West End Bahamas (2014-02-17)

N26° 42.083', W78° 59.467'

Tonight finds us tied up to the dock in Old Bahama Bay marina, for our last evening in the Bahamas.


Saturday was our last day on Green Turtle Cay.  It was too windy to go out in the kayak, so we decided to go for a last walk along the beach instead.

Green Turtle Cay beach

 Sunday morning was departure day.  Our first day heading back would be a long one, with the destination being Great Sale Cay.  We reluctantly said goodbye to our new friends, with promises to look them up when we returned to Canada.

Diane and Pat of S/V Sharpies Dream

In all 5 boats departed from Leeward Yacht Club on Sunday.  There were 4 boats heading to Great Sale Cay, and a fifth that was headed for the Whale and the lower Abaco.

We couldn't have asked for a much better travel day, especially once we got back on the Little Bahama Bank.  The water was almost perfectly calm.

Little Bahama Bank

 Unfortunately not everyone was having a good day.  We saw this sailboat up on the rocks near Allans-Pensacola Cay.  I'm not sure when this happened, but it wasn't there when we came through here a month ago.

Sailboat on the rocks near Allans-Pensacola Cay

After a long day we made it to Great Sale Cay, and a very peaceful anchorage.  There were 12 boats in the anchorage last night, some heading east, and some like us, reluctantly heading west.

Sunset in Great Sale Cay

This morning we headed out and continued on to West End.  The conditions weren't as nice as yesterday, but they were still pretty good.

Sunrise in Great Sale Cay

By 1500 we had arrived at what will be our last port of call in the Bahamas, Old Bahama Bay marina.

After everyone got settled we all met at the restaurant here for a meal.

I called us "The Leeward Yacht Club Refuges" ;-)

From left to right in the above picture (and I apologize in advance for names I mess up - I told you we needed nametags! :-)), Sam and Joanne from S/V Sunrise, Jim and Barb from S/V Tan Dam, Ester and Franklin from S/V Estica, and of course, your esteemed Cruise Director from M/V September Dream (the Chief Engineer is behind the camera, where he belongs... :-)).

Tomorrow morning we'll all be heading out (although for some it won't be morning yet, right Jim and Barb? :-)), and everyone will be heading for the Lake Worth inlet.  We're hoping to be able to clear in over the phone using our Nexus cards, and if successful we'll probably be anchoring out.  If we have to go in we'll probably go to the same marina that S/V Tan Dam is headed for, which is walking distance away from the Customs office.