A Long Night’s Journey into the Day

HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL - WE MADE IT ON TIME TO CELEBRATE IN THE BAHAMAS!! But it was definitely a long night – 20 hours in total. After delaying our departure the day before due to very high winds and waves, we determined to leave on Monday at 4:00 p.m. However at 11:00 a.m., when I consulted with the local weather “expert”, he said, “This is your window – go now!!” So go we did – by 12:00 noon, we slipped our lines and were off – in flat calm with 5 knot winds. Boy – did that change fast … by the time we reached the Gulf Stream, the winds were gusting to 25 knots, and we were tearing along at 7.3 knots at our peak (for the non-sailors – that’s about as fast as we’ve ever gone in this boat). There were 5-6 foot rolling waves – fortunately on our quarter (near the stern), so it was an exciting and comfortable sail (for the sailors, a beam reach and later a close reach all the way). Not nearly as terrifying as the Gulf Stream had been made out to be. There was a current, and the wind was North (not recommended) – but we beat the cold front that just came in – so it’s all good. If we had missed that window, the prediction was that we wouldn’t be able to leave for two weeks! Jeff did an amazing job with preparing and captaining Sea Change - thanks forever, oh Captain, my Captain.

So we sailed through the rest of Monday and Monday night, arriving at Port Lucaya, Bahamas (near Freeport) just at first light. After a somewhat bureaucratic check-in with customs and immigration yesterday, we crashed for several hours, and then greeted the New Year – Bahamian style J.

Below are pics of our departure from Florida, with our buddy boat, Dame Des Mer, our arrival in the Bahamas, and a fabulous New Years Eve party where we danced until midnight  – enjoy, and have a truly wonderful start to 2014!