Bahamas- August 2005 Jane and Noel Bailey

Our friends from Hamilton, Jane and Noel Bailey decided to join us in Florida for a few weeks. We decided to head for the Bahamas and enjoy the flat calm waters and the beautiful sunshine. We had a wonderful time cruising around. We always found it interesting when we left Fort Lauderdale, as we had never come across drawbridges and internal waterways before. When we left to go out to the sea, we took around about an hour and we had to go through three drawbridges on the way.



It was great to know that when you called bridges up on the VHF that they would stop the traffic and pedestrians and just open up for you. There was only one bridge that did not open on demand. It was the 17th St Causeway which had six lanes of traffic each way.
The cruise out to the Bahamas was approximately 54 nautical miles and normally took us about seven to eight hours. It was the hurricane season and we always had to keep that in the back of our minds. We had never seen anything like the Bahamas before, that turquoise water and very very clear. You would drop your anchor and it would be 12 feet deep. The only trouble was it was like dropping an anchor on the tar seal road, just nothing for it to dig into. The trick was to put everything out, all your chain.





After clearing customs and immigration, we headed out to Concrete Ship Bay. It was there that we came across the wreck of the 'Soprano'. The ship was originally built for Henry Ford as an entertainment vessel and then sold on to do freight work. It was some time then, that it went on to the Bahama Bank in a hurricane, never to move again. We had a fantastic snorkell there and the fish life was great.
After 10 days it was time to head back to the concrete jungle, known as Fort Lauderdale.



As I said it was the hurricane season and sure enough hurricane Katrina came along not long after we arrived back in Fort Lauderdale. We had met some other cruises, Tip and JoLyn Coleman who were on a Lagoon catamaran next to us on the Marina. The wind blew at hurricane force in one direction and then and the lull as the eye of the storm went across us. In the lull we retightened ropes, traded fenders and compared notes about the first half of the storm. Ten minutes later the wind got up in the other direction until the full blast was on us again. While we had no damage it was a great learning experience for us. It gave us the experience and know-how to prepare for another one another day. The photo is of JoLyn loaning us some extra fenders that were surplus to them. Note the coconut tree in the background- all the fronds are hanging out the back. It was also interesting to learn that the staff on the Marina did not get involved with moving fenders and tightening mooring lines, as they were scared of being sued.