Great Sale Cay 2 Old Bahama Bay Marina

We awoke Tuesday morning to a lovely, calm view of the Spanish Cay Marina. According to the forecast, we should have just enough time to make our 46 mile trip to Great Sale Cay before the wind shifts and picks up again.  Yay!

The name of this rock is, "Center of the World Rock". Funny.

On our longer trip days, Jim always does an engine room check at least once. He checks temperatures at a variety of key locations on the engines & looks for any issues that might be developing. Carol always keeps an eye on him from the helm using the engine room camera.  It's so noisy he always has to wear hearing protection.

Again, we had dolphin visits a couple of times. At one point, we had a pod of 6 say hello. However, they were gone before we could get the camera down to the bow.

We know it's crazy, but in order to get to our anchorage on Great Sale Cay, we had to go nearly 10 miles out of our way to get around a large, shallow shoal. Ughhh. The route we are following is the purple line on the chart. You can see where the boat is and the data on the left tells you how deep it is and how fast we're going.

We were the only boat here until just before sundown. Then 2 sailboats came in.  So much for our private, secluded anchorage. Oh well.

Once anchored, we headed around the island to a beach. Surprise, surprise!

While we were walking, the tide went down - - a lot! It took a bit of effort to get it to the water without dragging it over the rocks. Then, we had to walk it way out to find water deep enough to put the engine down. Who woulda thought?

Carol had quite a haul of shells to add to her collection.

Tonight's sundowner was a very special and bittersweet one so we broke out our last bottle of champagne!.

This is our last night at anchor in the Bahamas - - ever! We have decided to sell Samba and let the Lord lead us as He chooses. It's sad but we are at peace with our decision. More on that later.

True to the forecast, the wind gradually picked up through the night. However, we had anchored in the lee of the island so though we knew it was getting windy, the boat rested calmly at anchor.

Wednesday, we headed for Old Bahama Bay on West End where we decided to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. At this point, it appears Friday might work but we'll determine that once we are safely tied up in the marina.

Throughout the 46 mile trip today, the wind was 15 to 20 knots. Since it was behind us and the water was shallow,  it was a pleasant cruise. The temperature was cool, though

Our last couple of miles were a bit of a nail biter. The tide was super low and at one point near the end, we only had 1' of water under the boat. Ughhh. We slowed waaaay down and crept along, hoping we didn't totally run out of water! We finally made it! PTL!!!

Almost as soon as we had tied up in our slip, we had a very large manatee come over to say hi and beg for some fresh water. Carol, of course, was happy to oblige.

Once checked in, we hoofed it over to the adjacent resort for a look-see and pick up some fresh conch fritters for a sundowner - - yum!

Chess anyone????

Today, the seas in the Gulf Stream are running 10 feet - wow! Fortunately, they are forecast to drop waaaay down by Friday so that will likely be when we make a run for the Stuart, Florida inlet. Wish us luck!