Preparations, First Travels & Adventures Ahead

Bahamas 2026 started with 4 1/2 days of provisioning and preparing the boat - Uno Mas - for our Bahamas adventure.  Gary and I worked Sunday - Thursday loading up food, water, snacks, supplies, gear, etc. for three months away from port.  Looking ahead to the weather for crossing to the Islands, Sunday appeared to be the best weather window, meaning we needed to leave our home port of Fort Myers on Friday to make the 2-day crossing through Lake Okeechobee.  

  

Friday, January 16, we cast off at 7:45am in 40 degree temps, headed up the Caloosahatchee Canal.  

We traveled 71.4 miles and stopped for the night at the Clewiston Marina where we met (salty) Sam, a former marine who takes his job checking in traveling mariners very seriously.  A quick breakfast in the marina and we were again underway at 7:45 on Saturday, crossing Lake Okeechobee and onward to the Jupiter Inlet.  Upon learning that the inlet was not a good one to exit, we continued on to West Palm Beach where we were grateful to find a slip and showers - our 96 mile day took 10 hours of travel!

Quick side note here - I am a sailor at heart.  And I am traveling with a power boater.  While I have had my share of time on the water - I started sailing 55 years ago this summer - traveling by powerboat is a whole new venture.  You get places very fast - relatively speaking - and gear, sundries and crew still jump around a lot on a power boat.  Trust me, in both venues, you can never be too prepared.

Our big day was finally here - and our weather window remained - or so we thought.  The marine, wind, and weather forecasts confirmed we were good to go and would expect to arrive in four hours.  We filled our water reserves and dinghy gas tanks and motored to the inlet, heading east toward West End on the north tip of Grand Bahama Island.    

Ten miles and one hour into the trip, Gary turned to me and said "do you want to take the wheel?".  Of course I said "Yes!" and an hour later we hit a wall of weather that took my breath away.  We were suddenly looking at 15-20 kt winds, 3-5 foot waves and periodic 7 ft swells off our beam.  A couple surprise 10 ft walls seemed to come out of nowhere just to see if I was paying attention.  Gary ended up on the floor a few times, falling off the bench seat and throwing his coffee mug across the helm.  At this point, we were half way across and we determined it better to continue rather than turn around.  Two hours later, we could see the island.  I handed the helm back and we entered the West End Marina at 1:00pm.  We fueled up and tied down the boat in the slip, just as a squall of a storm was hitting the island.  Drenched from rain, exhausted, and hungry, we were grateful to be on solid ground.  

  

Later that afternoon, we met others in the marina who had recently made the crossing as well.  Two power boats and a catamaran came in the day ahead of us and said it was no better - one guy got sick five times and it's his boat!  Two sailboats came in three hours behind us and both commented that the final two hours of their trip (during the squall) was the worst of it.  I can't even imagine!  

 

The next day, we met three young men in their late 20's who tried crossing back to Florida while we were coming east.  The boys got half way across and had to call the Coast Guard when the squall hit - they had ripped their mainsail and their engine went out.  The US Coast Guard sent a 150 foot boat to rescue and tow them back into our harbor.  The boys tie up their boat at 2:30am and literally gave the boat away to someone in the marina office at 8:30am.  Out of energy, grit, and food (their refrigerator had quit working a few days before), they packed up their gear.  I made them sandwiches and they flew back to Florida Monday afternoon.  

  

It's certainly been an adventure!