Sunday 0930
The first stirs aboard the Audax at 0830 today, all to bed by 2200 last night. Doing the math it equals 10 plus hours of sleep,…must be nice to be on island time :). Sitting at the Casuarina Cafe, Xanadu Marina nestled right between the larger ports of Freeport and Lucaya and the most affordable solution that included free of charge - a dicey, narrow entrance channel….perhaps this is why there was no warm water and at best a trickle of pressure from the guest shower! No worries mon with the beach a stones throw away, friendly hospitality, tennis courts (san’s net and a fence ) and water temps in the mid 80’s. Finished reading “A new Pair of Glasses” a AA book with many parallels to “A New Earth”. Onto the “Celestine Prophecy” and new insights into finding our god given inner spirituality.

Jordi’s X-mas album and our route below:

Saturday
1300 Steaming along the southern coast of Grand Bahama Island, a crew of 2 as Stevey took to land and the Bahamian public transportation system to meet our first guest at the Freeport International Airport. A rough account of the past 16 hours of life in the Bahamas - The meeting of a pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean in the berth besides us at the Old Bahama Bay Marina, raising of the yellow quarantine flag, putting on my Sundays best to pay $300 entrance fee and successfully clearing customs, anchoring in crystal clear water followed immediately by a dive down to inspect the anchor, a 2nd failed attempt at patching our dingy (3rd one’s glue currently drying), snorkeling off Indian Cay Island, (for any MITA fans out there, we did not get ashore to inspect the LNT (Leave No Trace) but hope to provide a more detailed chronicle of future islands and their conditions as we progress), swimming alongside the Audax in a 3 knot current similar to a lap pool experience, continued reading of what seems to quickly be becoming our new bible “The Thornless Path to Windward” by Bruce Van Sant. Given the dominant easterly tradewinds of 15-25 knots during the winter months our chosen cruising path to the Caribbean is known as the Thorny Passage. The book details a path and the techniques aimed to comfortably island jump whilst allowing one enough time to enjoy a SG& T at the end of the day. (Sundowner Gin and Tonic)
PS: The storm clouds of last night never materialized!

Friday
1454 – Land ho!!!! One o’ clock off the starboard bow, its Grand Bahama Island we hope!! A midnight departure that had us steaming into a 2-4 foot swell and a 10-15 knot East wind through the Gulf Stream. A less than ideal passage from a comfortablity standpoint that resulted in a team decision 3 hours ago to veer 50 degrees West. We hope to make landfall before darkness and ideally not get our boat confiscated by customs/immigration at the “Old Bahama Bay Marina” on the West End. Lots of reading in our cruising guides, the analysis of the thornless passage we hope to embark upon and the extremely successful first usage of an x-mas present from Erin… the French Press!!! Watch out for the flying fish!!!!

West End Photo Album and take a look at that sweet hat (he must be trying to look more like his father!)