Category: Back Cove

This was our second cruise through the Bahamas so we had a good idea of what to expect from the weather. For those of you who are not all that familiar with Bahamian weather patterns, here is a short primer, focusing on the Exumas.

In the winter months, the Bahamas are mostly blanketed by the easterly trade winds. Expect 15-20 knots from the NE through the SE. When the winds pick up, then 20-30 from the same direction. Sometimes for days at a time. If you are in the Exumas and on the banks, then you are anchoring in the lee of the islands, protected from the surf and swells out in Exuma sound. But not protected from the wind. Few of the islands have enough elevation to significantly reduce wind speeds. As the winds pick up, the area of protection in the lee of the islands grows  bit, and if you can get in close enough to land you might get some protection from wind and chop, but for the most part, if the prevailing winds are 25-30 kts out in the sound, they will be nearly that strong in the anchorages so plan on it.

And then there are the cold fronts. They roll in from the US mainland every 5-10 days from Dec through February, with fewer and weaker ones as the season turns from winter to spring. As the fronts move SE through the chain, they weaken and stall. So usually they are strongest in the beginning of winter, say December and January, and stronger in the Abocos than in the Exumas. Much rarer in the T’s and C’s.

A strong front will cause the winds to first veer S to SW, then W to NW as the front passes, then return to NE trades when it is over. Figure 24-36 hrs. Assume the major shifts will occur at night. A weak cold front will bring the winds S at 25-30, then stall and back. A strong cold front will clock 360, with winds first in 30’s, gusting 40 from the S, then go nearly calm as the front comes overhead, then build to 40G45 from the west.

If you spend an entire winter season in the Exumas, figure on 8-10 fronts during that period. Most will stall out over you. A few will pass south and clock 360, and maybe one will be strong enough to bring on those gusts to 45 from the S and then W. So what do we do about all this commotion? If you take a cursory look at the Exumas chain, one thing is obvious. Plenty of places to hide in the lee of the islands when the trades are blowing. Few places to hide in the lee of anything when the winds are out of the S, or worse yet, the W. There are a few options, and my approach has been evolving.

On our first cruise we were on a heavy sailboat with good ground tackle. We rode out the weak fronts in place. We would swing to face south, deal with the fetch and wind, then swing back the next day. A little bouncy, no dinghy trips, but no big deal. We also ducked into a marina or two. This works well, but is expensive because you need to get there well in advance of the crowd, so will likely be tied up in your slip two days before the front arrives, then two days for the front to pass. So figure four days in a marina if you take that option.

Lastly, you can anchor in one of the few spots that provides protection from the west. This is one of the reasons Georgetown is such a popular place. They call it the G’town shuffle as 200 boats move from one side of the bay to the other with frontal passage. There are also a number of west facing coves and channels scattered throughout the chain. They are all well known, all obvious, and all very crowded during cold fronts. Personally, I would never go into one of these spots. Time for an aside (rant) here…

The Bahamas provide a wonderful cruising opportunity to to many sailors who do not have to deal with a significant offshore voyage such as a trip to the Caribbean requires. This can be good or bad. Other than the bare boaters in the Caribbean, everyone else has made a significant voyage to get there. Most likely they know how to sail, and anchor. Not so for the Bahamas. Motor down the ICW, day hop across the stream at Miami and you are here. Anyone can do it. And among those that make this trip are at least a few who shouldn’t. Either because their boat and gear are not up to the task or they aren’t. And some of them will anchor next to you. On a trade winds day, no problem. But in a tight anchorage filled with boats trying to ride out a 360 degree wind shift, big problem.

So here is my advice. If you are looking to hide from a strong cold front, do not go to a popular hidey hole anchorage. If Active Captain gives it a 4 or 5 star rating for cold front protection, say Bell Island for example, don’t go there. It will be too crowded and someone will most surely drag during the night. Better, take a look at the charts and find a spot that provides just some moderate protection from the fetch over the banks from a west wind. There will likely be no AC or anchor symbol there. There will also be no other boats there. Put out all the chain you want. maybe bounce a little in the chop. But relax.

Besides the anchoring and the marina option, there are also the park moorings. They are built to withstand most anything, to include hurricanes. We weathered a strong cold front on a Warderick Wells mooring this season. 40 knots from the south, then 45 from the west. The mooring field was full and all the boats survived just fine. But I am not sure my nerves could take that again. During the night of the 45 knots from the west our stern was no more than 100 feet from the rocks and I swear I could have stepped off the swim platform to the sand behind us. With just a half mile fetch across the horse shoe harbor the chop was two feet high. And our 600 lb dinghy, which i stupidly left tied out back, was going crazy.

Best bet for next time. The Hog Cay mooring field on the south end of Warderick Wells. Totally protected. Too small for any fetch. Or Cambridge Cay. Not protected from a west wind, but the shoals would cut the fetch.  Or anchored out alone by myself. If you want to have a park mooring as an option on your list, then become a park supporter for 100$ a year. It gets you a 24 hr jump on moorings.

I remember listening to the radio while prepping for the front due later that day at Warderick Wells. A boat was calling for a possible mooring, only to be told that the field was full. It had been for two days. On hearing that the field was full, the “captain” came back with, “… but where should we go?”  They likely went to Bell Island. 

 

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

A beautiful place. Well protected from development and fishing by the park laws and boundaries. And great for cruising in a natural environment. Plenty of places to anchor and excellent moorings. We were here a few years back while cruising on Chasseur and looked forward to our return on Privateer. Coming up from the south, our first stop was the Cambridge Cay mooring field. The entrance from the south is a bit skinny, the charts showing some 5′ spots, and we draw almost 5. There are enough Active Captain descriptions that attest to at least 5′ at low, assuming you stay in the so-called channel.

For those of you hesitant to lock on to the “magenta line” while in the ICW, this is different. The Explorer Chart route needs to be followed exactly. Especially if you draw 5′ and are coming in at low tide. Unlike the ICW, you can see the bottom clearly. Way too clearly. And even if you are very experienced at reading depth in the Bahamas, I defy you to differentiate between 5′ (enough) and 4.5′ (not enough). All I can do to add to the knowledge base, is that if you follow the Explorer route you will have at least 5′ at low. But not much more. And the channel gets down to about 30′ wide at one point. But by the time you get this far, the channel is easy to read.

Once in, the area is mostly covered with mooring balls, but room to anchor if you choose. We took a ball. A quick note on the balls in the park. Very well maintained, very strong (more on that later). Most rated for 60′, some for 100′. That said, some get chewed up by the props of the incompetents, so we always dive on them.

Cambridge Cay anchorage is a spectacularly beautiful spot. Looking north or south you can see up and down the island chain. Looking east, over a large coral shoal, is the bank forever. for one of our three days here we were the only boat in the anchorage. If you are looking for quiet, this is the place to go. And not too far north is the snorkeling spot called the sea aquarium. Dinghy moorings and lots of fish. Not to be missed.

Plenty of room at the Monument Beach anchorage in Georgetown. Before Christmas, that is.

Mart and Sue from Alizan, another Krogen, stop by

There are as many routes to the Bahamas as there are blogs about them. Some better than others. Here is ours.
Our general starting point was Ft Lauderdale, post boat show, and our general initial destination was Georgetown in the Exumas. We chose to take the ICW down to Miami, stage out of the Venetian Causeway/islands area, and exit Government cut for Bimini as a day hop. We left at first light and dropped anchor that afternoon off the new resort on the NW coast of Bimini. Easy trip, decent anchorage in moderate prevailing easterlies. Next day we left at first light again and crossed the banks to anchor at Bird island. Night three we passed New Providence island to port, entered the banks just north of the reef and cut over to Shroud for the night. Weather was great, seas were flat and we never saw less than 10 feet depth. From there it was a night at Staniel, a night at Great Guana, a hop outside at Galliot and back in at Stocking and we were there. We cleared customs in Georgetown. (shhh!)
To be completely legal we should have cleared in at Bimini. but that would have entailed waiting till the next day and either staying over another day in Bimini, or getting to Bird isl. or some place nearby, after dark. This was our first time to Bimini and after a stop in Bimini on our return i can now add a few notes. First, I would not want to take the big boat into Alice Town unless it was slack tide. The current flies through there. That said, there are a few face docks at some of the marinas and the docks at the Bimini Big Game Club are new. And you can clear in there. I would anchor out and come in by dinghy. Stick around at the bar for shark feeding frenzy in the evening.
The other alternative is to take a slip at Bimini Sands on South Bimini. Stay a day or two. Nice pool. Totally protected although it can get a bit surgey at times. Short walk and short ferry ride to Alice Town to check in.
Or you can just wait to clear in when you get to Georgetown. I cant come up with any interpretation of Bahama entry instructions that would make that legal, but that said, the instructions are a bit vague, “…at the closest customs facility…” and “within 24 hours” shows up, along with, “upon entering Bahamian waters”. Probably within the law to sail directly to Georgetown as long as you dont anchor like we did. We did fly the Q flag and my response if boarded would have been that this was our landfall from the crossing. Again, I am not recommending any of this.
Alternatively, on a previous visit to the Bahamas we made landfall at Mayaguana, coming up from T & C, but anchored a long distance from the town. I called the customs agent in Mayaguana and asked if it would be OK to wait till we got to Georgetown to check in and she said, “No problem, mon” But I doubt she was speaking officially.
Anyway, we got here just fine.
Before Christmas, the Georgetown anchorages are pretty open. We like Monument and Honeymoon Beach anchorages. Excellent holding throughout. But they get pretty crowded as the season progresses. Later in the season we end up in Sand Dollar, although holding is variable here. There are some pretty weedy areas and some areas with a thin layer of sand over coral crust, as well as some long dead coral atols that can wrap an anchor chain. Since we were in and out of the Georgetown area this season, we tried them all.
The harbor has a good mix of transient cruisers and live aboards. Boats that either stop for a few days headed south, come here and stay all season, or stay all year and just get moved out from the hurricane hole storage and back every season. The greenery from their hulls is beginning to attach to the sea bed.

Sorry for the lack of updates (written Jan 2017)
Feels like mission accomplished. More than six months ago, long before the boat was even completed, we planned a family reunion in the Bahamas for Christmas. And we are here. Evan from Georgia, Grayson from Tallahassee, and their girl friends. It has been a whirlwind six months. Some time soon i will go back and expand on some of all this, but for now, and overview of how we got from here to there.
Commissioning in Stuart with KKY went well, but it is an intense period, with lots of decisions to be made on the fly. With our plan to go straight from the commissioning to the Ft lauderdale boat show and then to the Bahamas, we not only had to learn the boat, but we had to prepare it for living aboard full time and for moving it to a somewhat remote part of the world.(just try and get a part delivered to the bahamas and you will see what i mean)
Lets start with handling a trawler of this size. Should be easy, what with twin engines and bow and stern thrusters. And I guess it is. But still a significant learning curve as I move from a 54ft sailboat. The big issue is visibility. From the center cockpit of the sailboat I had 360 degree visibility. From any steering station on Privateer, and there are 4, i have maybe 120 degrees field of view and am blind in the other quadrants. Yes, there is 360 from the fly bridge, but the edges of the boat are not visible. backing this thing into a slip requires a different perspective that I have not yet mastered. It isnt the boat, as I couldnt imagine any trawler of this size better configured or equipped for close quarters maneuvering, but it is still a steep learning curve. Now that we are moving from anchorage to anchorage, life is much easier. Back to our chronology.
From Stuart to Ft Lauderdale there must be about 30 bridges that we need opened.That is a learning opportunity all its own. I am pretty good at calculating time and distance to arrive at the next bridge just before a scheduled opening, and many of the bridge openings are sequenced for 7 knots or so. But just as I think I had a plan, we would run into an “idle speed only” or “no wake zone” that forced us back to 5 knots or so. After a couple of miles at 5 knots, it would require 10 knots to get back on plan. And we cant do 10 knots. As it turned out, we were often able to catch up with “the fleet” and ride the tail of the convoy through the bridge. But we did miss a few.
Boat shows can be fun, but getting the boat into the show is not for the faint of heart. Think of a tight anchorage with 50 boats in it. Then take the anchors away. Have them all moving in random directions to maintain steerage. Add 3 knots of current and 25 knots of wind. That pretty much describes the marshaling area just outside the show marina. We had our broker on board. A life saver.
No trip to Ft Lauderdale is complete without a trip up and down the New River. Never again. Take those same 50 boats, string them out bow to stern, add a narrow winding river, seven bridges in half as many miles, throw in some current just to make it interesting, and then stop for twenty minutes to let a train go by.
Miami was OK. We anchored east of the Venetian causeway among the man made islands. An excellent place to sit and wait for weather for the crossing over to, in our case, Bimini. Easy exit w no bridges to deal with.
I will pick up next with the stream crossing (benign) and our short passage to George Town. (also mostly benign)

Progress. Privateer is out of the shed and being prepped for shipment. Load date is approximately 22 July. Her ride is the Ever Lawful, a container ship, and she is due in Savannah about 27 August. Looks like we will be out of NH and down south in time for me to join the delivery captain on the trip from Savannah to Stuart. I have attached a few photos but they do not do her justice as plenty of pre-ship packaging everywhere.