Showing posts with label Bahamas Enroute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bahamas Enroute. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Georgetown, Exumas

 

Another orange sunset on our passage from Fajardo, Puerto Rico to Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas where we planned to stop for a quick rest before pushing on. It was an easy passage, with consistent 10 to 15 knot winds driving us downwind.



We were not going to make the somewhat tricky entrance to Georgetown by dark so we decided to stop for an overnight at an anchorage on Conception Island.  After having sunny skies everyday of our 4 day passage the weather decided to get gray and overcast for our stay on Conception. Not much opportunity to snorkel, but we did get in some good beach walks. Got up at 0:dark thirty and did the 6 hour sail to Georgetown.
It was an easy clear into the Bahamas. The Bahamas requires a Covid antigen test within 3 days of arrival. This is pretty tough when the passage time is longer. But we had no issues checking in: it was easy, if not a bit on the expensive side.



Just so we don't completely forget in our old age, here's a few pictures of the Old Town in San Juan that we visited in our brief stop in Puerto Rico. This is the view from the ramparts of Castillo San Felipe del Morro, known as 'El Morro'. San Juan city was founded by the Spanish colonizers in 1521 and El Morro construction began in 1539 to protect the entrance to San Juan from the sea.


The old town has street after street of colorful old buildings, many of the streets are paved with "adoquines" cobblestones made of blue stone cast from furnace slag carried to Puerto Rico as ballast aboard Spanish ships

An iguana guarding the old fort wall.

No HOA requiring that all the old town buildings be painted the same color resulting in a typical Caribbean color scheme.

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Our plan was to arrive on the East Coast within the next few days. However, the weather seems to be in our way. Above is a forecast from the ECMWF Euro weather model for this coming Sunday (downloaded 5/31) predicting a nasty low between us and North Carolina. There's a good chance we'd end up in the middle of it if we left now. So being the prudent mariners that we are, the plan is to wait a bit and let the weather models coalesce into some decent agreement, and then do the passage north when this low dissipates.  It is interesting that this low is basically the remains of the hurricane Agnes that just hit the Pacific coast of southern Mexico and passed across the isthmus to effect weather in the Gulf of Mexico.  With the major models being so divergent, it is anyone's call whether this low will become a serious event or just another bit of rain and wind.

Paul




Saturday, May 28, 2022

Enroute Bahamas

We anchored at Conception Island, Bahamas this evening, as we were not going to make it to Georgetown early enough to get in the pass. We are about 40 miles short o Georgetown. Easy passage, with light winds, small seas. Still, it is nice to get anchored for the night. This is the first passage in a long time that we did not have flying fish carnage on the deck. We saw little wildlife since Puerto Rico.

Paul
--short

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Friday, May 27, 2022

Enroute Bahmas - Day 2 & 3

Noon to noon run day 2 158nm, day 3 137nm.
STill cruising along in light, almost dead down wind winds with small seas. Saw one French warship and 3 cruise ships on AIS. Other than those, there is just much out here. Timing looks like we would arrive at the entrance to Georgetown late in the afternoon. This is probably too late to negotiate the entrance safely, so we will probably anchor at one of the outer islands for the night. Maybe Conception Island. We'll see where we are tomorrow after tonight's moonless run.

Paul
--short

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Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Enroute Bahams - Day 1

Day 1 noon-to-noon run was about 168nm. We sailed along the north coast of Puerto Rico all day and then crossed the Mona Passage, the waters between PR and the Dominican Republic. All a mellow sail, except for some of the night lightning along the coast. We ended up about 50 miles off the NE coast of the Dominican Republic where the ocean depths are near 25,000 feet. At this point we decided to change our course and sail over the top of the Turks and Caicos islands instead of the original plan of going under them. This should give a bit better wind angle and a little shorter passage, and hopefully less lightning. The nights are dark with only a little moon showing up before dawn. Not a lot of wildlife out here.
Paul
--short

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Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Enroute Bahamas - Day 0

I didn't get a chance to post a blog with pictures of our time in Old Town, San Juan Puerto Rico. This was because I spent way too many hours navigating the convoluted Bahamas online entry application websites. I'll post some once we get settled in Georgetown, Exumas -- our current destination. We left Puerto del Rey, on Puerto Rico's east coast this morning after a nice two stay. The first half day was slow going, but this afternoon and early evening it has been a fast, easy downwind sail.

Paul

--short

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