We made it

Bucket List Item:  Cruise Shingebiss to the Bahamas, check !!!!    just a quick update on the crossing from Florida.  Sorry, no pics, after losing my camera on the cruise ship last year, I'm taking all my photos with my iPhone, which I turned off this am after putting service with AT & T on hold (yes, you can do that for $10/device), forgetting that it was also my camera.  I was too ill during the crossing to go dig it out and at sunset tonight, I was too technologically challenged and couldn't get it to turn on. 

We had a lovely anchorage in Lake Worth last evening, spent the eve battening down everything that moves both inside and outside the boat.  This morning, we topped off the fuel tank (deisel is reportedly over $6/gallon here in paradise), increased our boat insurance to cover the Bahamas, and cut off our AT & T.  It was rough going out the inlet, the old "wind against current", current being the outgoing tide, and we had high hopes that it would smooth out once we got into the OOOOOcean.  Alas it was not to be.  If the seas we endured were truly 2-3 feet, I'd be surprised, they looked and felt much bigger.  It had been years since we did a passage like this (12/6/09 to be exact), and I forgot that a.) I get seasick when I go below and b.) one should bring food and beverage into the pilothouse ahead of time to avoid a.  Reminded me once again that we are coastal cruisers, not blue water sailors.  I'll do it to reach a destination, but don't enjoy it.

Imagine riding a low level roller coaster with a little Tilt-A-Whirl tossed in for 6 hours straight with absolutely no break in the action ... then imagine that you brought your pet with you for this lovely experience.  Poor Lucy lost her breakfast early on, and suffered all day along with me.  Steve did not get sick, but he is tuckered out tonight.  Although this boat steers like a dream, we have no auto pilot and steering by hand for eight hours is very tiring.  Ah, what we do to live the dream.  I recently heard that true adventure must include some discomfort, so we earned our adventure badge today.  The last two hours were much smoother, thank goodness.  Altogether an 8 hour trip to go 61 miles, the rough water really slows the boat down. 

We cleared customs (they didn't even ask about a pet) and took a slip for the night at Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort.  A lovely place, pool, beach, condos, clear turquoise water, the whole nine yards.  $97 a night, includes the $15 mandatory water fee, so we washed the salt crust off the boat and then off of us in the showers.  Great complimentary WiFi, but they wanted $27 to plug in, so we are enjoying the ambieance of our computer screens enhanced with those great solar garden lights ... charge em up outside during the day, and bring em in for light at night. 

We are studying up on the next crossing, which is over the Little Bahama Bank, should be a much more sheltered 50 miles, with our sites set on Grand Cay where we will anchor and search out the elusive BaTelCo SIM card.  After that it's a leisurely skip down the island chain to our destination in Hope Town on Elbow Cay, much more on that later.