Labor Day in Port Lucaya, Bahamas...Join us

R

ray306

New Member
Jun 26, 2007
171
Hollywood, Fl
Boat Info
sundancer 350 1990
Engines
502 mpi
We are planning to run from Ft. Lauderdale to Port Lucaya for Labor Day weekend, anybody want to join us? We will probably leave Thursday or Friday morning and return on that Monday. At present we have myself (White Pearl), barryg (Sunny Daze), and Chad (Assureyes) committed to go. It should be a blast and an opportunity to meet some fellow CSR members.

If interested, post here or send me a PM with your phone number and we can chat about it.

The more the merrier

Ray
 
I will be in the bahamas for labor day as well...but with Carnival Fun Ship haha...wish I was coming along.
 
I'd love to go cept my boat is to small, I don't have a passport and I have no vacation time left.
 
Hi Skippers,

We are just days away from casting off.

We on Asureyez will leave at first light Thursday Morning for a ETA in Lucaya of 12:30PM. Thursday.

White Pearl and Odessey are leaving Thursday to Friday, a docktails party will be held aboard Asureyez as soon as we are all together.

Would like more boats so log on skippers.

Chad
 
The Bahamas are why I wish I lived on the "right" coast instead of the "left". If only my 390 were trailerable :).
Have a safe crossing.

Sure wish I had some fresh conch fritters...
 
You guys better watch out for Gustav they say he will be near Florida/Bahamas in the next couple of days.
 
These storms are getting me depressed. My GF has named the feeling she gets from watching ther weather channel as "Tropicitis!"

My call on this storm is if thje current cone of probability holds, I'm staying at the dock. zBut if it squirts off to the west with a hard left in the next 36 hours I'm going to the Grand Bahama. Crossing my Fingers here.
 
Yeah... I was going to join you but that storm is keeping me home now..

Guess I'll have to hang out with Skip, Stan, and CJ now...
 
Looks like you guys are gonna luck out. With the track this morning keeping it south of Cuba, and making it's way into the gulf by Sunday as a Cat 3 and most likely continuing north west keeping away from Florida and the Bahamas.
 
That is a trip I have been dying to make. I've been waiting for the water to come up in Okeechobee to make the inland crossing. I don't think I'll ever be able to come across inland but I can always come around through marathon and up a few days earlier. I hope more of these trips are planned as I would love to meet some fellow Sea Ray owners.
 
earthmover17 said:
That is a trip I have been dying to make. I've been waiting for the water to come up in Okeechobee to make the inland crossing. I don't think I'll ever be able to come across inland but I can always come around through marathon and up a few days earlier. I hope more of these trips are planned as I would love to meet some fellow Sea Ray owners.
Click to expand...

I hear ya on the lake, I've been hoping it would come up to levels so that I could take a day trip to and from it or a 2 day trip across and back in my 240 Sundeck, maybe all this rain will help but the last time I checked you were better off walking across it.
 
Would love to go, but I don't have a boat big enough either. Unless we wanted to test the bowrider to the Bahamas concept...?

;)

Just kidding. I'll be in Italy over Labor Day anyway.
 
I heard the lake levels are back up and the locks are open again?
In fact, I read an article where the Corps is considering opening the gates and dropping the lake?
 
Another successful trip to the Bahamas.

The White Pearl left at 3am on thursday morning out of Port Everglades. Relatively uneventful trip over, first time doing any substantial night navigation, spent about 4 hours traveling in the dark. I never realized just how many stars are visible when you are 40 miles from any landmass. We arrived safely in Port Lucaya at 11:30 am, about 9 hours run time. Why 9 hours for a 95 mile trip you say? I'd decided to travel at displacement speed 10-14 so as to save fuel. Never again.

On the White Pearl were my wife, my college student daughter, and myself. We were joined later in the day by Assureyez and Oddessey. Of course we all checked the weather before making the trip and it appeared that there would not be a problem. That was of course until we crossed the gulf stream. On friday the reports began changing and it was predicted to get bad Saturday and Sunday then calm down on Monday (our scheduled return date). On friday we all joined Assureyez and his lady friend for an afternoon of snorkeling. The father and son team from Oddessey headed across a shallow reef to find some lobster. My daughter thought it would be a good idea to follow them. That was until she was knocked down by a wave and proceeded to roll around in the fire coral before gaining her foothold. We saw that she was in trouble and got her back to the boat, As she was climbing up the swim ladder you coulld see the welts(burns) from her waist to both of her ankles. It was an understatement to say that she was in pain. We managed to get her something for the pain after which she self medicated the rest of the evening, just couldn't do much sitting.

On saturday Oddessey tipped us off to a cave bar a bit away from the marina. All us grabbed a taxi and were off. It was a swim in bar inside a cave attached to a pool. Their specialty was Pirate Juice, a punch like concoction containing 5 oz. of booze and served in a small personal sized bucket. This had to be one of the coolest bars I've ever been to, besides after 2 of those Pirate Juice thingies how can you help but have a good time. On both saturday and sunday the weather really precluded attempts at snorkeling or any other such watersports.

Sunday was a lazy day hanging around the dock. Some people did shopping, rested, or just played around. We ended our last day by having a cookout on the dock with all three boats. I brought out the Margaritaville machine and we were off: strawberry daiquiris, pina colladas, mud slides, and of course margaritas.

A good time was had by all. We enjoyed spending time with people we knew and we met some new friends, isn't the boating lifestyle terrible. As we finshed dinner we checked the weather again: NOAA said seas laying down to 2 feet or less then increasing to 2-4 feet in the gulf stream. With Hurricane Hanna apearing to be headed for us we knew that the window of opportunity to make a crossing was early on monday.

We cleared the jetties before sunrise about 5:30 am and headed west to Florida. At first it wasn't too bad maybe 2-4. There was another boat that left a bit before us and was running a bit faster they reported confused seas as soon as you hit the gulf stream and maybe 3-5. We were making steady progress of just under 20 until we hit the gulf stream. At that point we would be making about 15 up one side of a swell and 22 down the other side. I'm not sure how big the seas were but they have to be substantial for 46 foot dancer to go out of view at less than a quarter mile. I never felt unsafe but I now know how the boat can handle some big seas.

Everyone arrived safe and sound just after 11am at port Everglades. Thanks to Assueyes and Oddessey for making this Labor Day weekend one to remember.

Ray
p.s. pics to come
 
Thanks for the trip report.

How is your daughter? Hope she is feeling better.

Can't wait to see the photos!
 
ray306 said:
I'd decided to travel at displacement speed 10-14 so as to save fuel. Never again.
Click to expand...

Displacement hull speed for a 350 Sundancer is not going to be 10-14... It's more like 7.5 knots.

A 480 like mine is about 8.8 knots.

Anything faster than that is going to drop your efficiency substantially.
 
Yeah what Ray said ... except he forgot the parts about Body Shots in the cave!
 

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Water rat..Thanks for asking about my daughter....she fine, still isn't sitting much as the worst burns were on her derrierre. Being a UF student she properly liquid medicated..

Gary thanks for the info..I guess I had some misinformation on displacement speed. On this trip going at the speed I did managed to save me 5 gallons of fuel. Yes, that's 5 measly gallons to double the run time; Next time we are gonna cruise. As to the 7.5 knots, that's just way too much time .....guess I'll never be one of those trawler guys.

Ray
 
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