West Bay near Nassau

We left Morgan’s Bluff on March 15th, 2015 and arrived in West Bay on New Providence Island near Nassau after motoring for five hours - the winds were 10 knots but on the nose.  This bay is beautiful with starfish, stingrays, turtles and the most beautiful aquamarine water.  The shoreline is full of multi-million dollar homes including the home of Sean Connery.  This is also where Jaws Beach is located where the first Jaws movie was filmed. The sunset was stunning.

Morgan's Bluff on Andros Island

We stayed a week in Morgan’s Bluff and found this place is a hidden gem in the Bahamas.  We are traveling with Jack and Penny on Circe – we met them when we started our journey down the ICW in November, 2014.  We took our dinghy ashore and started walking when a woman stopped in her car and introduced herself as Kadra, the Dockmaster of Morgan’s Bluff.  She drove us all over for over 2 1/2 hours showing us everything and stopping at different places.  We stopped at Pine Valley Resort, where the owner, Eugene, gave us a tour of one of the most unusual “resorts” we have ever seen.  There are live animals of all kinds, outdoor dining, outdoor disco stage, gardens, guest rooms with shells and driftwood permanently attached to the walls and floors, pet cemetery, indoor social room with a bar, theatre, disco stage and acupuncture on site.   Kadra is friendly, helpful, and happy to assist anyone visiting Morgan’s Bluff with anything they may need.  The local people are very friendly and often will offer you a ride, although it may be in the back of their pickup truck.

  

Kadra connected us with Solomon, who took us anywhere we wanted to go for the day and he taught us quite a bit about the history and culture of Andros.  We road in the back of his pickup and our first stop was a swim in a fresh water blue hole.  This one was called Uncle Charlie’s Blue Hole and is 40 feet wide and 140 feet deep and leads to the ocean.  There are more blue holes in Andros than anywhere else in the world.  We wanted to buy produce, so Solomon took us to a produce distribution center where we could buy papaya, tomatoes, and green peppers.  Next stop was a liquor wholesale store, where Bahamian Rum is less than $9 a bottle, however, beer is $42 a case!  We wanted conch salad, but the best local restaurant, F & H, was not open today – they must have been out fishing for conch.  The mound of conch shells was impressive.  We stopped at another local restaurant and enjoyed the best cracked lobster for $12.  The last stop was a grocery store which we thought was just a gas station.  Without Solomon as our guide, we would never have found the stores and restaurants as they are scattered throughout the area and either not marked at all or the sign is not clear.

Morgan’s Bluff is a commercial harbor and we watched many ships come in and out of the harbor right past our anchored boats.  During one of the busiest days, a local fisherman offered us 18 lobster tails for $20!  Dinner on the boat that night was the best!  Kadra took Penny and I to the “Stop and Wash” where she waited for us to do our laundry at $7 per load to wash and dry.  Another stop to the grocery store as each one offers something different.  On our last full day, Kadra took the ladies to the craft fair in Nettles Town.  Baskets are hand made by the local women with Batik fabric woven into them and I bought a beautiful basket for our salon table.  There was not only crafts, but some of the most wonderful food cooked right there and the local children danced and played instruments in a parade.  We spent the most wonderful week in Morgan’s Bluff with not only Jack and Penny on Circe, but two catamarans, Quandary and Miss Jody, where we spent many happy hours together on each other’s boats.  You just meet the nicest people cruising!

  

Checking in to the Bahamas

Every time we enter a new country we are required to check in with immigration and customs and pay any entrance fees.  The process is for the captain only to go ashore and bring all the documentation, forms and fees.  After clearance, all passengers and crew are allowed to go ashore.   We arrived in Morgan's Bluff on Andros Island at 3 pm accompanied by three other boats that had not yet checked in.  All the captains went ashore to Willy’s Bar where the bartender called the immigration officer.  Immigration arrived about a half hour later and checked everyone in and granted all of us 180 days to stay in the Bahamas.  The customs officer was supposed to be on their way, but arrived three hours later.  In the meantime, all the first mates (wives and girlfriends) came ashore to Willy’s Bar for drinks and food.  By 7:30 pm everyone was completely checked in after having paid the $300 clearance fee.  We can now remove our yellow quarantine flag and fly the Bahamas courtesy flag. We are officially here in the Bahamas.

Crossing the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic to the Bahamas

We have been watching the weather every day waiting for a 2-3 day window of good window to make the crossing from Marathon, Florida across the Atlantic Gulf Stream to The Bahamas.  These have been few and far between and there a number of boats also waiting hoping to all cross together.  We thought we had a window for Thursday, March 5th, but we decided against it the day before.  However, we met with the other boaters at 12 noon on Thursday and they all wanted to cross at 3 pm.  The next window was about a week and a half away.  We decided to go which meant we had about three hours to get ready!  Well we did it and we left Marathon in the Florida Keys at 3 pm on Thursday, March 5th.  The weather was not perfect and we encountered 15-20 knots of wind and waves 3-6 feet with a few 9 footers.  We motor sailed for 27 hours under a full moon in the less than desirable conditions with two other boats – Circe and Quandary.  We kept in touch throughout the entire time watching for freighters and cruise ships and making sure everyone was doing fine.  At about 10 am on Friday morning we crossed into the Great Bahama Banks.  I describe these as an ocean shelf, 75 nautical miles across and 180 nautical miles from north to south with an average depth of 15-18 feet with the most beautiful crystal clear water you have seen with varying hues of blue, teal, and aquamarine.  We decided to drop anchor before dark in the Banks.  We anchored close together with our anchor lights on so any vessel would be able to see us and avoid getting too close.  We pulled anchor at 7 am and continued another 40 nautical miles to Morgan’s Bluff on Andros Island. We all anchored in a protected bay on Saturday afternoon and very glad to have arrived in the Bahamas!

Marathon in the Middle Keys

We never thought we would have spent so long here in Marathon, but this is a hard place to leave.  Some people arrive planning to spend a few months and are still here several years later.  We do not intend to spend that long here, but we have been waiting for the right weather to cross the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean to the Bahamas.  Don’t forget this is still winter and there are many cold fronts with strong winds that pass through although the temperatures are in the 70’s and 80’s.  Many of our friends that we traveled with on the Sail Rally are here as well and it is so hard to leave them. We wanted to share all the beautiful pictures we have collected not only ours but others to prove how hard it is to leave Marathon.