Wednesday, March 5, 2014 Little Bahama Banks to Old Bahama Bay Marina, West End

I slept good last night until 11:30 pm. Those light and variable winds didn't happen!  We had much stronger winds and all four of our boats hobby-horsed all night.  At 1 am, I heard an unusual noise and woke Chuck up.   He gingerly made his way to the bow of the boat to find that our snubber came off.  The metal hook could have hit the side of the hull and made the noise that I heard.  We found out in the
morning, that David's snubber came off his chain too!  We also heard from Keith in the morning to tell us that our anchor light went out sometime after midnight....not again....this is getting frustrating! The only reason that Keith knew our anchor light wasn't on was because he couldn't sleep and sat in his cockpit reading all night...no one slept good except the Circe crew.

Because of our restless night, all four boats were ready to haul anchor and get to a dock at the Old Bahama Bay Marina.  Our anchors were up at 8 am and we were headed to Barracuda Shoals and then out through the skinny water at Indian Cut.   I think we all were a bit nervous about motoring through this narrow cut but excited at the same time. We need to get to the shoals one hour before high tide and we're hoping there is plenty of water to navigate through. I think I might have said this in yesterday's blog, but this passage is going to save us approximately 2 hours and this will enable us to get to the marina before the predicted bad weather....which didn't come!  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry! And the four captains got us through without any trouble....Billy 5',  Chuck 5', Keith 5.5', and David 5'!

The water was an aqua color in the Banks but as soon as we spilled out into the ocean, it became blue, blue, blue!   It looked like someone dumped blue food coloring into the water.  Of course we also had a change in wave height.  The ocean came at us with about 3-4 foot swells. The Indian Cut opens up so close to the tip of the West End that we were  approaching the channel to the marina at 11:30 am....a 3 1/2 hour trip.  Once we got settled into our dock, we all eventually walked over to the beach and Straw Bar which faces the Little Bahama Banks.  Rita told me to take my camera because there are so many pictures to take.  After successfully making it through the Indian Cut, we wanted to celebrate with  a cold drink and lunch...beautiful view, good friends, and good food!

Straw Bar

After lunch, some of us headed to the pool, while the others went back to their boats to sleep!!  We didn't want to waste any of our precious time at this resort and Chuck and I knew we would sleep well tonight! After dinner, everyone got together at a picnic table to bring up the weather and discuss if and when we might be heading west.  Billy wants to leave tomorrow morning at 5 am.  We looked at Passage Weather, Wind Finder, and Weather Alert, and the other 3 boats said we're staying put!


It was an interesting evening on the dock.  First a woman and her two
kids came on our dock selling cinnamon and white bread...still hot. Then a guy came over to our boat trying to sell us a conch shell with its end cut ready to blow. Could he blow the conch! The best that I've ever heard.   He said he should get $20 a shell but would give it to me for $6 and then $5!  I already have two, so I sent him next door to see Bobby. Next, a boat load of conch came in and they were making conch salad to sell.  Then another Bahamian guy on a bike with a basket wanted to sell us lobsters.  What a night!  Finally the winds and rains came and everyone hunkered for the night in their boats!                                                      

The beautiful grounds of the Old Bahama Bay Resort