One of the common provisions of most East Coast/Bahamas cruising boat insurance policies is the requirement to be north of Florida before June 1st, which is the official start of hurricane season. With only 3 weeks until that deadline was upon us, we started planning for our return trip to the US. It had been a great 5 weeks in the Bahamas, enough to give us plenty of incentive to travel back in the fall of 2015 for a much longer stay. We moved from Atlantis back to Palm Cay marina for a week, staying mostly so that Reed could get his permanent cast (we needed to wait for the swelling to go down). Once that as done, we had some time to explore historic Nassau district while we waited for the right weather window to make the 180 mile trip from Nassau all the way back to Lake Worth Inlet, Florida. We made our first attempt to leave on Monday, May 18th, but after 3 hrs of leaving Palm Cay and making it only to the eastern entrance of Nassau Harbor, the seas were too rough and winds too high to continue the 30 hr trip. We stayed a night at a marina in Nassau Harbor with plans to leave the next day, were lighter winds and calmer seas were forecast. We had a beautiful sail from Nassau Harbor up the entrance onto the Grand Bahama Bank, with a few rain squalls but the wind was at a great angle and we were able to sail much of the way, making great time. We traveled across the bank during the night, unfortunately, so weren’t treated to the crystal blue swimming pool waters we had on our eastward trip several weeks early. Around 3am, we crossed just north of Bimini and into the Gulf Stream toward Lake Worth, Inlet. This time, the currents were in our favor and we made great time. The sunrise to the east coincided with coming in sight of land – Florida. We stayed a couple of nights at Old Port Cove Marina – to re-provision, get caught up on emails, and visit again with our friend Elfriede for a couple of days. However, the June 1st deadline was looming and it was time to head north toward Georgia. It was strange to back in the US again – we all missed the crystal blue water and island time vibe. We decided to keep that laid back feeling in mind as we traveled north, this time much more confident in our boat handling than when we first arrived in Florida 2 months earlier. | |
2 Comments
Beth
6/11/2015 02:02:26 am
Looks like you guys are having a great time! Your photos are so fun to look at. In that first picture, it looks like Ava is almost as tall as Eric! Could this be?! Miss you all xoxo
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Karrie
6/12/2015 11:15:45 pm
Beth - a bit of a trick of where she is standing but yes, definitely taller than me and catching up with Eric! Miss you!! xo
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AuthorsWe are Karrie, Eric, Ava, and Reed Sanderson. Our house is in Seattle but our home is wherever the four of us are...and for the next two years, our home is Night Music, a Tartan 37 Sailboat. Archives
June 2016
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