Honeymoon Harbor to Nassau

Date: Thursday, Jan 16, 2020                      

Arrival Time: 1500 ET                      

Location:  Nassau, Bahamas (West Bay)

Weather:  72-83               

Sea State:  3-4 ft seas

Destination Tomorrow:  sit tight for weather

Total Engine Hours:  1453                                                             

Crew:  Ruth and Greg    

Mileage Log:  1243

Tongue of the Ocean & Anchorage

Comments:  The last couple days have been pretty uneventful as they have been traveling days.  We left the beautiful Honeymoon Harbor at 0700 on Wednesday, in hopes of nearing the NW channel to anchor for the night then make it to Nassau on Thursday.  I commented to Ruth about not seeing sea life hoping for a positive jinx, like last time.  Well it didn’t work.  Throughout the day, we saw nothing but turquoise blue water so clear you can see the bottom at incredible depths, as we traveled the Bahama Banks, toward the North West Channel.  Poor us!  We watched the setting sun as we neared an anchorage just west of the channel.  The NW Channel, or Tongue of the Ocean, as it is called, is really not a typical channel but more an opening into the ocean between Andros and the Exumas.  So just after dark we anchored about 8.5 N/M west of the tongue.  It was a random anchorage (78 17.0 W, 25 27.0 N) picked by Menno, but it turned out the other 3 boats from Honeymoon Harbor were also there.  Menno must know something!

We pulled up anchor at 0600 this morning after a very rocky and rolly night with 3 to 4 feet swells.  It wasn’t prime anchorage conditions but it’s what you have to do sometimes when you are “staging” and an overnighter is not an option. We did get to pull out the sails today and turn off the motor. That was a nice change. 

West Bay Anchorage

We changed course to SE at 0730 when we reached the NW Channel.  It was a little eventful at this point because there were about 12 boats from 3 different routes converging into the NW channel.  It seems all staged to enter the NW passage last night and all pulled up anchorage at the same time.  To make things really perky a 112 foot private yacht plowed through the intersection.  I’m glad channel 16 was already blowing up by other displeased boaters because I might have embarrassed Ruth.  Anyway, that was the event of the day, other than seeing flying fish regularly.  We tried harder today to take advantage of photo ops, as we were without our phones at Honeymoon Harbor when we saw stingrays and nurse sharks. After seeing a few flying fish, I readied myself with phone/camera in hand and, of course there were none.  This went on all day and it pains me that I was outsmarted by a smattering of flying fish. 

Sat view of W Bay

I did fish 2 lines today.  We had one break off for an unknown reason.  It must have been big, that’s our story and we are sticking to it!

We pulled into the West Bay of Providence, the island of Nassau.  Next to us is Tenacious, an Island Packet we were anchored near in Bimini. There are probably 15 boats in the bay.  Menno and Val went on to Norman Cay.  I’m sure we’ll meet up with them again somewhere.  We await another front scheduled to arrive Friday afternoon with winds of 30 mph.  Fortunately, it should blow through by Sunday.