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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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Entry to the Bahamas. February 1999  We entered the Bahamas at Cat Cay on Jan. 30 after a heavy sail from Cuba as outlined in the previous Log. The water was clear. Visibility allowed us to see the bottom at over 20 feet. Cat Cay is a private island of millionaires, but use of the marina for clearing customs and for staying alongside is permitted, for a reasonable fee of $1.00 a foot. We had the use of marina facilities including a lovely restaurant, showers, grocery store, laundromat, and swimming pool beside an exquisite sandy beach. The homes were fantastic, the walkways exotic, the tennis courts preppy, transportation by personal golf carts, and an international airstrip on the peninsula brought aircraft from Nassau and the USA. The docks could have handled over 100 vessels, but when we were there, there were only 10 yachts alongside, Veleda being the only sailboat. We stayed for three nights, one of which was Judy's birthday. The winds were heavy all three days, clocking at 20 to 30 knots most of the time at dock! Walking along the docks we could see a wide variety of sea life including several types of rays drifting along the shallows. The trees were decorated with white miniature lights wound up the palm trees, and floodlights highlighted the tops of the foliage at dockside and along the well-kept paved roadways. We completed several repairs after our heavy crossing from Cuba. However, we waited until February 2 to depart across the Great Bahamas Bank, when the winds were more favourable. While crossing, we passed Free Spirit, a tan barked sail ketch which we helped alongside in Cat Cay, but which went out to anchor until the weather cleared. She, too, was motor sailing with all sails up, so as we passed her we went up sun to take a picture of this classic vessel under sail. We were happy to know that the prop adjustment we had done in Key West was effective, as we were now making better speed at lower revolutions to be able to pass larger vessels under motor sailing conditions. We had found that with our new more powerful 30 hp Yanmar, we had to go at higher revs to attain hull speed than with our old 15 hp Yanmar. We are using the same prop, but decided in Key West to have it re-pitched. As we were at anchor in Key West, we hired a diver to remove the original prop and take it to a prop shop where they re-pitched it and had it back to us the next day. It was a 14 inch prop with a 10 inch pitch (i.e.. it would rotate 10 inches forward with one revolution). Now it has a 13 inch pitch, giving us more speed at lower revs. We have noticed the difference and are appreciative of this modification. The cost was reasonable: $100.00 for the diver to remove and re- install it as well as deliver it to and from the shop, and $96.00 for the re- pitching. The Great Bahamas Bank is so large, (about 65 nautical miles wide), that a sail vessel does not anticipate traversing it in one day, and has to drop anchor at sunset in 10 to 15 feet of water in the middle of nowhere. One does not sail the banks at night. So we anchored, with Free Spirit, out of the sight of land. However, there were no problems and we got an early start the next day heading for Whale Cay. Before noon the winds veered northward and increased to 20 knots directly on our heading, and caused higher seas. Rather than plowing into them for the last ten miles we put in at Chub Cay, anchoring in ten feet of crystal clear water in the lee of the spit. When we anchored there was only one other sailboat, but by nightfall there were over a dozen sail and power boats in the anchorage. There was plenty of room, except for a small trimaran that came in after dark and anchored less than 40 feet abeam of us. After swinging fairly close to us they lifted their anchor and moved of another 60 feet away from us at 2300. There was an uncomfortable roll in the anchorage because of the seas bending around the spit. To reduce the roll, we put a line on the anchor chain and let the chain out another 20 feet, then secured the line under tension to our port stern cleat, thus warping Veleda around to face the incoming swells and reducing the roll significantly. This is an ancient technique that square rigged ships used when bombarding a target while at anchor. This allowed them to bring their broadsides to bear on the enemy shores. The next day was straight motoring for the last 38 miles to Nassau. We overtook several other sailboats also motoring, but were a bit embarrassed when dirty fuel caused our engine to die on us. We were low, with about a quarter tank of fuel, but we added a jerry can into our tank, bled the fuel line and resumed our course. When we bled the Racor filter we put the drained fuel into a clear plastic container, as we could see contaminated fuel oozing through the filter. When the fuel settled in the container, we saw a significant amount of sediment settle out into the bottom. There must be a fair amount of sediment in our tank that gets stirred up in heavy seas. That is also what happened on our heavy sail from Cuba to Cat Cay when our engine quit on us until bled through.  As New Providence came in sight, we heard a MAYDAY on VHF. A boat was sinking, but no other information followed, and no further broadcasts. An hour  or so later when we were about 8 miles out of Nassau Harbour, we noticed on the northwest horizon a column of black smoke. Soon after, we heard
BASRA (Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association) communicating with a vessel that was reporting a boat on fire. The sailboats we passed earlier in the morning were closer to the scene and diverted to lend assistance. We were too far away to do anything. About 15 minutes later we saw a launch dispatched by BASRA heading in the direction of the now minimal smoke on the horizon.We continued on our course and entered Nassau Harbour. The water was clear, and seeing the bottom shadows was frightening as we were unsure of our depth because of our unreliable depth sounder. There were no buoys beyond the cruise liner docks and we had to feel our way in towards Potters Cay. 
The depths on the chart were hard to identify as there were coral heads, grassy and sandy areas all around us as we entered. Then, we noticed that there was another bridge going out to Potters Cay that was not marked on the chart. East Bay Yacht Basin was our destination, but was now between these two bridges. There was a series of docks in the middle of the channel under this new bridge, with openings on both sides of the dock area. We called up the yacht basin and asked for directions. We were asked our mast height
( 47 feet), and were then told to enter through the south side opening under the bridge. As we approached, we touched bottom over sand and powered through it for a few feet before getting into deeper (6 feet) water. Needless to say, I was on edge coming into a strange harbour in shallow water, with a major new structure such as this new bridge not marked on my chart. As we approached we had to counter an ebb current to pass through the highest point under the bridge. It looked very low, and I was not sure if we had enough clearance. We called up the yacht basin again to make sure we were coming through the right opening and to ask the height of the bridge. We were told it had 52 feet clearance. O.K.! So under we went. It looked very close from deck level when going under a bridge with less than 5 feet clearance for the mast! But, we got through O.K. and by 1510 we were secured alongside East Bay Yacht Basin Marina, and in Nassau at last.Next Log  Links:
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