Back in the USA « CaptainYoung.com

Back in the USA

Written By: captain - Jun• 04•10

If you looked at the map on the site, you can see we are back. It was a very long difficult trip back, but we made it, and it is good to be back in the US. We really missed all of the conveniences, food, water and other good stuff that we take for granted here.

So I will start were we left off, at Gauna Cay. We stayed for two nights. The second day we went back to Nippers, and had lunch and went snorkeling off the beach. The snorkeling was nice, the lunch was okay. The rest of the day we just hung out in the two salt water pools there. We would have liked to stay longer, but we thought it would be better to get moving North, since we wanted to get back to the states by the end of the month.

So we left Guana, and had a very nice sail through the whale passage, and back over to Green Turtle. We went back to White Sound, where they have the nice resort and marina with a pool. We were only planning on staying for a day or two, but the weather forecast was calling for bad and worsening conditions in the gulf stream. We needed about 3 days to get over to the Gulf Stream, and the weather stayed bad for about a week. So we stayed there in Green Turtle for a week. We spent most of the time at the pool, or going over to the little town of New Plymouth. The resort had a really good buffet with Fried Fish and many other good side items, the one night.

Eventually they were calling for 2 foot waves in the gulf, so it was time to get moving. Our plan was to go back to Foxtown, and anchor there, and then go up to Grand Cay, which is one of the Northern most cays, that is inhabited. But our plan changed, the wind was out of the North West, so we went to Allens Pensacola instead. We thought this would give us better protection from the waves while anchored. It didn’t. So we spent the night being rocked. The next morning, it was still out of the west, so we could stay there and rock or get going and rock on the way. We thought it best to get moving. We were wrong. Once we left, we started pounding into the waves, and were not making very much speed. We tried a different angle, but nothing worked, so we just revved the engine up to 2800 RPM’s and plowed into the waves. Normally at this speed, we would be easily making 5.7 knots, but we were probably averaging, around 3-3.5 knots. And the motion of the boat was like one of those pirate ship rides at a fair. The bow of the boat would launch into the air, bang down in the trough of the next wave, the next wave would pick us up higher, bang us harder into the next trough, and then the third wave would launch the bow way, way up, and slam us down, nearly bringing our forward momentum to a halt.

So we were going so slow, that we wouldn’t make it to Grand Cay by dark, so we went to plan b, and headed for the East side of Great Sale Cay. It was pretty much the same conditions all the way, until we got about 3-4 miles from Great Sale, which gave us some wave size reduction. Once we were about 1 mile from Great Sale, the water was calm again. We were both physically beat up by this time, and were very happy to be anchored, and the wind was suppose to calm down at night, and it was a very calm nice night.

The next day, we left for Grand Cay, and we motor sailed at a good speed. It took about 4-5 hours to get up there.

We had a great bit of excitement, almost right away. It was such a nice day, I figured I would give fishing a try again. This time I tried a different lure, and about an hour after we left, the fishing line started whizzing out at full speed. I definitely caught something. So I grabbed the rod, and stopped the line from going out. Nadia turned the boat around, and I started reeling in. Then I saw it jump, and it was huge, at least 3 feet. So I kept reeling and reeling, and it jumped out again. Nadia got the work gloves and pliers ready. After about 5 minutes I had him near the boat, and it was about a 3 foot long Baricuda. I am not much of a fisherman, and I was not really sure how I was going to get the hook out of his razor tooth covered mouth. So I brought him real close and then I went to reach down and try and get the hook out, and he snapped at me… So then I lifted him up onto the side of the boat, and had to struggle to get the hook out with the pliers. I felt bad, because I could see he was starting to loose his spirit, and I didn’t want to kill him. You can’t eat barracuda, because of cigueratella poisoning, that many of them have. Eventually I did get the hook out, and set him free. It took him about 20-30 seconds, but he started to swim slowly away, so I think he survived. After that, Nadia felt bad about hurting the fish, so she didn’t want me to fish anymore. So I put my rod away.

Coming into Grand Cay, is pretty shallow, there were spots were we had inches below the keel. I really did not like Grand Cay, and probably would not go back again, unless we need somewhere good to anchor, because it does offer 360 degree protection. The town was not really well maintained. They had a generator running right in the middle of the town. Oh, and when we pulled in, we were the only sailboat. Grand Cay is a hub for fishing boats. They range from little center consoles, to huge multi-million dollar sport fishing boats. Now I am not against fishing boats, but some of the boats are ridiculous, and ungodly wasteful. The amount of fuel some of them burn is unreal. They will burn hundreds of gallons an hour! And I don’t dislike motor boaters, we have met many on the trip, and had good conversations, but many of the ones at Grand Cay, were not the kind of people I like to be around.

Once we got into Grand Cay, we wanted to fill our fuel tank before leaving in the morning to begin our crossing. So we go over towards the fuel dock, and there is one other boat waiting. So we wait for about 15 minutes, and finally get over to the dock. We tie up, and no one says anything to me. So I finally ask a guy that looks like he “works” there, “Is there only one diesel pump?” He says yes, and leaves. So we are waiting, for about 20 minutes, for a motor boat to finish fueling. And then we have to wait another 20 minutes for the other motor boat to fill up. Then it is our turn, I fill up our tank, it takes 10 gallons. Then I give the pump up to a guy that I think works there, and he sets it on the dock. Then I go ask another guy that I think works there if I can pay, he says, “I can’t, you have to see Rosie”. This marina is called Rosie’s Marina. I happened to see some one say hi to Rosie, so I knew who he was. The guy said, “he should be back in a few minutes”. So I figure, we are in the Bahamas, things move a little slower here, and I relax. Time starts ticking away, 30 minutes go by, and I see the guy again. I say, “Do you know when Rosie will be back?” He says, “Oh he didn’t let you pay yet?” Then heads off down a street. We wait another 20 minutes. Then Nadia spots Rosie. I take off after him, down the street, onto the next dock. I make my way through the crowds of drunk motor boaters, that don’t move over, to let you walk by, all the way to the end of the dock. “Excuse me, Rosie”, Rosie gives a quick look, and then starts talking to another guy. Eventually, I say excuse me and tell him I want to pay for my fuel, he says ” I will be over in a few minutes”. So I go back to the boat, and in the mean time, there are three motor boats waiting to dock and get fuel. I guess Rosie doesn’t care, because he knows he is the only fuel station for about 60-70 miles, haha. He eventually makes his way over, I pay, and we get off the dock. It only took a little over two hours to get 10 gallons of diesel!

So we go to the center of the harbor and anchor, and there is one other sailboat! We wanted to go out to eat, so we paddled our dinghy to shore. On the way, we got a comment from a motor boater sitting on his boat. “How long did it take to get over here”, making a joke about us crossing the gulf on our dinghy. Motor boaters are all comedians. The first thing they say to you always has to be some kind of joke. We really felt out of place at Grand Cay. So we walked down the one street in the town, and the only restaurant open was Rosie’s Place. So there are two entrances, the first one we go in says Lounge entrance, we open that door, and the music is blaring, we turn around, there must be a restaurant door. So we go around the corner, and a door says restaurant door. There is a waitress leaning on the inside of the glass door, so I knock on it, and she looks at me like I am crazy and says go around to the Lounge entrance. So we go back to the lounge door. So we go in the Lounge, and try to find a door to the restaurant. I find it and it is locked. So I knock, no one answers, I ask the bar tender, and she yells to the same waitress that told us to go around. The waitress opens the door, and has a big smile, and says come on in. We sit at our table, and about 3 minutes later another group comes to the restaurant door, the waitress opens the door for them. I did not understand what happened…

So we both ordered fried chicken. They brought out conch fritters at appetizers, kind of like we get bread in the US. Nadia doesn’t eat seafood, so I started eating them, I ate way too many, and then I ate my fried chicken, and french fries. Bad Idea… My stomach was not liking me. So we went back to the boat, and things got worst. I had to lay down, and then all of the sudden I was sick. Everything in my stomach ended up in the sink. I must have got food poisoning, because I was uncontrollably sick. I spent half the night curled up on my side. Finally, after another sickness bought, I felt better and got some sleep.

When we woke up, I felt okay enough to get going, so I put the dinghy up on deck, and put everything away, in preparation for the crossing. Our plan was to sail about 50 miles to the edge of the Bahama Banks. At the edge there was a spot on the chart that was suppose to be 6 feet. We planned to anchor there. After that it drops down to thousands of feet.

We made average time, the waves got bigger and bigger as we got closer to the spot. We left around 10 in the morning and were approaching the “anchorage” around 7PM. The depth was around 30 feet and was suppose to get down to 18, and then finally 6 were we would anchor. Well we were right were the chart said the 6 feet was, and it said 18 on our depth sounder. The waves were still too big to anchor, so we decided to just go through the night. We didn’t want to sail back at night. We wanted to anchor, and then leave around 5-6AM in the morning and sail all during day light. Well we didn’t have much choice. So we had to rearrange our plan in our head, instead of sleeping after 9 hours of uncomfortable sailing, we were going to continue sailing for another 12 hours. Once we got off of the banks, the waves actually were better. They were still big, but much more consistent, so you could kind of steer with them, and reduce the rolling of the boat. But it was still really rolling, to the point were you had to hold on some times. The trip back was much better then the trip there. We ended up keeping the jib out almost the whole way, but it was pretty light wind, so when you rolled on a wave, the sail would flap back and forth. We took turns the whole night, and I managed to get some sleep. Nadia said she couldn’t sleep. We ended up getting to the Fort Pierce inlet around 6:30AM, and the waves were really big and confused there. There were many little fishing boats heading out for the day. Some were very small, and flying off the tops of waves. I would not go out on one of those boats in those waves.

Once we got into the inlet, past the jetties, the waves stopped, it was calm and sunny and we were very happy. We went about 2 miles into a marina and tied up. It felt really good to be back in the US.