April 11-12, 2009 - Crossing the Gulf Stream

After crossing Florida through Lake Okeechobee and waiting almost a week, we finally had the "weather window" to cross from Palm Beach's Lake Worth Inlet to West End Grand Bahama Island.

We woke at 5am to check weather and were anxious to get started! We had coffee and ginger snaps and started the engine at 6:15am-- it was still quite dark but the winds were calm. We left the slip at 6:30 just as we could see the channel markers and started out Lake Worth Inlet-- only to see a huge ship coming towards us down the channel! We moved way over to the side of the channel and kept going.

About 2 miles out we found the seas a bit choppier than predicted but choose to continue. It was exciting to see the depth sounder go from 30' to 100' to 500' to 1,000' and finally to be in water so deep the depth sounder couldn't detect the bottom. There wasn't much boat traffic-- a few fast fishing boats passed us early but we saw only one other big ship. The waves continued to get more confused and at the half point after three hours we were bouncing quite a bit. But we both felt OK and, while a bit uncomfortable, we were perfectly safe.

We looked back to see another Mainship 400 -- Lady J slowing gaining on us. We called them on the radio and found they were also crossing for the first time and headed for West End.

After 4 hours we were really bouncing... we hung on, said our rosary together, and happily watched the "miles to go" winding down... only 15 miles to go... only 10 miles to go... at 8 miles out we saw tower and a few buildings ahead-- Land Ho! At 1pm about one mile from land the water suddenly changed to a beautiful aqua color and we moved into the calm behind the breakwater of the Old Bahama Bay Marina Resort.

It is a lovely marina with adjacent hotel rooms and several nice restaurants. We tied up in our slip and cleared customs right next to the marina office. There was a gentle warm breeze blowing through the palm trees and the sound of a island band playing near the large pool.

After a relaxing swim we met up with Julie & Craig from Lady J for the Cracked Conch dinner special at one of the resort restaurants. Just before bedtime, as we watched the bright stars overhead, a steel drum band in full costume marched through the marina!

We woke early to catch a short ride on the hotel shuttle to St. Michael's R.C. Church in West End village for 8:30 Mass. What an amazing Easter celebration! It's a small Bahamian church with a joyful, friendly, God-filled congregation-- at the exchange of the Peace people moved around the church eventually shaking hands with every other person in the church! The music was wonderful with hymns we hadn't heard before-- "I got raised!" and "He's alive and everything is going to be alright" -- Marianne wishes she could go to this church every week!

Back on the boat after Mass, we had an Easter brunch of banana pancakes and island fruit-- we ate at the small table on our upper deck and could barely remember the bouncy crossing. We had a relaxing afternoon-- walking the beach, swimming in the pool, visiting our new friends on Lady J. and enjoying another dinner together.