I write this alone, no cell phone service for a few days, in the outlying islands of the Exumas.
I had to take refuge from the coming darkness here on Cistern Cay. I was trying to make Warderick Wells, but the south wind was blowing right from the direction I wanted to go! Today was a rest day anyway, I’ll wake up early tomorrow and try to really get somewhere.
The water here is very extreme. To get into Cistern Cay I had to pass between the sand bores, which are huge, fan-shaped sandbars cut and deposited by the strong currents between the island chain. You can tell the passage through them because they glow electric turquoise, that’s the water to avoid. I did have to pass over some shallows though, but they are a different shade of turquoise…
It’s a beautiful place. And it’s been a journey to get here, and a long journey ahead.
No turning back now!
…
March 3rd ish
After Kathleen left, I had a day to relax where I spent the morning on South Bimini doing some chores. I had to fix my dingy engine because the shear pin broke and was stuck in there. I finally just drilled it out, that worked great.
I was still in Honeymoon Harbor, but I pulled anchor and went back to the Hilton anchorage on the north island. The next day I spent biking around town and preparing for the journey ahead… My weather window was on me and running out before the next cold front. I’d have two days, and it takes two days to get to the Berry Islands generally, then another day to Nassau.
The part of the Berry Islands I would see is just one lone cay called Chub Cay. It was also a private island where you aren’t allowed to go to shore? Well, either way, it didn’t sound like the best place to spend 2 days waiting for the storm to pass. So… I’d rather make it to Nassau in one go.
March 5th
I woke up before dawn, had my coffee… and at the very first glimpse of light I pulled the anchor. I was pretty nervous of course. But it began as such a beautiful morning that I was put in good spirits. I said a sad goodbye to Bimini as the bird covered mangrove islands in the crystal clear green water passed me. I cruised by ragged Alice Town, then out into the glass waves of the channel.
Before long I had the sails up and as the day came on the water color intensified like it does in midday. It makes every day here exciting to see the water become so bright. I was sailing great with the wind out of the west, I was going south west, then I made a turn to head directly west. To Nassau!
I would have to cross the Great Bahama Banks. It was an area of 10-15 foot deep water for 70 miles. There you can see the ocean bottom like you could touch it, and you could see it was nothing but sand. Hardly a rock or piece of sea grass the entire way, so that made it very beautiful because the turquoise color was like blue fire all around me. That lasted from about 10AM to 2PM.
Because I was going right downwind, you couldn’t feel the breeze, and it became very hot. I hid under my bimini, (that is the name of the sun shade canopy on a sailboat by the way.) After going about 40 miles I really felt like I was in the middle of the desert. Just a bright turquoise one, very pretty, and very bleak.
My sailing wasn’t going along too fast, and I would run the motor for a couple hours and then turn it off and sail slowly for a couple hours. I didn’t want to overwork the engine… but I also have to make this crossing! It was very calm seas out there.
The idea is… You can anchor anywhere out here! So Chub Cay is 80 miles away, and you could anchor after 40 miles and do the other half the next day. You drop the anchor far from sight of land in this vast shallow place. But instead… I kept going. Nassau is 120 miles.
It was a long day, and I went very far. I watched the sun track through the lonely sky all the way from when it came up to when it set. Then it set, that made me nervous. I watched it for so long, the sunset slowly happening. Then finally it ended with the green flash, a rare sight but something that you can see at sea…
After dark I decided to put the sails down and just motor to get to my waypoint on the gps, the spot I wanted to anchor. Going after dark was spooky, not that there was much more dangerous than in the light, hopefully there’s no refrigerators floating by or anything.
Still, it got me nervous because in the distance there were thunderheads, big ones, and after dark they started sparking off. The lightning was constant, and I just prayed they wouldn’t float my way. It is possible however that they are way off on the Florida mainland, I actually could faintly see the light pollution from Miami.
I could also see the light pollution from Nassau, from Andros Island, and from Freeport. They were dim on the horizon, allowing me to position myself in the world a little. But not strong enough to affect the stars.
The stars were 100 percent, every detail of Orion was there, I watched through the evening and the Big Dipper turned around the North Star. The stars made me feel small tonight, they made me feel like I was floating, way out alone on my own planet.
I made it by 9PM, it was about 75 miles. That seems pretty far, but I started at 6AM so I was sailing for like 15 hours. I dropped the anchor in the middle of the vast expanse of darkness. I was pretty haggard and stressed out by now. I was functioning like a robot, do my chores, go to sleep.
I decided if it was still calm when I woke up I would make for Nassau, if one of those squalls runs into me in the next 3 hours then the cold front will have come early and I should wait for dawn and head for shelter at Chub Key. But I really hope that doesn’t happen…
And it wasn’t supposed to either! I closed my eyes to weird confusing hallucinations and woke up 3 hours later with a rush of adrenaline. The conditions were the same as I left them, bouncing around on the gentle swells, a light breeze but nothing much from the west.
March 6th.
Drank some coffee, by 1:30AM I was back underway with the motor. I wouldn’t sail for a while, I figured just motor to get myself out into the ocean…
I had crossed the Bahama Banks now, where I anchored was on the edge of that shallow place. Now I would head straight to the Tongue of the Ocean, and it terrified me.
I was worried of it the night before, but knowing I had to face it here at 1AM was the scariest, and gave me that adrenaline when I woke up. Get ready, because the ocean will drop off from 15 feet abruptly to 2000, then to 6000, and 8000. Deeper water than I’ve possibly ever sailed in, this is a massive underwater trench. I don’t completely know what that means yet.
But I know its a channel, wide enough but ringed with reefs, that I have to pass through to get out there. There will probably be waves in that, but I was hoping to time it with slack high tide.
My timing must’ve been off because the tide was still coming in for sure when I got there. Everything happened so fast. As I approached the wind and sea was very calm, with that same light breeze out of the west. Then like I passed a line, and I honestly did, where the sea dropped off the wind clocked around to the south-east. It came right from the direction I was trying to go and kicked up force to become about 5 times stronger than it had been. I had passed over this massive underwater cliff, and the seas grew bigger and bigger.
Now I was crashing through the waves and wind with my motor, in the night, and of course there’s a big fishing boat coming up on me too. He followed me, I talked to him on the radio, and I had to make a turn back towards the shallows to get out of his way! Ugh… So it was a rough moment at the Tongue.
But as I motored out to sea, things got steadily calmer and calmer.
After a few hours things weren’t so rough anymore. I had scarfed down two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on this nasty bread which I later threw away… But then I got sick and puked them back up over the side. It wasn’t seasickness, but I was feeling very worn out.
The water was sparkling now with phosphorescence. It was beautiful, and the stars kept turning through the sky. All the way until sunrise.
I was even a little chilly, although that’s not usually a problem here. But wow, I could not wait for the sunrise to end this dark night. Things got better and better, the sea calmed down and the wind slacked off as I got away from that tongue. It stayed a good breeze from the south though, perfect direction for me to get to Nassau!!
I had 30 miles left at sunrise, and I put up the sails at the first sign of light in the sky. I “killed the motor” and let it be quiet for the sunrise. Then I sailed along in the beautiful, peaceful morning sun, and felt better than I had the entire trip.
That seems to be the nature of this trip, it’s hard and scary to head out into the ocean for a great distance. You stay pretty focused and determined, no choice not to be. Until you’ve come far enough and things are still ok that you realize you will make it soon, and that makes you feel GREAT!
So I sat there listening to my music and sipped coffee, watching the beautiful sunrise and the day begin. Soon at daytime the water lit up, not turquoise out here but deep, intense blue. The wind was slowly getting less and less but I was sailing great and still going fast.
Eventually I was going less fast. I was passing distant buildings on Andros Island. It was hot again. The buildings disappeared but great thunderheads still marked where the land was. They were pretty big behind me too, then I realized they were getting bigger. Those ones behind me… they were getting closer. I knew that it was the cold front, it would be here today, hopefully in the evening though. But that was it right there.
Who knows if it will show up early but its coming right at me. I don’t need any more drama on this trip! So I kicked on the motor and kept all the sails up. Now I was going faster than I had the entire trip! Around 6 knots to cut short the last 10 miles of the trip and get this over with!
But I wasn’t done.
Nassau appeared on the horizon. It got closer, yachts around it, buildings, and a factory. Hopefully this would be a nice place… I wasn’t heading for the city of Nassau though, I was going to the west side of the island. Nassau is the capital city of the Bahamas and sits on New Providence Island. I was going to a town called Clifton, with a huge bay to anchor in. It looked far away from anything on the map and probably pristine.
One mile from the bay I put the sails down. I was motoring in, the wind had died completely in this area and the sea has calmed down to look very glassy. I was happy, it looked clean, the bay looked beautiful.
The water depth rose suddenly, from thousands of feet deep to hundreds. I watched the water to see what depth I could see the bottom. 80 feet and I could see right down through the blue ocean to its floor. I watched it climb up.
I should mention it was getting extremely hot outside. At 40 feet, ‘BING’, and then ‘clunk.’ The motor died.
It certainly wouldn’t start back up as I pulled the cord in vain. Well… ok. I had to laugh a little, because I had made it I was sitting in front of Nassau. If it had happened FIVE MILES earlier it would have been a different story! But I was about 1 mile away or less.
Now I was just floating, very stressed out. I wasn’t going anywhere, there wasn’t a ripple of wind. I got in the dingy and went to take the cap of the motor off. (It is just an 8 horsepower outboard motor.) When I popped the cap off, a large piece of metal fell out of the engine right into the ocean. Oh… I watched it sink down to the crystal clear bottom at 40 feet.
Whatever it was, it held a belt to the engine, which was just laying there. The engine was very hot, but the water had been peeing out great! That is supposed to keep it from overheating, but it overheated anyway it looked like, possibly because the day was so destructively hot? That shouldn’t happen though. I realized my phone had overheated and shut off. It made me realize the power of this sun, because my radio and gps chart plotter both felt VERY hot, and I immediately got everything into the shade and learned a lesson.
But where the piece broke off the engine it had warped. Didn’t look good, good thing I was in Nassau because I would most likely need a brand new engine and this is the only place probably anywhere in the Bahamas where that is possible!
A boat was coming by. I waved at it and asked for help but they didn’t stop, and they were a big boat going fast. Ahh! Here comes their wake! The waves tossed me a bit and sent the boat moving away. Yikes! I decided I would drop the anchor and figure out how to get to shore.
Good thing the ocean wasn’t thousands of feet deep anymore, and it was just 40! I dropped that anchor way down there. But it wasn’t down for long.
A boat came by, an old rusty fishing boat. I waved at them and flagged them down. They came over and asked what was wrong. They were 3 older local fishermen. I told them and asked if they could tow me into that bay, if they had the time to do that.
They agreed to that, as they were driving in circles around me. Ok hold on a second!
I frantically pulled the anchor back up. Then I had to quickly get back in the dingy and put the cap to the engine back on. I went down and grabbed a rope to throw them. They had come around full circle by now and were ready for it. I cleated the rope and tossed it to them.
They tied me on and with a fierce jerk, Simplicity took off following behind them. She made a pretty wild path zig-zagging along.
So I immediately noticed they weren’t entering the harbor properly. There are rocks and reefs and a large channel to pass through them. But they were headed in to the bay sideways, through the reefs. So I yelled to the guy, “hey do you know how to get into the bay!?”
He answered yes they did. They were locals so I assumed they would. But nope, I watched it on my gps. I kept yelling to them, over there!! Pointing furiously left, because now we had the rocks and reefs all around us. That was just our best bet to get back into the channel without hitting anything. But they didn’t get what I was going on about.
Then they came to a stop, in front of a big rock face just barely underwater. You can see all the rocks and reefs clear as day in this calm water. So they weren’t worried about navigation because you can navigate by sight. Well they didn’t see this coming, and now looked to me for an answer, to which I was still yelling and pointing.
They went that way, as they did Simplicity meandered right over the rock and I sat on deck unsure of how close it was underneath. But I pulled the rope and tugged myself away from it and over to their boat. When I did that the rope fell off…
So I floated there for a second, oh hey! They had to turn around and throw me a different rope. My rope had wound up on their boat as well. Then they dragged me a little further and asked is this good?
To leave me here? No its not good!! I’m still in the rocks, please I beg you don’t leave me here. I asked them if they would drag me into the bay where I’d be protected from this storm coming, although it was far. I offered to pay them. They took me in, but not before becoming further lost and having to stop and make turns around the rocks just blocking our way, we were trapped among them.
I got very close to Sean Connery’s house or some other celebrity, and it was crazy to look at. They had a point of land with a beautiful beach coming out to this reef. The house was a big pirate playground. I thought it was a resort at first, all shipwreck theme structures, half built. At night that thing would light up colors, mostly green and purple like a Christmas tree. Totally ridiculous house out there in the mega wealthy neighborhood of Lyford Key.
The fishermen dropped me off near a couple other sailboats, and I actually gave them $60, $20 each. They gave me my rope back. That was generous of me I think, but they really helped me and it would have cost me a hell of a lot more if I had to pay for a proper tow. I had just given them pretty much all the money in my wallet though so I was basically flat broke now.
I’d figure it out. It wasn’t long before I told my mother about what had happened and she offered to buy me a new motor. She had actually offered this weeks before! She didn’t like my motor, which just earlier that day I had decided to name, ‘Ol’ Reliable’ ha!! I took her up on that offer… Thanks Mom, I’d be living in Nassau now if it wasn’t for you!
Right as I was anchored in this gorgeous, peaceful bay and the fishing boat left, people were calling my name. The other two sailboats, they knew me! Then I realized who they were, its was 3 nice older sailors, a couple and a lone guy, Tim, Bob and Andrea. I had met them in Miami and got to know them a little back in Key Biscayne.
I told them what happened and Tim invited us all to his boat. So, I jumped in and swam over.
I hung out with them, told them my story. They gave me snacks and beer, then we all started drinking rum. That was a stupid idea for me, and I was pretty super stressed and decompressing. But I drank a whole bunch and got drunk right away.
I had got there about noon, and was planning to go right to sleep before this engine trouble happened. That woke me up for sure with tons of adrenaline! Now after I was done hanging out with them it was like 4PM or later and I was exhausted. The boat was trashed.
It made me mad, because I was only planning to stay in Nassau about 3 days, then I’d be ahead of schedule and head to the Exuma islands early. Oh well, looks like I’ll be here until I solve this dilemma. But I couldn’t be mad because it was such a spiritual trip and hard to ignore what had happened.
It was a good thing the motor died. Because what I’m planning to do is go to the Virgin Islands and this is a huge undertaking. That old, junky motor wasn’t cut out for this trip, I should have bought a new one in Florida. But it literally couldn’t have happened anywhere better than Nassau on this entire trip. If it had happened the night before when I was depending on it to get through the Tongue of the Ocean I would have been in trouble. If it had happened weeks before in the intracoastal I might have crashed into a drawbridge…
So this is good just frustrating. During the next week I had some challenges to overcome…
I fell asleep before sunset but woke up at 10PM to strong winds and the boat rolling on the leftover ocean swells. I went outside to see the night sky becoming consumed by.a twisting black line of massive clouds and flashes of lightning. The front was here and I was glad to be safe in this bay. It opened up and downpoured rain. It was very intense, but I enjoyed sleeping through it.
…
To be continued! 😉
