Welcome to Bahamas. Yeppie!!! Time to change our US courtesy flag for the Bahamas one!
We finally made it to cross the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas. The crossing went very smooth as the sea was calm and the wind light. It was a 60 nm (112 Km) ride that we had to motor since the wind was too weak and we needed to beat the very strong current of the Gulf Stream. With only the sails, the crossing would have taken so long that we would have probably landed in Bermuda! Look at the color of the water behind Danielle on this picture. The waters in the Gulf Stream are about 2500 feet deep and are this beautiful marine blue. We left at sunrise around 7:00am and arrived in Gun Cay at about 4:00pm. Note that the Bahamas are a large collection of small islands, which they call “cay” and it is pronounced “key”. Only the few large islands bear the name “island” such as Providence Island on which the city of Nassau sits.
After paying the $300.00 US fee for the cruising permit at the Bahamian customs it was time for fishing. We bought a fishing spear in Florida and it was time to use it. Blake from “Slow Mocean” showed me how this work and how to hunt down the fish and lobsters. We went fishing for about 3 hours in the nearby coral reef and we caught two fishes and many lobsters. That evening, seafood was on the menu. After many months of sailing down the East Coast of the USA, repairing the boat, installing new equipments and buying food, charts and spare parts, it was time for us to start to relax. But the break lasted only one day as we needed to resume our traveling toward Nassau the next day.
Welcome to Bahamas. Yeppie!!! Time to change our US courtesy flag for the Bahamas one!
We finally made it to cross the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas. The crossing went very smooth as the sea was calm and the wind light. It was a 60 nm (112 Km) ride that we had to motor since the wind was too weak and we needed to beat the very strong current of the Gulf Stream. With only the sails, the crossing would have taken so long that we would have probably landed in Bermuda! Look at the color of the water behind Danielle on this picture. The waters in the Gulf Stream are about 2500 feet deep and are this beautiful marine blue. We left at sunrise around 7:00am and arrived in Gun Cay at about 4:00pm. Note that the Bahamas are a large collection of small islands, which they call “cay” and it is pronounced “key”. Only the few large islands bear the name “island” such as Providence Island on which the city of Nassau sits.
After paying the $300.00 US fee for the cruising permit at the Bahamian customs it was time for fishing. We bought a fishing spear in Florida and it was time to use it. Blake from “Slow Mocean” showed me how this work and how to hunt down the fish and lobsters. We went fishing for about 3 hours in the nearby coral reef and we caught two fishes and many lobsters. That evening, seafood was on the menu. After many months of sailing down the East Coast of the USA, repairing the boat, installing new equipments and buying food, charts and spare parts, it was time for us to start to relax. But the break lasted only one day as we needed to resume our traveling toward Nassau the next day. 