Bahamas bound......

No Name Harbor is once again our jumping off point to head east.  We enjoyed a Hog Grouper dinner at the Boaters Grill which is right on the water and headed for an early night.  5:30am was going to come quick.

Nati in No Name Harbor

We pulled up the anchor at 0630 and was the fourth boat out heading towards the Gulf Stream.  Winds were light as we headed out but the forecast was for the breeze to pick up so we put a reef in the main and took off towards the Bahamas.  We had a number of boats with us......Kismet, Mutual Fun and Passages were traveling with us and there were more all around.  Maybe we picked a good window!

The "stream" was a bit choppy but Nati was liking the  wind and we soon caught up with everyone.  Still we were all having fun but.....wait there is another cat closing on us!  Ah.....they made the mistake of having their port engine on when they went by.....that is cheating!!

We crossed over on to the Bahamian Bank around 1330 and reported to Kismet that the "magic water" was still there!  Yes, it was beautiful.  We went from over 1,500 feet deep water to 20 in less than 5 minutes!!

We are on the "bank".

The bank crossing went smooth.  The seas were a little choppy but we continued to fly!  Later we actually slowed Nati down so we wouldn't get to Nassau too early.  The harbor is supposed to be busy and we didn't have a clue where we were going.  By 6am we could see the lights and we pulled into the harbor by 0930.  You have to actually call Nassau Harbor Control to get permission to enter.  Very interesting to do that for the first time.

We got a slip at the Nassau Harbor Club and got checked into Immigrations & Customs by early afternoon.  We gave Nati & ourselves a good washing down and had an early dinner via Domino's Pizza.  I fell asleep by 630pm.  Anne followed 45 minutes later.  

The crossing was great.  178 miles and we used less than 6 gallons of fuel, mostly coming into the harbor and the last 8 miles which were DDW (dead downwind).  Our top speed was over 9.5kts and we could have had our first 200 miles, 24 hour day if we didn't slow the girl down.  She was handling all the conditions without a fight.  

Later today we will head south towards the north end of the Exumas.  Who knows where we will spend New Years Eve??!!  No worries though.......it will be in the BAHAMAS!!

Going through the Nassau entrance

Kismet going past Atlantis