We returned to Hollywood the first weekend of February for a
two week adventure, exploring the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. Over that weekend we provisioned Pratique for
our first Gulf Stream crossing and waited out the weather until a window opened
up. Saturday, Sunday and into Monday there were winds with the word
“north” in them. The rule of thumb is to
wait 12-24 hours for that “north” component to die off, so there is not
opposition of north wind and northerly GS current, which can create some bouncy
conditions in the stream. In the winter
that usually that happens with an approaching cold front which clocks the wind
around.
By late Monday the winds were finally diminishing and beginning
to clock, so we left the dock and went north up the ICW, then just up the Dania
Cut-off Canal to the Harbour Towne Marina, to prepare for a Tuesday morning
departure. There, we filled fuel and
water tanks, and had a “bon voyage” dinner with Phil Lambert of Outbound Yachts.
Tuesday morning, as anticipated, winds were 10-15 kts and
out of the southeast. It was a beautiful
morning, but since the wind was almost on our nose, we decided to motor sail
across the stream.
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| Finally underway!! |
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| The water is warm . . . |
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| and blue! |
At 1700 hrs after a pleasant and uneventful crossing, we
arrived at the West End of Grand Bahama Island.
So here’s the opportunity to explain our boat’s name, Pratique. Many cruising sailors are aware of the
practice of raising the “Q” flag when approaching a foreign port prior to
clearing in. Less well known is that by
raising the Q flag one is requesting “pratique,” which is “the license or
permission to use a port, given to a ship after quarantine or on showing a
clean bill of health". Once
pratique has been granted, the Q flag is doused and the courtesy flag of the
country being visited is hoisted. The
crew is now free to disembark and to do whatever it had in mind! For us, that was dinner at Old Bahama Bay and
sleep!
Next morning, we headed north for Memory Rock, which is the
place most boats with our draft (6 ½ feet) enter onto the Little Bahama Bank
to go further east to the Abaco Islands.
I have to admit a certain unease with the prospect of the shallow water. Yes I had spent a good deal of time doing my chart homework, cross referencing a number of different sources. And different they were--my Raymarine Navionics chart did not match the well respected "Explorer" chartbook for this entrance point. Since the Explorer charts are considered to be very accurate, I chose to follow the Explorer route. At 0940 and with great anticipation we arrived at the Memory Rock
waypoint and turned to starboard, heading of 92°. Time to watch the depths: “150, 120, 60, 30, 20 . . . 15 . . .
.12.” Then, “13, 14, 12, 11, 13 . . .
.” Whew. The charts were right, even at
low tide!!
As you can see, the water was glass and so the entire trip
from West End to Great Sale Cay was by motor.
By the time we passed Mangrove Cay, we were more relaxed about the depths. We spent a good part of the second half of the trip laying out on the forward deck, with the hand held remote control for the autopilot, which kept a constant readout of the depths. Great technology!
At 1640 we got to Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island that is a common stop-off anchoring point along the way to or from the Abacos.
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| Sunset at Great Sale Cay |
Next stop, Spanish Cay!
