Fellow cruisers:
Roberta and I sold our Nordhavn 62, and have a Nordhavn 68 (www.nordhavn68.com) on order.
To help pass the TWO years waiting for the arrival of our
new boat, we purchased a small 27’ Glacier Bay
power catamaran. We chose this particular boat, because we were seeking the
largest, most comfortable, boat, which could easily be trailered around. Our
thought was that we would ship the Glacier Bay
different places around the country, and cruise places our big boat would never
be able to go.
Our first thought was the “Great Loop,” a trip
around the eastern third of the US,
up the east coast, into the great
lakes, and down the inland waterways into
the gulf of Mexico. I was thinking our 30+ knot cruise speed would make this a
manageable trip that could be done in a few months. Research showed this to be a naïve opinion. To do the Great Loop properly
takes six months or more. We shifted our thinking to
doing a smaller loop, or a portion of the loop. We just couldn’t be away
from home for that long in one burst.
As we were trying to
decide where to go, I remembered a
conversation with a race car driver, and boater, who had accompanied us on the
Atlantic Crossing a couple years back; Christian Fittipaldi. I asked him what
he thought was the best boating in the world, and he said “no doubt it,
you must do the Bahamas.”
The tricky thing about the Bahamas is that the water is very
shallow. Long crossings in water only a few feet deep are common. None of the
islands are tall enough to provide
much protection from the wind. Neither wind nor shallow water are on my list of
things that make for great cruising destinations. Also, the Bahamas reputation for strong storms, hurricanes, and frequent thunderstorms, were a little off-putting.
But, I always describe myself as a warm-water cruiser. I
like clear blue water, sandy beaches and days without shoes. And, the Bahamas, with its shallow water, would be a
perfect chance to try out the
22” draft of the Glacier Bay. We would
be able to go places that we could
never reach with our bigger boat.
When we purchased the Glacier Bay, the dealer (Steve Waltz,
I-90 Marine, Issaquah Wa) had said that he could easily arrange
shipping the boat for us around the country. To my surprise, it really was as
easy as promised. I called Steve, and he picked up our boat from the slip, and
$3,200 dollars later, it was sitting in a slip in Fort Lauderdale Florida.
Not cheap, but really not bad when compared to
buying a trailer, something to haul
it with, and buying the gas to cross
the US from Seattle
to Florida.
We took one other
“short cut” in trip preparation: Our original plan had been to take the boat ourselves from Fort
Lauderdale to Bimini
(the entry point to the Bahamas),
a 50 mile run. However, we only had one month for cruising and the crossing can
be nasty if there is bad weather. We started thinking about what it could mean to be stuck in Florida for days waiting for a weather
window to run the boat to Bimini, and decided that we would let a local
skipper make this run for us. With only one month to
cruise, we wanted to spend as little
time as possible stuck waiting on weather.
Hence, on May 12, we flew directly to
Bimini, Bahamas, to
meet our boat, which was tucked neatly into
a slip at the Bimini Sands Marina (25.42.60 N 79.18.00 W).
The Glacier Bay is a wonderful
boat, but it does have its limitations. It isn’t really set up to live aboard comfortably, or, at least, not in
what I would call spacious living conditions. For a 27’ boat, it
isn’t bad, but it is a 27’ boat. We have a near queen-size bed, a
head, a sink, air conditioning, a two burner stove,
an inverter, generator, refrigerator, freezer, even a microwave; most of the comforts
of home – but, no shower. We’ve had some wonderful times at anchor
on the Glacier Bay, but generally prefer being
in a slip in a marina. I confess to
having an internet addiction, and the Glacier Bay
isn’t big enough to give me
satellite internet, so marinas are my only hope for Internet. Also: I
don’t trust the ground tackle on the Glacier Bay.
Weight up front on a catamaran is a large issue. We bought the largest anchor
the dealer felt was safe, and although the dealer says it is fine; I personally
wouldn’t trust it in a strong wind. The bottom
line: I love anchoring, but this will not be an anchoring trip. Most of our
nights will be spent in marinas. I’ll re-evaluate this as I see the
anchorages, and get a better feel for the winds. I’m just not convinces
there is much shelter from the wind anywhere in the Bahamas.
The Bimini Sands surprised us – a very nice resort.
Approximately 200 condos circling a marina on the beach. We spent a couple of
nights in the marina. For our first night, we asked what the best restaurant on
the island was, and were told
“The Red Lion” on North Bimini.
Bimini is divided into two islands,
and we were on the southern island. Reaching the restaurant was complicated.
Cars are rare on Bimini. Everyone gets around via golf cart. We had rented one,
only to find that you have to use a ferry to
go to North
Bimini. We could have taken the Glacier Bay across, but looking
for moorage, just for dinner, and coping with the shallow water didn’t
sound fun. Instead, we golf carted to
the ferry dock, and waited what seemed forever for the ferry. The boat that
ultimately came by may have been a ferry – we aren’t sure. The good
news was that it delivered us to North Bimini and only hit bottom
once crossing the channel. I was thinking “if the locals hit bottom, what chance do I have?”
Dinner on North Bimini was
underwhelming. The Red Lion may well be the best restaurant in Bimini, and the
food really wasn’t bad, but let’s just say that it wasn’t a
particularly glamorous restaurant. We thought that perhaps we had chosen poorly
and should check out the other restaurants around town.
We walked all over Alice Town (north Bimini) and decided that people probably
do not go to Bimni for fine dining.
However several Americans we passed encouraged us to
check out the “End of the World” bar. Perhaps we should have, but
it was getting late, and we were worried about getting back to the marina. Back at the ferry dock, we realized
that the ferries had stopped
running. As we were running from boat to
boat trying to bribe someone to take us to
south Bimini a boat from our marina pulled up, and we coaxed our way on board.
On the morning of May 14th, we ventured out for
the first time, with our goal: the Berry
Islands (Bahamas), a small island group
about 80 miles east of Bimini. We would be crossing 80 miles of open water,
mostly with an average depth of only six to
nine feet. Our first few minutes into
open water caught us by surprise. We were expecting clear water, but not nearly
water as crystal clear as what we found. The bottom
was easily visible and a beautiful shade of blue. Very cool!
A negative surprise though: the depth gauge wasn’t
working. Other than looking on the chart, we had absolutely no way to know how deep the water was. The charts were
telling us that the depth would range from three to
nine feet. At that kind of depth, the depth gauge would be useless anyhow, so
we continued on, hoping I’d be able to
sort it out. We then realized that the magnetic compass in the Raymarine e120
nav system was off by about 30 degrees. Given that we would be skimming along
on shallow water, and any deviance from the course would put us aground, these
electronic “challenges” were wrecking my day. We looked up the
procedure for resetting the magnetic heading on the Raymarine, and got it
corrected, only to find it off by 30
degrees a few minutes later. Argh!!!
Thus began our 80 mile crossing. The good news: the GPS was
working, and we had good maps on board. I also had a hand bearing compass on
board, to help me double check our
position, although as we wouldn’t be seeing land for about 60 miles, this
wouldn’t be much help. The great news: low winds, and a smooth crossing.
We slowed down to 20 knots, and made
the run without incident. It was a scary feeling to
be flying over the bottom only a few
feet below, knowing that the slightest error in heading could mean a sudden
crunching sound.
Five hours after departure we pulled into the Great Harbor Cay Marina in the Berry Islands.
Our real destination is the Exumas, a long string of islands another 100 miles
southeast of the Berries. Our stop
in the Berry Islands, is nothing more than a place to sleep along the way. Our next waypoint is Nassau, 50 miles
southeast. Once we were safely in our slip at Great Harbor Cay, (24.40.49 N
77.51.30 W) I started studying our next run – to
Nassau.
Our marina choice was non-optimal as a waypoint enroute to Nassau.
We wanted to go southeast, but were
on the northwest corner of
the island group. We could either go southeast cutting
through the center of the Berrys, which looked dangerous, or backtrack and go
around the island group to the
north, down the west side. Going around would take two hours longer than the
short cut, plus the weather report looked bad. Small craft advisories for the
next evening. Thunder showers. Wind 10-15 knots, and waves 2-4 feet. The wind
and waves were non-optimal, but in the acceptable range. The thunder showers
and the small craft advisory were unacceptable. We needed to arrive in Nassau
ahead of the weather.
The Yachtsman’s Guide the Bahamas has this encouraging
comment:
The inside passage
from Bullocks Harbor to
Little Harbor is an intricate shoal water route over shifting sand bars. It
should not be attempted without the aid of local knowledge. It is for small
boats only.
All we needed was some local knowledge! Roberta was
encouraged by our success of the day, and felt we could make the run alone, but
quickly agreed with me after studying the charts. We needed local assistance. I
asked the dockmaster if he could recommend someone, and quickly found a local
fisherman “Steven” who agreed to
lead us over the 14 miles of one to
three foot water. We chose high tide, which would add an additional 18 inches
of water, but shift our trip until 10am – putting us later in the day
than I really wanted. Steven thought we’d be fine without waiting for
high tide, but I wanted the extra depth. Even with this, Steven gave the
ominous warning: “Whatever you do don’t slow down. If you come off
a plane, you’ll be caught in the sand, and we’ll have a
mess.”
After taking on fuel, our ride began. Awesome! We averaged
28 knots zigzagging between sand bars, on a run I NEVER would have tried alone.
The $200 I paid Steven was money well spent, and the ride beat anything at Disneyland.
Once we were out of the Berry
Islands, we had a 34 mile run, in open
ocean, to Nassau. The weather was heading south
quickly, and the waves were bigger than expected. We slowed down to 21 knots, and rode it out. Every 20 or so minutes
something else we thought we had put away securely would crash onto the floor, but the Glacier
Bay handled the big waves (3-4 foot, force 4) quite well. We
really only got slammed hard a couple of times. On our Nordhavn, it would have
been an easy crossing, but as the ocean kept reminding us, 27’ is not a
very big boat.
I’m writing this from Nassau,
parked on Paradise
Island in front of the
Atlantis Resort Hotel. This is an incredible place. We’ve spent a lot of time
cruising in the Med, but have never seen so many megayachts in one place. Our little boat looks VERY
out of place here. Perhaps those around us assume we’re a tender to some ship or another. Dinner last night was
awesome. The marina has high-speed wireless internet. We have a couple of days
here to explore before heading
south, and life is good. I am a little worried about the weather. Our plan was to leave tomorrow
morning, but when I went to check
the weather a few minutes ago, the harbormaster told
me to plan on staying until Sunday. A
big storm is coming….
I’m not sure when I’ll have internet again, but
will write more later if I can…
-Ken Williams
www.kensbook.com