Travel Tips

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Freeport from the Northwest Providence Channel-day

At some point on Tuesday, I mentioned to Bob that perhaps we could leave Weds, and this was a great mistake. He'd walked out to the point, and said it didn't look to bad out there.

So we left about 9:30 am, and motored out of the channel. There was a great deal more wind and waves out in the channel than he saw from the point, but, it wasn't bad because it was an east wind, and we were going west. So we made it onto the banks and to the Northwest Channel shoal very quickly, and then turned north.

Here, we had a horrible sail. Winds 25 knots from the NE which meant we couldn't get in to the Great Harbor Cay Marina because it was directly into the wind, and the wind would blow us back almost faster than we could motor into it. Plus, it was going to take us hours, and hours to get there because we were going so slowly.

We kept going north. At about 4, I talked to Herb the weather guy, and he said basically what were we doing out there? In any case, we could not get to the east, so decided to just to go Lucaya, which was north.

The waves were more than we had experienced before. We actually got water over the lee rail into the aft cabin. Water over the side - rocking and rolling, and - it was dark and you couldn't see the waves coming. Plus it was only about a month since Bob's heart attack. I spent the night lying next to the mast on the cabin sole pretending that I was somewhere else.

But we made such good time, that we got to Lucaya about 3 am. Since we didn't want to enter at night, we went downwind toward Freeport until 4:30 (we could see the lights on shore - Freeport is never dark) and then turned around and came back.

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Bell channel marker

Freeport itself is not a place that a small recreational boat can go into - it is just for big cargo ships, oil tankers etc.

The entrance to Lucaya has a kind of barrel with a bell and a little red light on it to mark the entrance. It is on the charts. Unfortunately, there are also big cruise ship moorings in the area that are NOT on the charts so it makes it hazardous to be in that area after dark.

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Entrance channel from inside

I had put waypoints into the computer last year and using those, we found the entrance channel about sunrise. The entrance channel consists of two tiny markers with tiny lights, and the channel is not visible until you are right in front of it. The channel has breakwaters extending out from each side, and you don't want to run into them.

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Fuel dock with someone else tied up there

We went in as soon as it was light and tied up at the Lucaya Village fuel dock at 6:45, got about 33 gallons of fuel, and then went into a slip here. Bob skinned his knee on the concrete dock, and because of the blood thinners he's taking, I thought he would bleed to death. Blood all over everywhere - pants, sock, shoe etc. Could not keep a bandage on his knee. I finally was reduced to making a large pressure bandage out of paper towels, and strapping it on with silver electrical tape.

The topping lift frayed and one end got stuck in the windmill, but the windmill wasn't running, and it came right out. Everything on deck was soaked with salt water.

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Scarred trailboards

The CQR anchor came adrift and made a scar bouncing on the trailboards in the waves. Bob said he saw it reflected in the running light on the bow, but he wasn't going out on the deck to find out what it was. Then when it got light, we could see. In the picture, the yellow electrical cord is next to the scar. That cord attaches the boat to the dockside electricity. The little black cord is for the TV cable.

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Walk along marina in front of condo

Everything loose in the cabin came adrift, including a speaker which was held in by velcro. But it was all easily taken care of.

Bob washed the boat, and did several loads of laundry (to wash the salt water our of the aft cabin rugs), and then I made him take a nap. Even though he had no sleep the previous night, he was surprised that he slept.

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Free water taxi to Port Lucaya

When we were taking the water taxi over to Port Lucaya to eat at a restaurant in the marketplace he said he was tired. He was suprised about that too. So we had dinner at the Fat Man's Nephew, and took the water taxi back to the boat where we both went right to sleep.

I insisted that we stay here a day to rest. Bob filled the water tanks, and we got the jitney bus in to the Winn-Dixie on Seahorse Rd (or anyway the one not all the way in Freeport). I also did the internet stuff in Port Lucaya and the internet cafe. I didn't think we would leave before Sunday or Monday. But Bob had other ideas and we left for West End on Saturday.