That belt caused us to start thinking. We decided that having no spares for the raw water intake belt and impeller were unwise, so we needed to obtain at least one spare of each. Georgetown is not a cost effective place to obtain such items. Also, while we could obtain a decent amount of groceries in Georgetown, the selections were essentially the same and we were getting a bit tired of the same thing every week. We had been in the Exumas for almost three months and our visas were going to expire in mid-March. We decided that perhaps it was time to head back to Nassau at least, and perhaps on to Florida.
So we spent the next week making our way back up to Nassau. We pretty much retraced our steps from before. The weather was supposed to be calm for awhile, so we headed back to Galliot Cay and on to Black Point. As usual, the weather never seems to be as predicted. We got stuck in Black Point for several days before getting a weather window to go on to Highborne Cay. The weather was truly awful, high winds straight out of the west. There was absolutely no protection from west wind and waves in Black Point, so we had a pretty rough stay. Fortunately our Rocna anchor held, even through the two to four foot waves tossing and throwing us around. Even worse was the fact that we couldn't even get off the boat and go to shore. The wind and waves were too rough to consider putting the dinghy down at all. So the groceries began to quickly deplete and the laundry was piling up. As soon as the weather broke, we left for Highborne Cay. Then it was just an easy day trip up to Nassau and into Bay Street Marina for three nights. Staying in the marina at least allowed us to get off the boat for awhile and get some laundry done. We also spent a day walking around several marine supply places looking for a new impeller and belt. The fourth stop had the items in stock. While we were forced to pay double price, at least we had spares in hand. We made a large grocery run and began to plan our route back to Florida. We had decided in Black Point that we all needed some time off of the boat for awhile.
We had been looking at a few different ways to get up to Bimini to stage to get back to Florida, but then, the decision sort of made itself for us. There was a front coming in that was threatening to last a week with extremely high winds from the North and Northeast. While Nassau was nice, it was also expensive, and the Berry islands between Nassau and Bimini would not give us any protection from the coming winds. We decided that if we had to get stuck in a marina for awhile, it was much more cost effective to get stuck in Bimini. So we made an eighteen hour overnight trip from Nassau to Bimini to beat the front. We almost made it. The front showed up early and caught us about an hour and a half before Bimini, so the trip was only rough right at the end. However, it was incredibly rough. It was another one of those launching off of waves with the boat for the last few hours. The Admiral was fairly certain that if she ever managed to get off of the boat, she might never get back on again. Brown's Marina in Bimini never looked so good. We tucked into the dock and tied up. Needless to say, dinner was on shore that night!
The front proved to be as bad as everyone expected. Even in the harbor we were getting two foot breaking waves at times. We double tied all of our lines to ensure the boat would stay put in case any of the cleats, lines, or points on the dock let loose. We did have one line snap, so the doubling up proved useful. We all sat around the marina and listened to the wind howl for a week. We had a lovely cruiser's pot luck dinner with the other boats that had come in to hide from the weather, and spent a lot of time on shore looking around. We grilled on shore and threw our leftovers to the fish. We saw stingrays fly up out of the water attempting to avoid the sharks. We saw hundreds of little fish that would swarm from around the boat at anything dropped in the water. Needless to say, we didn't get into the water. Here's a few pictures of the fish swarming at mashed potatoes tossed into the water:
We had decided to wait on a completely calm day to make the trip across the gulf stream back to Florida. Friday, March 10th proved to be the right day. We made plans to leave at 5:00am to ensure we arrived in Florida in the afternoon. However, sleep eluded both of us at 3:00am, so we decided to leave even earlier. By the time the kids woke up, they could see the coast of Florida on the horizon. The trip proved completely event free until we entered US waters. Then for the first time ever for us, we were stopped by the US Customs and Border Patrol. They asked us a million questions, but seemed satisfied enough with our answers to leave us without boarding us. We shook it off and made our way back to the real world. The cut into Florida was crazy as Spring Break was upon us. We slowly maneuvered our way in and arrived onto our pre-arranged private dock in Fort Lauderdale three hours early. We tossed our luggage onto the dock, placed Tiger in his carrier, and made our way to a hotel. It's time to get off of the boat for awhile. We'll keep ya posted as to where we end up!
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| The boat sitting at a rented private dock. |
