DATE
14 January 2022
Departure point
West Palm Beach, FL, USA
arrival point
Peanut Island, FL, USA
distance (NM)
4 NM
Cumulative Mileage (NM)
1,574 NM
Crew on Board
CALLY
Skipper, first mate, chef, entertainment and more; I guess that is solo sailing for you!
GENERAL WEATHER OBSERVATIONS
WIND
8 knots of wind, calm in the protected parts of the ICW. Probably windier out in the ocean as my departure waited for wind to settle down to leave.
CLOUD COVER
Not a cloud in sight!
TEMPERATURE
Chilly as this was done in the dusk and early night.
PRECIPITATION
Dry, thank goodness!
Log
After a last minute planning meeting with Jamie to discuss options for getting further south before my crossing to Bimini in the Bahamas, we realised this coming weather window might be better suited to crossing to directly to the Bahamas – but to West End on Grand Bahama instead!
A few reasons for this:
- US Visa – my time on my US visa was quickly coming to a close and I needed to have an active plan to get out. With only two weeks remaining for me before a potential 5 or 10 year ban from the US (as rumour has it) and having planned all of my parcels with supplies for boat projects having arrived – except the machete I ordered, no coconuts on arrival for me – it was time to keep moving. Hard to believe I had been in West Palm Beach for 3 whole weeks!
- Cancelled Flights – with the rapidly changing Omicron and Covid-19 situations (again), there were many announcements of Canadian airlines cancelling all flights to the Caribbean. If something were to happen and I needed to fly home, it would be extra crucial to have those USA days saved on my visa so that I could transit from the Caribbean to Canada via the US. Otherwise, there was a chance there could be no options for me to head home in the event I needed to.
- Winter Weather Forecast – I could use this window to head south to Fort Lauderdale or the Key Biscayne, where I would want to go at least to cross to Bimini. However, once there it was forecast at least another three days of bad weather. And after that no guarantee when the good weather window would arrive (a particularly tricky balancing act because the crossing to the Bahamas involves a 3 knot current when you pass through the Gulf Stream so certain wind conditions are not suitable to cross). If I used this window to head south, that would eat a remaining four days of my US time leaving me with only 10 days left and no idea when I would get a chance to cross.
- Puerto Rico – not only did I need to get out of the USA before my visa expired, but I also needed to save some of those days for Puerto Rico (and transiting in airports if needed as mentioned above). Otherwise I would be in Turks & Caicos or the Dominican Republic and facing a 5 day sail past Puerto Rico without being able to stop just like in 2019 on One-O-Six. The only difference was that I had John so we had minimum a crew of two and a friend Zak was able to join us to make a crew of three! While I would love to find crew anyways for that part of the trip, the crossing to Puerto Rico was much more reasonable than a crossing past it! And with covid, I had to plan as though crew would not be able to fly in just in case so I was not banking on help I could not access. So days were to be saved on the US visa for Puerto Rico.
Now with bad weather guaranteed for two or three days after arrival, I would be paying for a marina for those days as there is no where to anchor in West End where I would be checking in. But it seemed a small price to pay (despite being a high price of $2 per foot per day) for all of the important reasons why I needed to get out of the US in that weather window.
So preparations began, the to do list was longer than I thought was achievable but I was darn well going to try:
- Pick up all of my parcels from friend Jen’s house and pack into quarter berth
- Run to Land & Sea down in Pompano Beach (30 minute drive) and pick up my order there
- One last Home Depot trip (for a list that was not yet fully compiled but close enough)
- Propane fill for new bottle that actually fits in my second propane locker
- Last minute grocery trip for some fresh foods and few harder to find items
- Put cotter pins in new rigging turnbuckles (x16) and tape
- Lash liferaft in cockpit for passage
- Re-run jacklines more centerline on the boat
- Fuel up and get water tanks filled
- Activate Garmin In-Reach
- Download Charts for the Bahamas
- Covid Rapid Test
- Apply for Bahamas Health Travel Visa
- Fill out Bahamas Customs and Immigration Forms online on Click2Clear
- Change health insurance to cover Bahamas instead of USA
- Take oil sample and mail off before leaving the USA
- Relocate to new anchorage near the exit to the Atlantic so there would be no bridges that needed to open for me to depart
- Call the marina in West End in the Bahamas and ensure they have room for me
- Say goodbye to friends
- Feed myself and get some sleep at some point in these 40 hours
Given that our planning meeting was only 40 hours prior to departure, this list is a little bit nuts for one person to achieve. But you do not know if you do not try I suppose.
The list was prioritised into two parts: things I had to do on land and things I could do once I was at my anchorage for the night. And believe it or not I got all but three of these things done by the time I gave up.
It was 11 o’clock and I was exhausted after only five hours of sleep the night before (up until 2am doing my video covid test and Bahamas paperwork and waking again at 7am to resume the list). Remaining were some relatively important tasks: download charts for the Bahamas, activate Garmin In-Reach and change health insurance.
The health insurance I decided could wait, the Garmin In-Reach I technically forgot about and the Bahamas charts I gave up on. The wi-fi connection at the new anchorage was terrible and the file size was huge. It just would not work! And I was falling asleep with my tablet (that is my chartplotter) in my hand in bed trying various tricks to make it work. Lucky for me my tablet and phone still had the charts from 2018 on Active Captain and after messaging Jamie to confirm that was acceptable in the short term, I plotted my route in two seconds (it was a straight shot) and went to sleep. The maximum I would get would be four hours of sleep before my 3am alarm clock and 3:30am planned departure.
Kill me now.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
– Benjamin Franklin