Post #95: Back in the Bahamas!

Thursday, January 6 to Monday, January 10, 2022

By 2 p.m. on January 6, we made landfall at West End Settlement on Grand Bahama Island, better known as the home of Freeport. We entered the dredged cut that led us to the very protected Old Bahama Bay Marina where we checked in at Customs and Immigration.

Actually, David, as captain of our vessel, was the only one allowed off. I raised the yellow quarantine or “Q” flag and had to stay on board.  Once Onward was cleared in by the authorities, we took down that flag and raised the Bahamian courtesy flag.

We enjoyed our first Bahamian fish at the Dockside Bar & Grille and made plans to leave together the next day. We sailed 30 miles to Lucaya, the tourist development just east of Freeport.

Freeport Harbour is a vast commercial port. It is a stopover for large ships to unload their cargo for transfer to freighters and smaller cargo vessels. There were offshore oil jetties (quite controversial, we later learned),

while cruise ships, container ships and tankers hovered around the refueling docks like hungry newborn pups.

Port Lucaya, on the other hand, was developed for tourists and the many ways they can be tempted to exercise their credit cards: marinas, shopping, entertainment, golf, casinos, restaurants and tours (on kayaks, on jet skis, on bikes, on horseback, etc.). There are caves for exploring, eco-tours of the natural preserves, beautiful beaches to relax on, places to scuba and snorkel, a chance to swim with dolphins, and even a brewery to tour. We’ll have to come back some other time to try some of them out.  Our activities on this two-day visit to “paradise”consisted of getting our 72-hour rapid test in order to be able to stay in the Bahamas, provisioning in the last large grocery store we’ll see for weeks, dipping our toes in the marina’s swimming pool (a tad too chilly for me still),

and a water taxi ride to the Port Lucaya Marketplace (“Bahamas’ largest open-air complex with over 40 stores and boutiques and more than a dozen restaurants and bars, etc., etc.)  Due to Covid and the diminished number of visiting cruise ships, there were only a handful of shops and only a couple restaurants open. Their economy is really suffering from the pandemic. 

We’d read about the straw market and did stop to watch one of the women embroider a Disney princess on what would become a little purse. Most of the rest of the goods were made in China.

Flags were flown at half mast for the week of January 6 to honor Sir Sidney Poitier, Oscar-winning Bahamian actor, director and diplomat, and son of Cat Island.

It rained hard and the wind was very strong two of the nights we were in Port Lucaya and we were feeling very fortunate to be tied up securely in the marina. A couple from another boat, Anna Christina, joined us for games and other activities and decided to come along with us to our next stop, Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands. The only question remaining—when to leave?

The four couples poured over every weather forecast at our disposal and finally came to the consensus that we would leave at 6:30 a.m. on the 10th—but only after consulting the updated forecasts available then.  We also set 7:30 a.m. as the absolute latest hour we could safely leave. We woke at 5:30 a.m., started the coffee, and got ready to go.

But the weather radar looked ominous: a front coming from the west would pass right over us bringing rain and lightning. We applied the brakes and started to plan different options for spending the day together. Still, we kept an eye on the clouds and rain in the distance…and watched the squall line go to the north of us—hurray! Quickly, and I mean really quickly, we cast off lines at 7:25 a.m. I even heard Sue on Miss Adventure call out to her husband Rick, who was heading out of the slip, “Come back!! I’m still on the dock!!!!”

We had ten hours of daylight to book it 65 miles to Great Harbour Cay so off we went!!