MV Privateer

Snorkeling Rangers Garden at Warderick Wells, Exumas, Bahamas

A wonderful snorkel opportunity awaits you when visiting Warderick Wells, moored either at the north field or Emerald Rock. The Google image below shows the small cut at the southwest end of the north mooring field (aka HQ or the horse shoe). The red star in the image is the turning mark for folks rounding the sand bar heading to moorings 16-22. The two yellow circles are dingy moorings. The southernmost mooring gets you closer to the coral.

Just west of the moorings are a a couple of coral mounds (green arrow) that are full of fish, turtles and an occasional sleeping nurse shark. Swim from there to the deeper coral and the other green arrow just outside the cut and south of the “No Wake” buoy (pink star).

Rangers Garden at Warderick Wells

This is an area of moderate current so the deep coral in the cut makes for a great drift dive. Alternatively, time your dive for slack. As a general rule, slack in this cut is about 45 minutes before, and up to 15 minutes after, Nassau high and low tide. Winds and the height of the previous tide will determine actual slack, which lasts 20-30 minutes. The easiest way to determine slack is to just watch the boats on the moorings in the north field. As the ebb approaches low tide slack, the boats at ball #16 and 17 will begin to swing off the current and into the wind. Slack will be 20-30 minutes after this. On the flood, the same thing will happen to the boats on balls #4-6 as they begin to lose the effect of the current and bend to the wind. Flood is milder than the ebb.

If you have weak swimmers aboard, try anchoring your dinghy on the sand bar to the west of the shallow coral and swim over. There will be only mild current at this coral and it is easy to get out of the current by swimming back to the sand bar. The flood current at the dinghy moorings is usually weak to moderate, but the ebb can be stronger than average swimmers can handle and the current in the cut itself even stronger.

Eagle Ray school

The high point of your dive will be swimming with the spotted eagle rays. We have seen as many as ten rays in a school. They hang around the deep coral and often swim through the mooring field. They are so accustomed to snorkelers that they will pass under you and allow you to get within a few feet before they accelerate ever so slightly in order to keep their distance. Just stay in place and they will often circle underneath you. Bring your camera.

Plenty of nurse sharks in the area. Often resting on the bottom. They usually make the rounds of the moored boats looking for handouts. (Bad idea).

There are also a few resident reef sharks that will keep an eye on you while you are snorkeling in the area. They keep their distance so unless you are looking out a ways you may never see them.

Turtles are also well accustomed to divers so they tend to let you get closer than in other settings. Expect to see many schools of fish in the area. Jacks, snapper, wrasses and more.

Yellow Tail snapper

Somehow the grouper and the lobster, usually shy, know they are protected in the park.

Cat Island, Bahamas

updated March 2023 to add Pigeon Cay anchorage

Cat Island is one of the Bahamas Out Islands, meaning it is other than Grand Bahama or New Providence. But that doesn’t tell you much about Cat. New Providence and Grand Bahama make up 83% of the country’s population, while Cat has only 1,6oo residents scattered over 150 square miles. While there is a significant expat population, as well as some long and short term renters in season, there aren’t many resorts or hotels, so a visitor gets a sense that this is a Bahamian island for Bahamians, but all are welcome. Quite welcome. Because of the lack of tourism, the folks you meet are genuinely happy to meet you. Please greet each person you encounter and you will surely get a warm response. One encounter we had with a gentleman proves this point: we were approaching a commercial wharf looking for a place to tie up the dinghy. A man who had been relaxing in the shade approached us to help us find a spot. When we came back from shopping, we had a tip ready for him. His hand was never out, he was just trying to be helpful. No tip needed.

This was our third visit to Cat Island and, thanks to some decent weather, our longest. Cat has many beautiful anchorages, as long as the wind has some east in it. Any significant west wind will send a cruiser to either Hawks Nest Marina on the southern tip of the island or to another island with better protection. This year we were able to anchor out for ten days before ducking into Hawks Nest Marina for four days to weather a front with a lot of NW wind.

There are no dingy docks anywhere on the island. Most of the beaches are steep to, with a ledge at low water so its easy to beach the dinghy and tie off to a shoreline tree. There are some areas with rocky edges so you will need to be careful.

Even after combining our first two visits with this last trip we still failed to checkout everything on our wish list. Therefore, while this post contains mostly first hand experiences from our visits, we have included a few suggested sights that we tried to visit but weren’t able to. The post will cover navigation and anchorages first(north to south), then cover things to do, places to eat and where to shop. I have included phone numbers where possible. Many of these businesses are also on WhatsApp and/or Facebook Messenger. I suggest contacting any business/restaurant before visiting.

Navigation and Anchoring

Navigating the banks (west side) of the island is straightforward but there are areas of coral that are less than 5′ below the surface at low tide. The Explorer charts do a good job of identifying these areas so, armed with good light you should be fine.

We found nothing but deep sand wherever we anchored. While there are significant grassy areas, there are always plenty of white sand areas. Most of the shoreline is relatively steep to, so you can come in much closer to shore than the Explorer charts suggest.

Cat’s windward shore is the open Atlantic so any significant ocean swell is likely to bend around into the anchorages. This can be quite noticeable when anchored in the northern areas when a NE swell is running outside. It is easy to get fooled by a local SE breeze and anchor to avoid the wind chop and then get rolled by the ocean swell from 90 degrees out. We used our flopper stoppers much of the time. Specific strategies to avoid the ocean swell will be covered in each anchorage.

Shannas Cove

Shannas Cove provides good protection from east winds and decent protection from minor swell from either NE or SE. With mild conditions we anchored in the middle of the bay. The north end, in front of Shanna’s Cove Resort, is a bit shallow. We anchored in 10′ and the area carried 7′ to near the beach. The SE corner can provide decent protection from a SE swell. The beaches to the north are deserted and spectacular. There is even a cave on one beach that is accessible at low tide. There are some excellent coral fields as well but it was too rough the day we did our dinghy explore. Dinner at Shannas Cove Resort (242-359-9668) was excellent. Maria and Gregor are your friendly hosts, originally from Germany and they serve a fixed price($60), fixed menu three-course gourmet dinner. They had a new chef from Switzerland who did an excellent job. Call ahead for reservations.

As you approach the bay you will drive over a series of sand and grass ridges and you will loose a few feet of depth each time. We never saw less than 8′ MLW on our approach from the SE, maybe 7′ MLW on the way out southbound.

While we did not anchor there, the area south of Orange Creek Point would provide good protection from NE wind or swell. Additionally, Gregor from Shannas Cove Resort mentioned that Orange Creek Food Store (242-354-4110) was a good, small store (closed on Saturday). We did not have a chance to visit it.

Pigeon Cay and Pigeon Creek aka Alligator Creek

Pigeon Cay provides another spectacular beach, excellent holding and protection from east through north. We even handled some moderate NNW with just a bit of wrap around chop getting to us.

We first anchored to the east to avoid a SE swell, then moved to the NW spot to escape a bit of NNW. The area around the NW anchor spot is excellent white sand with occasional large coral heads that provide decent snorkeling off the back of the boat. The beach drops off quickly to 6’+ and smooth sand extends to about 100 yards off the beach. Beyond that, there is a mix of rock and sand so you will need to pick and choose a place to drop. We anchored about 200′ off the beach in 10′.

Besides the coral, we came here to take a trip up Pigeon Creek. It is famous for its turtle population but we didn’t see many. While the main creek is wide and deep there are many branch creeks that would be perfect for kayaking. Had we had more time, we would have towed the kayaks with the dingy to access these side creeks that extend deep into the mangroves.

Benett’s Harbour

We anchored at Benett’s Harbour specifically to eat at Da Island Kitchen (242-354-6003) and buy some of Chef Andrew’s bread. Unfortunately, he was closed. That’s the second time we visited to find him closed. Suggestion: call ahead. That said, the anchorage was protected and pleasant. Mix of locals and expats live in the modest homes on the beach. The area carries 7′ to near shore. The two small coral heads are visible and are deep enough to ignore. Speaking of coral, near the beach we snorkeled a little patch coral. It was nothing exciting, just an easy little spot to check out the fish. Walking the beach is very nice and we were welcomed to the neighborhood by at least three different folks. We did not make it to Yardie’s (242-354-6076) for drinks or food, but hear it is quite an institution on the island and withing walking distance. We did see it on a previous visit and I recall they serve in a carport, very low key.

Smith’s Bay

This is the commercial dock for the area. We went in by dinghy from where we anchored about a mile south at Fernandez Bay, and tied to a bollard on the concrete wharf. Alvernia Foods Store (242-342-2042) is just across the street and is thought to have the best produce.

Fernandez Bay

Fernandez is an inviting bay with good protection. Choose the NE or SE corner of the main bay or slide in south of the small island. Call ahead to Fernandez Bay Village Resort (242- 824-3043) for lunch or dinner. We failed to do so and they were closed for a post-Christmas break. We had a nice lunch there last year. I was so happy to finally anchor here, as we had heard that snorkeling the coral near the small island was nice. Ultimately we decided not to stay and the snorkeling was not to be, darn!

Update (March 2023) We went back to Fernandez and this time enjoyed a nice happy hour at the resort. We also snorkeled the coral around the islands in the bay. While the coral was decent, there weren’t that many fish. The water was also a bit cloudy, likely due to some remnants of a westerly breeze.

New Bight

New Bight is a popular cruiser hang out with Fish Fry restaurants, bakery, etc. Holding is excellent throughout the bay. You can tuck up into the NE corner to escape a northerly swell and even weather a little NNW wind event. Not good if winds approach south. The east side of the bay is steep too, but the north end is shallow and hard with a rocky bottom. If you are going to the Fish Fry area you can safely run the dingy up onto shore, but not if you are trying to get to restaurants or groceries on the north of town. Better to park at Fish Fry and walk.

First priority when visiting here is to climb to The Hermitage on Mt. Alvernia, the highest hill in the Bahamas (206 ft). You can easily see the white structures from the anchorage. It is a miniature monastery, just big enough for one person. Beloved Father Jerome , who built churches all over the Bahamas, had it built for his retirement.

Don’t miss Olive’s Bakery (242-342-31340) in the kelly green house. Buy her amazing cinnamon swirl bread and try her “flour cakes”. They are a Cat Island specialty that is like a small biscuit flavored with cardamom (I think). The Fish Fry stalls are great. We tried CD’s and another with no sign. Duke’s looked popular for conch salad. Also at CD’s you can inquire about any upcoming Rake N Scrape music events. If you gather an audience from the anchorage, they will likely play a little for you. Bring money for tips. Cat Island is the home of Rake N Scrape! There is a new beachfront restaurant called Tingum Dem. You can see their gazebos from the anchorage. Everyone loves their wings. There is a small white building, just south of the police station and BTC tower called Bluebird Restaurant. It is run by a group of elderly sisters that know home-cooking! They mostly serve weekday lunches and you can call ahead to let them know you are coming on VHFch16. Don’t miss their spicy potato salad.

New Bight Food Store (242-342-3011), also known as Gilbert’s is about a mile or so north of Fish Fry. We walked to the store and asked if they could give us a ride back to the beach with our groceries. They obliged, but this was several years ago. Best to ask before assuming this is possible.

Old Bight

Anchoring at Old Bight puts you in front of Rollezz Resort and Restaurant (242-557-0005). Again, you can get pretty close to shore with the big boat, maybe 100 ft. off, and beach the dinghy. This is where you want to be for strong SE winds and swell. The owners of Rollez, Yvonne and Carl Rolle, are friendly and welcoming to cruisers, but you need to call ahead for dinner reservations. They serve a lovely fixed price ($48), fixed menu, three-course dinner. It is a wonderful experience and very high quality. If you want to stretch your legs, it is a mile walk to a good bakery, Alnor’s (242-342-4131). Follow the driveway out of Rollez Resort to the main road and go south for about a half mile. They are famous for their coconut bread. Be sure to try their little flour cakes, a Cat Island specialty. Call before you go, to make sure they are open.

Joe Sound Creek (Update March 2023) We took the kayaks into Joe Sound creek and a few of the mangrove tributaries. Plenty of turtles, juvenile sharks and the like.

Hawks Nest Marina

Hawks Nest s a totally protected marina at the south end of Cat Island. We have ducked in here twice for weather. The channel is dredged so you need to be in it. Best you cross reference the Google Earth image so you can see the channel. 8′ minimum at low tide in the channel. There are a few marks in place. The reds are red and the greens are faded to white. They sit on the edges of the channel. Note that the chart registration (Explorer, CMAP, etc) is way off, so if you plot a course down the middle of the channel, it will put you on the rocks if you try and drive your route. I transferred coordinates from Google earth to my chart plotter. Anyway, if you follow the channel markers, you will be fine. I thought it was a bit tricky, but the 105′ yacht behind us had no issues.

The current is impressive on the ebb, so plan on slack or near slack rising, if this is your first time. Slack high is about two hours after high tide using the Cat Island tide station and 1:45 hours after low tide, more forgiving towards the end of the rising tide. There is no current inside the basin, but it can be tricky on entry if your bow is out of the current while the stern is still being pushed or pulled by the current.

The marina is run by great folks. Jerry, the dockmaster is happy to help you. The small resort portion of the facility is a quarter mile from the marina. They have a clubhouse/restaurant with serve-yourself honor bar. They typically serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Be sure to place your dinner order in the afternoon. Their pool is a lovely place to relax and look out at the beautiful waters. We have rented a car from the office on both of our two visits. Anton, the manager, is happy to assist with this.

Port Howe

This bay is on the south end of the island. We have never used it but we talked with locals who have kept there boat in here for years. And the dive boat from the Greenwood Resort parks here. Often swelly but excellent protection from north wind cold fronts. The barrier reef effectively breaks much of the swell.

Atlantic Beaches

During our time with our rental car, we were interested in exploring Atlantic beaches. We took the rough, but drivable road across from Smith Bay to the area near a closed resort, pictured above. It was a beautiful pink sand beach, great for walking and hunting for treasures.

Greenwood Resort

Another stop on our rental car explore was Greenwood Resort (242-342-3053), in the southeast Cat. We called ahead and asked to join them for lunch. We had a great meal and then explored their lovely pink-sand beach. They have some chairs to relax in after you dine. We also walked around the resort. They also have a nice pool and grounds. They specialize in SCUBA diving and kite-surfing.

Our final stop with the rental car was Da Pink Chicken (242-474-1133). This is the definitive dive bar. Only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2pm-sunset. We happened to be there on a Sunday, and it seemed that everyone we had met on the island was also there. Sunday is the day to be there! Maybe everything else is closed?

Two more places worth mentioning, if you have a car: Da Smoke Pot (242-354-2094) is run by Julien. We stopped by on a previous visit and chatted with him, but he had not reopened yet after Covid. Also consider Hidden Treasures Restaurant. We had lunch there when they used to be located at Fish Fry in New Bight. But they had a fire and have since moved a mile or two north, on the main road. Both of these places get rave reviews.

A helpful hint to visiting Cat Island is to join the Facebook group, The Cat Island Chronicles. It is full of helpful folks who can answer any questions you have.

A windy day in Mobjack Bay

We have been anchored in various spots in Mobjack Bay for the last ten days or so. Quiet, peaceful and serene. That is, until the other day. We had a line of thunderstorms ride over us, bringing gusty winds touching 50 knots a couple of times. We were oriented fairly well as the winds were mostly out of the southwest.

The winds were strong enough to kick up some waterspouts as the gusts were funneled down Back Creek just west of us. With the winds came some pretty heavy rain, so between the rain and the waterspouts, visibility was poor.

Prior to the arrival of the storms I had been watching their advance on my radar app. While there was a NOAA warning for high winds and hail, I didn’t pay a lot of attention. (NOAA is always saying that..). I was looking at the intensity of the cells and it kinda looked like the strongest cells would pass both north and south of us so I wasn’t too worried as we made our way to the pilot house to watch the show.

As the skies darkened I took one last look at the radar update and saw the gap between the two cells disappear and nothing but red filled the screen in front of our location symbol on my iPad. At that point the wind arrived and I was beginning to think I had underestimated the intensity of this one. Probably should have started the engines as well. Nothing behind us to drag into, however.

When the wind arrived the gusts went from 20 knots to 50+ knots quickly and the direction changed 20-30 degrees with each gust. AT 85,000 lbs, we don’t usually get pushed around or heel much. But a couple of the gusts caught us broadside, pushing us over about 20 degrees and sending us off in a new direction.

The sensation when we reached the end of our chain was more a subtle deceleration than an abrupt snatch and I would ascribe this to the fact that we were anchored in deep mud and I would guess the last ten feet of chain was in the mud. I go into all this description because as trawler cruisers we prepare our boats to handle this sort of weather event but rarely see it. What follows is anecdotal, one person’s experience in one specific event, but possibly some general rules of thumb can be drawn from the lessons learned.

First off then, a bit about our anchorage. We chose the spot to provide some protection from the south. There were some tall trees on land but most of the terrain around here is low and the river beds slope gradually to the shore so one can’t anchor too close to land. In the photo below you can see how far out the docks run in order to find navigable water.

North river anchorage. Privateer looking south towards land.

After the storm abated I went out in the dinghy and checked depths. Turns out we could have moved about 200′ closer to shore. When we arrived here a few days prior, the wind was out of the north so limited what we could do with what was then the lee shore. Once I knew a storm was coming we could have moved a lot closer to land and the protection of the trees.

Our tackle consists of a 55kg Rocna Vulcan anchor with 7/16″ HT chain. We use a 1.25″ nylon snubber that feeds from a deck hawse down to a bow eye at the waterline and then to the chain, connecting with a soft shackle. The effective length of the snubber is about 13′.

At this location we saw 10′ at high tide and had 70′ of chain out, measured from the bow eye, so 7:1. When we pulled anchor the next day I estimated that the anchor was sitting 3′-5′ below the depth read by the transducer. Based on our track before and after the event, I would estimate we dragged about 10′.

All that description reads like a pretty typical set up and anchoring routine. One question some might have is about the size of the snubber line, at 1.25″ way oversize for the job and unlikely to stretch at all. In the past I used lesser diameter line in order to provide stretch and reduce the violence of the snubbing event. I tried to estimate the loads, then subtract the strength degradation due to knots, wear and tear, the change in direction at the bow eye, etc. Then I tried to estimate what the “just right” amount of stretch should be, 10% would be helpful, 20% might weaken the line..? And what wind strength should I use in the equation?

In the end, I gave up on the goldilocks snubber, installed the mother of all snubbers and forgave stretchiness as a feature. In this one specific weather event, with this bottom material and this scope, it turned out I didn’t need any stretch. The boat rounded up at the end of each swing relatively smoothly. I can attribute that observation to either the weight of the chain or the mud it had to pull through, or both.

We anchor a lot in the Bahamas, usually in good sand. A typical set often looks like the photo below.

We see 30 knots in the Bahamas often. A couple of times I have gone down to observe the action of the anchor and chain in these conditions. What I find is that with 70′ of chain out, in 10′ of water, the last 20′ will stay on the seabed through most of the swings of the boat. At the end of the swing the direction of pull changes about 20 degrees and there will be a modest tug at the chain to anchor shackle. So at 30 knots, the chain maintains at least some catenary even at the end of a swing and the “snub” is gentle. The feeling of motion while on the boat is minor at 30 knots, more noticeable at 35-40 knots and at 50 knots the sensation is strong enough to suggest I need to hold onto something.

A note about all this for any sailors out there reading this. When at anchor in high winds on our sailboat we would actually sail from one swing to the next, accelerating right up until we came to the end of the chain. The arrival was abrupt, along with the change in direction. We also covered a lot more territory than we do with this trawler. On Privateer we decelerate as we approach the end of the chain and then fall off in the other direction. This action is easier on the chain and snubber than it was on the sailboat, so sailors might take all this with a grain of salt and stick to their stretchy snubbers.

Privateer heads south, again.

We had a cool day in Newport just after Labor Day and the leaves on the trees were showing the first signs of fall. So we began looking for a weather window south. This year we have a hard date in early October to be in Charlottesville for our older son’s wedding. So we skipped our fall Chesapeake cruise and ran directly from Newport to the lower Chesapeake. As I write this we are enjoying a nice sunrise in the Ware river in upper Mobjack Bay.

The trip from Newport to the lower Chesapeake, about 350 miles, was about as pleasant as could be. 48 hours with winds never above 12 knots and seas never more than a one foot chop. The weather window was perfect, but short. The boundaries of the window motivated us to depart at first light from Newport which caused us to arrive at the Chesapeake bay bridge tunnel at 3AM or so.

Our watch keeping routine for trips like this is to sleep when we are tired and take turns driving when we are awake. Lisa can sleep whenever so she goes down when she can and I wake her when I am tired. For short trips like this I have a difficult time trying to sleep on any routine so this works for us, mostly.

Knowing we were going to arrive at a rather busy shipping channel at 2AM and would benefit from two sets of eyes at that time, we tried to manage our rest periods so that we were both up at 2Am. We planned to stay up until arriving at our intended anchorage at first light around 6:30AM or so.

Our first challenge was some close quarters work with the commercial shipping transiting the tunnel choke point at the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. At one time we had three tankers, a cruise ship and a tug with barge all in the immediate area. Not a big deal, since the courses of these ships are somewhat predicable. But there are a number of adjacent channels in the area, all with their flashing red and green lighted buoys, so keeping all the targets sorted can keep a crew of two pretty busy, especially if they are a bit tired.

Once out of the shipping channels the next challenge was trying to spot the crab pots before running them over. This is pretty much impossible at night unless one turns on a search light. And once the search light comes on, any night vision is lost. Our approach was to drive with no search light until we started seeing floats go by on our beam, illuminated by the moonlight. If the pots got too numerous we intended to slow down and do the search light trick. We would have hated to have such a pleasant cruise marred in the last few hours by wrapping a pot warp. As it turned out, we saw few pots before arriving at the mouth of the Ware river and by then the sun was up enough to show us the way.

We will cruise Mobjack bay until its time to park the boat for a week and drive to Charlottesville. Lisa is in full “mother of the Groom” planning and organizing mode. I will find something to polish.

A recent upgrade to Privateer’s communications gear is making all this cruising just a little easier. A few weeks ago we installed a Starlink antenna and so far I can say the service has been great. Our system is what Starlink calls the RV system. Intended to be moved about, but not operated while on the move. More on that later. The RV system has less bandwidth priority than the home-based system, but is not restricted to a particular address. Monthly fees are a bit higher than the home system as well.

There are many forums and blog sites dedicated to Starlink and its installation and use on boats, so I wont attempt any sort of tutorial here and will just describe our installation and our specific experience.

Our antenna is mounted on our boat deck and the Starlink router is behind the bulkhead inside the flybridge void. The router picks up 120V power there. We have the Starlink ethernet adapter attached to the Starlink router and I ran Cat6 cable from there to our internet switch in the pilothouse. The switch connects multiple boat systems, including wifi access points and an appleTV. The Starlink router remains on and so inside the boat there are two wifi signals, one directly from the Starlink router and one from the boat’s LAN.

So you will ask, “how is all this working”? Overall, pretty well. Our data rates range from about 40Mbps to over 140 Mbps. Throughout the boat, the data rates from the Starlink router are higher than from the signal that passes through our LAN. I may shut down the LAN altogether since the appleTV gets its signal hard wired directly from the switch.

A couple of other minor points; ATT wifi calling works great. We made a very clear phone call from 50 miles offshore. Also, no matter where we are, the signal shows a URL based out of New York. This may play well in the Bahamas with entertainment apps that normally require location spoofing to work while travelling. Setting up a VPN on your device, like an iPad or pc, operating on Starlink works just fine, but injecting a VPN into a hard wired set-up as we have with our appleTV, is difficult.

We had good connectivity for the entire trip south, even though we were at times as much as 50 miles from shore. There may be geofencing in play but it did not apply where we were. There is talk of a recent software update from Starlink that will further restrict operation on the move. Downloading while on the move is already in violation of Starlink protocols but we may be operating below the sped limit, rumored to be 10 mph.

As of now, the Starlink contract says use is not allowed offshore, meaning more than 12 miles off any US coastline, not allowed while moving and not allowed in a foreign country for more than two consecutive months. We plan on violating all these rules with our planned six month cruise in the Bahamas so only time will tell. Meanwhile, we are enjoying our nightly fill of Netflix. So thank you Elon.

Shark Attack!

Just kidding. These two inquisitive reef sharks followed us into our anchorage in the Exumas.

This picture was taken with a GoPro with underwater filter attached. I have it mounted on a 4′ stick and for this I had it in the water off the swim platform. I put it on time lapse, one pic per second and just shot away while these guys were swimming about. Got lucky with this shot.

Shark looking for a hand out, or a hand!

These are both Caribbean reef sharks. According to records of shark attacks, a low threat to swimmers. From what I could find on the internet, less than 30 recorded bites by reef sharks, none fatal. Still, when they swim up to you they do get your attention.

We are on a ball at Cambridge Cay mooring field in Exuma Park. Unfortunately, years of visiting boats throwing food scraps overboard have trained the sharks to follow boats coming into the area from Exuma Sound ( as we had done that day) to get fed.
We spend a month here each season as park volunteers, harbor hosts for the mooring field, so we see all sorts of bad behavior (by humans, not sharks). We often see mega yacht crews entertaining their guests with shark feeding shows but occasionally see cruisers doing the same. Mostly folks just don’t know any better so part of our “job” is to inform visitors not to feed the sharks. Against park rules. Would seem like a no brainer, but we watch folks feeding sharks off one boat while kids are swimming off another. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen too often. We ask folks to hold their food scraps until they depart the mooring field. A good practice for any anchorage in the Bahamas.
We are not, by any stretch, shark experts so we have researched the subject of sharks interacting with humans. Best we know, most of the types of sharks usually seen while swimming in the Bahamas will ignore people in the water, unless the sharks are feeding.

In Exuma Park we mostly see Reef sharks, which have a reputation for being shy around divers and will swim away. But there have been occasional bull sharks here, although we haven’t seen any this season. Even a few sightings of a hammerhead.
Shark bites in the Bahamas are quite rare. One a few years ago near Rose island but that was a swimmer getting to close to a commercial shark feeding show. A few recorded attacks of divers while spear fishing. So all in all, not a significant risk.
That said, I was in the water a while back, cleaning the hull. Water was about 10′ deep and a shark swam directly under my feet. I was out of the water in a flash, only realizing a minute later that it was just a harmless nurse shark. 10′ is 10′ when it comes to sharks!

We were at the Hawks Nest marina at Cat Island last month and here, like at some other marinas, the sport fishermen conduct shark feeding shows when they clean fish in the evenings. We were watching one evening and there were 10-15 sharks in the scrum; reef, maybe one bull and many lemon sharks. The lemon sharks were definitely the most aggressive.

Easy to see how shark behavior in the presence of food could be dangerous to swimmers nearby. During this feeding event someone through a small stick in the water and the sharks devoured it along with the fish scraps.

Cruising the Bahamas Jumentos Cays and the Ragged Islands

Guide to cruising Jumentos Cays and Ragged Islands

(Updated March 2023. Includes visits in 2020, 2022 and 2023)

We first visited the Jumentos chain of islands in 2020 on our return from the Turks and Caicos. We were impressed by both the beauty and the desolation and made plans to return when we had more time to explore in depth.

Our cruising plans were curtailed by Covid last year so when a weather window opened this February, we headed south from Long Island. What follows are our observations and experience, but we are not experts on the area. Cruising here can be challenging, so anyone contemplating coming down ought to gather as much advance information as possible. We recommend The Island Hopping Digital Guide to the Southern Bahamas, Part II, The Jumentos by Stephen Pavlidis, which includes the Ragged Islands.

Jumentos Cays chain of islands

Navigation Challenges

Cruising the Jumentos brings a few challenges. The islands are uninhabited, except for Duncan Town on Ragged Island in the far south. Provisioning in this small town is quite limited, so best you arrive with the assumption that you will be self-sufficient for the length of your visit. Those who stay down here for extended periods can arrange for mail boat delivery of provisions, but since we were planning to stay for just a few weeks we did not pursue that option. There are no repair facilities, fuel, water or propane. The only internet or cell service comes from the tower at Duncan Town.

The next significant challenge is the lack of any all-around protected anchorages, should a significant front arrive during your stay. Experienced cruisers told us that to stay here through a major front with winds clocking through 360 degrees you need to be prepared to move from one protected anchorage to another during the front, possibly at night. We weathered mild fronts during both our stays and I will cover our experience in dealing with fronts here later in this post. Personally, moving from one anchorage to another during a front is not something we wish to do, especially at night. So our plan, had a major front threatened, was to run back to protection at Long Island or Great Exuma. For a plan such as this to be viable, one needs access to weather with plenty of advance notice regarding fronts. With limited to no cell coverage in most of these cays, an SSB or a satellite phone is essential equipment.

Anchoring

In general, holding is good throughout the chain, meaning that with a little effort you will be able to find deep sand. However, there are areas where the sand is in a narrow band along the shore, or where sandy areas are in pockets surrounded by rock and rubble. For this blog, if I say the holding is good, it means that I dove on the anchor, or could see it from the bow or the dinghy, and confirmed a good set. In areas we didn’t anchor, I have commented on what I saw from the boat or the dinghy. Finally, most of the anchorages have at least some coral that might require careful selection of your spot so I won’t repeat that warning with every anchorage discussion. You will see two different anchor symbols on the charts I use in this post. The dark green dots are mine and the light green dots are Active Captain anchor notations. The charts themselves are Explorer.

Getting There

There are three options for getting to the Jumentos; Hog Cay cut, across the Great Bahama Bank, or through Comer Channel. Of the three, we have only used the Comer Channel route. Departing from Thompson Bay, Long Island, this happens to be the shortest route. As to the other two routes I can only mention what I have picked up from other cruisers who have used these routes. The banks route offers the most protected approach and boats with 5-6′ draft can run from the Exumas while staying on the banks the entire way. Note that much of this route includes visual piloting rules (VPR) due to the coral heads.

The Hog Cay Cut route can shave 20+ miles off the trip from Georgetown versus using Comer Channel. But for our vessel with a 5′ draft, we would need to manage the tides to clear the shallow hump on the south side of the cut. On our trip back from the Jumentos, we looked closely at coming through the cut. But high tide was late in the day, and the tide that day was a relatively low high, so we went around via Comer Channel. From every source I could find regarding Hog Cay Cut, many of them conflicting, the controlling depth is around 4-5′ at low tide, but we were not able to confirm this. Low tide is about 45 minutes after Nassau low tide. The best guide book for this cut is another by Stephen Pavlidis, this one on the Exumas.

We have run the Comer Channel twice and have not seen anything less than 7′ at low tide. Clear water and white sand makes for a startling view as you can count every blade of grass and starfish as you pass through.

Privateer’s shadow cast on the seabed in Comer Channel

It is about 100 miles from Thompson Bay to Duncan town via Comer Channel, so most folks break the trip into two days. Popular Day 1 stops include Water Cay and Flamingo Cay. Note that the fishing off the windward/deep ocean side of these islands can be excellent. With calm conditions, we did a portion of the trip offshore (instead of the protected shallow banks ) and caught a nice Little Tunny.

(Update March 2023) Expecting to extend our good luck fishing we ran from ragged to Water with line in the water. We caught nine Barracuda but nothing we wanted to keep. After the first few catches we moved into deeper water to avoid them. That didn’t happen. The last two we caught were in 1000′ or more. Go figure.

Places to anchor

The first decent anchorage you will encounter is at Water Cay. We have anchored there twice, once in the North end and once in the center of the Cay.

Beginning at the North end of the island in the Fishing Boat Anchorage, our selected spot ( the northernmost anchor symbol) in 2020 provided good holding and good protection, but winds and swell were mild. This is the best spot on the island for swell from the North if you can tuck in all the way. That evening 8-10 small fishing boats came in to anchor for the night, all politely away from us. They did clean fish so I suspect there were plenty of sharks around.

This year we checked out the southern portion of this bay, looking for protection from brisk east winds. This spot, the middle anchor symbol in the photo above , forms more of a pocket than the charts imply and would provide some protection from southern wrap-around swell.

Despite a bit of swell, we chose a spot off what the chart calls a “Prominent Rectangular Rock”. This is a particularly scenic spot with views across a land bridge to the ocean beyond.

View from our anchor out to the open ocean

There are some anchorages further South on the island and we checked them out via the dinghy.

The upper anchor spot in the South provides good wind protection from the NE. Although not evident on the charts, the land is steep sided right up to the shore and the area is deep enough to press in fairly close to the cliff. I would expect some surge from the South. The lower mark is large and deep enough and will allow some protection from swell. The land is low so there would be no wind protection. Both spots look to have a sandy bottom but we did not try to anchor in either spot.

Southbound, the next anchoring opportunity is Flamingo Cay. We anchored here on our way South and again when North bound. The island has some attractive beaches a few trails and a cave you can enter in your dinghy.

The anchorage with the AC symbol (light green square) is popular and will often be crowded. It carries 6′ at low close to the beach. Folks still call it “Two Palms” but both palms are now gone. The good anchoring sand goes out from the bay to a line just past the anchor symbols at about the 12-15′ deep. Beyond that, the area is rock rubble and hard. We anchored well at our symbol but a boat which came in after us was unable to get a set. There is a trail from the Two Palms beach that begins in the NE corner of the beach and crosses over to the bay and anchorage at the north end of the island. Along the way are pools full of bright red shrimp.

We walked over to observe the anchorage in the North bay. It was a nice slot with a catamaran anchored. With moderate SE breeze, there was only a small chop wrapping around into the anchorage.

There are also anchoring spots just a little north of Two Palms anchorage, between the two anchor symbols on the Flamingo Cay North chart image. We anchored in the northernmost spot, between the finger of land and some coral rubble. Our spot was about 15′ deep and good holding in deep sand. There was a nice view through a slot in the land to the North anchorage and the ocean beyond.

South of the Two Palms area is another indentation and beach that shows an AC symbol. I show a “No Anchoring” symbol here because the sand is in a narrow band in 5-7′ at low. To get a good set you need to come pretty close to the shore and may not have swing room if the wind shifts. We tried to get a set here just a bit further off the beach and dragged in rocky rubble. If you are confident the wind will remain East overnight, this area could work. The sandy area is deeper as you go further south. Friends in a catamaran who were anchored here had an unpleasant night when the wind died and the current, mild as it was, swung them towards the shallow beach.

Cave on Flamingo Cay

This cave is just South of the central anchorage. We went in at low tide and had just enough head clearance. There was a bit of surge so we didn’t attempt to beach the dinghy. You can also enter from land through an opening in the back via a short trail from the beach. Remains of Giant Tortoise have been discovered by archeologists here.

(Update March 2023) Flamingo Cay South Anchorage

We found a nice spot to anchor near the south end of the island. This works well when the other anchorages are full and good sand is hard to find. This spot would be good as long as there is no SE swell running. The small shallow bay just north of where we anchored is rumored to be full of conch.

We anchored in 12′. None of the coral near our spot was high enough to obstruct us. We exited the banks the next day via Sloop Cut just to the south.

The banks-side shore on Buenavista offers decent anchoring in a band of sand just off the beach. Too close and you will be in rubble and too far out you will be in rock and coral. The good sand is in a wide band from about 6′ to 10′ at low. With wind from NE to E, there is a nice pocket in the NE corner of the beach, at the symbol. Midway down the beach there is a well marked trail to the other side of the island that looks into Low Water Harbour at the South end of the island. This was our go-to spot for protection from a weather front.

Cold Fronts, Where to go

This spot deserves an extended write-up since it is one of only a few spots that provide protection during a cold front. This area provides good protection from NW through NE and moderate protection from W and E. Swell works in from the West, but reefs offshore limit swell from the NE and E.

The image above is from the Explorer charts but the Navionics view is more accurate. The area around our anchor symbol is mostly deeper than portrayed. You can see our track as we swung at anchor. This spot is mostly 7′ at low, with one small hump at about 6′ that we swung through occasionally. To the NE of this spot, the area gets a bit more shallow, but to the SW and W, the area gets deeper. The area carries 8′ another 200′ closer to shore before it shoals.

On our 2023 visit we again needed a hiding place from a moderate front with winds from NNW through NE. This time we anchored aside Low Water Harbour Cay . The area is larger and deeper than implied from the charts. Mostly 7-8′ and 6′ to within 100′ of the cay itself. Room for 2-3 boats, depending on alignment. You can see the track from our anchoring spot last year. Either spot is good but this year’s spot was much less crowded.

In 2022 we were the one of the first boats to arrive, a few days before the front. But another 8-10 boats came in later. Several catamarans anchored between us and the land and a few monohulls parked south and east of us. The winds maxed at 27 knots gusting to 33 knots and nobody dragged anchor. As the wind clocked around to NE we expected some surge through the slot to the NE of us, but it never happened as the reef structure further out mostly prevented any significant swell.

This year (2023) our spot picked up more fetch and some minor swell from the cut but the lack of any boats nearby made it a good trade for us. get there early and enjoy the trails and snorkeling. The cruisers who chased lobster had good luck.

Low Water Harbour, things to do

There are trails off the beaches and the snorkeling on the reefs is excellent. The spot shown in the image is well protected from waves and swell and the current is minimal. We were able to anchor the dinghy nearby, tucked well up in the slot to the South of the fish symbol. The ledges are full of lobster and the grassy flats nearby are full of conch.

Cold Fronts, other options

Speaking of cold fronts, there are three or four anchorages popular for weathering a cold front. Low Water Harbour works well for West through NE, as I can attest. Two years ago we anchored on Southside Bay which was OK, but rolly so we had our flopper stoppers out. The other two, Man O’ War Bay on the south end of Racoon Cay and the cut between Ragged and Little Ragged Islands are also popular, but we didn’t anchor at either location. Note that boats with 6′ draft anchor in this cut, but they need to work the tides. Ten boats were anchored in this cut during the cold front.

Racoon Cay

House Bay on the lee of Racoon Cay provides some protection from prevailing winds. We anchored in the north end of the bay but had to leave when the wind moved a bit South of East and the wrap around swell found us.

Pimlico Cay, at the southern end of House Bay provides some options for escaping a northerly or southerly swell. You can tuck in close on the north side of Pimlico, but on the south side the shallow and rocky bottom projects a ways out from the shore.

Hog Cay

Moving on to Hog Cay, Middle Pen Bay provides excellent holding and protection from NE through SE. Large areas of shallow sand to the north minimize any swell from the NE through E. Although we didn’t experience it, I would expect some swell from the South with any significant SE wind. There is no protection from any wind with a West component

. We were anchored in the second row of boats in 10′ of water. The area carries 6′ to near the beach. Just South of this spot, there are a few shallower spots. We shared the area with 20 other boats, with some stretched out well to the North of us. Room for many more.

Hog cay is where most of the cruising fleet hangs out when weather permits. The tiki hut provides shade and a place for evening happy hours. We really enjoyed the discussions with the other cruisers. There were a few newbies like us but also a number of folks who had been coming here for many years and spent most of the season here. They were a wealth of knowledge about the area, where to anchor, what to see, how to provision, etc. I cant help but think that this was what cruising in the Exumas might have been like 20-30 years ago.

Lisa enters our crab in the great crab race

Privateer in the second row at Middle Pen Bay

We spent four days here, and walked a different trail each day. We added to our sea bean and shell collection while getting a bit of exercise. Lisa also added our name board to the rafters of the hut.

Privateer joins the fleet at the Hog Cay Yacht Club

Every February the town, led by Maxine who runs the general store, stages a feast for the cruisers. The money collected from donations and an auction goes to fund the school. Average boat count for February is about 20 boats, but for the parry there were over 40. This year they collected nearly $5K.

Cruisers donate treasures from the bilge for the auction. Stuff like fishing gear and household appliances are popular and the bidding by the towns folk can get quite animated.

On normal evenings the cruisers gather at the hut for happy hour and often some good music.

Lisa learns how to weave baskets from locally grown palm fronds

The Hog Cay Yacht Club is a unique stop for any cruiser. In both our visits we met sailors who were closing the circle on their circumnavigations right there at Hog Cay. And they had plenty fellow circumnavigators to trade stories with. Makes for an interesting happy hour.

Ragged Island

We visited Duncan Town in 2020 but didn’t make it back there this year.(updated 2023). There are two ways to get to town, a long dingy ride up the trench from the NW, or a long walk up the hill from the anchorage at Southside.

Southside is another anchorage that is popular during a cold front. It is not possible to snuggle up far enough to avoid the swell from the SE through West, but works well for NW through NE and E. Lots of weed with strings of sand for anchoring. We stayed here for a frontal passage in 2020 and needed to deploy our flopper stoppers in order to manage the swell.

Privateer with Flopper Stoppers deployed

(Update 2023)

We made a return trip to Duncan Town this year. It was good to see that they have made some progress with rebuilding from the hurricane five years ago. The solar field is operational and the new school is about to open. A community center and town headquarters building is close to completion. And rumor has it a dinghy dock is in the works.

If you come by dinghy there is a dredged channel from the northwest. All but one of the marker buoys are gone but with good light its easy to find the channel through the flats that leads you to a dredged channel through the mangroves.

The edges of the channel are easy to see in good light

The dredged channel is mostly >3′ at low but the area in red above, is 2′ or less so watch your prop. The one mark remaining is a small float.

The town is more welcoming than the sign might suggest

We spent about two weeks in the Jumentos and counted ourselves lucky we only had to deal with one mild cold front. On our first cruise down here we saw very few boats but this year there were many. Thirty or forty boats can spread out up and down the chain when the weather is mild, but they all will funnel in to the few protected anchorages when the cold fronts come through. Should you be here for a front, I suggest you find a good spot early in the process.

Fronts aside, a Jumentos cruise provides beautiful scenery, mostly untouched nature and room to stretch out and enjoy the solitude of private anchorages. And you can always find a friendly bunch of experienced fellow cruisers at the Hog Cay Yacht Club, should you look for a little company.

Gulf Stream crossing strategy 2021

gulf stream crossing strategy

Getting across the Gulf Stream without undue drama is often a challenge in late Fall. Our tytpical approach is to get down to Lake Worth and hang out till conditions fit our criteria. More on that later.

Privateer plans

Normally we are in no particular hurry to get across. Usually our first schedule commitment is to meet up with our sons in the Exumas for Christmas. But this year we planned a major family reunion for Thanksgiving in Spanish Wells. Still not a problem if there were no boat mechanical issues and the weather pattern was typical. Unfortunately, that is not how it worked out. We spent a week on the hard in early November dealing with a propeller vibration issue.

As the work progressed we watched the weather, hoping the boat would be ready when a weather window opened up. By the 9th we were seeing a possible window for the 12th, but at that point we had neither props or shafts installed. Since this post is about the GS and not our mechanical issues, I will skip the details and just say that the last technician left the boat at 6pm on the 11th and we departed the morning of the 12th. Our sea trial would be conducted as we motored out Lake Worth inlet.

Gulf stream crossing strategy

Back to our criteria for GS crossings. Our usual navigation approach is to cross perpendicular to the current, with constant course over ground (COG) and speed through the water (STW, while varying heading (HDG) as required to hold course and letting speed over ground (SOG) be what it will be. We let the autopilot drive the boat.

This method, sailing the shortest distance from one side of the stream to the other, is the most efficient for our boat speed of 8+ knots, versus the typical GS current of 2- 2.5 knots. Normally we cruise a bit slower for fuel efficiency, but the greater the speed differential between the boat and the current, the less effect the current has on the overall trip. With a slower boat, or significantly stronger current, the shortest time approach, holding HDG and accepting the set, might be more efficient. Back to our criteria for crossing conditions.

Weather and seas

A forecast of NE 5-10G15 and 3′ seas will keep us in port. These conditions will create a rather nasty set of steep, short period seas near the nose, often much higher than the forecast suggests. Change the wind direction to NW and we will accept a little more wind. Winds with a southerly component still seem to stir up the stream more than they would on no-current waters so even with a southerly wind we avoid anything over 20 knots.

So lets get back to this crossing. By Wednesday the forecast for Friday was looking better. We use Windy and Predict Wind for their presentation of the various GRIB models. If the GRIBS are not in agreement, we tend to place more stock in the Euro model. We rely on NOAA for a summary and Chris Parker for a sanity check. Chris’ approach is to forecast the worst conditions one would likely encounter, so if his forecast meets our criteria we are good to go. We usually start looking a week out and then watch the trends. On Tuesday, NOAA was predicting NW10-15G20 and 4-5′, a no-go, but by Wednesday had dropped back to 5-10G15, a favorable trend.

Here is what the GRIB models were forecasting, courtesy of Windy:

Windy forecast with Euro model as of Tuesday for Friday

A minor risk of squalls and maybe a thunderstorm but otherwise a great forecast. This forecast pretty much held through Friday morning and was supported by both NOAA and Chris Parker. All the forecasts suggested a NE swell at 3′ and 9 seconds, coming down to 2′ later in the day. We were a GO!

Geluf stream current forecasts

The GS forecast for current speeds also looked pretty good. We use Passage Weather for these stream forecasts. The max current of 2.5-3 knots looked to be for a fairly narrow slice of the stream, with mostly 1 to 2 knots. We have encountered as much as 4 knots but that is more typical closer to the Keys.

We cleared the break wall at Lake Worth inlet at about 8am and in less than five miles we began to pick up a little current. Luckily, the swell was already 2′ or less and just got better from then on. The following table lays out our trip with mileage, speeds courses and headings. From this data I was able to calculate the set and drift of the current. Using the Passage Weather chart I estimated the current at intervals along the route and compared them to actual performance.

Actual Set and drift

I was surprised to see that despite a maximum crab angle of 21 degrees at 1000am, our speed over ground was still pretty good at 7.9 knots. That can be explained by the NNE set during the strongest portion of the stream. All this assumes our speed through the water was in fact a steady 8.3 knots, which may have been a bit low. We had essentially flat seas and at times a bit of a tail wind which might have improved speed through the water.

Once we were within sight of West End the current was minimal so we cut the corner a bit and headed straight for Spanish Wells, arriving at about 9am on Saturday. I had been so rushed when we were leaving that I never checked on the moon phase. I was happy to see a half moon near overhead just after sunset that lasted until the early ours of the next day. Plenty of tankers and cruise ships (yes, they are back) on this route but they all played nice and dodging them gave us something to do.

Sunrise as Privateer approaches Spanish Wells

Now that we are here we appreciate how lucky we were to find any window at all. Wishing all of you will find equally pleasant weather windows.

Gulf Stream Crossing to West End, January 2021

A while back I posted about some of our experiences crossing the gulf stream, good and bad. That post discussed various approaches to getting across as quickly and easily as possible. For this trip we were heading to West End from Lake Worth inlet, using all of a fairly narrow weather window.

For planning purposes, I calculated 55 nm at 94 degrees (T). I estimated the current to be an average of 2.5 knots for the 40 nm of the stream. That would equate to an average speed of 6.5-7 knots and 8-9 hours. Since the route is roughly perpendicular to the stream I chose to take the rhumb line route rather than play the current.

I used NOAA gulf stream data, sourced from the Passage Weather App and weather from NOAA, Windy, and Chris Parker. The weather forecasts were generally in agreement that conditions would be decent, but within that broad comment, there was a fair amount of variability, as you will see in a minute. Since we were looking at about 12 hours of relative calm between two cold fronts, that would likely explain the range in the forecasts.

For this post, I will first present the forecasts and planning data, then the actual results. We will cover both weather and GS current forecasts. So lets start with the NOAA GS forecast, courtesy of Passage Weather, for Friday, 15 Jan 2021:

This forecast for GS current shows a mostly yellow (2-2.5 knots). From NOAA data the west boundary of the stream was 7 nm from Lake Worth Inlet. A rough estimate of the eastern boundary put the GS about 13 nm off West End for a total width of 35 nm.

The GRIB models are presented next:

The top two rows of numbers are the gradient and gust winds from the Euro model. The next two rows are the US model, them Meteo and NAM. Note that the Euro shows a spike in early afternoon. (that spike never happened) Otherwise, the winds were predicted to be light out of the west.

Weather Forecasts:

NOAA:

For Friday, as of Wednesday:

West winds around 5 knots becoming south southwest in the afternoon. Seas around 2 feet. Period 5 seconds. Intracoastal waters a light chop. Slight chance of showers in the morning, then chance of showers in the afternoon.

For Friday as of Thursday:

Northwest winds 5 to 10 knots becoming west southwest in the afternoon. Seas around 2 feet. Period 5 seconds. Intracoastal waters a light chop. Slight chance of showers.

For Friday as of Friday Morning: No change from Thursday

Chris Parker: Northern Crossing Route

For Friday as of Wednesday:

NW-N up to 15k/2-5′ Fri15

For Friday as of Thursday:

L&V<WNW-NW up to 15k/1-4′ tonight-Fri15;

The actual weather and sea conditions were pretty close to both NOAA and Chris Parker as of the day before. As you will see in the table coming up, we started off with NW winds in the 15 knot range, with some gusts to 20. The winds died off during the morning and did back to the SW just as we arrived in early afternoon. Note that these human-generated forecasts were closer to actual than the GRIBS.

Sea conditions started out a bit higher than NOAA predicted. We saw 3′-4′ for a while, before calming to 2′ then 1′. Chris got it right with his 1′-4′ forecast, but I suspect he was thinking the 4′ would have come at the end of the trip and not the beginning.

To build the table below I recorded course, heading, speed through the water and ground speed every half hour. After the trip I calculated current set and drift from that data. Despite my attempts at accuracy, I had to estimate speed through the water based on RPM settings and experience with the boat. Our paddle wheels work but are not always accurate. And the calculator I used did not carry current drift speed to the first decimal so that too is a bit rough.

Lets first show a picture of the gulf stream with our course plotted. The blue arrows represent the strength and direction of the current. Note it was strongest near the west wall and nearly on our nose near the east wall. The numbered arrows, 1 through 5, relate to points on the table, below.

At an average speed through the water of 8.2 knots and a speed over ground of 7.8 knots, we made much better time than planned. As you can see from the table, the current speed was much below predicted, and the lowest I have ever experienced. One note, with light winds from generally astern, we might have picked up a tenth or two of STW do to the reduced wind drag. That might increase the current drift respectively so I entered some of the current speeds as a range.

In the continuing discussion about the best ways to navigate the GS, in this case the straight shot approach was the best.

The Jersey Coast Run

Our first mistake was trying to meet a schedule. Having plenty of respect for the conditions possible off the Jersey coast, we normally err on the side of caution. This year, because we had commitments that kept us in Newport till Thursday evening, and plans that required we be in Annapolis by the following Tuesday, we bet on the weather. And by that I mean, we bet that the forecast would be accurate because as it stood, the forecast was on the cusp of a no-go. Not to bad… but not too good either.

The route is displayed below. To go non-stop, about 30-35 hours, requires some lucky breaks on the weather. Northerly component till you turn up the bay, then a shift to southerly. But not too strong, as wind against current in the bay can be nasty.

As of Thursday afternoon, with a departure planned for Thursday evening, this was what the GRIBS forecast (and NOAA agreed),

As you can see, winds were predicted to be rather strong Thursday evening. We planned to pass Block Island around 11pm, duck under the lee of Long Island until 2AM or so, the continue south as the winds eased. We planned to be turning up the Delaware Bay by 8PM on Friday.

With a forecast of 3-4′ seas south of Block Island, we expected a few 5 and 6′ seas, But with the wind and seas from behind us, we weren’t too concerned. As long as the forecast held. And with a little luck, actually a lot of luck, the winds would turn favorable for the trip up the bay.

Had there not been events driving our schedule, we never would have left with this forecast. Not that it wasn’t doable, it just had no margin. And that is what did us in.

By the time we rounded Block Island the winds were steady in the low 30’s, with regular gusts in the 40’s. The max we saw was 47 knots. Abaft the beam, mostly, but still rather impressive at night, since the sea state matched the wind speed. I won’t guess at the wave heights, since it was really, really dark, but we were regularly burying the anchor in the next wave. Boat was fine, crew, not so.

We gave up on ducking under the lee of Long Island, since we would be too close to the wind while trying to get there, and decided to just run downwind till it blew itself out. The forecast showed that by the time we got 50 miles or so south of LI, about 5 am, we would be in moderate downwind conditions. We just needed to keep our speed up until we turned up into Delaware bay, as the next front was not far off.

Two things happened to thwart that plan…. The norther was late to leave, and the southerly blow came early. We got about two hours of L/V before we were getting 20-25 knots on the nose. Funny how seas take forever to settle down once a front passes, but how quickly they build when a front arrives.

So now we are 3-5 hours late to our turn up the Delaware bay, and the southerly blow is 3-5 hours early. We are off Barnegat at 5 pm or so, and could make it in before dark, but I have never been in there before, the current would be opposing the wind, and if we did go in, we were likely to be stuck there for days. No thanks, on to Atlantic City!

Atlantic City has a few things going for it. A really good all weather inlet (we have used it before) and there are lots of lights. Bad thing is, we are going to the marina area and have never been in there before, day or night. And I don’t like to enter harbors at night for the first time.

So now it is 6 pm or so and Lisa calls Kammerman’s Marina, asking about space. They say they will hold a space for us on the fuel dock, and we give them a 9 pm ETA. Meanwhile, the weather deteriorates a bit. Now its 25G30 knots and 5′ seas with about a 4 second period. That will slow you down. Our ETA grows to 10 pm.

We make preparations for entering the inlet and finding the marina. The outer buoys are lit, but I know some of the inner marks are not. We have a flood light on the mast that will at least highlight a reflective buoy, and a really powerful searchlight. But the entrance to the marina area, a left turn out of the inlet, is a bit confusing.

Bouys 2 and 4 mark the route into the marina basin

The bifurcation buoy marks the choice between continuing further down the inlet or entering the marina basin. It is lit, but the RED 2 is not. And the RED 2 is about 2′ high and up against the bulkhead. I know now that the route is between the RED 2 and 4 and the bulkhead, but at 10 pm, after 28 hours of bashing into waves, the route is not so obvious.

As we approach, we can see a green lighted marker, but its hard to tell if the light is the bifurcated mark or the green mark just beyond. Meanwhile the current is helping us move faster than we would like. Thanks to some good searchlight work by Lisa, we spot the RED 2, and after that sighting, following the buoys the rest of the way in is not too difficult.

Once in the basin we try calling Kammerman’s, and would you believe it, Chris Kammerman, the owner, is there at 1015 PM to guide us in to the dock and tie us up. Just doesn’t get any better than that. Thankyou, Chris.

We take a lay day in AC, winds are still howling out on the coast. The next day things look much better, so being experts on night arrivals, we do a night departure. And the currents in the bay are timed perfectly.

I have mentioned this in previous posts, but northbound in the Delaware Bay, slack tide walks up the bay, so heading north, even with our slow speed, we can travel with great current the entire way. There is a great NOAA planning tool called Delaware Bay Operational Forecast System (DBOFS). No new data here, but the animation and visualization is very helpful.

The rest of our trip to Annapolis was uneventful. Spent a quiet night at Schaefers. Left mid-morning in rain and wind to make some progress south towards Annapolis. (remember, we have a schedule to keep)

Just one more comment. As we headed down the upper Chesapeake, winds were in the mid 20’s, gusting low 30’s. Looking for somewhere to anchor for the night. Too far to make it all the way to Annapolis. Chose Handys Point/ Worton Creek entrance because it was rather high sided to the north. Amazing the way the low cliffs and tall trees blocked the wind. Winds were below 10 knots. A gust now and then, but not enough to move the boat. Meanwhile, just around the corner the bay was a mess. We slept well and moved into Annapolis the next morning. On schedule. Bad captain.

COVID-19 and a trip up the ICW

When the stories about COVID-19 first reached us in February, we were enjoying life at Cambridge Cay in Exuma Park. China had an issue, but the US hadn’t reacted as yet. As park hosts we organized one of many sand bar happy hours, not realizing that it would be the last time we would be within six feet of another human.

Our last sand bar happy hour, Cambridge Cay, Feb.

Even after COVID-19 reports on cases in America reached us, the problem seemed so distant. We figured we would be fine if we just stayed where we were. Pretty much socially distanced (other than the happy hours!) without really trying very hard. But as we learned more, we realized that even in the Bahamas we weren’t necessarily safe. The virus would get here sooner or later.

Then the first confirmed case of the virus showed up in Nassau and everything changed. Overnight Exuma Park “closed”, meaning moorings and anchorages were available, but visitors count not enter the headquarters office. Payments had to be made online and moorings were assigned by VHF radio. Rumors of what might happen next in terms of closings and expulsions of foreigners were disconcerting. We needed to decide if we were going to stay in the Bahamas for the duration or come back to the US. If we did come back, where would we go?

Everyone’s situation is different, but we decided to leave the Bahamas immediately and get back to our home port in Newport, RI as quickly as possible. We did not believe we had been infected in the Bahamas and planned to practice social distancing while we traveled. We were concerned that if we did get sick at some point prior to getting back to Newport, from the virus or anything else, we we would be at the mercy of either the Bahamian medical system or some stateside ER facility. And we both have non-serious, but chronic medical conditions that need somewhat regular medical intervention. Difficult to handle these issues away from “home”. And hard to shelter in place when we are full time liveaboards with no land home. So, right or wrong, we chose to travel back to Newport, or as close as we could get.

Our plan was to anchor out as much as possible, using marinas only as necessary for fuel, provisioning or to hide from bad weather. There are also a few places on the ICW where decent anchorages are few and far between and a marina is much more efficient for maximizing distance traveled per day. We were hoping to find some good in all this, checking out as many outdoor nature areas as possible.

Our normal route from the Bahamas to Newport is mostly offshore in a two day hop to Charleston, SC and then to Morehead City, NC. We usually travel inside on the ICW from Morehead City to the Chesapeake Bay, then offshore to Newport. But the weather gods were not favoring that approach so we ended up in the ICW from Ponce Inlet, FL to our current stop here at Patuxent River, MD. The remainder of this post describes our route, our overnight stops, and some unusual encounters. I have added some lessons learned and tips for how to improve on social distancing.

First, about the ICW. Lots of shallows, especially in SC and GA. Nothing new for you ICW regulars, but we have not been down here in quite a while. And it was our first time in some areas. We used Bob423’s book, supplemented by the latest US Army Corps of Engineers hydro data as displayed on AquaMap Master. Bob’s book is great, but even the latest 2019 edition is a bit out of date regarding some of the ever changing shoaling. Using the latest USACE data, there are areas that have been dredged since his publication date (Yay!), and areas that have shoaled(Boo!).

Prior to the trip I downloaded Bob’s routes to the boat’s nav system as well as to AquaMap on the iPad. When we came up to a shallow area with a Bob423 route, I drove the route and Lisa followed the boat on the iPad. She had the latest USACE bathy data and would tell me to divert left or right for better water. In every case, Bob’s routes from 2019 are still good. In some areas Lisa was able to find an additional foot or so of depth based on updated bathy data.

The next source of valuable information was Waterway Guide’s web page on COVID 19. There we could find lists of open and closed marinas, as well as local government regulations regarding boating in that state, city or town. Some marinas listed on the site had subsequently closed, but the info was helpful. More for which marinas were already closed. I will not bother to discuss the various state by state guidelines as they are changing as we speak.

Our first leg was from Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas overnight to Port Canaveral, FL. As we were leaving, that marina was putting restrictions on new arrivals. Since then, all of the Bahamas has been in some sort of lock down so I will not attempt to capture current conditions there. But from what we have heard, leaving was the right decision for us. The Bahamas have a difficult problem as most of their GDP comes from tourism. And that means cruise ships. The Bahamas was a little late in stopping entry via cruise ship but has done that, as have other countries. Meanwhile, lots of empty cruise ships, many registered in the Bahamas, are floating around without a berth to go to. In our run from Great Harbour Cay to Port Canaveral we saw twenty-nine cruise ships at anchor or docked. There were nine parked just off Great Harbour Cay.

The trip over was quite comfortable. Should you follow this route, which dips under Grand Bahama, note that quite a few ships loiter outside Freeport waiting for their turn. Most of them are stationary but can start up at any time and head off in any direction. Better handled in daylight.

Tankers floating around waiting for a berth

Our US arrival was uneventful. CBP ROAM app worked well and we were cleared while still a mile offshore. Talking to the dockmaster at our arrival marina, Ocean Club, he mentioned that folks not using the CBP ROAM had some difficulty clearing into the US. We have not heard of anyone not being able to check back in using ROAM. I will mention that we have had to update the ROAM app a few times so if you are planning to use it soon, check to be sure it is the latest version, and your data, such as your customs sticker number, is up to date.

We have stayed at Ocean Club a few times. Nice facility. We took on 1,000 gallons of fuel at $2.50/gal, plus one night’s free dockage. There are better prices out there now. This was our first attempt at coming to a marina while practicing social distancing. I let the dock hand pass me the fuel hose, and Lisa went to the office to sign the credit slip. In both cases, we kept our distance but we realized we could have done better. So:

Tip #1 is, have the dock hand set the fuel hose down near the boat and walk away. Then, wearing gloves, handle the hose yourself and put it back on the dock for him to recover.

Tip #2 is, pay the bill by providing the credit card number over the phone. We used this at St. Augustine, FL to pay for our mooring and again at Thunderbolt, GA and never left the boat. We also used the Dockwa app at Barefoot Marina in Myrtle Beach, SC which eliminates in person payment altogether.

Back to our trip North. Note that at the time, the Canaveral Lock was closed for maintenance. Reopen date might be 30 April. Since the canal was closed, we went outside to Ponce Inlet. We talked to Tow Boat US before going in, our first time here, and their instructions were straightforward. Nothing less than 7ft MLW. Our anchorage for the night was Bethune Park, just south of Daytona.

There was plenty of room. Only three other cruising boats. But much of the area is used up by local boats on moorings or semi-permanent anchors. We entered at R44. There are some 5ft humps in the area so keep alert. We anchored in the far north end. You can go further into the pocket in the NE corner than the charts would suggest. New city dock being built, with small beach near by if you need to walk a dog. Note that Halifax Harbor Marina, just to the north, was closed to transients at the time. Next time I will anchor just inside R44.

Next stop was St. Augustine mooring field. You can reserve a ball on line and pay by phone. We called a lay day for weather but did not leave the boat. Perfect for social distancing.

Trying to make the best of a difficult situation, we looked to find ways where we could enjoy some of the natural beauty of the area while following the guidelines. To that end our next destination was Cumberland Island National Sea Shore. At that time, the park offices were closed but park access was allowed. This is no longer the case. The island is now closed with signs posted to that effect. At that time we did see a few other people, all arriving by private boat as the ferries had long since been cancelled. For the most part, we had the park to ourselves.

Lisa invites some of the locals to happy hour

There are multiple anchoring options at Cumberland, even with the island closed. With winds from N through SE, you can snuggle up pretty close to Cumberland Island. Tall trees will block most all the wind. No ferries to bother you, but still some runabout traffic. I sounded the area with the dinghy and the shore is deep nearer to land than the charts indicate, at least in the areas between the park docks. We came in with a SW wind so anchored in the middle. We like lots of space around us and we got it. Some protection, at least from fetch, can be had behind Drum Point Island on the western side of the anchorage.

Note that the new anchoring laws in GA prohibit anchoring within 1’000′ of any public or private dock, etc. So if you obey this law, you cannot anchor anywhere near the park docks. By the way, GA law also requires a lock of some sort of holding tank overboard pump out. See the latest at: https://coastalgadnr.org/new-coastal-boating-laws-take-effect-georgia

Our next stop was the Wahoo River in Georgia. Mostly open marshland with one area of trees providing North protection. We declared another lay day so we could explore the tributary creeks by kayak. The creeks cut deep, narrow and winding paths through the marsh grass, providing cover for all sorts of wildlife. Plenty of signs of alligators, and we could hear them bellowing from the cover of the grasses, but we never did see one. Lisa was happy about that!

This was our second time to use this anchorage and both times were in settled weather. The current is a knot or so on the ebb tide and barely noticeable on the flood tide. About 20ft deep so it took a bit of chain, but the deep section is at least 400ft wide, so plenty of swing room. I think it would work fine even in strong winds because the holding is good.

A bit of weather headed our way, so our next stop was Thunderbolt Marina near Savannah, GA. Never got withing six feet of anyone. Another lay day as we waited for the weather system to pass. Face dock directly on the ICW, so easy in and out. No provisioning within easy walking distance.

Steamboat Creek, SC was our next stop. Just past the Watts and Dawho shallows. There are a number of excellent anchorages in the area. Steamboat is wide and deep but has areas in of 15-17ft depth, so less anchor chain needed than other spots. Mostly exposed, but south and west wind protection available if you go further up the creek. If you choose to stop prior to the shallow sections, there are some nice stops on the South Edisto River. And again, you can find wind protection from whatever direction by choosing how far in you want to travel. Steamboat has a dock for dog walking. See Bob423 info for the exact location. Good holding and plenty of swing room. Some crab pots but easily managed. Pretty sunset in a peaceful spot.

Awendaw creek was next. Just a wide spot in the creek just off the ICW, but the widening helped reduce the current. About 1.5 knots on the ebb, less on the flood. Pretty setting but no wind protection. Good holding, plenty of swing room and just a few crab pots to avoid. No place to walk a dog.

Not looking forward to transiting the Rockpile for the first time, we chose to stop at Barefoot Marina, just short of this hazzard and face it fresh the next morning. Another face dock directly off the ICW so easy on and off. Paid over the phone and never left the boat. I suppose the Rockpile was easy, as I didn’t hit the rocks. But did I miss them by twenty feet or 2 inches? I will never know. Some day we will go through at low tide when you can see the rocks. That might scare me even more. Just a couple of miles long, but still scary.

We anchored next at Banks Channel in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Our hope was that we could travel offshore the next morning to Cape Lookout and visit the National Seashore. But again we were turned off by the weather to come. We anchored as deep as you can go in the pocket, near the low causeway bridge. Nice with no crowds, but this place can be pretty popular during normal cruising seasons. We were almost alone. Some weirdo in a small sailboat on a home made mooring decided to leave without dropping the mooring line at dusk. Under full power he did three or four loops in front of us as the mooring first dragged and then grabbed. He finally gave up and collapsed in a drunken stupor, with his boat sitting on top of our anchor. So now what? We decided to pull anchor quickly as it was already nearly dark. At the same time we called the local US Coast Guard to report the guy. We thought he was adrift as he appeared to disconnect from the mooring just before passing out on the bow. The CG arrived as I was dropping the anchor in our new spot. They had talked to the guy and then came by to tell us there was nothing they could do, since they did not witness the event.

More weather in store, so our next stop was Caspers Marina in Swansboro, NC. Again, an easy off and on to a face dock near the ICW. With 2-3 knots of current, it runs parallel to the dock so not so bad. Never got off the boat and paid remotely. I did hand the dock hand a tip, so violated a bunch of distancing rules. So here is the next tip;

Tip#3; prepare a few baggies with tip money in them now. By the time you need them the virus, if there was any, will be non-viable. Pass the baggie with gloves on. Both you and the recipient are relatively safe.

Krogen Bay Wolf leaving the dock just ahead of us at Caspers Marina

Bonner Bay, NC, just above the Neuse River, was our next anchorage. Large open bay, without much cover, but the weather was supposed to be benign so what did we care? We set the anchor, but I settled for 6:1 scope, since the night was promising to be quiet. And you know whats coming… When the storm came over we got a 180 degree wind shift and about 35 knots for 20 minutes or so. When I looked at my plotter I could see that we had dragged about ten feet with the wind switch. We had 500ft clear around us so no big deal, but still a bit disconcerting. If you go there, you can move deeper into the bay for some protection from SE to SW. Of course our weather event came from the North. And none of it was forecast.

Speaking of not being forecast, we were underway nearing Belhaven, NC and a cloud bank rolled over us. With that cloud bank came wind gusts to 50 knots. Sitting in our Krogen, all warm and fuzzy, it was more a novelty than a serious problem, but still impressive. A new record for us, even after lots of offshore sailing.

Had an interesting experience west of Morehead City, NC. First saw a lot of fish jumping near the boat. On closer look as we drove through one school, they were rays. Then they started swimming into the props, over and over. The boat shuddered with each chop of a ray and it was happening every few seconds. We slowed way down to reduce the potential damage but not sure that helped. There was some current in the area, so we could not just stop. This went on for at least a mile. Bad day for the rays.

Again we had a forecast for overnight thunderstorms, so we went to Alligator Marina, NC. Long face dock, easy turning basin, and no current. We were placed on the outside end so were able to leave at first light for the 70 or so miles to Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, VA. Note that there is a 6ft hump just as you enter the breakwater at Alligator. No big deal if you know it is coming. Our intent was to get across Albemarle Sound before the wind picked up and we just made it. By the time we got to AYB, it was gusting 40 knots in the cut itself. I had planned to top off our tanks with cheap fuel at $1.98, but couldn’t bring myself to perform two docking sequences in those winds.

We chose AYB as a stop because there is easy walking access to a Kroger grocery store. This was our first provisioning stop since Port Canaveral three weeks back. We really wanted some fresh produce. We had enough canned food and sprouts to keep going, but figured we could risk a stop.Virginia isn’t one of the stricter quarantine states so plenty of people about, some with masks, some without. Lisa donned mask and gloves while I waited outside to help carry the stuff back to the boat. Note that while we were there, AYB instituted a three day maximum stay for transients boats. They said they need dock space to launch their winter storage boats. From the looks of the dock, I am guessing that some transients have chosen AYB as an interim shelter in place location. Easy access to shopping, protected marina, etc. By the way, plenty of room on the free town docks. South town dock had a few boats and north town dock was empty. There is a twenty-four hour max stay rule.

We are now at the Pax River Navy Marina near Solomons, MD and this is our interim destination. We will shelter in place here while we wait to see what happens in Newport, RI. The last day on the Chesapeake, mostly in Maryland was quite strange. We saw only one or two small fishing skiffs and the bay was otherwise deserted. Yes, it was Easter Sunday, but still? The ban on recreational boating is being adhered to. We did see one small sailboat coming out of Solomons, but that was about all.

Our marina at the Naval War College is scheduled to open on May 1, but recent declarations by the Governor of RI have put a bit of a wrench in things. All boats entering RI from out of state must quarantine for 14 days, fly the Lima signal flag and stay aboard. We can handle all that but I am not sure our marina has figured out their procedures. In any event, when we leave here, we will be sure and have plenty of provisions aboard.

In summary, everyone considering the trip north will have to judge for themselves whether it is safe for them, and for others, to be on the move. We did the best we could to maintain our self quarantine and practice social distancing when we needed to interact with others. There were a couple of instances of interaction that could have been avoided if we had thought it out in advance and those are captured in the Tips.

As to the ICW. Freakishly empty. Open marinas had space and anchorages are mostly deserted. We had no issues with any law enforcement, just smiles and waves when we did see anyone official. I don’t think cruisers returning home are the target of some of these rules, but we may be caught up in them. The Maryland edict was brought on by boaters not following social distancing, etc. But the Rhode Island edict that forces a quarantine on all boats coming in from out of state (think NY and CT) hits us directly. Luckily RI is easy to avoid if your destination is further north, but will be a challenge for us. We will be sure to arrive with plenty of food, beer and wine.

Below is a listing of our stops, with the approximate mile markers. Hope your trip goes as well as ours did. Now we just hope we can get back to Newport!

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Privateer plans

Gulf stream crossing strategy

Weather and seas

Geluf stream current forecasts

Actual Set and drift

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