A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 1/10/21 – 1/17/21

Let’s do a quick recap…

Ray and I sailed from Biscayne Bay, Florida to Bimini, Bahamas last Thursday, but spent the rest of the week hanging out at home while a cold front passed through.

Sunday was the first day that it really felt like we were in the Bahamas. The sun was finally out, so we walked along the empty beaches and admired the clear, blue waters. I was thinking about taking the paddle board out for a spin too, but Ray saw a 6ft shark under the boat so I decided that that might be an activity for another day.

We even popped some champagne and watched the sunset that evening to celebrate! Unfortunately though, we only made it through half a glass before the bugs got bad enough to warrant a walk home, where we finished the rest of the bottle in peace. We had heard warnings about the bugs in South Bimini, specifically the no see ums, but this was the first night they were really out for us! 

Lots of these guys around! 

The next day we took the dinghy over to North Bimini and grabbed a few beers, some Bahamian jerk chicken, and watched a bunch of bull sharks swim around in the shallows. 

Tuesday was our 5th day in the country so per our health visa requirements, we had to go get our 5th day COVID-19 rapid test. There was only one clinic on the island providing the test and that clinic didn’t have an address, just a vague description of its location in relation to a popular marina. Luckily, we found it easily, walked in (without an appointment), filled out a very short form, got tested immediately and were told our results on the spot (both negative!). It was such a quick and easy process I was shocked! Turns out the application fee for the health visa covers the cost of your 5th day test so we didn’t have to pay, and they keep track of all your info based on your health visa ID number/QR code so we didn’t have to do a bunch of paperwork, and sure enough- we got our email confirmation of our test results a few minutes later. 

As we were leaving the clinic it started raining, so we grabbed a beer and waited out the storm. When the rain let up, we took the dinghy home, and had a relaxing night in. 

I spent most of the day Wednesday cleaning the inside of the boat and getting everything ready for us to move again. We paid for our stay at the marina, and spent the rest of the evening continuing our attempts to understand the current political climate in America. What’s your favorite news source? How frequently do you listen to/look into news sources that lean the opposite direction than you do on the political spectrum? We’ve been trying our best to stay educated on what really happened and why, but are definitely looking forward to getting somewhere with less cell service so that we have an excuse to check out for a while. 

Thursday morning we decided to leave Bimini and head South. We had a sporty sail, dodging squalls and cruising at ~7kn with a full jib and our main reefed! 

Since we’re new to cruising in the Bahamas, we decided to anchor on a bank for a few hours that evening so that we’d reach our destination during daylight. We dropped anchor just outside of a group of cruise ships that have nowhere else to go because of COVID. It turns out all these ships still have to be staffed even though they’re just sitting on anchor, and the staffing process during the pandemic hasn’t been handled well. 

We had some dinner, took a nap, and pulled anchor around 2am Friday morning and motorsailed to Nassau. 

Unfortunately, the wind had clocked around overnight and was coming from the exact direction we were headed, so we had the main up for as long as we could, but ended up dropping it as the wind picked up and started both our engines to counteract the wind and current we were fighting. It was a bit of a bummer after the great sail we had the day prior, but the sunrise was beautiful and we were in the Bahamas, so no complaints here! 

It ended up being overcast, choppy + a bit rainy as we were arriving, which made it difficult to spot and dodge the coral heads as we made our way into the anchorage. Luckily though, we made it in safely and dropped anchor around 2:30pm in a sandy patch just off Jaws Beach. 

After being in a marina for a week, it was easy for us to remember how much we love (and prefer) being on anchor. There’s just something special about being fully self sufficient… and having the anchorage practically to ourselves is the icing on the cake! 

Saturday night we had a little visitor hanging out at our stern. 

We think he’s a Remora. We fed him some food scraps last night and he’s still hanging around this morning- I think he thinks our boat is a shark that he can just hang on to… 

Other than that I have nothing else to report! Things are much calmer today so maybe we’ll head to shore, but we’re planning on leaving here tomorrow morning to go to Highborne Cay! 

Hope you all had a good week. ❤️