May 2012 -Bahamas to Florida - Page 2

21 May 2012   London to Miami
We were up at six o’clock and dragged Brett and Tash out of bed to say goodbye.  We drove to Heathrow, dropped the car off and managed to get to the check in desk with over two hours to spare.  

We were carrying two new hatches back to the boat to replace our existing ones, which have become crazed over the years.  Sergio, the previous owner of Alba, had complained to Lewmar, who had surprisingly supplied him with three new hatches under warranty.  Sergio had already taken one out to Alba - it’s sitting in the forepeak locker waiting to be fitted.  He’d given us the other two hatches and they’ve been in Brett’s loft for the past year.  I was expecting trouble because the boxes are large and heavy, but having taped the two boxes together, we escaped with only an additional charge of £40 for one extra bag.

The flight was long and tedious, giving me time to worry about the weather and our passage to the east coast of the states.  Yesterday, I’d looked at a weather forecast for the first time in two weeks and discovered to my horror that Tropical Storm Alberto has formed to the east of Florida and to the North of the Bahamas.  It looks like there’s very unsettled weather stretching across the Bahamas, which may delay our passage north.  It’s really early to get a Tropical Storm system and I’m hoping that it will disappear soon and return to settled weather for our six or seven day passage to Chesapeake.

Flying over the Exumas

We arrived in Miami in the late afternoon and stayed in a hotel overnight, which was very pleasant.

22 May 2012   Miami to Emerald Bay Marina, Bahamas
We were up at six o’clock again and caught the courtesy bus to the airport.

We had problems with the hatches because they were overweight.  They made us split them apart, so it cost us $80 in additional charges.  I hadn’t taken our boat papers with us, so I had no proof that we were going onto a yacht, so the check-in clerk warned us that we may not be granted entry when we arrived in the Bahamas – a bit worrying…

The weather was overcast and the view of the Bahaman Banks was not as impressive as the flight out making me wish that I’d taken photos two weeks ago.  

We had no problem with the immigration officer.  However, I was expecting that the customs would try to make me pay import duty on the hatches, which are worth £1,200, so I had forged an invoice showing that the hatches were a repair under warranty with zero value.  To my surprise, it worked and, even without boat papers, the customs officer let us through without having to pay any import duty.

We arrived back at Alba just after midday.  She was still floating - which was a relief.  We spent the afternoon unpacking our luggage and testing that the boat’s essential systems still worked - engine, generator and watermaker. We made a small amount of water to check the watermaker and then filled up the tanks with mains water. 

I looked at the weather forecast and it seemed to indicate strong south-east winds, but we decided to go around to Georgetown tomorrow.  It’s only twelve miles and it will be much nicer to be at anchor.  Then Glenys went to the laundry and met June from Windflower who told her that there would be big thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow.  I had a chat to her husband (Hyde) who showed me some forecasts and told me that they’d been caught out a few days ago, so perhaps we’ll stay another day…

23 May 2012   Emerald Bay Marina, Bahamas
What a miserable night.  There were huge thunderstorms, strong winds and lashing rain for most of the night.  Glenys got out of bed in the middle of the night and found that, because we’re not facing into the wind, we had rain coming into the cockpit and down the companionway into saloon.  She’d also left a small hatch over the galley open, so the kitchen area was wet through as well.  We’ve got out of the habit of living on a boat…

The morning brought more of the same, with lashing rain coming from all directions, so we put up our foul weather “tent” which total encloses the cockpit and keeps out the rain – this is only the second time that we’ve had to get it out.

All-weather tent in place

 I spent an hour or so trying to understand the long range weather forecasts which now indicate that there is another low pressure system to the south west of Cuba. It’s forecast to track to the west and north of us and may develop into another Tropical Storm off Florida over the weekend.

This strange weather is unsettling – it looks like the Abacos, which are 200 miles north of us, are going to get clobbered with 30+ knot winds in the next few days.  We were planning to sail 900 miles (6 days) directly to Norfolk, but I’m now very nervous about trying to get a clear six day weather window.  I don’t want to be caught out by a Tropical storm.

I spent the rest of the day researching ports on the Georgia and Carolina coast, so that we have alternative routes planned depending on what the weather brings.

Thankfully, the rain stopped in the afternoon and we were able to have dinner in the cockpit.

Tropical Storm Beryl

24 May 2012   Emerald Bay Marina, Bahamas
I was up early checking out the weather forecasts.  It’s looking very likely that Tropical Storm Beryl will form to the east of Florida during the weekend.  If this happens, it will be the first time that there have been two named tropical storms before June 1st since 1887.  It’s just our bad luck to be around for this “historical event”. On the bright side, it looks like the storm will turn towards the Georgia coast and dissipate by Tuesday.  So, if we’re lucky, we’ll have a good weather window in the middle of next week.  

It was a grey overcast morning with more thunderstorms forecast, so we decided to stay another day in the marina rather than bashing into the wind and waves for two hours in the rain.  Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow and we can escape from here – we both feel very trapped. 

By the afternoon, it was brightening up but still overcast.  We went for a walk along the beach to stretch our legs and then Glenys disappeared with her netbook to take advantage of the air-conditioned lounge.  I stayed on board, looked up more information about ports along the Georgia and Carolina coasts and read a novel.

25 May 2012   Emerald Bay Marina to Georgetown, Great Exuma, Bahamas
It was a very calm night.  We woke up to nicer weather with some blue skies and our first sighting of the sun for a few days.

We filled up with fuel and paid the bill - £670 for marina fees, £250 for fuel and an outrageous £40 for water.  I’m pretty mad about the cost of the water, especially because it tastes absolutely foul – we should have made our own.

We motored around to Georgetown. I hooked a big fish on the way, but it threw the hook before I got to the rod.  We anchored as close to the town as we dared get.  It’s so shallow in the anchorage that we ended up about ½ mile away from the shore.  We went into town, bought some food and tried to chill out for the rest of the afternoon - we’re both finding it difficult to adjust to the slower pace of life on a yacht after the manic couple of weeks zooming around in the UK.