After a good night’s rest, it was up to me as captain to go ashore at Old Bahama Bay resort and clear customs. I also had a side mission to obtain a BTC sim card for our cell phone. Under Bahamas rules, only the captain of the vessel is allowed ashore to clear customs, so this was to be a solo mission. I launched my inflatable NRS kayak and began a rather long paddle to shore. The distance was short, only a few hundred yards, but the current was extremely strong and I was paddling dead against it to avoid being swept out to sea. My trouble was that the closer I got to shore the stronger the current got.
Eventually after a good morning workout, I made it to the beach and put my feet down into baby blue water and soft fluffy pink sand. “Paradise at last!” I thought to myself. Nobody was on the beach so I walked slowly towards the marina, taking in the beauty of the morning and the accomplishment I had just made. I asked the dockmaster and he quickly pointed me towards the customs building. Lindsey had done our research and I was prepared with:
- Passports for each person on board.
- USCG documentation (state registration ok if not documented)
- Bahamas Customs clearance form which can be found here if needed.
- Cold hard cash sufficient to cover entry and duty fees. It’s $350 for boats over 35 ft and $150 for boats under 35 ft. Bring at least $350 because we have heard rumors of boats between 30-35 ft being charged $350.
Having my documents in order, I entered a hectic room with half a dozen or so customs officials and numerous fishermen. I smiled and went to the first person that was open. He looked some things over and then left. “Ok..,” I thought. A few minutes later a lady came over and started signing papers and asked me to pay the cashier. I requested a spearfishing endorsement which is supposed to be free and provided on the cruising permit but she flat out told me no spearfishing (and we’re still not sure why – everyone else we’ve met got theirs). “Bummer,” I thought but at least I was charged only 150 for our documented 33 ft boat which was awesome as I have heard rumors others were charged more. The lady then handed over my cruising permit and said I was good to go.
“Thank you” I said “but don’t you want to stamp the passports?”. She looked at me puzzled for a moment then snatched the papers out of my hand.
“You didn’t see the lady and the other side of the counter first?” she barked.
“No,” I replied sheepishly.
“Go see her, and when your passports are stamped you can have your papers back,” she ordered.
Thinking myself a fool for cutting inline I gave my surroundings a good study as I walked over. All the uniforms were the same as best I could tell, there was no sign saying start here, and no line of any kind. How was I supposed to know where to start? Filling out the immigration cards went quickly though. They are the only thing that can’t be filled out in advance as they are carbon copies. With passports stamped I quickly collected my paperwork before anybody changed their minds.
Next I walked into the marina store and asked for a BTC sim card. “Sure,” said the cashier, ringing me up and handing me the card. Then another cashier chimed in and told me I couldn’t have it because they couldn’t sell me the minutes. “Can’t I just buy them off the BTC website?” I asked. “Nope,” was the reply as the card was snatched from me and my money returned. “Yikes, between spearfishing endorsement and sim cards people are kinda picky about making up their own rules around here,” I thought as I pushed the kayak back into the water for a rather quick drift back to Miss Fe.
There isn’t really much in West End worth seeing so we hauled anchor and with no wind in sight motored onto the Little Bahama Bank. The first couple miles were through a somewhat narrow channel but it quickly opened up. The little Bahama Bank is really quite interesting topographically speaking. It’s a rather large area ~50 x ~30 miles, but it’s very shallow, rarely exceeding 20 ft deep. It’s more similar to sailing protected waters of a large bay, like say the Chesapeake, except most of the bank has little to no land bordering it. On a clear calm day in the middle of the bank, you cannot see land in any direction but you can see straight to the bottom as if it were a swimming pool in your backyard. We were in awe. After a while I turned to Lindsey and said “I’ve never seen anything like this; it must be God’s swimming pool”.
It was in fact so clear that we could even see starfish on the bottom as we passed by.
It was a rather quiet day as we all sat on different parts of the boat quietly taking in what we had accomplished. The crossing had been tiring, weather and other obstacles were no doubt ahead of us, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the moment we were in and trying to soak up as much of it as possible before it disappeared.
As dusk came we anchored at a small island called Mangrove Cay. It wasn’t very inviting so we payed it little attention. In the morning we pulled out our charts and decided to attempt to get to Walker’s Cay some 20 miles to our north. Walker’s Cay is unique for several reasons. It’s the northernmost island in all of the Bahamas and while once a thriving marina and resort, it now lies in a state of abandonment listed for sale since a hurricane forced its closure in 2004. It was also well known for shark diving and big game fishing.
The sail towards Walkers was great. For one thing, it was the first time we had the sails up since NC (2.5 months earlier!). In addition, we had great wind and with the genny up we were regularly making 6-7 knots. We also had some visitors: With no land in sight, a little bird landed on deck to keep Dave company for a while, and we also spotted our first Bahamian dolphin.
As we approached the old channel to the abandoned Walkers Cay Marina I had a change of heart. It was narrow, hadn’t been maintained in over a decade and just gave me a bad feeling. With nobody else in love with the looks of it, we diverted over to Grand Cay, just miles to the south, which has become the northernmost settlement in the Bahamas with Walker’s closure. We arrived at Grand Cay in time to bust our the dingy for the first time and take a quick evening trip ashore. We didn’t even bother to bring a camera, thinking we would be back the next day. We (well, Lindsey and I) had a good laugh on the way to town as Dave’s clean shorts got soaked with water. Note: Don’t put the big guy on the bow of the dinghy!
What we found on Grand Cay was a real slice of “the old Bahamas.” A small community of ~400 people. No ferries or airports service the town so the only visitors come by boat. The docks looked run down but were full of fishermen returning from a day out. The streets are uneven cement wide enough for one golf cart to pass. The beer was reasonable at $3 and it was our first taste of some very fine seafood salad (in the Bahamas seafood salad, or conch salad, is very similar to ceviche but without chips and often with the addition of orange juice. As with ceviche the seafood is raw.) The bar (an outdoor gazebo with picnic tables and the salad cart nearby) was hopping with locals of all ages – one guy told us Sundays are family days. Dave and Lindsey made a point of walking the town and were not disappointed when they found waffle cones filled with bourbon cherry and rum raisin ice cream at a little shop.
On the dinghy ride out of town, we made Lindsey sit up front. It was starting to get dark but we saw the silhouette of something rise out of the water a few yards ahead of the boat. We were trying to figure out what it was, when all of a sudden – SPLASH! – Lindsey got drenched. I quickly diverted my light to identify the culprit, and lit up the beautiful spots of 2 eagle rays swimming by!
When morning came I was up at 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker’s SSB weather broadcast. Since I wasn’t able to procure a sim card yet, it was our only source of weather and the forecast wasn’t good. Chris was calling for a gale out of the west in less than two days time. We were anchored completely exposed to west winds so I quickly shook Lindsey awake. “We gotta go babe, can’t stay here!”
As we got breakfast going we poured over every anchorage for 30 miles. Westerly protection was very hard to come by. As morning drew on we tried several anchorages around Grand Cay but the holding was no good. We even assembled our storm anchor, a Fortress FX-37 as big as Lindsey but it wouldn’t hold in the grassy seabeds. Disappointed, we agreed to set sail for Great Sale Cay 20 miles to our south. On the way there still wasn’t much wind but we did manage to motorsail and find a 4+ft loggerhead sea turtle to keep us company.
Great Sale Cay is a large island in the middle of the Little Bahama Bank. Though there are some 1960’s ruins, it is completely undeveloped with the only visitors being boats looking for safe harbor. Thankfully it offers two large harbors with westerly protection, just what we needed.
The next day was clear as forecast and we took full advantage snorkeling and walking the remote beaches before the storm set in. We saw sting rays, barracuda, snapper, jacks, and various little tropical fish. As the day progressed, about half a dozen boats arrived to take cover with us. We made a good call with Great Sale as it provided cover while we were pinned down for the next day. By the third night the winds had subsided a little down to about 20 knots and we were up for an island with a bit of nightlife!
Talking with a little catamaran named Toucan they had great things to say about Allans Pensacola Cay and Green Turtle Cay. We wanted to go directly to Green Turtle since it is populated but figured it was too far so we made a stopover at Allans Pensacola. With the strong winds we had a very enjoyable sail.
Our time on Allans Pensacola was short but we did have time to hike across the island to the famous signing tree, where visitors leave dated signs with the names of vessel and crew. We hunted for the remnants of the US Missile Tracking Station that was once on the island, but found only the asphalt of a former road.
The next day we were up early and bound for the civilization of Green Turtle Cay.