A Travellerspoint blog

Sailing to Lucaya and exploring Grand Bahama

And Going back to Miami


View 2000-01 Novices Overcoming ICW Obstacles on greatgrandmaR's travel map.

After lunch we turned NE toward Grand Bahama. As we sailed across the NW Channel, the current turned against us, flowing west, and our speed dropped to under 6 knots.

I was reading the guide and picking out landmarks on the shore. The first thing we saw was 3 towers near Freeport. Then we saw the oil terminal structures off Freeport and the oil tanks offshore. The Greek Temple looking thing was the .
Xanadu Hotel

Xanadu Hotel


I found out that it did not really have columns. It looked that way because of the arrangement of windows. The thing that looked like a French chateau (with turrets)
large_07652685.jpg
was a house behind Ocean Reef Yacht Club.

Since the Bimini chart was so far off, I wasn't comfortable with just going to the Bell channel off Lucaya. I was trying to pick out the actual marker. This was made more difficult by the fact that there were cruise ship moorings (usually a couple of big oil drums with a light on them) scattered around which were much the same color and size as the marker. Also it was getting toward sunset. We could see the (fake) red and white lighthouse that we knew was on the west side of the entrance, but still couldn't see where that was.
Fake Lucaya lighthouse from the marina

Fake Lucaya lighthouse from the marina


We called the marina to tell them that we were coming, and they said that it was OK they were open until 11 pm. We took the sails down.

Finally we saw the red and green markers and were close enough that we could see that the jetty had two ends coming out towards us rather than being a single rip rap of rocks along the shore. There were red and green lights on the ends. As we turned in the channel (we did not see the line of breakers that was on the chart), a power boat was coming out. He stopped at the end of the jetties and turned around and went back in. Don't know why.

As we reached the outer end of the jetties, and were starting through them, a huge catamaran party boat (loud music and lots of people) called Bahama Mama appeared at the other end.
Bahama Mama

Bahama Mama


Fortunately, they paused to wait for us to get through. Not sure there would have been room for both of us.

I called the marina (Lucaya Village) and they said to go to slip B318, so we motored slowly around the side of the marina, and, with the help of the dock hand and the people on adjacent boats, we docked at the fixed concrete docks. Fortunately no wind or current. The marina on the other side (Port Lucaya) was mostly for big power boats.

The slip was really a little too small for us, and the last piling was about 10 feet short of the end of the boat. The finger pier only went to about even with the midships shrouds. So to get off, we had to go through the gate and sidle along outside the lifelines a couple of feet and then step over. Or if it was low tide, crawl up onto the pier.

Prices here were $1.00/foot, and water was $5/day (mandatory - you had to take the water). Electricity was 25 cents a KW, and cable TV was free. The guide book said there was a restaurant, but there wasn't - all the restaurants were at Port Lucaya.

I went up and registered. We had gone 67 nm at 5.8 knots - a total of 11.5 hours. After Bob got the boat secured, we took the free water taxi (which runs every half hour) over to Port Lucaya and had dinner. We ate on the water at The Pub at Lucaya. I had chicken pot pie, and we had ice cream for dessert. The ice creams were $4 @. We discovered another reason to stay in the Village instead of here - there's live music every night in the Count Basie pavilion right on the water until 11 pm.We sat and listened to the music (loud) and watched the little kids and one local guy who had great moves dancing. This is where the Bahama Mama and the other tour boats and dive boats leave from.
Water taxi

Water taxi


After dinner we walked back to the shuttle dock, and went back to the Village. I stopped to get pocket mail at the pay phone and use the bathrooms.

Friday, February 23, 2001

Bob decided to go into town - he wanted to see if he could get an offset screw driver, some little ignition wrenches (to repair the Johnson outboard) that he hadn't been able to get in Bimini, and some R12 for the refrigeration. He also wanted to go to the supermarket. I thought Friday would be better than Sat, and definitely better than Sunday when things are closed.

The people in the nearby slips a DuFour 31 named MIRAGE on one side ([/i]with a young couple from the Pacific NW - their friends sailed down the west coast and thru the canal, and up to FL and the Bahamas, and then they traded - their friends flew back to the NW to work and live in these folks house, and these guys took over the boat): a 30 something foot boat with a young guy named Tim. (He was single handing since his girl friend had to go back to work): and a boat named for the genus of the Blue Crab (who signs on to Southbound II (where Herb runs a weather service for cruisers on the SSB) as JOY because Herb can't pronounce their boat name, and I can't spell it either[i]) said that there was a WinnDixie about a mile away, but the better one was in Freeport, and there was an ACE hardware store there too. They said the bus (which was mini vans - private owners) would only be $1.

The people near us were going with some other people in their dinghies to snorkel. That would have been nice - they apparently had a good time. Although if we had gone too, I'm not sure that we could get back into our dinghy.
Bow of JADE EAST

Bow of JADE EAST

Jade East

Jade East


Bob was getting ready to leave, and asked me if I was coming. I asked him if he needed me to navigate, as I wasn't really interested in shopping. He said it would be nice to have me along. I assumed he was going to rent a car and would want me to read the map, so I said OK. But he was taking the bus, and I suspected that a lot of walking would be involved and I should leave him to his own shopping devices. I was right.

We walked out to the road by a little deli-restaurant place, and got the van which took us in as far as the Winn Dixie. One of the marina folks said to go all the way to the PO which was the end of the line, and we should have done that because later we didn't know where the PO was. We went to the ACE hardware store and discovered that it was closed, as in out of business. We went to the bus area - which had a dispatcher like a taxi rank, and the people there said to take another bus to Kelly's. So we did that. Bob found a few things, but not the wrenches. So we asked there, for an auto parts store, and they told us to go to A.I.D. and gave him directions to walk. He had the map, and he didn't look on it to see where it was. It didn't sound like it was too far, but...

Bob started off walking and we walked and walked and walked (it was near noon now, and hot). We walked through a very industrial area, with printing plants, etc. Finally reached the store. He did find some R12, and most of the other things, but not the wrenches.

Now we had to get back to the Winn Dixie. I said I was not walking. He could carry me, or call a cab or rent a car, but I wasn't walking. So they called a cab for us, and we taxied back for $3.20. (The starting rate is something like $2.00 for 1/4 mile and $1.00 for each additional 1/4 mile)

We wanted to have lunch and couldn't see any place to eat except Burger King, KFC, Subway etc. So we started out on foot to look for a place to eat. After trying two local places and finding that they were closed (as in not opening), we finally ended up at KFC (after a lot more walking). After lunch, Bob went back to the Winn Dixie, and I followed at my leisure (after getting the map from him) and sat outside and waited for him. Now we had to find the PO to get the bus back. More walking.

The bus took us a different route back - went by the other marinas and hotels long the shore. When we walked back to the boat, we found out they were having a fish fry by the pool. We decided to go. This was a disappointment. I thought we'd be able to talk to other people, but there weren't enough tables, and they were all full, so we had to sit in lounge chairs by the pool, and that isn't very comfortable. Also, they had a fish fry dinner, fried chicken dinner and lobster salad. We assumed that lobster salad was also a dinner, but it was not - it was just a salad ($10 @ ). So we ate and then went back to the boat.
Sunset

Sunset


Saturday February 24, 2001

Saturday, Bob went up and did laundry in the laundry room, and he also wanted to go into town again. I went up to use the bathroom and download pocketmail, and it took me so long that he decided it was too late to go into town. So he spent time washing the boat down and polishing stuff, and cetoling the brightwork (puting marine varnish on the wood trim). I found that there was an internet cafe over in Port Lucaya, so I took the computer over there. I spent most of the afternoon there but they absolutely couldn't get my computer logged on at all. I finally used their computer for about 15 minutes (at 20 cents/minute which is cheaper than a phone call), and looked at email etc. Then I took the shuttle back.

We took the shuttle over again and had dinner at Giovannis, which was a really good Italian restaurant - really tiny though, so either make reservations or go early. There were 6 couples there and the table stretched almost the full width of the restaurant. They wanted pictures taken of the whole group, so I did that (4 cameras). We both had the seafood spaghetti - shrimp, fish and lobster. It was very good. Then we had peach melba for dessert. Our meal (drinking iced tea) cost us $35.54.

Sunday, February 25, 2001

Bob went up to take a swim in the pool (which was heated) and take a shower, and I did too, but I left after him, and he'd already done swimming when I got there.

Herb said the winds would be light from the SW the next day. We originally thought we'd go to Great Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands, but SW winds would be no good for that, and it was 55 miles which was a long way against the wind and current. Herb thought that Tuesday would be better as the wind would be NE. Then Bob could have gone into town Monday. Our projected itinerary was to go to Great Stirrup Tuesday and anchor (but I didn't know if we could anchor there and it was a long trip). Then to go to Great Harbor Weds (short trip) and take a mooring someone from the CSY group offered us. Then to go to Chubb Cay Thursday (short trip), and Friday and Saturday go across the Grand Bahamas Banks to Cat Cay or Gun Cay (but that involved anchoring on the Banks), and from there to go back to Miami as soon as the weather was appropriate.

But I was getting itchy, and it sounded like the winds were going to come from the north again soon, and I decided we ought to take the change and go to Miami now. JOY was going back to Lake Worth. It was 90 miles to Miami, so it would be more than 12 hours.

So we took the shuttle in to Port Lucaya and had dinner at a Greek restaurant, and then came home and went to bed early to prepare.

Leaving Lucaya - Monday 26 Feb 2001

JOY left real early. JADE EAST (a CSY 37), and the other boat they were traveling with also left about 7. I walked up to the office to finalize our bill. We'd used 4 KW of electricity - cost $1.00. We also had the two lobster salads on the bill, and I'd bought an Explorer chart book at the suggestion of Tim as it had more depths and detail than the MapTech one we had.

The office opened at 7:00, and I was right there as she unlocked the door. We cast off at 7:20, and motored out of the marina,
Lucaya entrance from the marina

Lucaya entrance from the marina


out of the breakwater (again no breakers as the winds were light), and actually saw the Bell Channel marker this time.
Bell Channel Marker

Bell Channel Marker


Then we had breakfast. Assisted by the current, we were doing 8 or more knots, but we were motor sailing. I took a nap. Then we had lunch. Then Bob actually took a nap of about 2 hours. When we talked to Herb at Southbound II and signed off , he had trouble grasping that we were actually under way.

Now we were in the Gulf Stream and it was pushing us north. I tried to keep the speed up above 5 knots, and just let it move us sideways without trying to fight it. We would be steering 242, and the GPS would say our track was 255. The winds were light, and really SW or WSW. We had dinner while motor sailing. Bob took in the jib, so the sails were mostly steadying.

I went down and took another nap, although Bob refused to do the same. About 11:30, we had gotten near to Ft. Lauderdale, and I phoned Customs to see what we should do, and whether we could sign in by phone from a mooring. I got a grumpy guy and he said I couldn't phone from offshore (which was obviously not true although I think he meant that I couldn't check in from offshore and not that I couldn't phone from offshore), and that I would have to come in to a dock. Since I doubted that there would be anyone around to authorize that at the hour we would be coming in, I didn't know how that would work.

We motored down along the coast just outside the Gulf Stream, dodging fishing boats that were darting out at random, and gambling ships which were barging around like fat drunk fireflies.

Tuesday 27 February 2001 Coming back from the Lucaya

We found the harbor entrance into Miami about 2 am, and Bob steered in through the breakwater and then handed the helm over to me while he took down the sails and prepared to pick up the mooring. I steered along the south side of the harbor, and almost hit an unlighted green can - went on the wrong side of it. Fortunately it was high tide. Then I turned down toward the Rickenbacker Causeway, and Bob said there were no more markers until the bridge. (He denies saying that.) But there were. I was coming up to them one by one, but they weren't all lighted. Suddenly ahead of me I saw a reflection from our bow nav lights in a green marker on a big pole.

Opps. I swerved and missed it, but not by much. Waked Bob up for sure.

We turned in by the bridge and saw that there was a boat on a mooring ahead of us, but we picked up the mooring without any incident - worked well. And we were able to turn stuff off by about 3:30 am. I called Customs and signed in (on the cell phone) and she said we'd have to get a sticker. So we shut stuff off and went to bed.

In the morning, we called our daughter to tell her where we were, and get directions from her as to where customs was, and then got stuff together, put the portabote together and in the water, locked everything up and came in to shore. There were no carts that weren't locked up. I don't know what the carts are for if they are not for people to use. After we carried the motor and food and laundry etc to the truck, then we tried to find the customs office. It was almost 11 am

It was somewhere on Dodge Island. But I knew they were closed from about 11:30 to 1. Finally found signs that said Customs, and then went to get something to eat. Ate at a restaurant called Snappers. I had a cup of soup and a Ceasar salad. Bob had a hamburger. I wanted to go to the bathroom, and it was a stealth bathroom - completely unmarked door. While Bob went to the bathroom a nail care vendor got a hold of me and polished one nail, but I didn't buy her kit.

We went back to where we thought customs was, but it was some type of catering operation. So back into the truck, and try the other side of the road. No luck. Every time we left somewhere, we had to go out and come back onto the island. So I called again (it was just 1 pm and someone answered) and got more directions - turned out we had to go through the toll plaza like place. Had to go off the island and come back on again - this time we made it and got our sticker. I tried to call the 800# on the way to our daughter's house, but I was told I wasn't authorized to make that call from my phone. I had to wait to complete check-in until I got to her house and could use a Florida phone. Today I also mailed the forms back to the Bahamas to complete the checkout from there.

Next Miami and North

Posted by greatgrandmaR 16:39 Archived in Bahamas

Email this entryFacebookStumbleUpon

Table of contents

Comments

Sorry, I don't understand. What was that sticker for?

by hennaonthetrek

It's a port entry fee of some kind. Coming into the USA on a private airplane, a commercial boat, or a private boat over 30 feet, you have to get and pay for a sticker under the Decal and Transponder Online Procurement System.

by greatgrandmaR

Comment with:

Comments left using a name and email address are moderated by the blog owner before showing.

Required
Not published. Required
Leave this field empty

Characters remaining: