Author: Tessa Aydelotte

The crossing to The Exumas is treacherous. We were told to not cross Yellow Bank until after 11:00am, because you are headed directly into the sun and you cannot spot the coral heads- in six feet of water. A rising tide is a bonus, too, giving you an extra two to three feet. Who would have thought we would be thankful for two foot tides?

See enough coral heads? We were thankful to follow a charter boat we berthed with the previous night out of Nassau Harbour. We were going to go at a snails pace, until she picked it up into high gear. We guessed we needed to grow some cohones and follow her. Who runs 22kts in 12ft of water with coral below you? The ones that do this all the time.

We soon lost Allure, as we were doing 13kts to her 22kts, but we were also thankful to catch up to Daybreak, a 100+ft yacht, between yellow and white banks. We had made it through the land mine successfully.

We had two nav’s going , as well as your traditional depthsounder and side scan. We made it safely and are ready for some gunkholing in Allan’s Cay, known for their (fat) iguanas.

Entering Nassau Harbour was quite the culture shock. It was bustling with marine traffic, and had three cruise ships at dock- one being the largest in the world: Anthem of the Sea. Atlantis looked like Disneyland. This was definitely a change of pace from the Berry Islands. We bid Emme adieu, had lunch at The Poop Deck, and spent the day provisioning for the Exumas. Tessa equated Nassau to Namaimo, but on a grander scale.

We were tucked between seven 100+ footers. We definitely felt small, but then Juan figured out they were all charter boats. The smallest ones went for $10,000 per day. Any takers? We’ll stick with this gal.

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We continue to be impressed with the service in the marine industry in this part of the world. Bradford Marine Bahamas has gone above and beyond.

They invited us to their Friday Dry Dock Happy Hour. The General Manager knew not only our mechanic, but also our AC/compressor guy, and the Captain that ran our boat for the previous owner. We have come to learn that we are a unique breed in these waters, there are very few owners who captain their own vessel of our size or larger.

The Yard Manager was also a Rotarian. When Tom told him he installed a water maker, he asked which kind. Before Tom could finish Water Makers Inc, he exclaimed it was the best- he works with one that produces 7500 gallons in 24 hrs on the island. Did we stumble into the right people for what we needed? Or is it that small of a world in this area?

Grand Bahama reminds Tom a lot of Alaska, in a warmer climate.Our berth of two nights.Looking up the street to the main office.

Bradford is able to handle larger boats that other yards cannot. Not only do they service the mega yachts, they also service the Bahamian Navy, US research vessels and cruise ships.

The most challenging for them are the new large cruise ships. They are too big to lift out of the water, so they lift one end at a time. They tend to see the same set of yachts each season; from the islands they head to Azure and then the Med. The main issue on most of them? Clogged AC units. The warm water and humidity is the perfect environment for barnacles to grow- in your AC thru hull.

The electrician was not able to fix our smaller generator before days end. He said he’d be back tomorrow morning. Tom said, 9am? Before noon, right? He said, of course, no problem.

The next day while waiting for the electrician to show up, we took a taxi to Solomon’s supermarket in downtown Freeport (which just confirmed Tom’s theory of this island being like a warm Alaska).

Every customer in the store smiled and said hi to us. This seemed to be the norm. The Bahamian people are so friendly and welcoming.

Noon. Still no electrician. We couldn’t move Sunday because of weather, so today was the day to run. He had our manual, hopefully this old 8kw Onan manual can be found online.

We got outside of Freeport and had following 6ft-8ft seas at 8 sec. The autopilot worked hard to stay on course, swinging at times up to 25 degrees port and starboard. We were told at the Palm Beach Boat Show in March that there is an update for our naiads to improve their execution in a following sea. At the time it was not one of our must haves. It sure would have been nice.

We were grateful that it was only ninety minutes to Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama Island. Our lines were barely tied up when a local diver was trying to sell us conch. His name was Platinum, his partner, Gold.

Old Bahama Bay is one of the check in points for customs, has fuel (4.29/g… cough cough) and is a colorful resort with a restaurant that is open for dinner and a small convenience mart.

To our surprise, we got a phone call from Bradford Marine that the head electrician and the electrician that was working on our boat were driving up here (about a 45 minute drive from Freeport) to finish the job. On a Saturday evening.

Everyone we’ve met that ends up on Grand Bahama Island has a story, and we talked with the head electrician for two hours as the electrician worked on our generator. Most were in the military, had a wild 20s decade, worked for a structured company in the states for twenty plus years, then wanted a change of pace.

As he was still working on our generator at 8:30pm, we thanked both of them for coming all the way out this way, and also for sending a care package of filters and parts for both generators to our next major port: Marsh Harbour, Abacos. We have yet to see what price we will be paying for this excellent service.

As we were entering the restaurant, the three guys on a Viking next to us exclaimed it is time for them to move their folding dock chairs. We soon would find out why.

We experienced our first Junkanoo on the dock. A Junkanoo is a parade of dance, music and costume, usually taking place on Boxing Day or New Years Day. There are two theories on how the name originated – named after a folk hero John Canoe, or derived from the French gens inconnus (unknown people) as masks are worn by the revelers.

It seemed the whole town had turned out, from the age of ten and up. It was hard not to tap your feet as this group of happy people performed.When we got back to the boat, Tom inspected the electrician’s work. Our broker had talked about how work in the islands is not always the quality of work you get in the states. He had made it work, he had not fixed it. We were good… for now. Everything will be ok, mon.

Make lemonade. Tom flushed the hoses this morning, and out came a handful of impeller rubber. We were optimistic it would start. It did, for two minutes, and then went kaput.

The dockmaster tried to get us to leave at 8:30am for a 110ft yacht that was coming in. We didn’t budge, told him give us an hour.

With the jet skis, the go fast outboard fishing boats, the Sea Rays, the Azimuts, Bimini was beautiful but the people were not. They were flashy and annoying.

We bought our boat from Bradford Marine in Ft Lauderdale. As it turns out, they also have a facility in Freeport. Tom called them to see if we could have our generators looked at today or tomorrow. Well… Tom then told them we just bought our boat from Bradford Marine a month ago. Of course! We’ll see you this afternoon. We set out at 9:30am for Freeport to have both our gensets looked at.

The water was flat calm, and the color was unreal. This photo does not do the water color justice, but it does show the calm seas.

And then the afternoon Northerly front dropped in on us at 10:30am. We had another four hours to go.

With no turning back. We felt like we were in Malaspina Strait. Or that time when we ventured on from Pt McNeil to the Walker Islands in the afternoon after coming from the Campbell River.

We and the boat were tested. Portia was not happy to come down from her flybridge perch. This is Portia on the flybridge. She did not look like this in the rough seas.

Those windshield wipers we hadn’t got to fixing? Much needed. We were taking blue water over the bridge. Tessa refused to go out, so, Tom stripped down and got soaking wet. But made two of three windshield wipers functional. Finally calm seas as we neared Freeport. The front had passed us.

You don’t want to go to Freeport unless you have to. It’s a commercial harbour, cruise ships and freighters. Hail VHF Ch 14, not Ch 16 as the Waterway Guide says. By the time we got back from Bradford Marine Bahamas office a half hour after we arrived, the mechanic already had our 20kw genset working. It was air in the fuel line, Tom got so close!

For the next hour they worked on the small generator with no luck. Hopefully tomorrow they are able to fix it, and we will be on our way!

Our spirits are high, the yard supervisor took us up to the Bahamas Brewery and liquor store. They drive on the wrong side of the road, but with American cars. Confusing, eh? All the staff here at Bradford Marine Bahamas has exceeded our expectations, Tessa finally was able to wash the boat (much needed after sitting by the freeway at Marina Mile and the salt water we just took), and Tom was able to complete small nice to have projects. We finally feel like we are getting somewhere!

For better or for worse, we were getting the heck out of dodge. It was time for this fledgling to fly.

There are four bridges, well six technically, but four that we do not clear that we go under to go outbound down the river to the ocean. The bridges do not open for marine traffic until after 9am to keep rush hour traffic moving. We promptly departed at nine and made our way down the river.

Traffic was light compared to Easter Sunday, we were glad we didn’t stick with our original departure date.

We passed one mega in close quarters right after our first non- opening bridge.

Through The Squiggles and Little Florida, it was like we were old pros.

Andrews Bridge apparently could not hear us on their radio. We waited about fifteen minutes, compared to thirty seconds at the other three.

Waiting for Andrews bridge to acknowledge us.

As we approached 15th Street, where we were supposed to stay last night but we did not finish installing the chocks in time, Tom went below to turn on the stabilizers. Which would not power on.

Tessa continued out the exit to the ocean, which has crazy chop, er, seas, from all the go fast boats. Without stabilizers, and a skiff not prepared for such seas, she started sliding. Tom immediately instructed Tessa to turn Docktails around to head back in the Intercoastal to figure out why our stabilizers were not getting power.

Turns out, there is a breaker under the helm in the pilot house, yes the same helm that we have both contorted under and have never seen this breaker. When Tessa located it, Tom quickly flipped the breaker, and our stabilizers were back in action.

Now, where were we? Right by 15th Street fisheries. We made a 360, and back tracked our way out to sea.

Once past the entrance to the Intercoastal, it was glass and two foot seas. We didn’t see another boat within a couple miles of us. It was delightful.

Somewhere in the middle of the Gulf Stream.

In the middle of the Gulf Stream we stopped to do our autopilot tuning. This is something you can’t do in close waters, and this was the first time we had been in an area, more like an expanse, big enough to conduct it.

It seems just like that we spotted land on the horizon. Bimini Island. We were told to stay towards the red buoy by our mechanic. Well, it’s always best to check noonsite. That first red buoy is no longer in the right spot. Let just say we got cozy with the sand for a handful of seconds, and then followed a parade of sailboats in and another power boat.

Our first choice of marinas did not answer us on the radio- Bluewater Marina. So we tried the next one- Big Game Bimini. They answered right away, had a spot for us, and Tom walked up to take care of immigration and customs.

Meanwhile, Tessa had limited power on the boat because both generators had overheated on the crossing.

Tom spent the afternoon/evening troubleshooting, replacing the water feed impeller, and doing more troubleshooting. Tessa finally pulled him out at 9pm for dinner.

Saw our first shark right off the dock, along with multiple schools of fish.

The good news: we are in The Bahamas, we are making our own water, everything will be ok, mon.