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The Trip Back to the USA - 2009
We planned to leave Georgetown as soon as the regatta was complete but Mother Nature had different plans. We were held up for 10 days waiting for a series of cold fronts producing vigorous North and North East winds to 20 and 25 knots to pass by. Finally on Sunday March 29th we sailed from Georgetown, Great Exuma. This trip took us out into Exuma Sound which has water reaching over 2000’ deep and 35 miles wide between Great Exuma and Cat Island. We had a nice SE 12-16 knot breeze but the ocean swell was still running about 4-6’ due to the long period of strong NE winds.
Our first destination was Black Point in the lower Exumas. This is a small settlement that is very friendly to cruisers. They have a couple of small restaurants and a great Laundromat. Also, a local lady makes great homemade coconut bread which she sells primarily to sailors passing through. The morning we were there she had orders for 20 loaves of bread.
From Black Point we sailed north to Sampson Cay. As we rounded the point into the bay just
off Sampson Cay we found “Imagine” another Seawind 1160, with our friends Liz & Jim. They had sailed from Georgetown about 3 weeks earlier and made trips to Long Island, & Cat Cay. There are only 4 or 5 Seawind 1160’s on the East coast of the US so for two to be in the same anchorage was reason for a party. We had a pot luck dinner aboard Imagine and Doug & Sharon from “About Time” joined in.
The next morning we sailed up to Cambridge Cay which is part of the huge Bahamian Land & Sea Park. This is a protected area that serves as a nature preserve within the Exumas. The beaches here are spectacular and there are several great sites to snorkel. The first day we went to a site called the “Sea Aquarium” which is a group of coral heads in a shallow cove. The park has installed mooring buoys for people to tie their dinghies to so no one damages the reef accidentally. There were hundreds of fish on the reef and several different types of coral.
The second day we snorkeled a site called the Rocky Dundas. This is a huge
rock out near the ocean cut that has a series of caves that can only be entered by swimming into them. Once in the cave there are ledges above water that are inside huge chambers that are lit by natural sunlight entering through holes in the ceiling of the cave. Legend has it that this was a sacred site for the Lucayan Indians that populated the Bahamas prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500’s.
From Cambridge Cay we sailed on to Allen’s Cay in the Northern Exumas. This island is famous for its colony of giant Iguanas. They are used to seeing people and readily come out to greet visitors. Unfortunately, people feed them so they we come looking for treats. Their eye site is bad and they have been known to grab fingers as well as the food that is being offered. By now it was the first week of April. With our daughter Julie’s wedding just 6 weeks away, we were beginning to feel the need to get back to the East Coast to help with the last minute preparations. Therefore, we decided to skip the trip through the Abacos and to head directly
back to Florida. This meant our next destination needed to be Nassau which is probably our least favorite spot in the Bahamas. We were able to get there in one day with a great following wind.
Fortunately, the weather outlook for a passage to Florida was very good for the next day. In fact there were 8 boats that all left at sunrise for the Florida coast. We took a route that went WNW up through Northwest Providence Channel on to the Great Bahamas Bank. Then we had an overnight sail across the banks exiting the bank at Great Isaac Light. From there we crossed the Gulf Stream and headed for Lake Worth Inlet near the Port of Palm Beach. We arrive in Lake Worth at 1:300 the next afternoon. Since this was a Sunday we had all day to catch up on our sleep before we needed to check in with the Customs Office the next morning. We did enjoy a dinner of fresh Mahi-Mahi that we caught while crossing from Nassau. Also, Nancy saw a very large Manatee right in front of the boat as we were anchoring.
After checking in with Customs and going to a
real American supermarket for the first time in six months we headed back out the inlet to sail up the coast to Fort Pierce Inlet and then up the ICW to Vero Beach Florida. This is one of our favorite stops. They have a great municipal marina that rents mooring buoys at a reasonable rate. The town is very boater friendly, has a free bus service, great restaurants and good shopping. Also the Oceanside beach is a short walk from the marina. While we were there we were able to enjoy an outdoor concert in a beachside park.
We decided to work our way north up the ICW while we waited for favorable winds to sail out on the ocean. After a quick stop anchored off Titusville FL, we arrived in Daytona Beach just ahead of some very nasty thunderstorms. The weather radio was calling for severe storms with a chance of tornados and damaging winds and hail. We opted for a slip in a place called Seven Seas marina. This was really just a rundown boatyard that seemed to be a trip back to the Florida of the 60’ or 70’s. They had a great diner onsite that
served breakfast to most of the working people of the area each morning. That evening Nancy and I enjoyed our 36th anniversary at a local Italian restaurant called Portofino’s on the Ocean highway in Daytona.
From Daytona we pushed on to Cumberland Island National Seashore. This is also another of our favorite places. We took a guided tour of the ruins of the Carnegie mansion called “Dungeness” given by a park service ranger that has lived on the island for 24 years. She relived the history of the Island from the time it was owned by the Oglethorpe’s of Savannah through its time in the hands of the Carnegie family. It is amazing that there are so few signs of any development on the island after nearly 300 years of time.
At Cumberland we had to say good bye to our friends Doug & Sharon who had cruised with us most of the winter. They lay up their boat in nearby St Mary’s Georgia. We were headed up to Brunswick GA, which is very close to St Simon’s Island, the second barrier island north of Cumberland. We were scheduled to stay at the Brunswick Landing Marina for the
next month while we commuted back and for to Atlanta in preparation for the big wedding on the 19th of May.
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