Bahamas Sunrise

Well, finally!

After a long night at sea, the sun appeared slowly over the eastern horizon (I love the 6:00-to-8:00 am watch) and the Bahamas came into view. Once we turned east from Florida’s east coast to cross the Gulf Stream (which runs north at more than three miles per hour between Florida and the Bahamas), we had a great sail on a beam reach with a following sea all the way to West End on Grand Bahama Island. The wisdom of our decision to sail overnight in order to arrive in the Bahamas and enter an unfamiliar port during daylight was reinforced at 3:00 AM the next morning when a sailboat ran up on the rocks and was destroyed while attempting to enter the narrow West End channel to our marina in the dark. Fortunately the crew was able to get ashore but the boat was a total loss.

So we are snug in a beautiful resort marina and waiting out the passage of a cold front (with thunderstorms and 30-knot northerly winds) while enjoying the swimming pool and warm turquoise Bahamian waters. This marina has been recently upgraded as part of the early stages of an ambitious plan to develop a large mixed-use water-oriented community on the West End with grand canals, hotels, homes with boat docks, condominiums, retail, etc. From what we hear, the Bahamas have experienced the beginnings of numerous large-scale developments but are suffering from low occupancies and slow sales due to the US economic downturn and credit issues as well as high fuel costs for the large 50-to-90-foot sport fishing boats that bring free-spending tourists from Florida. A typical refueling for them is 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel while we have burned only 10 gallons since refueling in West Palm Beach. Dave says that we have a responsibility to the local economy to make up the difference by drinking Margaritas (He’s just joking I hope!).

One of the high points of stopping for a few days here has been the opportunity to re-connect with another cruising family from Wyoming on a similar adventure with their two children. We had enjoyed the opportunity to socialize with them at a couple of earlier stops. Their 7-year-old daughter and Amelia have become instant best friends, sharing pool time, snorkeling practice, a sleepover and stories and generally bossing each other around. Dave and I are also really enjoying some fun adult time with a couple with whom we have a lot in common.

The Bahamas has an interesting history. It is an island chain that stretches over 600 miles and includes 1,700 islands and 2,000 cays, many of which are remote and accessible only by private boat. Columbus initially set foot here in 1492, and in less than 25 years the 40,000-strong population of native Lucayans was gone. The islands were then ignored by explorers of many nations in favor of more treasure-rich locations because of its treacherous shoals and reefs, lack of gold, and unfavorable conditions for agriculture. In those days, the islands were so little regarded that, in 1629, King Charles I of England granted the islands to his Attorney General as a throw-away in a package that included the Carolinas. The archipelago became a haven for settlers fleeing religious persecution, pirates and wreckers. In 1718 it became a British Colony and the new governor cleaned things up (in the process establishing the national motto Expulsis Piratis – Restituta Commercia – expel the pirates and restore commerce.) During the next two hundred years, the islands had a boom and bust economy with booms fueled by European wars (privateering), the American Civil War (blockade running), and later prohibition. 1n 1973, the Bahamas became independent from England and the economy today is stable, fueled primarily by tourism and offshore banking.

So, we have been looking at the Bahamas charts and are overwhelmed by the variety of fascinating places that we could visit in this beautiful island chain. It seems that we could easily spend a year rather than the few weeks that we now have to explore. We plan to make some choices while waiting out the current weather front, and look to forward to enjoying the islands before we start the trek north.