Day 18 – All checked in. Wednesday 12/19/18
We are now *officially* here. We checked in with customs and immigration this morning. Kevin was the nicest agent ever. Prompt, polite, and quick. Coming through the channel to the dock we got a bit of a nature display – a spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and a heron swooped in to fish in the shallows.
While tied up for customs and fuel, the dock staff let us leave the boat to walk around town. The island is only 2 streets wide in places! We saw the school, churches, and got a look across a narrow channel to the island of Eleuthera where we may be headed next.
On the way back we stopped briefly at “Meeks Patch” where we walked on our first white sand beach of the trip. Tina and Mike swam all the way back to the boat!
Tonight we’re at Royal Island anchorage again, with it’s rare “all around” protection, to wait out a few days of rough weather. We’re here with 3 other boats so far, one of which is a “kid boat” with girls 8 and 11. Our evening excursion took us to shore to tour old ruins and the kids made fast friends. It should be a fun few days!
A few amusing thoughts from our passage:
– Sailing to the Bahamas is a worthy adventure, but it is an extremely slow way to get to locations that are only a 30-40 minute flight away from Miami.
– 3 days is a long time to go without a shower.
– Kids favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner in rough seas? Saltines and water.
– Longest Henry has ever gone with out eating? 1.5 days crossing the gulf stream.
– Why are ponytails required for sailing? Keeping clean while seasick! (ick!)
– Sailing is the goal, but motoring is what sailors do when the wind dies and they still have 24 hours of travel ahead of them.
Fun Afloat 