Nassau, Bahamas

We are in Nassau, Bahamas after a terrible trip. In my last post I explained that we were going to sail on the wind vane - we did. The trip to the Bahamas was uneventful with the exception of 10 foot seas that rocked Reboot. We decided to go into Eleuthera Sound to get away from the high seas. One never knows what would have happened if we had stayed in the Atlantic. Once in the Sound we experienced four days of heavy rain and then were becalmed for three days. Everything in Reboot was wet. Then we drifted around for a while as the vane could not steer without wind and I did not want to motor for a couple of days and end up with low fuel.

We eventually passed through the "Ship Channel" only to have the Garmin chart plotter freak out as we were in the tightest part of the passage. The last time it did this was as we were entering English Harbor. Not very reassuring.

As we headed up toward the next passage I noticed a sailboat in front of us on the AIS. It was another Catalina 42 - Threepenny Opera - a boat I was familiar with from the owners association web site (Catalina 42 International Owners Association). We raised them on the VHF radio. What good luck - they pointed out a route that would save us about 35 NM to Nassau. We motored across the Bahama Banks dodging the coral heads and made it into Nassau before sunset. They also suggested a marina. Things in Nassau are very expensive so having a modest place to go was important (modest is $75 per night - the Atlantis marina would be $250 per night (lol!) Addison then followed up with a message offering any assistance  - they have been sailing the Bahamas for years. Very nice.

We will stay here while we sort out Andy's visa.

Fair winds and following seas.