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

[timinfla2]

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

Holy Crap - not only did you guys just talk about my dream trip - FL - Bahamas, but you also went to a CAVE BAR!? That's the coolest damned thing I've ever heard!!!

Congrats on the safe passage - I'd love to hear more, and most importantly, tag along on my 330 DA as a virgin to the next run you guys do.

Cheers!

-Tim

 

[Odyssey]

Hi Tim - Odyssey here. It was a great trip and a fun time for all. The same group is planning an overnight raft up at Lake Boca this Saturday. You should join us!

Randy

 

[timinfla2]

Oh man, I am so jealous - I don't get my boat shipped down for another couple weeks - Hopefully y'all are still into heading out on the water during the 'winter' months. I quote winter because there really isn't winter down here as I know it ;-)

Nothing was so sad in MI as putting the baby to bed for 6 months at a time - I was always the most stubborn, even resorting to wearing a knit hat late in the year while underway because it was so cold.

Not to mention how ticked off I'd get at paying for a boat year round that I could only use half the time.

You can rest assured that as soon as I get her down here, I'll be in need of some serious boating time. One thing you'll soon learn about me is that I rarely, if ever, am not up for something.

I'll be in touch soon...

-Tim