For the first time this trip, we’re actually visiting someplace we’ve been before.  Grand Bahama and Bimini were regular destinations for the charter trips that Wes organized when we were between boats.  We made landfall at Grand Bahama around sunrise this morning and are enjoying internet access and looking forward to meeting my brother Tim and his family at the airport this evening.

The passage here was pretty uneventful except for a few hours when we were east of Eleuthera.  After leaving San Salvador, we discovered that apparently all you have to do get some wind is take on enough $6+/gal fuel that you don’t have to sail We’d actually had enough wind to sail for most of more than 24 hours when things got more interesting.  It had been an overcast day with occasional lightning and rain in the distance, but all of a sudden the wind really started picking up.  We went outside to drop the sails and before long our 10-12 knots had become 35-40 knots of wind that was blowing from a strange direction and creating steep wind-against-current waves that were adding to the already present waves and swell make a nice confused sea that felt like some sort of mechanical bull ride.  About this time we noticed that there was lightning ahead and to starboard.  The island of Eleuthera was to port, and as we looked around, we saw a waterspout show up behind us.  A waterspout is basically a mini tornado at sea.  It looks pretty much the same, but is much smaller.  It was really starting to look like our peaceful afternoon was going to turn into a nasty day, but things eventually calmed down.  After looking like it was working its was toward us, the waterspout finally disappeared into the clouds, and although the lightning looked nearby we never got close enough to it to get really worried.

Waterspout!

The rest of our passage was pretty uneventful.  The engines did make another overnight appearance due to having contrary current nearly all the way, which was the opposite of what I’d anticipated.

Grand Bahama isn’t really known for anchorages, so as long as we’re here we’ll be enjoying the resort-type life tied up at a dock with a pool only a few steps away.  Should be a nice break before heading back to the US and getting the boat ready to sell.