Good Times in the Bahamas, and Back to the US

Time flies when you're having fun, it is now the middle of March 2023 and we need to work our way back to Fort Lauderdale to get some warranty work done. After a short stay in Crab Cay by Chat and Chill we had what we thought was a decent weather window to get to Little Farmers Cay. The sail to Little Farmers Cay was really good. We had decent wind and made great time. This was good because we had a sketchy entrance into the anchorage as it was super shallow and we had to motor slowly and watch for shoals. That night the forecast was for some bad weather. We found a good anchor spot, took Zorro to shore right away, and had dinner at a restaurant called The Ocean Cabin. The owner here was very friendly and taught all of us in the restaurant the song for the island and we all sang it together before heading back to the boat and settling in for some lightning, rain, and winds.   

After a couple of days, the storm passed and we headed out to Black Point. Nikki had heard that a sailing rally was there and that there could be a couple of fun events. This turned out to be a cool spot. Black Point is a huge bay off Great Guana Cay. It has groceries, restaurants, and a nice beach area where there was a good beach party for all the cruisers. One night there was a big event at a restaurant with a DJ and tons of cruisers, and the next day was a big beach party with fun games and lots of silliness from congo lines to limbo contests. We ran into Turnerboat again it was fun to hang out with them as well as some other great people. Once night fell it was time for live music and fire dancing what a great event! 

After two days we decided to set off to Cambridge Cay, a beautiful anchorage and mooring field close to some snorkeling reefs.

We ended up spending four days here and got some wing boarding plus we did some snorkeling at the Aquarium, a plane wreckage over by O’Brien Cay, and explored the Rocky Dundas Caves. This was a beautiful stop, there was a lot to see and do, and the fact that we had good wind to go winging made it even better! 

We needed to keep moving North so it was time to go. Our next stop was Shroud Cay which is a national park and one of a few islands that have a dinghy route through the mangroves.

It was a nice ride but we almost did not make it out as the tide was going out and it got very shallow in some parts. We needed to walk the dinghy in a few places. Highly recommend hitting it closer to high tide. 

The next couple of days were longer sailing days to make it from Shroud to West Bay then onto Chub Cay which is a common holding spot to sail back to Florida. Chub is both a landing and departure spot for sailors. It's not a bad anchorage, a little exposed to some swell but all in all a good spot. The marina is supposed to be nice but we did not go in. For some heading back to the US they will do it in a straight shot from Chub making it a two-day trip. We decided with Zorro to stop at Honeymoon Harbour, departing Chub at 6 pm and arriving at Honeymoon at 9 am making it a 15-hour overnight sail. We had lighter winds but still managed a good sail with a couple of hours of motor sailing mixed in. We left Honeymoon at 5 am and headed to No Name Harbour in Miami arriving at 4 pm. This is where I need to let everyone know how great of a job Nikki does with our navigation. She set the route from Chub to Honeymoon and then onto No Name across the dreaded Gulf Stream. Not an easy task. She timed our turn into the gulf stream perfectly so that we arrived right at the entrance markers to No Name Harbour. This is not an easy feat but she did it. So big thanks to Nikki or I could be still floating around somewhere in the Bahamas. 

Unfortunately, this is where things went a little off the rails for us as we checked back into the US. You see, we left the US on January 3, 2023, and arrived back on March 27, 2023. When you are leaving the US for a foreign country, you must check out of the US and into the new country. Then when you leave that country and head back to the US you must check out of it and then check back into the US. What happened to us is that when we checked out of the US to sail to the Bahamas we somehow only checked ourselves out, not the boat! When we returned to the US they informed us of this problem, and in a typical US customs agent manner informed us of how we face $5000 fines and that they could impound our vessel. We wanted to get a cruising permit for the US but because we hadn’t checked out properly we were denied! Traveling as a foreign-flagged vessel in the US without a cruising permit is quite labour-intensive as you need to check in and checkout of each jurisdiction that you travel to. Usually in-person which means catching cabs back and forth to customs offices. The only way we could potentially get a cruising permit was to check the boat out and leave US waters then come back and recheck in. Since we were not leaving Florida until after our warranty work we got permission to stay and get the work done then we would need to leave the US and head back to the Bahamas, which was the plan anyway. So it all worked out but it was not our last run-in with the US Customs as we had another negative encounter later in Annapolis which I will cover in a future blog. 

It is taking a bit of getting used to how we as sailors check in and out of each country we enter and exit especially with having a dog on board. SO chalk up another learning experience in the life of new full-time sailors. 

We spent 4 days anchored just outside No Name Harbour and we did a little exploring. There is a lot of history here Stiltsville is where during prohibition there were approximately 30 houses built on stilts offshore that would serve alcohol. Time and Hurricane Andrew in 1993 have destroyed all but 7 of these houses and the remaining houses are part of Biscayne National Park. We toured past them in our dinghy and you could imagine the goings on back in the 30’s when these were the place to party and be seen! 

We also toured the Cape Florida Lighthouse, before the lighthouse was built in 1825 this area was part of the underground railway, and escaped slaves would make their way here and escape to the Bahamas. 

Next blog there is drama at Harbour Towne Marina, Barry heads back to Canada twice, Nikki is solo at anchor and we sail back to the Bahamas with new friends and buddy boat Turnerbout.