The Trip So Far.......................

Uneventful. I’d like to regale you with harrowing tales of tall seas and narrow escapes in crossing the Gulfstream, but I’ll take uneventful.
After our three day voyage north from Marathon and our fun visit with Customs, it was a quick trip up to Key Biscayne. We had a day to replenish our supplies: Beer, pretzels and motor oil. We headed due east the following morning. Seas were calm the first hour. Then a nasty swell appeared out of the North while the winds picked up from the East. That made things a bit “bumpy”. Halfway across, the swell subsided and we made it into Bimini without incident. Our friends, who missed the early Saturday crossing window, weren’t as fortunate. Leaving late, they battled high seas, swells and freighter traffic as they sailed through the night. They lost their navigational equipment and were headed towards Nova Scotia when it came back on. Bimini was on their stern by then, forcing them to turn around in a strong westerly wind. Their plan was to motor-sail back, but their engine quit. They almost made it on sail power. We watched them being towed in. I’d seen them looking better.
After three pleasant days in Bimini, we left (deserted) them. They were dealing with a possibly seized up engine. I’m unsure how that pickle will resolve itself. One option is to change their last name to Albury or Pinder.*
We ran over to Gun Cay in preparation for the long slog across the Great Bahama Bank. We rose before dawn and made it to Chubb Cay in exactly 12 hours. Seas were forecast to build that day, especially when the depth plummeted from sixteen feet to over two thousand. Around noon, the winds picked up and we prepared for heavy seas. Then they died back down. We motored over the dreaded “tongue of the ocean” with barely a ripple. The closest we came to an incident was at Northwest Channel Light. It’s a bottleneck with shoals on both sides. As we approached, fifteen sailboats were lined up ahead of us. As we passed them, I noticed a hundred and twenty foot pleasure cruiser barreling up directly behind me. He shot between us and the sail craft amidst a chorus of curses. I cut hard into his wake to prevent everything inside our cabins from crashing to the deck. Then cut hard back to avoid the sailboats doing the same. The pilot must have thought “Caddyshack” was a training video. If you happen to see the vessel “Silvermoon” docked anywhere, give him the middle finger for us please.
We abandoned Chubb Cay the next day after rolling all night in a swell off the resort beach. Plus it’s been “redone”. It looks like every other Caribbean-style resort. Tin roofs and Hardiplank painted yellow, aqua and peach. Is there only one architect/decorator using a Jimmy Buffet album cover for inspiration the entire Southern Hemisphere? We motored instead over to Frazier-Hog Cay. That’s got to be the worst name for a place ever. I expected Kelsey Grammer in cut-off’s herding swine down a rutted road. But mooring balls were only $15 a night. And I can’t resist a bargain. It was still choppy. But no swell. It’s better to rock than to roll. 
That's the “trip so far”. My toes are nice and tan. I haven’t turned into an alcoholic, yet. (I try to wait until 5:00 each day before indulging, though I often only make it to 4:20.) If I quit writing altogether, that will mean things are going splendidly. We’ll see. 


* Popular Bahamian Surnames (in case you didn’t figure that out)