Adventures of Tom, Jan and Peanut: Feb. 15th Crossing to the Bahamas

The alarm went off at four in the morning. Tom looked over and said,well, are we going to do this? I'm ready. Lets go I replied. As the words came out of my mouth I thought,did I really just say that! I would loved to have taken my blood pressure as we pulled out because my breathing was pretty quick and shallow. Using the spotlight to guide us around the other boats and out to the ICW we were off. It's funny as I type this from our anchorage in the Bahamas the moon is full, bright and beautiful, lighting up the sky and water. The morning we left for the Bahamas the moon was a sliver and absolutely no help to us! I had hoped that the lights from the surrounding city would prove helpful. That hope was short lived as we neared the cut through at Port Everglades and the peripheral lights of the city disappeared. Tom was a little concerned that we would encounter a freighter, something I had not given a thought and could have gone without a reminder. Fortunately the only large boat we encountered was a mega yacht that pulled out a ways in front of us. Following his lights out the cut was a nice addition to our chart plotter. We were told that the first three miles would be bumpy but it would calm down to the predicted two to threes after that. Well bumpy was an understatement. The waves were coming from all different directions and when waves splash over the bow and the spray hits the fly bridge, bumpy is not a word I would use to describe them. Because it was dark you had no idea from which direction the next big one would hit you. It was pretty intense. Tom did a lot of swearing, I fell down twice trying to move from one side of the fly bridge to the other and Peanut was absolutely a mess. I put her up on the bench hoping that would help. She ended up in my lap her head in my armpit shaking like a leaf. To keep from falling again and provide support for Peanut I stayed put. The beautiful glow from the waters edge, a sign of the upcoming dawn was a sight for sore eyes, and other parts. We could finally see the water and adjust our angle to head into waves. After the sun came up I took over the wheel. I announced "brace yourself" before each of the bigger waves so Tom didn't end up on the floor as I did. For the very first time ever Peanut crawled up on Toms lap and hid under his arm pit as she had done with me. About noon the waves subsided to the two to threes so I carefully ventured down to the galley to make lunch. It looked as if someone had come in and ransacked our boat. Anything that was sitting up was now laying on its side or worse on the floor. I have a three tiered hanging basket in the galley that was full of potatoes. The basket was nowhere to be found. I found potatoes on the floor, up in the salon, under the table and even in the sink! Guess I should be glad I wasn't down there to get one in the head! I made lunch which required good balance but didn't bother to pick up anything that fell. After all it would just fall again. By late afternoon the waves subsided to one to twos, the water turned a beautiful emerald green and we could see the bottom even at a depth of twenty feet! Peanut had calmed down and we were enjoying the ride. As we talked about the mornings events and I warned Ton about the mess below he admitted that he almost turned us around, especially when things didn't improve after traveling the three miles. Because the Gulf Stream runs North we were told to run our course ten degrees off because the stream would correct it, keeping us from overshooting our destination. It was good advise. At 5 pm we were safely tied up at the fuel dock and heading up to the immigration office to check in. Laughter had brought us across safely to the Bahamas! We did it!