We made it!!

At times it seemed like we would be stuck in FL for the entire winter. Then all of sudden a window opened up to cross the gulf stream. On Monday, it looked like Tuesday would be a great day.

 

But Tue, the weather wasn’t matching the forecast, so we listened to the weather guru again and then  waited to see if things would calm down during the day. About mid-day, several people that left in the morning came back saying it was too rough. Phew! But then in the early afternoon, the wind died completely. So we waited until about 5 pm to give the waves time to settle down and off we went like a herd of turtles. The herd consisted of about 20 boats that all made the same decision at the same time.

 

It was strange seeing so many running lights all heading offshore! Turns out waiting was good. There were 3-5 foot waves from various directions making it a bit uncomfortable but not too bad. As the night progressed, everyone spread out due to different boat speeds and different destinations. Some were headed for Lucaya, some for West End and about 4 of us set a course for Great Sale Cay – an uninhabited spot of land in the northern part of Abaco. All of us arrived there about 9  am Wed morning. We spent some time putting back together the couple things that had bounced apart during the night, then napped and tried to recover from the overnighter (did we really used to do that for fun??)

Thurs we got up early and motorsailed from Great Sale to Green Turtle Cay. We are sitting here now near New Plymouth, waiting for the customs office to open in the morning so we can clear in and get our cruising permit. New Plymouth is a town founded by the Loyalists who fled the US after the Revolutionary War.

We were just reflecting on how long, physically and metaphorically, this journey has taken us to get our own boat over to the Bahamas. It’s been a whimsy, then a dream, then a plan for so long that it’s hard to believe that it’s now a reality.

 

But if not…