We are in The Exumas!

We left Jacksonville on Saturday March 4^th, wearing the Sail Queen’s Harbour shirts we have been given as gifts, and made our way down through the Intra Coastal Waterway towards our jumping off location at Lake Worth. We stopped at Palm Coast on Saturday evening, Titusville Sunday evening, Vero Beach Monday evening and fetched up at Sailfish Marina in Lake Worth on Tuesday.

It was very windy all of the way down, winds averaging mid-twenties with gusts over 30.

We then watched for the weather to lay down for crossing the Gulf Stream to the Northern Bahamas. Wednesday brought strong winds so we waited for another day, using the time to hit Publix Supermarket one final time. Thursday the 9th gave us the window we were looking for and we crossed from Lake Worth Inlet to Lucaya, Grand Bahama. The crossing was uneventful and everything went to plan.  We entered Bahamian waters and hoisted a yellow quarantine flag, which indicates that we know that we have entered Bahamian waters but have not cleared immigration. We checked through immigration right at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club marina, swapped our yellow flag for the Bahamian courtesy flag on our starboard pole, then took the water taxi to the Lucaya Market for dinner.

On Friday we headed south towards Nassau. We thought that we could make Nassau in the one day, but as we progressed realized that it would be dark before we got there. Going into a busy working harbor, right around the time the huge cruise ships leave, was not on our to-do list. So we stopped late afternoon and anchored on the inside of Cabbage Cay in the Berries.

We did make Nassau late morning Saturday, calling Harbour Control and asking permission to transit, and then following the cruise ship Majesty Of The Seas into the harbor. We transited the harbor, passing by Atlantis and the cruise ship terminal.

We exited the east side of the harbor and headed across the Yellow Bank in flat calm conditions towards Northern Exumas. The water in the bank averaged 12 feet and was clear and calm the whole way to Allen’s Cay.

We anchored inside Allen’s Cay, well protected from the easterly breeze, and right off the beach with the iguanas. More on the iguanas and our first week in the Exumas in the next post!

Dolphins playing in our wake on the ICW

Saturday, March 11th, and we have arrived in The Exumas!