We have a solid yellow "quarantine" flag when we arrive at a new country. Only the master/captain of the ship is allowed to leave the vessel, only to go to customs and immigration to officially clear into the country.
So, on arrival at Bimini, we hoisted our "Q" flag - and Duane took the dinghy to do all the paperwork while I stayed on board.
It only took about a half hour, everything was in order - we have a year long "cruising permit" that includes a fishing license!
Back on the boat, we raised the Bahamian "courtesy flag" which we'll fly the entire time we're here.
We decided to scoot from Bimini east to a little spit of land, a good stopping point.
So, we woke up at 1AM and lifted anchor and headed to Chub Cay. The total trip was 15 hours, so we had to do some of it in darkness.
Put out my fishing rod - caught one reef fish, about 1' long. Didn't want to keep him - but forgot to shoot a photo! You'll have to trust me....
Arrived late in the afternoon to Chub Cay - it's a private island with some fancy houses.....so we didn't go ashore.
Beautiful sunset. We had planned to stay a day at Chub and go to nearby snorkeling sites, but the weather is going to turn windy again (story of our lives) and it would likely trap us here for several days or possibly a week. The solution is to, once again, get up in the middle of the night tonight and head to the Exumas! It's a 16 hour sail - and the wind angle promises that we will actually get to be a sailboat for the trip!!!
That is a lovely sunset. Looks so peaceful there, I can see why you are enjoying it. Interesting about the flags. Our weather is unusually nice, some rain but sunny and mild today. MOM
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting about the flags...do you fly the US flag as well as the courtesy one?
ReplyDeleteLove,
T