Exploring and adventure in Great Harbour Cay

We spent most of Thursday hunkered down from some strong winds. This gave us a chance to investigate our leaking hot water heater. For now, it's not a huge nuisance and can wait to get replaced until we are back in the States. We also walked out to the cliff over the cut and Katreina decided to use the nearby abandoned pool deck for some skateboard practice.

Walks, bike rides, and skateboarding—plenty of exercise options!

We did a little bit of provisioning on Friday via bike and topped off our diesel tank before enjoying the marina's "Chill 'n Grill" with other cruisers. Each group stuck to our own tables rather than mixing, but we were able to chat with each other. It was almost like normal cruising times! 

$50 with of groceries, diesel transfer, and a great marina dinner!

By Saturday it was time for another new adventure--Shark Creek! This is a "high tide only" experience and with the other high close to sunset the past few days, we decided to wait until the morning high was at a "cruiser-friendly" hour. With our little dinghy engine it was a solid 30 minute ride out to the creek entrance. We rode over the shallow bars and were soon enveloped in mangroves. It was so cool! It was tough navigating the turns in the narrowest parts, but we made it and come out on the northeast side of the island. The seagrass and mangroves make for a great shark nursery, giving the creek its name, but we only saw one and it was really fast! But we also saw a giant spotted eagle ray, several turtles, fish, and birds. It was a morning well-spent! 

Shark Creek

After a solid laundry effort Sunday morning (two full sets of bedding and a big bag of laundry, washed by hand in a bucket!) we decided to do something a little crazy. Last year some friends had told us about a bridge that locals would jump off of and ride the current under. We donned wetsuits and went to check it out! We were at about mid-ebb tide and the current was RIPPING under the little causeway bridge. It looked like there might be a shallow bit in the middle of the bridge, so we decided to wade into the current instead of jumping, and of course Dad had to go first! After the first few rounds, we had a feel for the depths and current and started jumping off the bridge. Are we nuts? Maybe! Was it fun? ABSOLUTELY!

Antics at the Causeway Bridge

Stunning sunset tonight as we brace for another front that begins to move through tomorrow.

First destination of the season--The Berry Islands

So happy to be back in the Berry Islands! We spent one night on the hook in Slaughter Harbour, between the cruise ship islands of Little Stirrup Cay (a.k.a. Coco Cay) and Great Stirrup Cay. We struggled to get the hook to set, but finally found a worthy patch of sand between the hard bottom and grass beds. The next day we anchored on the west side of Great Harbour Cay. The kids donned wetsuits to check the anchor and clean the prop, and we had a nice, peaceful night before heading through the cut on a rising tide to tie up at the Great Harbour Cay Marina. 

Our two anchorages before heading into the marina.

We LOVED our time here last year and decided to return. It just makes getting our COVID tests super easy, we can weather a cold front or two this week, and the people are just wonderful! The next morning we knocked out our 5-day COVID tests (all negative!) right at the marina with Nurse Lorell--we celebrated with a beer run to town and a trip to a nearby beach with the whole family.

We wanted to explore a few places we didn't get to last year. As the fleet of marina bikes is in better shape, we hit the road early today to check out Sugar Beach and the caves. It's a slog to ride almost 5 miles each way on single-speed beach cruisers over hills and through the occasional rain shower, but as one of the kids said, "...so worth it." We were surprised that the water was relatively warm! We explored the cave, identified some chitons and periwinkles, and swam. It was amazing! After checking out some ruins of an old hotel nearby we rode back (through a few rain squalls!) to knock out school for the day.

9.5 miles round trip to this amazing beach!

We decided to really make this a full day and take the kids to meet Ronnie at The Brown's Garden for dinner. We went here a few times last year for conch salad, but the kids had never been (they aren't conch salad fans). While we got conch salad, Trent had a delicious burger and Katreina had a pile of peas and rice--they loved it! Ronnie is a great cook (and makes conch salad that is the standard we compare all others to), but his joyful personality really makes the experience!

A “must” while in Great Harbour Cay 

We are keeping an eye on a few cold fronts rolling through the islands--one tomorrow and another early next week. We had planned on staying a week, but maybe we will stay longer. There is plenty to do here, even during a big blow!

How can we get to the Bahamas during a pandemic???

With the COVID pandemic upending travel plans across the globe many have debated whether it’s even worth it to try to travel and cruise right now. Well, we opted to go for it! Having been in the Bahamas at the start of the pandemic and seeing first-hand how they handled it then and over the past few months, we felt comfortable with returning. How did we do it? 

The Bahamas publishes very clear instructions for travelers to follow. Our starting point was the website, travel.bs.gov. As of our crossing the requirements were:

- must have proof of a negative PCR COVID test taken within 5 days of arrival 

- must have a Bahamas Health Visa ($60) approved before arrival

- must take a rapid COVID test on day 5 of your trip if staying more than 5 days (included in price of health visa)

- must take an online health survey for the first 14 days of your trip

- follow all mandatory COVID protocols and curfews for the area you are in

Easy, right? First we had to line up a potential weather window. With the requirement to clear in within 5 days of the test (test day=day 0), this can be a challenge if you are awaiting results and the window is narrow. Fortunately, the authorities added an allowance in the COVID orders that allows boaters to arrive outside of the 5 days so long as they can prove they didn’t go to any other port between their test and checking in. 

We also had to figure out how/where to get our tests. Florida has some free testing sites, but the turnaround on results isn’t guaranteed. Labs that promise results in 24 hours are available, but run $150-250 per test. As we needed four tests and aren’t on a serious schedule, we decided to try the free route first! A decent weather window was opening Thursday-Saturday. With free testing sites closed on Monday due to the MLK holiday, we had to target a Tuesday test. We had to rent a car to reach any of the free sites near West Palm Beach so we decided to use the drive-up clinic as no appointments were required. With the testing site open 8-4 we arrived at 7:40 am and found ourselves 1/2 mile from the entrance in a huge line of cars! Stress! At 8 am the queue started moving along as we all entered a maze of cones. The site was doing both rapid antigen and PCR tests so we just had to state that we wanted PCR and were sent to those lanes. They give you a sheet telling you to make an online account and enter all sorts of info—tough to do as you are driving, but we did it for ALL FOUR OF US only to never get asked to provide the handy, personalized barcode that process yielded. Instead, we were also given a little slip of paper to enter our info on, which was then hand-jammed into a laptop. Our test packets were hooked under the windshield wiper and we were off to the testing tent! That actually wasn’t horrible. Trent ended up having a sneezing fit from getting swabbed, but after a few brain tickles we were on our way at 9 am. The whole ordeal took less than an hour and a half and they said we should have results in two-five days. We were hoping for two!

The local “free” testing options. The signs just terrify you, and the barcode was apparently useless!

And then we waited. While we waited I created our travel visa accounts on the Bahamas website—one account for each adult, the kids were listed under an adult. With all of our passport info in the system we just had to wait for our test results! And wait. And wait. Tuesday wasn’t bad since we had just gotten the test and had errands to run. Wednesday was ok as we could fill water and monitor the forecast. Thursday, one of our options for leaving, was just dreadful! Late in the afternoon I think we had given up hope on getting results that day when we both got text messages—our results were in as of 4:08pm—55 hours after we had been tested. Woo hoo! It was super easy to see that we had all tested negative, but establishing accounts in yet another system to download our results as pdf’s was less so. 

Once we finally tackled that I uploaded our results and submitted our health visas for approval. We had heard that this was a swift part of the process so we raised the dinghy, discussed crossing options, and prepped for dinner. Within an hour, we received notification that our health travel visas had been approved and were pending payment. Online payment was a breeze and we were “green” to depart by 6pm.

Major milestones! Negative tests, travel visas (love the online system) and printing EVERYTHING twice!

Our options:

a) leave Thursday night for a Friday morning arrival at West End

b) leave Thursday night for a Friday afternoon arrival at Lucaya (on a rising tide to avoid a shoal)

c) leave early Friday morning for a Friday afternoon arrival at West End

As we also needed to get somewhere to pick up a WiFi service for our cruising season, we went with plan “b”—that put us in a reasonably-priced marina that was walking distance to an Aliv cell phone retailer. We had dinner and pulled the anchor just after 7pm!

Last Florida sunset for a bit!

We had a decent crossing, though we were only able to sail a few hours of it. Seas got a little lumpy mid-Gulf Stream but it was way better than last year’s crossing! We actually made good time and decided to come into Bell Channel in Lucaya at mid-tide. We didn’t see less than 8.5 feet—plenty of water! We tied up at the Grand Bahamas Yacht Club fuel dock (doubles as the Customs/Immigration dock), presented all of our COVID and normal cruising documents, and were cleared in! It was all very smooth and only took about a half hour. We payed for a night at the marina and shifted over to a slip. Easy peasy!

From quarantine flag to courtesy flag, and the crew ties up the boat!

Bahamas essentials—Ricardo rum, WiFi, coconut bread, and Goombay punch.

R&R for the crew after a whirlwind night/day!

We only have one hurdle left—the 5th day COVID test. We are en route to the Berry Islands now and will request our test there. All the testing sites are listed on the Bahamas website. I expect that part of this process to go just as smoothly as check-in did.

As the Bahamas has rolled out new requirements, any ambiguity is swiftly dealt with. While the system may have shortcomings, we are impressed with how they are trying to reinvigorate their main industry while protecting their citizens at the same time. We only spent $240 more to cruise this year than last (4x$60 health visa)—I’m not counting the rental car as we would have done that anyway for propane and provisioning. We are excited to spend the next three months visiting these beautiful islands and people!

Staging begins! Lake Worth, FL

We finally released our grip on Titusville and decided it was time to head south and start staging for a crossing to the Bahamas. After brief stops on the hook in Melbourne and Fort Pierce we made it to the cruiser mecca of Lake Worth! Quick geography lesson—Lake Worth, Riviera Beach, and West Palm Beach tend to be used interchangeably by cruisers and while the Port of Palm Beach is the big commercial port, the inlet is actually called Lake Worth Inlet. It’s all the same general area! Following me? 

There are marinas and haul out facilities here, a well-marked inlet that can be navigated day or night, plenty of decent anchoring options, and even free dinghy docks. It works for cruisers! We have anchored briefly here a few other times, but this is the first time we have gone ashore and made preps to cross from here. 

Another sidebar—West Palm/Lake Worth is about the northernmost “easy” departure point for a crossing to Bahamas. It’s only 55 miles to West End on Grand Bahama Island and the Gulf Stream tends to be fairly narrow here. Last year we left from Fort Lauderdale and many folks also leave from Miami or the Keys. All decent options! Given the COVID testing requirements (I’ll detail that in another post) we decided to give crossing from Lake Worth a try.

We anchored in 8’ of water just north of the Palm Beach Sailing Club on the west side of what is referred to as the “Lake Worth 1” anchorage. It wasn’t the best hook set ever, but we stayed put when backing down at >3000rpm so we stayed. This is the furthest north we have anchored in the area and we loved it! Right now it’s a well-policed no-wake zone due to manatee activity so we weren’t beat up by passing boats. It’s also close enough to the inlet that we get stunning clear water around us on the flood tide, making dreams of the Bahamas ever more prevalent after months on the ICW! This spot also allowed us to easily make it to Peanut Island to walk around and for $20 a day we could use the dinghy dock, showers, laundry, dump trash, fill water, and park a car at the sailing club. And the club had a restaurant/bar that is open every few days that was cheap and fun!

Around Peanut Island

We rented a car for a day to knock out COVID tests, get a few parts, and grab one more load of groceries. Other than that we did school, laundry, and a few minor boat fixes, topped off the water, celebrated the Skipper’s birthday, and waited. And it worked! This is a decent place to wait out weather windows, meet up with other cruisers, and tend to shore chores!

(Clockwise) Installing a new keel strip on the dinghy, checking on things underwater, haircut day, provisioning run, new shoe storage install, propane fill.

A birthday celebrated with FOOD!

Waiting

Sprouting something new onboard!

I’M GARDENING! ON A BOAT! Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but after having limited success growing stuff in real gardens ashore I am thrilled to have produced fresh, delicious food right here on the boat!

I was inspired by Jennifer on S/V Luna Sea after she posted pictures of scrumptious broccoli sprouts and gave me some encouragement to give sprouting a go. I purchased some stainless steel screen tops for mason jars (actually, a whole cheap kit with plastic jars and stands) and alfalfa and broccoli sprout seeds and just went for it! My first batch of alfalfa sprouts was a blooming success, with our first sprouts ready to eat 3-4 days after I started. It was easy and I love the idea of having fresh greens onboard whenever I want. Soooo good! And with two vegetarians onboard this is really a game-changer.

Going forward I think I will start a new batch every five days or so. One tablespoon of seeds makes a packed jar of sprouts so I can have one jar to eat while the other is sprouting. I’m loving this! 

TWO WHOLE WEEKS in Titusville!

I seriously can’t believe it—we stayed in one place for two whole weeks! We haven’t done that since our marina/boatyard stay in June, and it’s not at all how we normally cruise. But...we had our reasons! The launch that was supposed to happen the last night of our first week got delayed...Trent had a blast at a nearby paintball park so why not go again...Katreina was hitting the skate park daily...we had some non-critical parts that we could order...we stayed! 

We decided to rent a car for the second half of our visit so we could easily explore the coast and have some fun. We visited Kennedy Space Center, saw a rocket launch from our boat, perfected skateboard tricks, explored the nearby wildlife refuges, got tons of exercise, and crammed more provisions into the bilge. And for good measure, we knocked out a few projects as well.

KSC was awesome!

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch!

Boarding and paintball—the kids had fun!

Tons of birds and gators to see in the nearby wildlife refuges.

Fixed the composting head vent, scrubbed the inside of the boat, crammed into the lazarrette to tighten bolts, and made new salon pillows!

While we were all antsy at the end of our stay, we would definitely return here. The marina is a good value, there’s plenty for us to do given our interests, and the people were friendly!