My Bahamas trek and things I learned along the way

[Jklotz]

November 2nd, my boat was docked in Hilton Head, SC. That was 26 days ago. We (my wife, myself and 2 dogs) had been planning our Bahamas adventure since we got the boat. It was a bucket list thing, for me at least, and my wife, being the good sport she is, was along for the ride. At the risk of boring some of you salty veterans, I thought I'd share some details about the trip, if for no other reason that I suffer from CRS (can't remember s**t) and I might want a reminder at some point.

Hilton Head to Savannah: Started off with an easy 25nm run. Boat hadn't gone out in 30 days or so, so I figured let's do a short run, make sure nothing explodes. Made it to the city dock on the Savannah river. It was cool being right there on River Street, but the dock has seen better days. Power pedestal was dilapidated. Didn't even try to plug in. Had a nice dinner and went to bed. Constant traffic from freighters, but they were going slow, no biggie. 3am, was woken by something that sounded like large ball bearings being shaken in a 55 gallon drum. Next thing I know, we are literally thrown out of bed and the boat is tossed around like rag doll. I look out to see what looked like an old freighter, spray painted flat black with rust spots, barreling down the river at 20 knots, smoke billowing out. It was like the "eat me" float from Animal house of freighters! Guess they figured 3am, who's going to catch me? Not going into the fiasco of trying to pay for the slip as instructed at the sign, just take my word for it and avoid the city dock on River St. Otherwise, Savannah is an awesome city.

Savannah to St Simons: We stayed on the ICW. Really pretty, slow going and a lot of shallow areas to watch out for. I know a lot of you guys don't care for it, but Bob423 tracks were very helpful avoiding the shallow areas. Didn't follow them verbatim, but when the charts were showing red, I watched them like a hawk. Never ran aground, but we crossed some areas showing under a foot below the keel. I don't have enough hair left for that kind of excitement, but we made it.

St. Simons to Cumberland Island: We had had enough of the shallow scares and the weather looked pretty good, so we figured we'd give the outside a go. Turns out the weatherman lied. We got tossed around a bit. My boat doesn't have stabilizers, and I was wishing I had them that day. But we arrived just fine, nobody got sick, although I don't think the dogs were very happy. We anchored out and had a lovely evening.

Cumberland to Jacksonville Beach: Stayed inside, was a pleasant trip, drama free. First time I got to see dolphins dancing around my bow, playing in my wake. That was awesome!

Jacksonville Beach to St Augustine: Weather looked good again, so we went outside. My reasoning was that we have to do the crossing to get to the Bahamas, and the 1st time was a little unnerving, so it's either something we did wrong last time or something we've just got to get used to. Either way, we need to know how to do this. This time, the weatherman lied again, but to our favor. He said there was going to be 2 footers at 4 seconds, but it was like a lake out there. Occasional swell, but for the most part, it was like glass. Good thing, we needed to build our confidence. BTW - charts note St Augustine inlet is tricky. We followed them and got in, no problem, but we cruise at 7 knots. Maybe the guys who are going much faster have issues? No clue, but it wasn't difficult for us. Current is strong, but no worse than a lot of other places we've been.

OK, enough for now. It's getting late. In Marsh Harbor now and the northerlies are blowing for the next few days (20+ knots) so we aren't going anywhere. Plenty of time to follow up on this tomorrow. Hope this isn't boring anyone.

 

[mvweebles]

Congratulations! You bought a boat just a few months ago without a ton of prior boating experience and here you are in the out islands of the Bahamas. It's an impressive trajectory.

How does the cruising community communicate there? Morning VHF net? WhatsApp? Nothing?

How did you approach provisioning?

A couple months ago there was a lot of chatter on Bahamas cruising fees. Did they moderate? How was the overall check in process?

Thanks for the updates - and again, congrats!

Peter

 

[Serene]

Yes please keep posting. My wife and I are about to head off on our first long trip of some 600Nm. I know not long compared to Weebles, but our first big trip together, so enjoying reading about your experiences.

 

[mvweebles]

Yes please keep posting. My wife and I are about to head off on our first long trip of some 600Nm. I know not long compared to Weebles, but our first big trip together, so enjoying reading about your experiences.

For the record, we really look forward to spending more time dawdling and less time planning logistics for longer passages. Huatulco MX (almost 500 miles ago) was really the end of easy cruising where it was essentially a series of day trips not unlike the week or two trips we used to take when we were working stiffs. The longer and more challenging passages are fine but a lot of work and we end up spending a lot of time waiting for acceptable conditions.

Our trek has always been a lazy delivery to get the boat to Florida. We really look forward to the trip @Jklotz describes in his OP. It's why we'll skip some of Central America and ship Weebles from Golfito - about 500 miles south of our current location.

More local stories please.......

Peter

 

[Jklotz]

Congratulations! You bought a boat just a few months ago without a ton of prior boating experience and here you are in the out islands of the Bahamas. It's an impressive trajectory.

How does the cruising community communicate there? Morning VHF net? WhatsApp? Nothing?

How did you approach provisioning?

A couple months ago there was a lot of chatter on Bahamas cruising fees. Did they moderate? How was the overall check in process?

Thanks for the updates - and again, congrats!

Peter

There is supposed to be "cruisernet" every morning on ch 68 at 8:15, but I don't think it's started yet. I think a lot of folks don't come over until after Christmas. More on that later.

Provisioning wasn't too difficult. We bought a vacuum sealer machine, stocked up at costco and froze a lot of stuff. Grocery store in Marsh Harbor, Maxwells, is pretty well stocked though. From what I'm told, it's the closest thing to an American grocery store in the Bahamas. The local shops sometimes carry coconut bread, made locally. We buy that every time we see it. Beef products are expensive here and frozen. Glad we stocked up on steaks and ground beef.

In terms of the new fees, we anchored at Great Sale Cay, which is a very common stopover due to the location. It seems to be half way between everything and it's well protected from 3 sides. There were 2 other boats there. My buddy who went this same time last year said there were 15 - 20. The marina I'm in now, in Marsh Harbor, is a ghost town. 200 slips and maybe 15 boats. I'm told it's very early in the season though.

I checked in at Old Bahama Bay at West End. We did all the paperwork for the click to clear beforehand. Check in was easy. I asked for 120 days. The nice lady gave me 130 in case weather wasn't cooperating. Cost was $704. I did not get a fishing license. That would have been another $100. Nobody boarded my boat. Hard part was all the documents for the C2C, easy part was checking in.

 

[Jklotz]

St Augustine to Marineland. Took the inside. Wanted to see it, never done that before. Trip was pleasant and uneventful. Saw a manatee for the 1st time. Then the northerlies came. Cold front blew in, 20+ knots for 3 days straight. Temps down in the 30's. Had us pinned up against the dock. We decided to wait it out, as the ICW opens up to some fairly large bodies of water south of there. I learned that strong northerlies can push a lot of water out of the ICW, making for some really challenging passages. Marineland itself is a decent marina, however it's probably one of the most isolated along the FL coast. As I understand it, it was a resort community where you could swim with the dolphins, back when A1A was the way to get to southern FL. Then they build I95 and everything closed up. It was a $20 uber ride to get to anything. It's a shame we couldn't have been somewhere more interesting for 3 days.

From there, it was New Smyrna Beach, Titusville, Melbourne, Vero Beach then Lake Worth to wait for a weather window. I'll spare you the details, as, besides some nice meals, and a few crappy ones, some nice anchorages and marinas (Titusville comes to mind, active cruiser community there. We enjoyed our stay), not much in the way of boating to report. Well, other than the bridges on the last leg - 7 of them to be exact. We arrived at one of them at 2:59pm. Supposed to open on the hour and 1/2 hour. Requested an opening and the guy said nope, next opening with be in 30 minutes. Guy must have been having a bad day I guess. Current was strong, had to do a 180 to put my bow into it then spend the next 35 minutes fighting it to keep from hitting other boats and burning diesel. A younger me would have had some to words to say to the guy about that, but from my brief conversation with the guy, it was clear nothing positive could have come from it, so I bit my tongue and said nothing. I can't say what I think about that guy here, but I will say I don't think he'll be making my xmass card list this year.

Lake worth was interesting. There is the inlet that a lot of folks use to cross from, right at Peanut Island. There are 3 areas on the charts most folks anchor while waiting for a weather window. Labeled as Lake Worth 1, 2 and 3. So you decide if you want to be close to the inlet or close to the dingy dock. We choose 3, as we have 2 dogs and frequent trips to shore are a part of life for us. Dingy dock is really nice, free and really big. Leads right into a really nice section of town with a lot of great dining, parks, shops and even a vet, which we needed for health certificate for dogs, required no later than 48 hours prior to entering the Bahamas. That is an awesome anchorage, wish we could have spent more time there, but time and tide wait for no man, and a weather window was quickly approaching.

Night time view from anchorage in Lake Worth:

More to come

 

[slowgoesit]

Did they charge you an anchoring fee for the Bahamas? How about charges for your two dogs? We have cats, and are trying to get some real life confirmation, not hearsay. Thanks!

 

[Jklotz]

Did they charge you an anchoring fee for the Bahamas? How about charges for your two dogs? We have cats, and are trying to get some real life confirmation, not hearsay. Thanks!

Yes. Cruising permit = $500, mandatory anchoring permit $200. If you want a fishing license, that's $100 per month. No charge for pets, but the vet will charge you for the health certificate and most folks pay a service to submit the pet paperwork, as it's complicated and not very self explanatory.

The check in process was easy for us. I'm told it can be more difficult in other ports. I suspect having all the docs uploaded in the click to clear application properly and paying the service to submit pet paperwork might have had something to do with it. A smile and friendly demeanor in the customs office seems to go a long way here also.

 

[slowgoesit]

Thanks for the quick reply. Did you do the pet paperwork, or did you hire a service? Also, I thought they had done away with the less expensive, shorter time cruising permit you got, and everything I saw on the Bahamas website said anchoring permit was $350, not $200 . . . . not arguing though. Have a wonderful visit! We were supposed to already be there, but life got in the way, and we won't be getting there now till late 2026. Hopefully we will go with Weebles!

 

[Jklotz]

Thanks for the quick reply. Did you do the pet paperwork, or did you hire a service? Also, I thought they had done away with the less expensive, shorter time cruising permit you got, and everything I saw on the Bahamas website said anchoring permit was $350, not $200 . . . . not arguing though. Have a wonderful visit! We were supposed to already be there, but life got in the way, and we won't be getting there now till late 2026. Hopefully we will go with Weebles!

We hired a service. Mr Wellington seems to be the one a lot of folks use. He charged us $150 to do it. That covered both dogs. We had some communication issues with him, but he got it done last minute. If you submit and don't have a permit 2 days later, follow up with him. Also, his website doesn't play well with Chrome, so use another browser. Hope this helps.

 

[Cigatoo]

following

 

[Jklotz]

So now the crossing: We were only in Lake Worth for 2 days. It was a mad rush, trying to get prescriptions filled, last minute grocery store run, vet for dogs, fueling up, etc. We anchored a bit too far from the dingy docks, so it was 20 minutes each way every time we needed to go to shore. It was exhausting. Really wish I had had more time there. If you go, anchor down close to the bridge, not up by Peanut Island. It'll make the shore runs/restaurant trips a lot easier.

We met up with some friends who have the same boat as we do, perfect as a buddy boat to do my 1st crossing with. They had been before, and he's a handy guy who carries a lot of spares. Seemed like a good fit for us. Windy was predicting 1 footers at 8 seconds with several different models, so it was go time. Anchor up at 5:45am. Had a 1/4 moon, so it wasn't pitch black, but I did get a crash course on navigating by radar. I let auto pilot do the heavy lifting, don't want to get out of the channel down there, especially in the dark! As the sun started to rise, we were out of the inlet in some choppy, confused seas. Not exactly storm condition, but not very comfortable either. So much for the forecast. That lasted for about 3 hours then it started to smooth out. Our buddy boat was about a mile in front of us and we were in contact on the radio. The gulf stream, for those who haven't been out in it, is the deepest, truly beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen. It's really something to experience. We were getting tossed around a bit, so making food or even moving around the boat was a challenge. That didn't change until we were up on the Bahama Bank, although the 2nd half was better than the 1st. The boat wasn't making great headway in the chop, so we (me and my buddy boat) decided to push the RPM's up to 2K, so we were able to make 7 knots. My fuel burn was roughly double my normal cruise rate. But we made it.

At approx 2:25pm, we pulled into Old Bahama Bay in the West End. I had experienced plenty of fixed docks, but nothing like these. The docks are very high, and the fingers are short, meaning if you go stern in where you have easy access to shore power, you have to climb a vertical ladder up to the dock. If you go bow in, you've got a long way to get to power, and nothing to support the power cord for 1/2 the run. Here, we are improvising using a cooler as a step.

I won't cover checking in with customs again, see above. That was done by 4pm. We washed all the salt off the boat, got cleaned up and went to dinner at the restaurant next to the marina.

Our and our friend's boat at Old Bahama Bay Marina. Not often you see 2 North Pacific's side by side in this part of the world:

 

[Jklotz]

The next morning, we were up and at it early. We had a nice 48 nm run, plan was to anchor at Great Sale Cay. Great Sale Cay is very desolate. There are no signs of humanity there, other than a couple of other boats. It's half way between the West End and Green Turtle Cay, so it's a popular anchorage for those heading to the Abacos. (If it is pronounced "key", why do they spell it "cay"?) Water was like glass, perfect, clear and probably the smoothest day of my boating career ever. We saw lot's of stuff in the water, hammerheads, rays, etc. You can see all the way to the bottom, water is clear. Very cool to be able to see that. There was some fog in the am. It was almost dream like, surreal even. We anchored for the night and dingy'd to the beach to let the dogs run around. Having a deserted, pristine beach to yourself is fun! Anchorage is protected on 3 sides, so unless there is a strong southernly, it's perfectly calm in there. At night, seeing the stars was amazing!

A couple of pics from the "surreal" passage:

The next day, we weighted the anchor and headed on a 57 nm run to Green Turtle Cay. We had decent weather and for a majority of the trip, we could see the Abacos off of our starboard, way out in the distance. Not much else out there, although it was a bit strange to see one of those mega yachts anchored out there, no land in sight at that point, toy garage open and there were 5 or 6 folks out playing on jet ski's. We did pass some little islands with a mansion on them and not much else. They weren't named on my charts. Maybe the guy with the mega yacht lived there? By late afternoon, we made it to Green Turtle Cay and dropped an anchor. There were 4 or 5 other boats in the anchorage. It was a little rollie that night, but we couldn't get further in, wasn't enough water for me to feel comfortable doing that. Slept pretty good that night despite the rolling.

 

[NoRain]

There is supposed to be "cruisernet" every morning on ch 68 at 8:15, but I don't think it's started yet. I think a lot of folks don't come over until after Christmas. More on that later.

Provisioning wasn't too difficult. We bought a vacuum sealer machine, stocked up at costco and froze a lot of stuff. Grocery store in Marsh Harbor, Maxwells, is pretty well stocked though. From what I'm told, it's the closest thing to an American grocery store in the Bahamas. The local shops sometimes carry coconut bread, made locally. We buy that every time we see it. Beef products are expensive here and frozen. Glad we stocked up on steaks and ground beef.

In terms of the new fees, we anchored at Great Sale Cay, which is a very common stopover due to the location. It seems to be half way between everything and it's well protected from 3 sides. There were 2 other boats there. My buddy who went this same time last year said there were 15 - 20. The marina I'm in now, in Marsh Harbor, is a ghost town. 200 slips and maybe 15 boats. I'm told it's very early in the season though.

I checked in at Old Bahama Bay at West End. We did all the paperwork for the click to clear beforehand. Check in was easy. I asked for 120 days. The nice lady gave me 130 in case weather wasn't cooperating. Cost was $704. I did not get a fishing license. That would have been another $100. Nobody boarded my boat. Hard part was all the documents for the C2C, easy part was checking in.

Are you at the Conch Inn right in Marsh? Or over at Abaco Beach Resort? If you haven’t heard of it yet, I’d suggest you look into joining the RMHYC (Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club). There are many benefits like discounts and such, and they are a very active community. Most “live” at Abaco Beach Resort, because they (used to at least) have a screaming deal on moorage for 3 month min, Dec to April.

Unfortunately a lot of my info might be tragically dated because we were there for the winter in 2016 (through Hurricane Mathew) but before that witch Dorian absolutely levelled the place in 2019. Is Wally’s still there in Marsh? Best cracked conch in the world.

Here’s a couple of very useful websites.

Barometer Bob - Abacos, Bahamas Weather, general info and local gossip. Used to have a transcript of the morning ‘net.

Rolling Harbour ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO Stunning photography and local wildlife info. We are *still* members and receive regular emails.

Enjoy….I’m jealous. That was a life changing trip; we’ll carry the memories forever.

 

[Wtrguy]

Great thread! I joined TF just as you were purchasing your boat. Coincidentally, it was a boat that was in my top 3 so I was doubly excited about hearing about outfitting, systems and what she was capable of. It's very humbling and gives me great hope for our future to see how fast you're progressing. We're still a few month away from pulling the trigger and I can only hope the process moves as quickly and smoothly as your journey has. Keep living the dream...I look forward to following your adventure.

 

[Jklotz]

Are you at the Conch Inn right in Marsh? Or over at Abaco Beach Resort? If you haven’t heard of it yet, I’d suggest you look into joining the RMHYC (Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club). There are many benefits like discounts and such, and they are a very active community. Most “live” at Abaco Beach Resort, because they (used to at least) have a screaming deal on moorage for 3 month min, Dec to April.

Unfortunately a lot of my info might be tragically dated because we were there for the winter in 2016 (through Hurricane Mathew) but before that witch Dorian absolutely levelled the place in 2019. Is Wally’s still there in Marsh? Best cracked conch in the world.

Here’s a couple of very useful websites.

Barometer Bob - Abacos, Bahamas Weather, general info and local gossip. Used to have a transcript of the morning ‘net.

Rolling Harbour ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO Stunning photography and local wildlife info. We are *still* members and receive regular emails.

Enjoy….I’m jealous. That was a life changing trip; we’ll carry the memories forever.

Thanks. Yes, joined the RMHYC and got the screaming deal at ABR, which is where we are staying. Wally's has been closed for a long time, destroyed in the hurricane, but is now rebuilt and open again. We ate there on Thanksgiving night.

 

[Serene]

Nice read. Would love to see some more pics.

 

[Jklotz]

Nice read. Would love to see some more pics.

I went back and added a few that I took. In retrospect, wish I had taken some more. Going forward, I'll try to take some more.

 

[Jklotz]

Great thread! I joined TF just as you were purchasing your boat. Coincidentally, it was a boat that was in my top 3 so I was doubly excited about hearing about outfitting, systems and what she was capable of. It's very humbling and gives me great hope for our future to see how fast you're progressing. We're still a few month away from pulling the trigger and I can only hope the process moves as quickly and smoothly as your journey has. Keep living the dream...I look forward to following your adventure.

Thanks, I appreciate you saying that. It's easy to assume it's gone smoothly by the pics and fun threads, but trust me, there's been some blood, sweat and tears along the way also. Honestly, it's been like trying to drink from a firehose, and I keep learning more every day. And every day, I feel like I still don't know enough. There is a constant nagging voice in my head that maybe I didn't do something I should have but didn't know about or maybe I should learn to read charts better or understand currents better, or maybe I should have learned more about..... But I learn by doing. Every day I learn more, talk to people, it's a constant learning process. So far, the good has, by far, outweighed the bad, but don't think it's easy or always goes smoothly. I don't think it goes that way for anybody.

 

[Jklotz]

Green Turtle Cay: It's a fun little town with a nice market where we found coconut bread, a local treat and visited Pineapples, the famous bar. So far, trip has gone fairly smoothly. Well, we had a few "oh crap" moments in GTC. I suppose we were due. First, we go to take the dogs out and the dingy dock is 7 feet higher than the water. Your supposed to tie up, then climb up the ladder. We have two dogs! How the hell are you supposed to get 2 dogs up a 7 ft ladder??? We struggled with that for a few minutes. Finally I nixed the idea and went around and found a little "beach like" area behind somebody's house and beached the dingy. Fortunately, nobody said anything. As we were leaving, just as the dingy is getting up to speed, it comes to a grinding halt. I heard the crunch of coral. Yup, I grounded the dingy. We got it loose, dingy was ok, but it was a little embarrassing. So glad I bought water shoes, highly recommended.

The next morning we take the dogs again, this time avoiding the coral patch. We get back, go about making breakfast, only to look out and see our dingy floating away with the current! I'm not going to name names, but somebody did a horrible job tying the dingy up, and it wasn't me. Next thing I know, my wife, who at least had the foresight to put on a life jacket, jumps in the water and swims after it! So she gets ahold of a line and tries to swim back. She keeps moving away from the boat. No way to fight that current. That would have been a tough swim without trying to tow a dingy. So I'm freaking out. All I could think of to do was remove the bridal, pull up anchor, and try to reverse the boat back to her. So I start the engine, weigh the anchor and put it in reverse. Then it occurred to me, there's a spinning prop back there. I can't get close to her like that. That's when a neighbor, who heard the commotion, came to the rescue in his dingy. He towed her back to the boat, which was now drifting towards another boat anchored nearby. I ran back up, dropped the anchor again and we pulled her in and secured the dingy. No idea who that guy was, but I wish I did, I owe him a beer. And all this was before I had my coffee! It must have been quite the sight for the other boaters in the harbor. Let's hope the drama gods have been appeased, I don't care to repeat that any time soon.

I think the takeaway here is just how quickly things can go sideways. One minute, I'm making coffee and the next it's a full on emergency. It all happened so fast!

 

[TBill36]

A word of caution for those anchoring at Great Sale. There are places in the anchorage where there is about 6” of sand over a hard marl bottom. You can even back down and the tip of the anchor will catch giving you a false sense of security. I woke up there one morning to find a 60 footer high and dry on the hard coral shore after a storm blew through. You’re generally safe where the anchor symbols are located on the Navionics charts.

 

[Wtrguy]

Okay, I'd like to retract my prior comment about "smooth" progress!

But progress it is and sharing your experiences helps others to learn the pitfalls as well as getting a taste of your glorious achievements when it all comes together. Your honesty in telling us about your own mistakes and others helps me understand how easy it is to miss something important. I appreciate you sharing the fact that you're constantly second guessing yourself. In my mind, that's how to avoid making costly mistakes and it's comforting to know I'm not alone in that aspect. I think most people tend to come up with better solutions if they can mull things over for a bit and roll through different scenarios.

 

[Serene]

But progress it is and sharing your experiences helps others to learn the pitfalls as well as getting a taste of your glorious achievements when it all comes together. Your honesty in telling us about your own mistakes and others helps me understand how easy it is to miss something important. I appreciate you sharing the fact that you're constantly second guessing yourself. In my mind, that's how to avoid making costly mistakes and it's comforting to know I'm not alone in that aspect.

I second this part of the above post and appreciate this thread as I am about to embark on my own adventure so a lot of this info resonates.

 

[Jklotz]

Green Turtle Cay to Marsh Harbor: Just like Great Sale, there is a reason a lot of folks going south anchor at or near Green Turtle, beyond being a really cool little island with a lot of charm. Just beyond Green Turtle is Whale Cay, and just past that is Whale Cut. South of Whale Cay is unpassable unless you draft 3 feet or less. North of it, your back out in the Atlantic for a mile and a half. Because of the deep water meeting the shallows, swells build up and it's considered one of the most dangerous passages in the Bahamas. Like the crossing, you need a weather window to pass. Large swells out in the Atlantic can build up, even on a calm day, and make what the locals call a "rage sea". The rule is if you poke your bow out and see breakers, turn around and wait for another day. It's also common to see another boat on AIS that is crossing and radio them for a report.

As luck would have it, we had a day of ok weather before the dreaded northerlies started in. That was good and bad, because it meant we had 1 day in Green Turtle. I wanted to stay a few days and experience it, but that would have meant we could be stuck there for a while, so we pushed on. The crossing wasn't fun, we were taking 2 - 3 footers on the beam, but we got through it. The rest of the trip was quite pleasant. There was a lot more boat traffic and more development, more people.

That brings us up to today, where we sit in a marina. 3 days ago, the northerlies started up, and when that happens, nobody goes anywhere. That happens once in a while here, 20 knot winds, gusting as high as 40, blow through. Can last weeks in the winter, so I'm told, but today it looks like they'll be dying down, so hopefully we'll be able to get out and explore in the next few days.

A pic of Carol Ann, safely tucked in away from the northerlies.

 

[Jklotz]

Today's boat project; install solar Christmas lights!

 

[Cigatoo]

Green Turtle Cay: It's a fun little town with a nice market where we found coconut bread, a local treat and visited Pineapples, the famous bar. So far, trip has gone fairly smoothly. Well, we had a few "oh crap" moments in GTC. I suppose we were due. First, we go to take the dogs out and the dingy dock is 7 feet higher than the water. Your supposed to tie up, then climb up the ladder. We have two dogs! How the hell are you supposed to get 2 dogs up a 7 ft ladder??? We struggled with that for a few minutes. Finally I nixed the idea and went around and found a little "beach like" area behind somebody's house and beached the dingy. Fortunately, nobody said anything. As we were leaving, just as the dingy is getting up to speed, it comes to a grinding halt. I heard the crunch of coral. Yup, I grounded the dingy. We got it loose, dingy was ok, but it was a little embarrassing. So glad I bought water shoes, highly recommended.

The next morning we take the dogs again, this time avoiding the coral patch. We get back, go about making breakfast, only to look out and see our dingy floating away with the current! I'm not going to name names, but somebody did a horrible job tying the dingy up, and it wasn't me. Next thing I know, my wife, who at least had the foresight to put on a life jacket, jumps in the water and swims after it! So she gets ahold of a line and tries to swim back. She keeps moving away from the boat. No way to fight that current. That would have been a tough swim without trying to tow a dingy. So I'm freaking out. All I could think of to do was remove the bridal, pull up anchor, and try to reverse the boat back to her. So I start the engine, weigh the anchor and put it in reverse. Then it occurred to me, there's a spinning prop back there. I can't get close to her like that. That's when a neighbor, who heard the commotion, came to the rescue in his dingy. He towed her back to the boat, which was now drifting towards another boat anchored nearby. I ran back up, dropped the anchor again and we pulled her in and secured the dingy. No idea who that guy was, but I wish I did, I owe him a beer. And all this was before I had my coffee! It must have been quite the sight for the other boaters in the harbor. Let's hope the drama gods have been appeased, I don't care to repeat that any time soon.

I think the takeaway here is just how quickly things can go sideways. One minute, I'm making coffee and the next it's a full on emergency. It all happened so fast!

90 percent of boaters will admit to losing their dingy at least once. The other 10% are liars. You are doing fine.

 

[Jklotz]

90 percent of boaters will admit to losing their dingy at least once. The other 10% are liars. You are doing fine.

Yea, we debrief after any significant event, and my thought to my wife was, while I appreciate her bravery, please don't jump in after it if it ever gets away again. Firstly, I can get a new dingy if I had to. I'd prefer not to have to get a new wife. Plenty of other boaters around who would have helped us retrieve it. Lesson learned, and fortunately, it turned out ok. Could have been worse.

 

[Jklotz]

 

[Jklotz]

I've avoided mentioning the new fee's they are charging for cruising permits, but I do have to say there are far fewer boats down here than I had envisioned. I know it's early in the season, but I'm at a marina with 200 slips and there are maybe 15 boats here, not counting the moored charter boats.

The cats are the charter boats. Look behind them:

 

[JRZ1]

Wonder if that's typical for the marina to be so empty. Wow.