Bye Bye Bahamas - Sailing to Florida (s_v Curiosity)

We have officially started the trek north. We left Ragged Island yesterday and it was quite the eventful sail and so we expected today to be more of the same but worse because we had about a million reefs to navigate so it added extra stress onto it. We thought it was going to be terrible and we lucked out. The wind was not as crazy. It died down. Anyway all gravy except for Jason does not like our anchorage. Hey on active captain it shows the pin drop literally right next to land and we're probably 2,000 feet from land right in the middle of a of a cut so we're gonna get current all night. I doubt we'll sleep but the next anchorage is like 40 nautical miles north and we don't want to traverse anything at night because of all the coral. So that's that. Drink a beer then maybe some rum and then maybe you can sleep. But the water is beautiful. Did we raise the port? Okay all good so far we are sailing from whatever island we were anchored at earlier to uh Big Major. Big Major Key and I just read online that's where the pigs are that the pigs were not killed by silly sailors. Thank goodness like we assumed. Crazy lady. Anyway a good day sailing and it's gonna be nice to see the pigs again just to see kind of what's up and see if there's somebody living on the island now to keep people away. A park warden I think they said was the plan. But seeing as that trim in the sails I'm manning the helm we're doing about eight knots. We're flying. Big old guest came this fall had to go to our second reef point. That's one in the jib, our genoa and one in the main. We're almost to our anchorage. We could have just you know turned on the engine put down the sails all together but now we can sail a little further. I don't know if you can see there's a boat out there but we've been racing him for quite some time now and as you can tell by my camera angle we're winning. Hello little piggy. Oh getting your exercise. Yes you are. Yes you're getting your exercise. Oh turn. No no you don't have food. You can do it. We're going to shore. We're going up. Yes yes. Nope nope nope nope. Oh hello. You are a very strange looking pig. Has anybody ever told you that? Let those dudes soak. Okay so we left Staniel Cay and we saw the swimming pigs again but this time they had a structure up and some corporate signs and if you saw our video from Staniel Cay previously then you know there was some drama with the pigs. Some died, a bunch of fake news about it. Anyway we are headed to Allen's I think. I don't know I'll let Jason tell you. We are heading to Allen's Cay and they are famous for the endangered Bahamian. I keep wanting to say lobster. Iguana. The endangered Bahamian iguana and apparently you can feed them as well but we won't be feeding them because that's just not what we do. Yep. It's supposed to be a rolly anchorage so we're suffering through the night to enjoy the iguanas. Hopefully they all come out in droves for all of us and get back on the rolly anchorage. The wind is coming from the east but the waves are coming from the west so you just kind of get this notion. The north. The north? Yeah. What did I say? The west. Don't ask me for directions. I see them. At least a few. They're all coming out. What's up guys? So many iguanas. That pretty much shows the size difference. They're very cool but they're overly friendly because everybody feeds them. It's like I'm charging. Yes and they come charging and whipping right around your leg so yeah very friendly. What about you? Did you have an iguana growing up? Oh yeah I had an iguana when I was young. He lived in a big fish tank that we had a solar light and fed him veggies. The thing you got to watch out is not their teeth, not their sharp claws, but their tails because they'll go and just like wham whip you and it hurts. You're like ah. How's it looking? Yeah it's like they go wham. Look how many there are. That's so cool. Hasta luego. Bye iguanas. See you next time. I know they're not Spanish but I can know Okay let's go. We are having vegetarian tacos because it's taco Tuesday and they are made with dried shiitake mushrooms and I rehydrate them in a little broth and then I caramelize some onions, add in some lentils, some nice paprika, lemon lime seasoning, saute that up and then there you go bam taco filling. Let's eat. Kind of a washing machine day today. I don't know if you can hear me over the waves. It's pretty loud. We've got wind waves coming from this way kind of knocking us that way and we've got a swell coming from behind us so we're surfing but yet it's like bouncing from beam reach to downwind sailing. We have seen over 10 knots of speed over ground which is pretty damn fast for us because we have surfed a few waves. It's just been a day of washing machine craziness and dodging reefs or rocks on our way to Nassau. We're gonna stock up the fridge for some veggies and then move along. Well I wouldn't call this the safest place to anchor just because of boat traffic and crazy current the way everything's getting blown around but I think it'll be just fine for a few hours. So we're at the gas station. Put in two gallons into the dinghy to pay for our dockage. I got one lock here locked up and then I have the engine locked up back there. How much was it? Two gallons? $8.56. Okay. Not too bad. Same grocery store chain as the other one we went to Nassau. Didn't seem quite as nice but still plenty fresh veggies. Finally running out of litter. I don't like this litter but it's all they had. All they had. We're stocked the next three weeks to get back to Florida. Hopefully it's the last grocery store run. So this first bridge here you had to aim right for the mail boat to get through the highest part. Almost hit it and it was labeled at 59 feet on noon sight. The one after said 64, 68 or something. It was a close one. But hey we're passing the lovely resort of Atlantis and a whole bunch of traffic and cruise ships. We don't even go up to the first level. I can't even see the statue of liberty thing without ducking down. Oh I don't know the flowers behind it are pretty awesome too. So the last we left you we were heading to West Bay in New Providence which is where Atlas is, the underwater sculpture. And somehow we managed to whittle away an entire two weeks almost on New Providence. Yeah like a week and a half just one moving the boat. Yeah. Like three times because of wet like wind shifts. Blow from the east, blow from the west, blow from the north. And then all the time in between was pretty much our heads buried in a computer trying to get caught up on work and research and planning and everything that we need to take care of in the next month or two. Yes it's been a crazy planning month for sure. We're out here in the middle of the ocean about 6,000 feet deep. Looks the same as it did when it was a thousand feet deep. We are downwind sailing. We had a challenge today because technically our our spinnaker would work for downwind but it is... The winds are right on the edge. Yeah it's like 20 knot, 22 knot gusts and sustained winds of 15, 16, 17. So it's fine if we're headed downwind and we have speed. Yeah. But if we slow down or anything at all happen basically we're chickens. Yeah. Right? Because we totally could be using it right now but the idea of blowing it out or screwing it up scares us more than we feel is worth it. Yeah so but we're doing between five and six sometimes six and a half depends on how fast we're surfing. With just the mainsail out we got the preventer on so it's like keeping the mainsail out as far as possible to catch as much wind as possible and you know six knots is fine. We're getting close to Andros which is our destination for tonight. We can't put the genoa out the front sail because the mainsail would just mostly blanket it so it wouldn't be getting any wind. Oh we're actually just now about to enter in a mine laying practice area so that's exciting. Good thing I guess it's 6,000 feet down. Yeah hopefully all the mines are down low. What is it? I wonder what that really means. I don't know. Oh my gosh. One, two, three, four, five, six, maybe more. I can't tell. I wish I had the polarizer on. Man there's so many. The most I've ever seen. Wow. Nice. So many. You're almost touching them. I see them. That's awesome. What do you say to that? Incredible. We are up and gone before the sun. Land is way back there and we're not just gone we are flying with the spinnaker which desperately needs to be trimmed, but I had to brag on ourselves just a little bit. Up early, spinnaker up. Exciting day. Let's just get started. Andros to Bimini. Almost 100 nautical miles. We're at that point where it goes from a couple thousand feet down to 12, and there's fishing boats surrounding us, mocking us, making us feel absolutely horrible for losing our fishing line. Dang it. They're all catching. We could be catching only if we had extra fishing line. Never thought to bring extra fishing line. It's on the provision list for the future when we get back to Florida. New line, new rod, new reel, whole enchilada. Jesus making me say coffee. Hold the salt. I have bad news and I have good news. Well, the good news is you're getting iced coffee. Bad news is we don't have ice cream, so it can't be an affogato. I know, right? And we're out of the good coffee, so you have to be fine with the nitrogen infused store stuff. I'll be fine. I'll be caffeinated. Just enough. It is a lazy day aboard Curiosity. What are we, cruising at like four knots? Yep, we're cruising at a whopping four knots and the seas are as, well, lazy as I am. We are trying to make it all the way to Bimini and the winds have picked up, so we're going faster. We're at like six to seven knots now, which is good, as long as it doesn't pick up too much. Then we can keep flying the spinnaker and I think we're going to make it. It's going to be late, but it's all sand. It's shallow water. It's sandy. It's going to be fine. A little unsure, but it's going to be fine, right? Right. What are you making? I think it's not worried. Oh, making tofu tacos. It is Tuesday. That's the craziest thing. The moment we decided to take down the spinnaker and switch sides, the wind kicked up at the exact moment, so I thought it was so strange. Here I am. I'm totally dead downwind. I'm still clicking over. Apparent wind's not getting any less. I throw the engine on, push it forward, and yet our apparent wind was increasing. It was freaking me out. Anyway, our wind picked up at that exact moment, so now we're actually above spinnaker wind, so we threw out the genoa. Yeah, welcome to sailing. I like it. Always a challenge. And always when dinner is almost ready. That's okay. We'll eat later. She always talks in Spanish. Always feels good to turn those engines off. Well, we're almost there, sort of. What's the first thing you're going to do when you get to Florida? It's a toss-up. I'm going to have to choose between, or maybe I don't choose. I'm going to get some fruit and probably some ice cream. Priorities, right? And contemplate all the stuff we have to do over the next 30 days. It's going to be intense. Man, I'm excited. I'm excited about it because I feel like there's a whole lot we're going to get done, right? Great stuff to the boat, like just tackle a whole bunch of stuff, get to pick up our crew. It's going to be great, but there's also a lot of work. There's a lot of stuff we have to do at the boat. Yeah, overwhelming a little. How about you? I guess I'm most excited about visiting a brewery. Yeah, I think so. I've kind of forgotten all about those. Yeah, those things exist. Good breweries. There's a couple in Fort Lauderdale that are worth visiting, so I think a brewery. And of course, it's super sad to end our amazing adventure in the Bahamas with two knots of wind motoring through the flat gold stream, but I guess it sure as hell beats pounding head to wind and 10-foot waves against the stream, so it is what it is. We'll take it, but this morning was awesome. The spinnaker was flying. We were doing like eight knots with the spinnaker this morning when we came out. We're supposed to have 10 knots of wind all day and dive, dive, two knots of wind. That's Mother Nature for you. You can't predict her, but you can predict that there's going to be some good beer in Florida. That's exciting. They smell nice. Six months of salt. I'm just glad I'm not the one docking it. I'll do a really good job. It's been so long. How are you feeling? Good until we get into that marina and then I'll get nervous, but I can do it. I think. No, I can't. I forgot how industrial. I mean, I didn't forget, but it's been a while. It's really very industrial all through here. It's kind of crazy. Nikki did a hell of a job getting us into the dock. You don't have to give me that. Seeing a super love in the air conditioner. That's the first time we've had that on in a while. I just called the 1-800 number for customs in Florida. Got an arrival number from US Customs. They said I have to go within 24 hours or we have to go within 24 hours to take our passports to a customs office. So that's where we're going. And maybe we'll stop by the grocery store and then we'll come back. I just put some bubbly into the fridge and I figured we'd end this video the same way we started our Bahamas adventure. She a-boggin. Okay, let's go. The right side of the road. Yeah, there's a stop sign. 1,000 feet, turn left onto Northeast 5th Avenue. It's been a while. We close in like 10 minutes, so they're either going to love us or hate us. It's about to happen. See the excitement on her body. Well, we made it. Got your ice cream. Magic Bahamas. Got some more ice cream. Made it home. Got some more ice cream. All righty. All right, our first what? Successful sailing adventure. To many more. So wrong and so right. I know. And then you wonder if you did it right the first time and you're like, well, I should probably do it one more time to make sure I did it right. It's just really hard Cheers, guys. Thanks for being with us. That was a long trip home. Wasn't even that long. I think it's just, yeah, all the cumulative days. 30 days. Hit it again. I'll do just a little bit. Yeah, that might have been too much. Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's good.