Bimini to Chub Cay

April 2nd, 4:00 in the morning, we pulled up our anchor and set our course headed towards Chub Cay. This particular morning, our chart plotter decided to work! Hallelujah! This is especially nice because you are able to track the other boats on the charts that are in close proximity (within about 15-20nm). You can see where they are heading, the name of the boat (so you can hail them over the radio if needed), see how fast they are going, and if you will collide with them (just a minor detail). And they can see us on their charts as well. But that is only if every one has an AIS (automated identification system) on their boat. Around 6:49 a.m. we were in only 7 kts of wind, moving at 6.7 kts SOG (speed over ground). We had the jib out and port engine running. There were 1’ wind waves on our beam. Nice calm motor-sail.

Most of our journey was calm and relaxing. As we got closer to our destination there was a lot of boat traffic. Mostly large pleasure crafts and large sailing vessels. All making huge wakes. A bit uncomfortable at times. We tried our Spinnaker which was one that we used on our last sailboat. It definitely wasn’t a good fit for this boat…way too small. But it did give us 6kts..and was fun for a moment.

We arrived at Chub Cay around 4:45p.m. and anchored right outside the channel. We realized the next morning that we were actually in the channel when a very large sport-fisher boat motored by and shouted, “get out of the channel, fools!” We were mortified and quickly moved the boat up closer to the beach and re-anchored.

So that same morning after a rude wake up call, the sun came out and we could see more clearly the aquamarine colored water, the charming homes and white sandy beach on shore which all were looking so inviting! I was excited to somehow get over there and check it all out. Sadly we later found out that this was a private island and if we wanted to see the place we had to pay $100.00 for a day pass to wander around. That idea was no longer an option. But fortunately I got a good tip from our friend, Mary Miller, that there were some inlets and beaches for shelling on the other side that we could check out by dinghy.

Who is Mary Miller you might ask…..well we have never met in person but we started texting right before we got to Florida and boarded SeaBreeze. We have a mutual family acquaintance who put us in touch with one another because she and her husband, Rob, have cruised on a sailing yacht for many years all over the world and have also delivered some very impressive yachts. So they both are very knowledgeable about sailing, boat mechanics and know a lot about the Bahamas where they spent about 10 years alone on and off. There is probably a lot more to their story but this is all I have gathered in my communications with them. Mary and her husband have been very helpful with any questions that we have had along our journey. Once in our dinghy we went around the point to the other side where we saw lots of empty beaches and we entered one inlet where the water was calm and crystal clear surrounded by mangroves. Immediately upon entering this one inlet we saw sea turtles swimming all around us. It was very cool! We went up the inlet quite a ways and then turned off our dinghy motor and sort of drifted our way back out. Great experience! Best part of being at Chub Cay! Just before heading back to the boat, we stopped along a beach where I found my first Conch Shell! It was buried deep in the sand, but I dug it out , rinsed it in the water and was delighted to leave the beach with a beautiful treasure! Later when we returned to our boat, we got on our SUP boards and paddled around. As we were paddling along, we saw huge Stingray’s swimming along the sandy bottom. We paddled to the other side of the harbor entrance and found another inlet which we paddled along and saw many turtles and more Stingray’s! Loved it. Probably the best paddle board outing I’d ever been on.

Later that night we checked the weather again and it looked like leaving for West Bay, Nassau, in the morning would be the best scenario for us. The weather forecast, wind and waves for the next week didn’t look very favorable. So, we wanted to get going while we could. We weren’t too disappointed because we’d already done all that we could at this island. The reason we are going to Nassau is mainly to get our fuel situation handled that caused our engines to quit on and off (mostly off) on our sail between Florida and Bimini and for provisioning.

Next blog post coming soon…