The Crossing

Daddy had to go back to work for the week and Cindy needed to return to Montreal, so there was a decision to make about how to get Ambition across to the Bahamas. So Josh and I offered to help. Josh would sail L’Attitude with Therese and I would sail Ambition with Paul-Andre.

The final plan was as follows, move the 3 boats closer to the inlet, anchor. Leave the anchorage around 10pm to begin the crossing. Sail all night across the gulf stream in 15 knots and 4-6 rolling waves. By mid-morning we would see the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas. We would anchor safely in the harbour, clear customs and immigration, and be at the bar in time for happy hour.

Well …. Here’s what really happened.

We moved the boats, as planned, closer to the inlet, our original anchorage idea wasn’t viable so we made a quick plan B. We’d go anchor in a nice, well protected lake. We knew it would get a little shallow coming in, but we hugged the east side like they said we should and it was fine. We anchor. We have dinner and set our alarms for 9:30pm.

Ambition draws less (needs less water to float) than the other 2 boats, so we go first. At one point the depth sounder read 7 feet but we made it out no problem. (I would like to take this time to mention that when Ambition ran aground it’s depth sounder read 6.5 feet, they only need 4.9 feet to stay afloat. But apparently according to my Dad it wasn’t that off.) L’Attitude was next in line. They ran aground. Liberty, who draws the same as L’Attitude, decides that he’s got 12ft of water so he’ll just wake (go by and make a wave) to help get L’Attitude off. Well it worked, but now Liberty was aground … hard.

L’attitude went back to anchor and look at the tide charts (something perhaps we should have done earlier). Ambition came back around to help get Liberty off and then… you guessed it, Ambition also ran aground. We were able to get Ambition off, but unfortunately Liberty had to wait for the tide to finish going out and then come back in.

We all re-anchored and waited from Liberty to float again and for the tide to come up just a little more. Our new time of departure was 3am.

We made it out of the anchorage this time, without any issues. As soon as we rounded the corner to the inlet, the waves began crashing over the bow and they didn’t stop until we were almost in the Bahamas. It was horrible. No one was feeling very good. The worst part for me was that I couldn’t sleep because every time I put down my head the my supper wanted to come up. Things got a little better as the sun came up. At least we could see the waves. The gulf stream was slow going, we were only moving at 3-4 knots, half our usual speed. The wind was 20-25 knots on the nose, with 5-7 foot waves from 2 different directions.

But we made it, the began to see the turquoise water ahead, and a nice sandy beach. We anchored in the middle of the channel, with very bad holding and a surge. We cleared customs in the morning, the only thing we wanted to do that night was sleep. The winds were supposed to pick up even more the following night so we made our way to a dock.

As Josh and I stood there we saw our very first Bahamian fish… a shark, the size of Josh. Welcome to the Bahamas. That night we went to the end of the world, the bar that is. It’s has writing all over the walls, a sand floor, and a fierce rum punch! Finally we were able to relax and enjoy the Bahamas.