Offshore Passage to the Bahamas

sailing out of the Chesapeake Bay with several sailboats

"We're leaving early!" Dean concludes after checking the weather one more time. Later, his assumptions are confirmed by the Salty Dawg rally coordinators. The best day for leaving will be Saturday for the boats headed to the Caribbean and Sunday for the Bahamas bound boats- a day before our planned departure.

We'll be sailing with four adults for this passage. Along with Dean and me, our crew will consist of our son, Ben and his girlfriend, Brittany. At the last minute, they found a way to work this sailing adventure into their 4th year of medical school. It's close, but they arrive late on Saturday, 12 hours before our new departure time.

Our sail plan

Sunday morning it's chilly at sunrise, but we're up and on our way. We plan is to sail from Hampton, VA, arriving in Marsh Harbour in the Abacos on Thursday or Friday. We're expecting choppy seas with the predicted NE winds colliding with opposing current, so everyone on our crew pops a Bonine tablet to ward off any motion sickness.

Ben put our GoPro on a pole to give you the feel of sailing along with us.

We hoist the sails and cruise out of the Chesapeake Bay, making our way toward the Gulf Stream. Our weather router, Chris Parker, suggests that we round Cape Hatteras before crossing the Gulf Stream. Twenty-four hours after our departure, we are ready to turn south east and enter the Gulf Stream. We know we've entered the Stream because we can watch the water temperature rise - 78° F to 83° F in just an hour.

Crossing the Gulf Stream

A graphic representation of the Gulf Stream's path along the eastern seaboard and our planned route.

Crossing the Gulf Stream is like crossing a rushing mountain stream. You choose carefully where to cross because you know that the power of the stream will carry you with it. Do you cross at a wide spot where the current is weaker, but the distance is longer? Or do you opt for a shorter distance and stronger current?

We decided to make a perpendicular crossing at a narrower portion of the Stream and power through as fast as possible. Even with that decision, it takes us 6.5 hours to cross the 45 miles of Gulf Stream with it's 3-5 kts of current trying to carry us north. Check out Dean's previous blog post about the Crossing the Gulf Stream to get a better idea of it's significance to boaters.

How much fuel is enough?

seven jerry cans filled with diesel on deck — Dean calculated a need for extra fuel. Thirty-five extra gallons of diesel should do it.

Leading up to our departure Dean checked the weather hourly and was growing concerned with the predicted lack of wind for the second part of the passage. So, we rented a car and headed out to buy more five-gallon jerry cans for extra diesel. Snowcat has a 110 gallon fuel capacity, but we'd need more if we need to motor our way to the Bahamas. Seven jerry cans later with numerous fuel usage calculations and Dean is finally satisfied.

Motor-sailing strategy

A peaceful moment during our 5-day passage to the Bahamas.

On day two, the winds dwindle and with full sails we are only making 4 kts...time to kick on an engine. Our plan is to keep the sails out during the day to catch any available wind and motor with one engine at a time, switching every 6 hours. We expect to burn 1.2 gallons per hour with this plan. At this pace we will be traveling at about 6-7 kts and should arrive before the expected storms on Friday.

Why only one engine?

By Dean's calculation, motoring with both of our 40 HP Volvo engines, we only gain 1.5 kts per hour over using one engine at a time. But we're burning twice the fuel! For long trips, we always conserve on fuel by using one engine at a time.

We arrive with our gas gauge on empty — We are nervous looking at the gas gauge point to empty as we arrive.

Let's go fishing!

The whirl of our reel paying out fishing line, gives us all a an adrenaline rush. Once we enter warmer waters, we start seeing more action on our two fishing lines. When we get a strike, we all have a role to play. One person slows the boat down to lessen the drag for the person reeling in the fish. Someone grabs the gaff and bottle of cheap vodka which we pour on the gills of the fish to kill it quickly. And of course - someone grabs the camera to document it all!

This small swordfish gave us some excitement and then we let it go.

Unexpected troubles

We caught more than just fish on this passage. When our port engine died 200 miles from land, we thought we had big problems. We were somewhat relieved to discover that it was a fishing net wrapped around our port prop. And even more relieved that Ben was onboard and willing to dive under the boat to cut the net off.

In the middle of the Atlantic and all of a sudden the port engine stopped. Ben dove under the boat to find out why.

Making landfall

Thursday around noon we see land on the horizon...whewww, we made it to the Bahamas! That wasn't so bad. We enter the turquoise waters of the Man-O-War Channel and head to Grand Abaco. We've traveled 769 nautical miles and are ready to get off of the boat and have a real shower.

Quite honestly, I don't love offshore passages...until we arrive at our destination.
Karen M.

Only when we're on land again do I sing the praises of peaceful night watches, exhilarating fish landings, bioluminescence churned from the prop and uninterrupted horizons. There is such satisfaction to arrive safe and sound...feeling grateful.