Port Lucaya Bahama

Ok we made it but I know a few were worried due to our Spot Location showing it had stopped out about 50 miles east of Lake Worth. Ah it was a malfunction on our part. The crossing was uneventful as we motored all the way over. Just like we wanted it for the first time. We were part of 4 other boats that left Lake Worth around 3 pm and 3 of the 4 were firsts timers. Starting out we had just big rollers and no wind to drive us through them as the sails flogged off and on in the morning and Jeannie did not want me to go forward even though we had jack lines and harness. The most wind we seen was 18 kts on our nose and it was only for a short time. As the wind actually died late in the night. As we approached Freeport I could see quite a lot of traffic on the radar and most were floating freighters waiting to go into Freeport to unload. A few we were unsure of but stayed out of there way. The south side of the Grand Bahama Island is to dang deep for the freighters to anchor so what they do is just drift. Along with the cruise ships that were all lit up like a Xmas tree. Ya can not miss them. We left Lake worth at 3 pm which we could have left like 5 pm actually as we had to slow down when we got closer to Freeport. I did not want to go into Lucaya in the dark and the marina was not open either. The hardest part was trying to stay awake as we both slept in the cockpit on the way over and taking turns at the helm. It was a 18 hr crossing as we had to slow down so that is what took us so much longer.

When we got into port which was at the Grand Bahama Yacht club we were greeted by Thomas the dock Master, Thomas the line handler. Thomas the everything. But he was very nice. By 10 am the 5 boat had filled out all of the custom forms and papers and off we were on a shuttle boat that Thomas ran as he took us over to the Market place where customs was at. There it took the 5 captains of the boats just over 2 hours to check in. It was actually very pleasant. We had originally wanted to go to Green Turtle cay to check in but we heard on the ssb that custom and immigration was only giving 90 day cruising permits. So we changed our minds and went to Lucaya to check in. There we got a 180 day cruising permit. That night the 5 boats all had a rum punch or 2 at the cost of $9 each and some appetizers at the marina bar. Ouch. Oh well. Now that we were free to roam the land Jeannie and I took off and walked to town. One thing we needed to get was a sim card for the cell phone we got off e-bay before we left. Once we got that we then just walked around the Market place here in Lucaya and just looked. So now we are slowwwwing down and relaxing.