A Rough Day at Sea

Trip Start Apr 24, 2005
1
8
13
Trip End May 06, 2005


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Bahamas  ,
Sunday, May 1, 2005

We wake to a windy, rough day. It is 120 miles to Freeport, where we have marina reservations for the night. We need to average 22 knots is we can. All of the windows are closed as there is a bit of spray. In fact, water jets higher than the roof of the bridge at times. The roof of the bridge is about 27 feet above the water line  after two hours we turn southwest toward West End, the very western tip of Grand Bahama Island. We are heading into the wind and we have to slow to 16 knots to help smooth the ride to a point where you do not fly out of the seat. Ted does another masterful job navigating around the rocks and shallows. There is one area where we suddenly get a shallow water alarm. A hurricane must have extended the shallows beyond what is on the charts. No big real, we slow and skirt the shallow area. The inlet to the Atlantic at West End is marked by a couple of poles that stick out of the water (20 feet high and 8 inches in diameter). After a 50 mile run, the poles come into view dead ahead. WOW ... the navigation is working great.

We enter the Atlantic through a small opening in the coral and rock. Immediate we are in the midst of 6-8 foot seas. The waves are hitting us from all angles and there are occasional 10-12 foot waves to deal with. It is 20-30 miles to Freeport through Open Ocean. Do we turn around, or push ahead. We push ahead ....

About 15 minutes into the ride, the wives yell. Their seat broke and they are in the floor of the cockpit behind us. There is a rack of dive tanks moving around, and I fight my way back to bungee them so the do not come free. Ted and I share the steering as it is very tiring and auto-pilot is not what you want now. You look for the waves higher than the bridge and avoid the peaks and ride down the back before you are hit again. Sometimes you can not avoid the collision. This is one tough boat, we plow into waves and it powers on through.

After two hours battling the ocean, we make it to the channel into Port Lacaya in Freeport. All of the channel markings but one are down, but we make it into port in calm water behind the breakwater. The man assisting us to tie up at the marina said we were the smallest boat that make it across today, and even the really big ships were complaining about the rough seas. Man ... what an adventure. We all thank Captain Ted and take him out for the best dinner we can find. We definitely will not try the run to Florida until the ocean is much calmer. There are no pictures from this day, as the camera was packed with the clothes to keep it dry and not let it fly about.
Print this entry