Spanish Wells, Waiting On Weather- 20 Mar to 25 Mar

Our Bahamas cruise was coming to an end and we knew it. Our cruising permit only allowed us to stay in the Bahamas until the end of March. So by April 1st (you figure out the irony) we would be illegally in the country. Although, from what we could tell, this was commonly done by many cruisers, it’s a bit of an eerie feeling to know you could be arrested for simply being there. And we had no wish to see the inside of a Bahamian jail or figure out what the fine would be for breaking the law. So we made plans to leave.

The obvious way to leave the Bahamas (from Spanish Wells) is to cruise leisurely up the northern Abacos, wait for a mild southeasterly breeze, and motor or motor sail across the Gulf Stream towards the Florida coast, making landfall in Cape Canaveral or nearby.

We seem to have a unnatural dislike of the obvious.

We’d heard from many cruisers that check in in Florida was inconvenient and that the customs agents were rude and intractable. We also never purchased the US cruising permit that we were supposed to have bought before we left the States. We did make an honest effort to buy the permit via the US Customs web site. But it took a near Herculean effort to wend through a bunch of unrelated dialogs and memberships and passwords. As far as anyone knows, it may not be possible to purchase a new cruising permit from the US Customs web site. The site certainly advertises that it can be done. But we’ve never met anyone that was actually successful at purchasing a new cruising permit. We did talk to one poor soul who managed to renew his permit. But after the experience, he always drooled a little bit and walked with a list to port.

With our permit issues, and knowing that Florida customs agents were relatively aggressive, and with the Gulf Stream running north and all, we settled on Charleston, South Carolina as a potential destination. It was only 420 miles away.

The weather refused to cooperate with our plan. It blew hard from the north for 5 days. On several occasions, we made plans to leave. Only to hear Chris Parker (our weather guru) call for northeast breeze at 20 knots for the next 3 days. We spent the intervening days socializing with Rio Dulce and ruminating on the finer points of preparing coffee with Bailey’s and cooking lobster.

On the 20th, we went snorkeling with Rio on the north side of Spanish Wells. David killed a grunt, but a cuda got him. Dick got a nice sized lobster. we spent the evening at the home of Becky and Mike Sutherland (friends of Rio) where we were treated to an amazing fish dinner and got to see some NCAA basketball tournament games.

We had the Rio kids over for movies on the 21st, and we got caught up on our blogging. Blogging has become a little bit of a chore. We find the updating the blog has ceased to be a big priority. Not sure how much longer we’re going to do it. We do like to have a permanent record of the places we’ve been and the people we have seen, but the ship’s log does the same thing. So let us know if you want to keep reading these blogs. Maybe it will motivate us.

The 22nd was Brian C’s (one of 3 kids on Rio) 9th birthday. We spent the day playing games on the beach and letting the kids XBox a little while we supervised. We had cocktails that evening on another Caliber 40 belonging to fellow cruisers named Ed and Eva. Their Caliber 40, Makai, is barely a year old and it showed. Caliber has definitely changed the boat over the years. Everything is stainless on deck. The woodwork and cabinetry down below are much better than on our 1993 boat. Some of the problem areas (like the shallow chain locker and the mid ships holding tank) have been removed or eliminated. We had fun picking over a nicer, newer boat.

We hung out with the Rios for a few more days, and then on the evening of the 25th, wished them a tearful goodbye. I really cannot say enough about the people we have met on this trip. That has, somewhat surprisingly, been the true highlight of the trip. You can get tired (believe it or not) of white sand beaches and deserted islands. But the collective family experience of the cruising community at large, and the grace and goodwill of certain families has just been overwhelming at times. We’ve never met a more helpful, friendly, good natured bunch of people. Probably never will.