Page 48 - Yachter Autumn/Winter 2022

48 FEATURE
This gave us 3 route options:
Route A. Head back northwest in deep water to go around the very western tip of Grand Bahamas Island and enter the Little Bahamas Bank just north of there.Then track almost due east via Mangrove and Great Sale Cay, track along the northern edge of Little Abaco Island to Foxtown and Crab Cay, whence we could turn south east down the Sea of Abaco passing by Spanish Cay, Coopers Town,GreenTurtle Cay then turn east into the Atlantic through the treacherous Whale Cay Passage, across the ocean side of Whale Cay before again entering the Sea of Abaco, then on past Great Guana and Man-O-War Cays to Hope Town, our destination (about 200nm)
Route B. Head east about 20 miles from Port Lucaya, and then turn north to enter the Grand LucayaWaterway which crosses Grand Bahamas Island. Emerging from the northern exit of this canal, we would then head north to join Route A at Mangrove Cay, and thence
follow the same path as Route A. (about 136 nm).
Route C.A third option was to leave Port Lucaya and follow a deep-water route south eastwards for about 90 miles to pass around Hole in the Wall, the very southern tip of Great Abaco Island, thence turn northwards, still deep water, for about 50 miles to enter the Sea of Abaco at its southern most point, Little Harbour, after which its only about
14 miles to HopeTown in protected waters (about 142 nm).
The pros and cons of the above are that route A. would add about another 60 miles to the trip.Whereas route B. was the shortest and would give us some cays and scenery to look at versus route C., but had the concern that the northern exit of the Grand Lucayan Waterway is very shallow (4’ at MLW) and it would be necessary to traverse there at half tide or better.
We had charted these three options beforehand and set a delivery date as we had
to arrange our flights etc, and were anxious that this could be kept to.We had no need to worry, all was completed on time and we flew out to Nassau and then on to Freeport to take delivery.
One further factor we had thought of, the cruising permit and flag for the Bahamas,
Not our problem, it had been taken care of, there was our boat sitting at its slip in Port Lucaya with the Bahamian Cruising flag up top and the MI flag on the stern. (Not quite what I had imagined in shape or size, but dream on)
My brother had flown from Hope Town to join us, to help us on the trip. So we all went onboard after having a very pleasant meal, eventually crashing out after a long day which had been extended by five hours due to the time difference.
The next morning dawned bright and sunny, Captain Jon who had brought the boat over from Ft. Lauderdale ran through the switches, knobs, engines, radar, gps etc. whilst we tried to look intelligent and understand everything at once. He left after a couple of hours when we had sufficient confidence that we could operate it to a reasonable standard.
Suddenly the generator burst into life followed by the engines, shorelines were disconnected, springs taken on board,
all systems checked, on the bridge all instruments active, radio call to the fuel dock, no fuel in marina main fuel dock on way out, cast off stern, cast off bow, engage forward gear for a few revs, bow thruster quick blip, we were under-way and clear of the slip heading out of the marina to the fuel dock, as our fuel state was only about 50% full (probably not enough to make the journey).
Proceeding only at tick over pace we approached the dock which had two well spaced pumps on it.We slid alongside and tied up.A man approached who had been watching us and asked if we wanted diesel
or gas, we confirmed that we required diesel,