Cindy's Here...Yippeee!!

Our friend Cindy Williams finally arrived in Treasure Cay on March 3rd. She came full of giggles and carting a big bag of booty, including 4 bags of Oreo cookies, 2 boxes of wine, an inestimable amount of chocolate, a can of spaghettios, and only 1 bag of pretzels (a 5-pound bag that is, special ordered on the Internet). She had very little clothing as all her baggage space was taken up by food!

Cindy flew in to join us for the journey home. Some of you may think this a strange thing to do, especially considering my description of the passage here. But, then you don’t know Cindy, a girl who loves adventure. We did offer that she could join us sooner for some time in the Bahamas, but she said she was only interested in the return voyage. I think she is rethinking that decision now that she has seen the Abacos and discovered the delightful, unspoiled islands. But, the good thing is that we have been waiting for about a week to get a good window to cross back to the U.S. coast, so she has had a little taste of most of what the area has to offer.

On Cindy’s first night we had an impromptu sundowner happy hour with a bunch of cruisers who were anchored in the Treasure Cay Bay. She got to meet some of our buddies and happily joined the spirit of the occasion. We then said good bye yet again in anticipation of departing the following day…that didn’t happen. Due to the conditions, we chose to wait an extra day before attempting to pass through the Whale channel, something I was nervously anticipating after our first experience. This delay gave us a chance to stroll along the beautiful Treasure Cay Beach one last time. We did go around Whale Cay the next day and I am happy to report it was uneventful. I will use the Cruisers Net lingo for the conditions, which were a “sloppy 4” on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being impassable and 5 being perfect. Instead of 12-foot swells we saw only a little chop.

We made our way to Green Turtle Cay where we are still waiting for a good window to head home. We chose to anchor outside the Harbor on the first night and were hit by an unexpected squall that brought sustained 35 knot wind with gusts above 50 knots. It was an incredibly violent thunder storm that passed directly through us. We even donned our life jackets. I was quite nervous and actually screamed when a lightning bolt struck so close I thought we had been hit. Of course Cindy loved every minute. We checked the radar and could see the storm was about 25 miles long and 6 miles wide. Yet again our trusty anchor held through the event even though we swung over 180 degrees.

The next day we opted to move inside the safer harbour, called White Sound. We were a little tense about this as the channel is quite shallow, but it turned out to be a piece of cake as Captain Lynn calmly steered us through the markers. Cindy and I were at the bow watching starfish pass by when we sighted a huge Spotted Eagle Ray glide away from under the boat. It was beautiful with a wing span of about 4 feet…very exciting. Lynn then expertly turned the boat 360 degrees into our slip. We are spending our last few nights tucked snugly in at the Green Turtle Club Marina. This will allow us to charge up our batteries, replenish the boat supplies and rest up before the long journey home. We are also safely docked for hopefully the last Norther we will experience here.

Over the last few days we have toured the island in a golf cart, explored New Plymouth (the nearby town), wandered on the beach, splashed in the waves and found more sea treasures while snorkeling. Cindy has put me to shame as she wakes before sunrise each morning and runs 6 miles before I get out of my PJs. We have also indulged quite heavily at the Green Turtle Club because every dollar spent there is deducted from our dock fees…so we feel compelled to max out on eating and drinking.

Most importantly we have spent many hours planning the crossing, which entails listening to the morning weather forecasts, plotting the course and discussing the outlook with our buddy boats. As of today the plan is to leave here on Monday with a stop over at Manjack Cay that night. We will then head to Great Sale which will be the departure point for the crossing. We hope to leave there at dusk on Wednesday, cross the Little Bahama Bank overnight and reach the Gulf Stream at day break on Thursday. We should arrive in Fort Pierce, Florida at about 2 PM that afternoon (March 13th). The forecast is for very calm winds and less than 2-foot waves in the gulf. That will be a welcome change.

So, our unforgettable adventure is now drawing to a close. The downside of this that we will have to leave the beautiful Bahamas, go back to work, start to wear makeup and undergarments (less of a concern for Lynn), possibly see a touch of winter, and get back to reality. All of this is almost balanced by the upside of seeing our friends and family again.