In our quest to arrive North of the 36th parallel, we enjoyed some very sporty seas and sailing as we moved to the Northernmost Berry Island, Great Stirrup Cay (cruise ship islands) and after a quick overnight, we continued to West End, another day of strong winds and turbulent seas.
West End, Grand Bahama has very little sand in its outer harbor. I think much of it was washed away by hurricanes. Unless you have 300 feet of chain, and even then, you are not going to sink your anchor into the plush sand found in the rest of the Bahamas. We tried multiple times to set our anchor and struggled. Finally, we luckily wedged the anchor between two coral fingers and it got stuck. But, we had a dilemma. Do we leave it there? Do we trust the anchor to hold? Will it come loose? Do we feel comfortable getting off the boat? As each day went by, we felt more and more comfortable as the anchor was not budging. Each day we swam and snorkeled for a couple of hours and even went to the marina to check out West End. We "rented" bikes from the marina and road to town. There we found conch shacks galore and alot of damaged houses from the last hurricane. It was sad to see. Amazingly, their little food market was stocked and the prices were the best we had found all over the Bahamas. We were shocked. They even had fresh fruit and produce. It was quite amazing.
After 4 weeks with Jeff aboard, as both a support and a guru of all things adventurous, we had to say goodbye as he had to return to his home in Florida. He would be greatly missed and the nerves of crossing the gulf stream started to fray a bit as we dropped him at the dock. If it weren't for so many boats, and our friends on Invia, going in the same direction with the same goal as ours, we would have been even more nervous. But, we prepared the boat as best as we could, cooked meals, baked bread, cut veggies in anticipation of the crossing.
It was so much fun to see the animal life under the boat. It was actually surprising given the location. The final day, after the storms blew through, sharks returned as did our squid family. There were about 500 squid under our boat on our final day in West End. We loved swimming with them. The water also cleared up and it was cooler. We knew it was time to go...the question now was, "Will the anchor be difficult to pick up!?"
NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia.
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The crew concludes their six-week journey in the Bahamas, sailing from Fowl Key to West End. The trip is marked by sporty sailing conditions, encounters with marine life, and a visit to a town still recovering from devastating hurricanes, ending with the necessary customs clearances before heading back to America.
Goodbye Bahamas, hello America. After four days of being at Fowl Key, we are on the move headed north.
Every boat around us has left. There were probably 10 boats around us. They're all gone and we are
starting to feel the pressure that we need to go to. So we are off today. We've got some great winds
from the east and we're going to fly the main and the jib today and hopefully all will go well
with that. So here we go. She's up. Job cat Brown. Hey, hey. Wow, seven.
That's awesome. 22 knots apparent. It's a sporty sail today.
We have had a brisk, beautiful sail and just look at some of the numbers there.
1920 sometimes over. We're averaging around 8.1 knots, sometimes up to nine. And we've got Jeff
up here, key trimmer for blowing away. He is good. He's dialed it in. The boat can handle it.
Some of you may recognize these islands. These are the private islands of Norwegian and Princess.
So if you come to the Bahamas and you go to their private island for the day, this is where you come.
While we're not allowed to go on the island, there is security. From what we hear, we are
able to anchor, which will give us a protected anchorage.
Blown away. We are preparing the boat to head off to West End. Our final journey in the Bahamas
until we go back to America. Do you realize that, honey? This is our last sail. Wow. That is very
significant. All the cruise ships that are not being used because of COVID.
It's been a very sporty sail, averaging over nine knots. And now we're hoping to be protected
because we've got 40 knot winds coming in over the island from the east. It's going to be a
couple of days here before we get maybe a weather window to head across the Gulf Stream.
The second time we dropped anchor, we had to pick up the first time.
This one looks like she's holding a little bit better, but Brown's going to go in to definitely
check it. We've got really strong winds coming for the next two days and we have very little
protection. So we need to have the assurance that this anchor is dug in and dug in good.
The whole bottom is coral. Except for a few sand patches.
Jeff is going to go. He's going to go weigh in on the anchor also. Eileen's weighed in on it.
Can't wait to hear your report, Jeff. We're going in to check the anchor.
It's a little bit precarious. There's no sand, only coral. So we kind of check it quite a bit.
It's cotton. You'll see for yourself. Would you feel good about leaving your anchor like that?
Squids are fascinating sea creatures. We were really fortunate to have long encounters with
a large school of squid almost every day that we snorkeled. They were skittish initially,
but as the days passed, they became bolder and more numerous. Squids are marine cephalopods with
eight arms and two long tentacles. Their skin is covered in chromatophores, which enable the
squid to change color to suit its surrounding, making it practically invisible. It's one of
the most highly developed invertebrates, well adapted to its active predatory life.
Though the lifespan of the smaller squid is only six months, the larger ones can live up to five
years. They range in size from the pygmy at one inch in length to the largest, which can be up to
46 feet long and weigh 1,700 pounds. We're going on a little adventure today. We're dangling on the
end of West End. We're vulnerable. We're exposed and we're stuck to a little piece of coral and
we're really not smart enough to stay with the boat. So we're going out on an adventure today.
We're hoping she's not going to come unhooked, but the great thing is if you look behind us,
if we do come unhooked, it's not going to hit anything until it gets to Palm Beach. So
we're thankful for that. Alright, adventure sensei. We're ready. Here we are at the West End Marina
and it's just a beautiful place. Very calm, really nicely done. Wow, what a perfect day sweetie, right?
Okay, Jeff hooked us up with some bikes. Oh yeah, it's amazing after putting down a hundred,
how a hundred dollars in cash gets people's attention. I love my little blue bike. Sadly,
the devastating effects of the hurricane is all around us since we cycled through town.
It's really sad how it hasn't been able to recuperate from the hurricane,
but I guess that category five for 24 hours is a long time.
West End has been hit by all the major hurricanes over the last, I would say 10 years. We had
Francis, Gene, Wilbur, Sandy, and then we had Matthew that did all this destruction. So when
Dorian came a year later in the East End, they thought West End was ineffective because
the surge of air went straight across the island and killed a lot of people.
And so all the focus was on the East End, but West End was underwater
while the hurricane was in the Ivory Coast. So all the homes in West End that was restored since
Matthew, which is 2016, was destroyed again with Dorian in 2018. And we are pulling up to
the food mart here on the West End, really curious as to what this is going to look like.
So what we're getting ready to do, this is Jeff, our adventure sensei.
It's his final lesson. Last day. Yeah, it's the last lesson. He wants to see if we can do this
from start to finish. And of course, you know, I know how to do it to perfection. We just want
to see if Eileen can do it this time. Actually, she's, they don't call her Admiral for nothing.
We're going to show you what it is she's doing. So maybe if you're too chicken to fly your drone
like we were, this will help. This will give you inspiration. It's a sad morning. Oh, are you
filming? That's it.
Guys, whatever you do, make sure you get to the airport. Don't bring him back.
Wow. The first time it's just been you and me and six weeks, babe.
Eileen is very talented in many ways and she is fixing my glasses. Oh, do I need to like have my
ear inverted for that? My left ear? Thanks, sweetie. It's a big moment after six weeks
in the Bahamas. I'm headed in to customs to clear out. We're going to hopefully be...
I don't want to go. No, I don't want to leave. I want to stay.
Hopefully crossing the Gulf Stream tomorrow and heading to North Carolina. Bye, honey.
All right, just arriving at the crazy ladder to the customs office. Here we go.
So I just went in to clear customs and I was told that I can't clear until two o'clock this
afternoon at the earliest. I'm not sure I understand why. You usually have 24 hours once
you clear out to actually leave the country, but they're turning everyone away and saying you got
to come back this afternoon to clear out. So we will be back this afternoon. All right, round two
of customs and immigration. I'm going in earlier than they suggested, but our friends just went in
and checked out. So I'm going to try and do it too. I'm a happy camper. We're all checked out
of customs and immigration. I think the immigration officer was not in the office this morning when I
went in and that's why they had to delay it. So he's there now and we're all checked out of the
America. Oh, it's our final snorkel in the Bahamas. Oh, I'm so sad. It's the last one. So sad.
Under the boat is a huge school of squid. It's our squid that we wanted to say goodbye to.
We missed them yesterday and they're right here. It's heaven's ----.
So we decided to not move our anchor and
we thought it might stay where it is and we have been right. It hasn't moved.
It's still in the same spot and now the only thing we hope is it comes out when we try to pull it out.
