bank.  We arrived there around 2pm and continued motor-sailing to Mangrove Cay, a small deserted island, where we anchored for the night just before dark.  The next morning we travelled 8 hours to an anchorage outside of Foxtown on Little Abaco Island where we had internet access and could get updated whether information as well as let people know where we were so they would not call out the Coast Guard to start a search for overdue vessels since we had intended to be in West End the day before.  On Saturday, we travelled another 4 hours to finally reach Spanish Cay where we could check into Customs and Immigration and be legally in the Bahamas.  The overall travel from Lake Worth to our check-in arrival point was about 25 hours.

We're thrilled to be back in the Bahamas!