Saying Hello to the Bahamas (finally)!
I’m sorry that it’s been so long since our last blog post! We’ve been on a push to get to the Bahamas, and we’ve finally made it! Here’s an overview of what we’ve been up to since we left New England.
Cape Cod to Annapolis
Highlights from this leg of our trip included a short visit to Block Island, Rhode Island, catching up with our Bowdoin Sailing friend Doug Stowe – go UBEARS - and his family, and transiting the East River along Manhattan. We also got to visit with friends Dan and Irene Paulus (special note – they have completed THE Trifecta). Sandy Hook, NJ to Annapolis was our first overnight sail as a family and my first solo night watch!
Annapolis
We ended up spending about a month in Annapolis and Galesville, MD. This was not exactly to plan. We had been working on getting our offshore and Caribbean insurance for a while and it started to become clear that we were going to need our standing rigging (stuff that holds up the mast) replaced in order to get the policy. Sargo has rod rigging – which makes it harder to inspect and more specialized to replace. We were lucky we were in Annapolis with access to experienced rigging companies. Despite this expense and delay, we have a wonderful time in Annapolis during the Annapolis sail boat show and staying at Bjorn’s family’s marina – Hartge Yacht Harbor. We also had a long list of chores to get ready for the potential offshore passage we were contemplating with the Salty Dawg Rally to Harbour Island, Bahamas.
Salty Dawg Rally
Our intention had been to leave Annapolis in the middle of October and head down to Hampton Roads, VA to take part in the Salty Dawg Rally. It includes a week of seminars, prep, and weather routing education leading up to a departure, weather permitting, around November 1st. Our sprint to get our rigging replaced meant that we didn’t leave Annapolis until November 1, so we missed out on the pre-rally event. My dad joined us in Annapolis on Halloween, and we sailed down Chesapeake Bay and made it to the mouth of the bay in time to join the group sailing out from Hampton Roads. It’s up to each boat to decide if they are ready and comfortable with the predicted conditions. In the end, Sargo crew decided it wasn’t our window. It was hard to let the group sail off without us, but we just didn’t feel ready after our month hiatus from sailing and having just put the boat back together. Plus there was a nasty cold front chasing the fleet South. As it turned out that cold front was one of many than would keep us from heading in a more direct route to the Bahamas.
Norfolk, Virginia to Saint Augustine, Florida
As it was seriously getting cold we wanted to keep making progress south. Since we were no longer heading straight offshore, Bjorn got his wish and we got to visit the Great Dismal Swamp! Fun fact- the water in the swamp is so acidic from natural tannins that bacteria cannot grow in it. Sailing ships barreled it as the cleanest drinking water available. Bonus: it cleaned the growth off our hull that we accumulated while we were stationary in Annapolis. We took the Intercoastal Waterway from Norfolk to Beaufort, NC and learned a lot about ICW bridges. From Beaufort, NC we jumped offshore straight to Cumberland Island, Georgia which was a wonderful 3 day, 2 night passage. We caught two nice Bonito fish, and had dolphins swimming alongside Sargo. We got into Cumberland Island before the next nasty cold front, and then headed via ICW ahead of again another cold front via the Intercoastal Waterway. As you can tell, the weather wasn’t exactly on our side this Fall, having gone from Summer directly into Winter. But the weather did let us get to visit more family and friends, learn a ton more about Sargo, get more offshore passage-making experience (in smaller doses), and see lots of the East coast that we hadn’t seen before.
Saint Augustine to West End Bahamas
After waiting out the latest nasty cold front we looked ahead and saw a weather window to sail straight down to Lake Worth Lagoon at West Palm Beach at then across the Gulf Stream to West End, Bahamas. Amazingly the plan worked out! We were able to sail the entire 200 miles to West Palm with steady wind behind us at about 15 knots. We spent a few days in West Palm, collecting last minute packages, enjoying the warm weather, and restocking the fresh fruits and veggies. And then finally we had our weather window! We left Lake Worth at 5:15 am and arrived at West End to clear customs about 3pm! It was an easy crossing without incident. For those of you unfamiliar, the Gulf Stream is a fast moving – like 4 mph- river of warm water that flows up the East Coast of the US. The current and warm water are notorious for big waves and squalls. So it’s important to have the right conditions otherwise you could be in for a very uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous ride.
What’s next?
We are currently at anchor near West End AGAIN waiting out a cold front until we can transit across the Little Bahama Bank toward Man-o-War Cay. We’ll be bringing my dad to the airport tomorrow which will be sad as he’s been with us almost a month!!!!! It’s been great having a few days here enjoying the Bahamas as our arrival in Man-o-War will certainly be bittersweet. The Island and our property was devastated by Hurricane Dorian this season. We’ll be spending the next few weeks working in the community and on our property before leaving for points further south. One last parting tidbit – It seems that Sargo has attracted a few stray Remora fish at our current anchorage – and they have aggressively trying to attach to us while we swim! It certainly makes for adventurous swimming!
Reminder- The best way to keep track of us is via our Instagram Page: www.instagram.com/sailingsargo