Sailing Ohana

Tommy has a hard time waiting around. Anyone who knows him knows this, so you would think I would have seen it coming. We planned to leave on Tuesday “at sunrise” so that we could arrive in the Bahamas on Wednesday “at sunrise”, because we didn’t want to arrive and anchor or navigate a marina in the dark after a 24 hour sail. However, when Tommy couldn’t sleep at 5:30 am (definitely not “at sunrise”) and didn’t want to wait around, he undocked and started up the engines. I stumbled out of bed and off we went. The boys slept as we navigated the beginning of what was a nice crossing.

We sailed at a good clip for a lot of the first day and caught a handful of fish. Jackson invested in a hand scale to weight the fish we catch and he’s documenting the type of fish, size, and weight. The first one we caught was a Kingfish or King Mackerel that Jackson reeled closer to the boat and then handed over to Spencer to let him bring it in. Mackerel is known to be kind of oily and fishy, but we didn’t know what it was until it was on board so we kept it. The others were a few big eye tuna. We caught a mahi mahi without realizing it, as Tommy and I were in the front of the boat and the boys were inside, so nobody heard the line run out. Tommy spent a lot of time processing fish, putting it in vacuum sealed bags, labeling and putting them in the freezer. The mackerel ended up being delicious because it was so fresh, but we learned that you have to eat it immediately, and vacuum seal the rest and freeze it immediately, because when we tried leftovers the next day it almost made Spencer and me barf. Fortunately Tommy had sealed and frozen the rest.

We arrived around 5:30 am at West End where we planned to check in at customs. This is where our early Florida departure comes in… It would be a while before sunrise so we couldn’t see an anchorage, the marina wasn’t open, and it would be even longer before the customs office opened. We made the quick decision to keep going and check in at Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands instead. We spent almost no time in the Berrys last year so we didn’t know what to expect. We could not have made this change with Morris aboard, because we would have been so urgently focused on getting him to shore.

Our arrival at Great Harbour Cay was a dramatic one. We motor-sailed into the anchorage as fast as we could, as the sun set. We came to a (slo-mo) screeching halt, dropped the anchor and breathed a sigh of relief that we had arrived before dark! We stayed at Great Harbour just to check in at customs and drive the dinghy a bit. Only the captain is allowed to go on shore until your boat is checked in. Of course when Tommy got to the marina to check in, the customs people were nowhere to be found, and it took them hours to meander into the office.

Hoffmans Cay was a lovely welcome back to the Bahamas… Crystal clear waters, beautiful beaches, secluded anchorages, and a lovely hike to a blue hole. We snorkeled in a bay where there are a lot of turtles and rays, the boys went spearfishing on a fairly healthy reef, they practiced on their new skim boards, and Tommy pulled them around with the dinghy.

One of our snorkeling trips brought us to a couple of masts sticking out of the water near a small cay. The boys snorkled on it first, and said that it was a little creepy because it was so intact you could see people’s belongings still inside and even the winches still worked. Tommy and I were curious so we went to check it out ourselves, and for me it was pretty upsetting. There’s something cool about seeing an old shipwreck, far removed from us both in time and personal connection. This boat however, must have been sunk in the last couple of months. It is a beautiful monohull with a large solar array, radar, and fully stocked and provisioned just like ours, for its owners to live aboard. It was just too close to home for me and I probably spent less than 5 minutes there. My heart couldn’t stand it as I was looking at someone’s home and dreams literally wrecked in front of me.

We moved to boat up to Soldier Cay just for the night so that we could easily get out to the crossing to the Exumas in the morning. Our anchorage there had a floral smell like gardenias, blowing in the breeze from the little uninhabited island. So lovely.