We have a dawn departure for our 58 mile sail to Grand Bahama, though again we are not rewarded with the best winds and are still running against a current as we depart under motor sail. Finally when the tide turns we can switch off the motors and sail. There is little swell and we take 2 hour watches so that the other can sleep / read / relax for a while. During my watch we are being gradually overtaken from astern by a large tanker of some sort. As Kevin takes over they are within half a mile. We are undersail and they are overtaking, it is clearly for them to give way but clearly they don’t choose to give us much room.
Close encounter 1
The afternoon carries on quietly and we are approaching Grand Bahama with land in sight. I see a large vessel on the horizon just as Kevin comes on watch, he complains that I seem to manage to do this each watch as he turns to starboard to avoid them. He turns more to starboard, as per the collision regulations, 2 hours and 2 miles off our course later we finally pass them as I come on watch. They are obviously drifting along the coast and drifting to port, across our deviated track but this is not clear until we get closer, they eventually start engines with a burst of black smoke and point their bows away.
Close encounter 2
Finally we reach the buoys of the Bell channel and turn to starboard for the Grand Bahama Yacht Club. We are planning to come back here with Alex and Sean in a couple of weeks and wanted to check it out. We are given a dock and are met by an attendant in a golf buggy who takes our lines. I go and check us in whilst Kevin finishes tying up then we both head for a shower. We go for a drink at the pool side bar after our shower arriving for happy hour. We chat to the lovely local barmaid Nikita who tells us a bit more about Bahamians and is really friendly. She insists that we should see the famous Lucayan market square where there is live entertainment in the evenings. It is now 10pm and we have been up since dawn and say we’ll go tomorrow. She is quite insistent that Sunday night will not be as good and after having some of the local strong Sands beer on an empty stomach somehow it seems a good idea.
Port Lucaya marketplace
Nikita calls the free water taxi service for us and we travel over with a nice Pilipino guy who works on the local ships. The area is buzzing and there are lots of people in the market place or milling round the many shops and bars around. We are starving and head straight to Zorba’s the Greek restaurant as we have only an hour before the last ferry back. After the quickest meal ever of hummus (one of my favourites), Greek salad and Greek kebab for Kevin we go back to watch the show in the market place. There are two girls on stage who are excellent singers who at the opening bars of one song are joined by a very excited local lady who jumps up on stage and after a quick conflab grabs the microphone and sings a few lines. It seems we have missed the fire dancers and limbo dancers though and we head back for the ferry.
Port Lucaya
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