We weighed anchor in North Palm Beach at 4AM. It was dark as we made our way down the ICW and out of Lake Worth inlet.
We welcomed first light but soon our due East direction had us seeing spots as we stared into the sun.
Here is a video while underway in the Gulf Stream.
The ocean temp was a tropical 78 degrees.
While it would take us about 8 hours to arrive at our custom clear in location in West End on Grand Bahama Island, others would pass us along the way.
Soon we tucked between the rock jetties of West End, hailed Old Bahama Bay Marina for temporary dockage while we cleared in through customs.
The water inside West End Harbour was cloudy but had a beautiful green color.
We had our yellow quarantine flag & Bahamas courtesy flag flying when we arrived in Bahamian waters. Now docked, only the captain is allowed to leave the boat to checkin at customs. The customs officers were very friendly and helped me sort through the required paperwork & $300 USD yacht entrance fee.
I first got the desire to sail after graduating college. I had dreams of dropping out of life, buying a sailboat, filling it with beer & Campbell’s soup and sailing away. Some 23 years, 3 sailboats and a trawler later we are finally realizing a dream. Time for some selfies in West End.
Old Bahama Bay marina is the only dockage in West End and a private party bought many of their slips. They were not able to offer us dockage so we had to use the remaining daylight to run to out the breakwaters of West End, around Indian Rock and use VPR (Visual Piloting Rules) to navigate to Mangrove Cay for the night’s anchorage.
Crossing the Little Bahama Bank is like nothing I’d ever experienced.
The water is so clear you can see everything on the bottom. Where the blue sky meets the green ocean is captivating.
When you pay for your cruising permit it include a Bahamas fishing license so we wasted no time in trolling lines. Kelly caught this amberjack and was quick to return it’s freedom by throwing it back in the water.
Soon we arrived at Mangrove Cay.
We anchored for the night as the sun was setting over Mangrove Cay.
We slept late and made the short trip to great Sale Cay the next afternoon.
Then it was on to Crab Cay for another night on anchor.
Our last trip was to Marsh Harbour where we will await a guest who is flying in for a week visit aboard MV Simple Life.
Arriving in Marsh Harbour we found the anchorage to be quite full and had to squeeze into a spot that was just deep enough for our 4’10” draft.
You can now choose “Current Location” from our blogs menu and see where MV Simple Life is in real-time.
MV Simple Life 