North Palm to West End

We arrived at the North Palm Beach Marina on 27 November. North Palm was to be the last place we were scheduled to stop in the States for three to four months, so it was time to do some major provisioning and preparation. We had four principal tasks to complete. First, we needed to provision for our adventure in the Bahamas. We had to get people food, cat food and all the “stuff” we would need for the coming months.  Second, we needed to get Spot’s health certificate from a local vet and permission from Nassau to transport her to the Bahamas. Third, we needed to get a few more repairs done on Traveling Soul. Some we have known about for some time and the need for others happened only recently; some we can do ourselves and some we have to pay to have done. Fourth, we had to wait for a weather window. This may be the most difficult task of all because we really have to be ready to go while waiting for the weather – and things can get b-o-r-i-n-g. Anyway, Part I of this blog is the story of our time in North Palm getting ready to cross and Part II is the story of our crossing and first few nights in the Bahamas.

United States	10274
Russia	692
Ukraine	666
France	363
Bahamas	276
Canada	271
United Kingdom	266
Germany	261
China	165
Turkey	151

Ok, do you think that first paragraph kind of diverted everyone’s attention? Let’s hope so, because before moving on, I would like to share something about the audience for this blog. Overall, in the years we have writing, we have had 16,135 pageviews. The countries with the top viewership are as indicated in the table to the left.

Now I can understand the US readership (of course), France’s readership (Ann has relatives who live there), viewers from the Bahamas (some of our friends visit there), Canada (most of the followers of this blog know that I believe the Canadians are on the verge of invading the Bahamas – I am sure they are just keeping track of me) and even the UK (we have friends who live there, too). But Russia??? The Ukraine??? And China??? And you all thought I was paranoid. I am sure all of you have read Chapter One (written most kind of humbly by yours truly) in the Carnegie Corporation’s China’s Military & the US-Japan Alliance, 2030: A Strategic Net Assessment, and are well aware of what I think about the Chinese. And, though I haven’t written anything of substance yet, let’s just say I am not a big fan of Putin and his actions in the Ukraine. So, you think the fact that I have a big audience in Russia, the Ukraine and China is coincidence?? Well, I think not!  They are all keeping track of me. Even paranoids have enemies! Shhh, don’t tell anybody that I am onto them. Now back to the blog …

Getting Ready

The first thing we did was to rent a car from Enterprise. After that, we determined that the first step in preparing our boat and crew for the Bahamas had to be Spot’s paperwork. We knew a vet had to give her an exam and issue her a health certificate, but we weren’t quite sure how to get the certificate to the Ministry of Agriculture in Nassau. We read the web site for the Ministry and, to be honest, it wasn’t much help. Then we got lucky. While we were in Brunswick, GA we met Karen Siegel, from Accapela. To make a long story short, we learned that we had to send the paperwork to the Ministry via UPS or FEDEX. Sending it through the Bahamian Postal Service was a recipe for disaster. When Karen used the Post Office, it was MONTHS before she got the permissions back from Nassau. She also said we needed to send the paperwork with a $15 money order. Ten of the dollars were for Spot’s entry fee to the Bahamas (we knew about that) and the other five dollars was a fax fee. The notion was that once the Ministry received and approved the paperwork, it would send everything back to us by fax and would do so within 48 hours. So, I am thinking, “Yea, right. I don’t know of ANY bureaucracy that gets something done in 48 hours.” Needless to say, I built in somewhere between a week to ten days to get the paperwork back. Imagine my surprise when, 48 hours after Ann sent the paperwork to Nassau, we received a fax from the Ministry of Agriculture. Spot had been approved to enter the Bahamas.

Besides getting Spot’s paperwork, we had to provision with non-food items. Every year, as we travel down the ICW, we make a list of non-emergency items that we want to get for the boat. It can be boat cleaning products, spare parts, new lines (ropes) or just some cool stuff. When we arrive in Palm Beach we head to a place called Boat Owners Warehouse – a boat products store that has very good prices – and we spend some a lot of money. In addition, of course, we head to Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Bed, Bath and Beyond and a number of other places so we have everything we need while down Island (as we boat people say).

We have one FULL refrigerator

Provisioning also involves food. Those of you who know Ann and I certainly know that we are going to eat well no matter where we are or where we go. The first year we went to the Bahamas we stocked up on everything; all the books we had read said that Bahamian grocery stores are few, far between and don’t have much of an inventory. Well, that’s true in many places. But in Treasure Cay, Marsh Harbor, Nassau, Georgetown and some other locations, the stores have just about everything you might find in a US supermarket – though any of the products are at a fifteen to twenty percent mark-up. So, we this year we focused primarily on buying things that are especially expensive in the Bahamas (paper products, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, personal items, crackers, etc.) and on meat products that we don’t see very often in the local stores (steak, chicken, hamburger, etc.). Yes, we bought some canned goods, and yes we bought some specialty items that we like a lot, but generally, we focused on meats and cleaning/laundry/paper products. 

As I said, we arrived in North Palm on Friday 27 November. By Monday we had Spot’s health certificate and had sent it to Nassau. By Wednesday we had permission for Spot to enter the Bahamas. By Thursday we had done 90% of our provisioning and were just about ready to go. The only thing that wasn’t ready was the weather. So we had to wait for a weather window.

 

This is as good of a place as any to tell you what we are doing weather-wise this year differently than we have in the past; we have hired our own personal weatherman!  Chris Parker is well known among cruisers as an excellent prognosticator of Caribbean and Bahamian weather. Since we plan on going places where it is difficult to get good forecasts, we decided to hire Chris and to integrate his forecasts with those of our Sirius/XM weather system. BUT if you think having your own forecaster is easy, you need to think again. Here is Chris’ synopsis for a specific day in December:

THIS AFTERNOON: RIDGE along 32N strengthens / upper-air disturbance continues supprting squalls as noted in IMAGERY (mainly from GrtInaugua NNE-ward)...but also reflects broad surface TROF from 72W-76W...which causes wind W of 75W to back NE & build, especially in C Bahamas-KyLargo (ENE wind builds this afternoon in rest of NW Bahamas-SFL) / most areas E of 74W see building wind clocking ENE<ESE, with a few squalls/T-strms. There should be an area under TROF (maybe 72W-76W in areas S of 24N...including parts of Crooked-Acklins-Jumentos-LongIsland-G'twn) which lie under TROF (rather than W or E of TROF), and which see light wind except possibly in a few squalls.

There are about ten paragraphs just like that. Now all of that is readable, of course, as long as you have a guide by your side and have an hour or so to absorb the forecast. I am sure it will become easier over time, but right now it takes quite a bit of work.

The Crossing

All that being said, on December 10, it appeared the stars were in alignment and that we could take off. At 0600 we were up and were busying ourselves with last minute checks of the engines, our water supply and the electrical cords. By 0700 we had cast off our lines, had pointed our bow toward the horizon and, as Mark Twain put it long ago, were on our way to, “Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Spot. In her special place under the table.

For some reason, and I don’t quite understand why, the first couple of hours of our trip was a bit bumpy. Not seriously bumpy, you understand, but bumpy enough to have Spot look at us as if she thought we were off our rockers. In fact, after looking for someplace safe where she could handle the crossing, she went to her “special place,” under our table and decided to wait it out there. About two hours after we started, however, the wind shifted just a bit and the seas calmed down. Finally, they were the 2-3 feet that the forecasters had predicted – and it was (relatively) smooth sailing.

You know, each time we cross I try to describe the feeling of crossing the Gulf Stream under our own power – and each time I fail. Let me try this. We are two humans on a fifty-two foot boat made primarily of fiberglass. Under us is a water column of ½ mile. Moreover, you can look to the left and to the right and see nothing but water – a half mile deep at any particular point. It makes me realize that we – all of us, not just Mike and Ann – are not quite as important as we think we are. In the grand scheme of things, we are just one of nature’s interesting little experiments.

Here is the squall on the radar.
We were trying to go fight between the blobs.
 

On the way we saw a couple of squalls heading in our direction. We turned on the radar and I decided to see if we could worm our way through them. First we went right, then we went left, then straight up the middle. Yes!!! Although we did catch some drizzle, we made it through the squalls without any real rain.

You can see the squall we were trying to miss in the
distance. Luckily, this one had no lightening

We arrived at Old Bahama Bay Marina, at West End in the Bahamas at about 1500 on the 10^th.  We were assigned slip C2; we knew it well, we had been there before. After checking in at Customs and Immigration and paying our $300 entry fee, we officially lowered our yellow quarantine flag and replaced it with a courtesy Bahamian flag. We had made it this far, and, as far as I know, neither the Chinese, the Russians nor the Ukrainians know where we are.

In the next entry we will tell you about our excursions to Great Sale Cay, Foxtown, Allans-Pensacola Cay, Manjack Cay and Treasure Cay. I know you are chomping at the bit, but I need to get someplace that has an internet connection.

ANN’S NOTES:  So I guess it is my turn. I have given some thought to how I am going to write my part of the Blog. In the beginning I kept very close track of the wildlife, but that got rather boring and besides, I now have my own little feline to talk about. I decided to keep daily notes on our everyday activities and see how that looks on the computer/ blog.  So here goes, just remember that I do not handle negative comments very well…just saying.

Preparing the boat for our stay in the Bahamas was really pretty easy, this is our third winter over there and I know the drill. Weird things like toothpaste, mouth wash, deodorant, dental floss and just cleaning supplies are expensive. Food, in general, although a little higher than on the mainland, is about the same. After all, people need to eat the world around.

Old Bahama Bay, West End Bahamas -- Our destination!

The one new item on my list was taking care of Spot. I had read all the rules, regulations, Facebook chat rooms, etc. and was starting to get a little anxious. The universe was kind in putting us next to an “expert” while we were in Brunswick, GA – because we were there for only one day. Thanks to Karen Siegel and her calm voice and wonderful advice, I was able to get the permit needed for Spot. I did learn a few lessons on my own. FedEx and UPS will not send a package to a PO Box address. After two stops at two different FedEx locations, I must admit I got a little panic attack. I had Spot in the rental car with me and we had just been to the Vet. That story will follow. I finally went to a UPS store and was told the same thing – no deliveries to a PO Box. So…I asked to speak to the manager, I asked the right questions and I had the correct solution. The deal is, the UPS package needs to be signed for by a person, a PO Box cannot do that.  I had the building name, the department in said building, the street name and the city. I just omitted the PO Box Number…BINGO…the paper work was sent and the permit was faxed to the marina in 48 hours. Thank heaven.

The story at the vet was so sweet. I went to the same vet in Palm Springs that Spot’s breeder uses, and the one that spayed Spot when she was a kitten. He had Spot’s mom in the back and asked if I would like to see her. Actually her dad was also there but he was not really interested in Spot.  Spot’s mom was in a lower cage, Spot was talking to her in the lobby before I even got to the back room. Although Spot was in her harness and on a leash, she went right up the cage and started to sniff and give nose kisses to her mom. Even the Vet said he had never seen such a reaction between cats, no hissing, clawing, or meowing. It was really like they knew they were related, mother and daughter.  I was glad Spot got to reunite with her mom but sad to take her away again.

The other pre departure items to be done was call the credit card companies t o tell them we are leaving and to not put a hold on the cards when they see it is being used out of country. Also I had to call Verizon to suspend my phone while in the Bahamas. Michael had to get a haircut and had a last minute dental appointment. Oh… also making sure we have enough personal medications to last while we are one. And that is yet another story…I will just say that the CVS pharmacy went above and beyond to help me. Also, a trip to the bank, cash is good in the Bahamas.

Michael told you about our crossing, people wise it was fine, feline wise, well just say I gave her a dose of Bach’s Pet Rescue Remedy and that helped a lot. She found her safe place under the table and all was well. I am glad she is not the sea sick type. I am learning to just leave her alone and let her handle the situation in her own cat way. The less fuss the better, and a good dose of Bach’s helps.

All is well on Traveling Soul, we have meet a few new cruisers, that is always fun. The boat systems are all in working order and humming along with no problems…knock on wood, cross fingers.

Thank you for following…even those of you in Russia, China and the Ukraine.

TRAVEING SOUL…OUT