Hi!
Surprise! We’re in the Bahamas! 🏝
Let’s rewind-
We left Port Washington shortly after I posted our last update. We passed through New York City, waved goodbye to Lady Liberty, and completed an overnight sail to Lewes, Delaware.
We dropped anchor in the fog and waited for favorable winds to continue our trip South.
We left Lewes a week later and made a two-day sail to Norfolk, Virginia, where we staged for our Gulf Stream crossing. This is where our most recent video left off, in case you missed it. 😉
We stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables and checked the weather daily hoping for an opportunity to get as far as possible. Hurricane Nicole delayed our departure but gave us time to finish up a few projects we’d been putting off and do some passage meal prep.
We ended up leaving Norfolk just before sunrise on November 12th, destination: Georgetown, Bahamas. The trip started with calm seas and fair winds.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. Once we got offshore that afternoon, the clouds rolled in and the seas got sloppy. We motor sailed in 10-15 ft waves through the night.
Sabado took a beating, but aside from a few leaky hatches, she performed well! I, on the other hand, was battling seasickness. Typically when I get seasick, it’s nothing a quick nap and a rice cake can’t fix, but this was the first time I’ve felt ill for so many consecutive hours. Since my seasickness is usually short-lived, I hadn’t bothered to take any medication, and at that point, it was too late. I’m not a puker, but I needed to be horizontal to ease my nausea. This became problematic when I was unable to keep watch long enough for Ray to get some rest. It would’ve been a great time to have had additional crew aboard, and with 5+ days ahead of us, we had a serious conversation about turning back. Thankfully though, once we made it through the Gulf Stream and turned downwind, I bounced back! I was fully stable by the end of day 2 and was back to eating proper meals on day 3 (no more rice cakes!). 🙏🏼 I will, however, be popping a precautionary Dramamine before our next leg of the Thorny Path. 😂
The sailing conditions improved. In 20kn of wind, we were going 6-11kn while surfing down waves. We alternated keeping watch and taking naps.
We lost the wind on day 5, but our animosity toward running the motors was muted by 75-80 degree weather, blue water, and calm seas. ❤️
We tossed the fishing lines out, traded our foul weather gear for shorts and tank tops, and made some water. I can’t describe how good it felt to transition back to this version of boat life. The cold weather and murky waters were starting to make us forget how lucky we are to live the life we do.
We were able to sail again on day 6, intermittently using a motor to make good time. We arrived at Emerald Bay Marina just before sunset, tied up, and went over to a friend’s boat for arrival beverages. This was my longest passage yet, so we popped some champagne and celebrated! 🍾🥂
Here’s what our route looked like:
6 days, 851 nautical miles, highest wind speed 33kn, highest speed over ground 11kn, average speed over ground 6.2kn- what an adventure! ⛵️
We had our first proper night’s sleep in a week and headed over to customs & immigration first thing the following morning. We spent the rest of the day taking care of Sabado since she took such great care of us! Ray cleaned the outside, and I cleaned the inside. We took advantage of the marina’s free laundry machines and washed everything: clothes, bedding, towels, and blankets. It felt good seeing Sabado return to her typical condition after a week of neglecting most of our chores.
We had a couple of drinks and went out to dinner with our new friends that night, and we fell asleep moments after we got home. 😂 I think I’m still a bit used to sleeping in shifts because I woke up at 4:30 this morning, but at least that gave me time to write this!
The plan for today is to finish our deep clean of the boat and work on our footage from the trip. I hope to have the video of our passage up next weekend, so keep an eye out for it!
I hope you had a great week. ❤️