Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 Getting moving in the morning, we were pleasantly surprised to see that Chris and Gosha on their Fountaine-Pajot Solaris were anchored near us!  We stopped by their boat briefly to have a quick "hello"!

 

We also had a quick hello with the Imagine crew - we'd met them last year in Vero Beach.  We tried something different this year and went to the "power plant dock" to get fuel at a little discount vs. the marinas in town.

 

Did you note the stairway in the above photo?  You have to climb those stairs to go pay your fuel bill!

 

Up at the top of the stairs - the noisy power plant.  (I think all the Bahamas islands have a huge noisy diesel generator).

 

Lots of fuel storage!!

 

And back down the stairs to Sojourn.

 

After fueling, we went into town in the dinghy.  The usual walk over to the grocery store.

 

Several of the houses were already decorated for Christmas, but not as many as previous years.

 

And after getting a yummy veggie pizza at Wrecker's, we went over to the grocery store/fuel station to fill up a couple of 5 gallon jugs with gasoline.  ($6.26 per gallon if you're wondering).  Oh, and it's ethanol-free like ALL gasoline in the otherwise free world....

Will be fabulous winds for a sail south bound for a bit tomorrow.

Royal Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 We didn't do anything very interesting during the day.....I got caught up on some accounting paperwork (which always takes more time than expected),  Duane did some chores, made some water....and we both gave each other haircuts!

My mop had gotten shaggy and since it's sooooo thick - very uncomfortably warm.

 

Excuse the weird selfie angle....so much lighter and cooler.

Royal Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 A bit breezy in the open anchorage with wavelets slapping the hull all night.  Pretty moon to start the early morning.

 

Finally got the sails up (I know the anchor light is still on - it turns off automatically now when it's daylight).

 

I had to alter course a bit for a couple of cruise ships coming in to dock at sunrise at their weird private island they call Coco Bay (but we see it as it's real name of Great Stirrup Cay).

 

This one is called Rhapsody of the Seas and is actually pretty small.

 

This one was HUGE!  (Kinda cool lighting at sunrise).

 

We had a fabulous sail!  The winds were steady all day long.

Mid-day we had both of the fishing reels hit simultaneously - usually means either mahi-mahi or tuna as they tend to be in schools or at least paired up.  One of the hits got away...but one did not!

 

After a good fight - a very nice plump skipjack tuna.

That was about it for the long sailing day....arrived at Eleuthera just at sundown.  Once anchored Duane cleaned the fish (it had been chilling in the freezer since caught).  My supper, yum!  (in case you're curious, I drizzled the raw tuna with sesame oil, sprinkled "Everything Bagel" spice all around, then touched it on all sides to a hot frying pan to sear the edges.)

Cistern Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas

I heard a low rumble of a boat engine this morning so I stuck my head out to see the oil delivery tanker coming out of the Great Harbour cut.  It filled up most of the narrow cut!

We took the dinghy over to shore - we'd never been on shore on this little island.

  Unfortunately it was marked "Private" so we respected that and didn't wander.  We had read that it was a drug cartel hideout about 40 years ago before the Bahamas/the US DEA cracked down on trafficing.  You could see some of the remnants from shore.  Unfortunately, we couldn't see the abandoned airport.

 

Back to the boat we got suited up for a first season snorkel!

 

Near the island and just off the end of the runway was a sunken plane from the drug-running days.  It's a DC-3 so a pretty big plane.  Unfortunately the visibility was horrible with the winds a little too strong. 

 

Lots of structure still there - this would be a nice snorkel on a better day.  Lots of fish and lobster.

We're planning to head out in the wee hours to make a run down to Eleuthera.  Follow us on the Spot!

Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas

 We arrived at Great Harbour Cay at about 5AM, so we dropped the anchor, checked it and then went below for a nice 4 hour nap!!  The water around the south side of Great Harbour Cay is clear but there is a layer of green grass growing that gives it more of a green reflection.

The only thing we really needed to do was check into Bahamas Customs & Immigration.  I had done the online Click-to-clear customs paperwork but we still had to present passports and fill out the normal pink immigration card in person.  

In the narrow cut to get over to the marina for customs.

Tied Sojourn up for a little bit while we waited our turn for customs/immigration. 

 There was one other boat clearing in. 

 

Put up our yellow "Q" for quarantine flag that we are required to fly before we check into the country.

 

Immigration only gave us a cruising permit for 90 days - we'll have to get this renewed to stay longer.  (This is normal, we ask them for a longer period and SOMETIMES they give it to us.  Apparently not this year! It's just a paperwork issue but sometimes causes us to have to travel to a port with customs unexpectedly).

We walked the dock and found a couple of cruisers that were familiar to us and stopped for a chat.  They're staying in the marina for a week so we may see them somewhere down the road.

 

And now I get to confess a stupid thing I did.  I got distracted motoring out towards the cut.  Not smart!!! The channel is well marked so it is entirely my fault.  No harm but I'm pretty sure that I "sanded off a bit of new bottom paint on the keel"!!  Just keepin' it real, folks!😏

 

Once free of that pesky sand, back out the cut to the anchorage.

And then the flag halyard broke while Duane was pulling down the Q flag....so that meant a quick trip up the mast a bit to run a new line.

And now we're flying the Bahamas courtesy flag and we're free to roam!

The Bahamas!!!

 The winds and seas overnight along the Florida coast were a little less gentle than predicted....but we didn't mind too much since we were moving in the right direction!!!  Just spoke to a few tankers and a cruise ship coming out of the Palm Beach and Miami channels.  Almost no cruising size boats appeared on AIS the entire night.

About 5AM we could see the Miami skyline.

And as the sun came up it looks a little clearer.

The winds/waves were predicted to die off for the Gulf Stream crossing, but they ended up being 12-15knots on our nose with a 3'+ swell for the first 8 hours of the day.  But things settled down considerable once we were on the banks (shallow water).  Passing Bimini to the north, we'll head towards Great Harbour to check into Bahamas Customs tomorrow morning!

Underway offshore of Miami

 Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Our day started with a spectacular sunrise!

 

Kris and Dean helped us cast off and we waved a temporary goodbye as we hope to see them in the Bahamas soon. 

 

As we approached Ft. Pierce we saw this trimaran that looked to be in bad shape....

 

We looked it up - it apparently had a complete mast failure during a race in Charleston.

 

Shipyard in Ft. Pierce.

We had a huge current going out the channel at Ft. Pierce - 3 knots of helpful current finally (we've been fighting current for the past couple of days).

 

Going out the inlet, offshore for at least overnight to the Miami area.

 

Cargo ship hauling a bunch of boats lashed on the top deck.

One of the cruise ships we saw leaving Palm Beach.

And we were treated to a beautiful sunset while we munched on leftover Thanksgiving food.

We haven't decided yet whether the weather is good enough for a gulf stream crossing in the next 24 hrs.  We'll decide by very early Friday morning and either make a turn to the left or right!