THE BAHAMAS ADVENTURE

Page 2

12/09/00 (Saturday)

I arrived right on time at Fort Lauderdale Airport and phoned Ron to let him know I was there.  Grabbing a cab, I headed for the Behia Mar Marina Cabana bar where we were to meet.  As soon as I pulled up a bar stool and ordered a drink, I could hear the sound of Ron's dingy as it pulled up to the bar's dock.  We had a couple of beers before loading my stuff into the dingy and heading off for the mother ship.

No sooner had we pushed off then it started to pour.  We were both drenched by the time we made it to Seaclusion and since it had not rained in over a week, we took it as a bad omen.

Once on board, we talking for several hours and munching on cheese and crackers.  We also seriously dented a large bottle of Jack Daniels as the hours flew by.  It was about 10 pm when we turned in after listening to the US Weather Service for seas and wind direction for the following day.

To cross over to the Bahamas, we needed to cross the Gulf Stream.  This is a 'river' that runs in the Atlantic Ocean from South to North just off the east coast of the United States.  It moves North at about 2 1/2 to 3 knots (3 to 4 miles/hour).  Our boat's speed is about 5 to 6 knots.  For us, it's kind of like an ant crossing the moving sidewalk at an airport.  If we head straight East, we will end up almost as far North as East after we cover the 81 miles to West End on Grand Bahama Island.  In Florida, the Gulf Stream is very near shore and is usually about 45 miles wide.  This was the great unknown.  The Gulf Stream could be a pussy cat or a bear depending on wind direction.  It alone would dictate when we made the crossing.  But at this time, we had yet not learned to truly appreciate this fact.

Since I was responsible for navigation, I did not get much sleep that night thinking about how to approach this problem.

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© 2001, Donald R. Swartz