Paradise and the Crossing From Hell

Well, we, like many others, waited for a good weather window to cross from Ft Lauderdale to West End. Now, West End was not in our original plans. We’d planned to go to Coconut Grove, south of Miami, enjoy some great meals at some nice restaurants and then move on to Bimini. Bimini is a quiet backwater place whose only attraction for most people is its proximity to South Florida and the easy access it offers to boaters leaving the US. We happen to like Bimini for itself. OK, I digress. We were in Ft Lauderdale and a common Bahamian destination from there is West End. It is the gateway to the Abacos, a string of islands and cays that stretch across the northern part of the Bahamas. Another “easy” crossing. For the non-boaters among you, I should explain. Getting to the Bahamas from anywhere in the US requires crossing the Gulf Stream, a river of water that moves from South to North at an average speed of 2.5 knots (about 3 MPH). At the center of the stream, it can reach speeds of nearly 6 MPH. That may not seem like a lot, but it is enough to dramatically affect the course of any vessel. Add to that the effect of wind and you have some really interesting situations. If the wind is from the north and is sufficiently strong, it can blow up some really nasty sea conditions—8 to 10 foot seas or more that toss your boat about like a cork.


OK, so we left Ft Lauderdale expecting light North winds shifting to South East by afternoon. We expected 1-2 foot seas. The trip should take about 12 hours max. Things were beautiful as we bid farewell to the coast of Florida speeding along at 7-7.5 knots. We were congratulating ourselves on picking a great time to go. We were looking forward to arriving in West End and proceeding on to points unknown to us. About 6 hours into the voyage the wind shifted. “Well, that was expected,” we said. It was now coming from the Northeast and we were headed North East. It doesn’t take a genius to know that you can’t sail directly into the wind. Still, the seas were not terrible and the forecast called for the wind to shift further south and we would again be able to raise our sails and get some speed on. So much for weather forecasting. For the rest of the journey, the wind remained North East, right on our nose. To make matters worse, the seas were also coming at us from the North East, close to 3 feet at some point. Those factors combined to slow our speed to about 3-3.5 knots and we still had 40 miles or more to cover! The easy 11-12 hour crossing suddenly turned into a slog of 18 hours.

We arrived at West End in the dead of night. There was no moon. In the words of James Weldon Johnson, it was “Blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp.” Now in many inlets, this is not a big problem. The channels are well marked and lighted and, while a bit confusing in the dark, it is relatively easy to find your way. However, this is the Bahamas. There are lights indicating the entrance to the channel, then nothing. It is a narrow channel with hard rocks on both sides and about 500 feet from the entrance light a stony breakwater that extends into the channel about two thirds of the way across--all but invisible in the dark. Bright flashlights and a chartplotter made it possible to do what others said couldn’t be done. We tied up at the fuel dock at 10 PM, 18 hours after leaving Ft Lauderdale. We had our customary rum punch to mark the safe arrival.
The road to Paradise is often rocky. So here we are awakening to “another lousy day in Paradise.” The weather is sunny, warm and we are bathed with tropical breezes. Exotic flowers, birds, waters around the boat teeming with fish. As the Seabees said,
“We got sunlight on the sand,
We got moonlight on the sea,
We got mangoes and bananas
You can pick right off the tree,”

Except for a resort, there is nothing here at Old Bahama Bay. The resort is well maintained and well appointed. There is a nice beach and we will do a bit of snorkeling. We had planned to move on quickly, but a stomach bug told us to stay put for a few days. We will probably go into town and into Freeport.