Hope you all had a fabulous Xmas and that Santa was bountiful and that the booze and food was flowing freely.
We arrived in Nassau Capital of Bahamas, at 8pm on Xmas Eve having left from Fernandina on Thursday 18th Dec to sail non stop to Deerfield Beach 300nm.
Midday on Saturday we made Deerfield Beach and we spent 2 nights with cruising buddies Jim and Barbara off Contrails, t Had a great party at their home and met lots of lovely people. Taipan spent the night rafted to a boat belonging to friends nearby. Monday afternoon we set off south again tacking to and fro all day and well into the night. It was only 37nm but we must have done 70 to get there. There is up to 4 knots of current flowing north and the wind was on the nose!
We needed to clear out of the USA by phone so had to hang off the coast south of Miami for a frustrating hour while the Customs n Immigration got all their ducks in a line ! Someone had tampered with the phones and the calls had all been diverted to a closed office. I guess it went pretty quiet at Customs and finally someone twigged and fixed the problem and we were able to get through. Not the most reliable sort of service ....Phones!.... no email facility so if you arrive there you better have somehow got yourself a USA cell phone!
We got clearance and left Miami at 1pm on Tuesday morning. We spent a long night making a Gulfsream crossing, being carried steadily north again. It was pretty uncomfortable but at least it was finally warm!. Once on the bank ,a large area about 5 meters deep, it was blessedly flat for the day as we motored across. Nightfall and we were back in deep water and deep doo doo as it got rougher and rougher. Eventually we abandoned the course east and motored south back onto the bank, taking another route. It was a long slow slog with lots of adverse current and an adverse wind, We were enormously pleased to see the lights of Nassau on dusk.
Didn't get cleared in to leave the boat till after lunch on Xmas day. Had a lovely evening with Jo and Paddy and a great Boxing Day Parade starting at midnight. Tried to message from Jo and Paddy's hotel but doesn't look like it went out there.
We will have frustrating times getting connections here so if there are gaps in our communication We apologize in advance.
Jo and Paddy are aboard and we plan to head to the islands. They will be with us till around the 9th of Jan and we are planning to have a big New Year celebration in leu of Xmas.
