Made It To The Bahamas!!
                                                           

 We made it!!  We are finally here in the Bahamas!  Our passage went well.  It took us 7 hours to get here.  We arrived at noon.  We started out with a buddy boat, but an hour out they surprised us by  changing their minds and wanting to take a different route to a different destination.  They didn't have reservations at our  marina at West End. The storm coming in that night was going to hit their lagoon where they planned to anchor  straight on. We ended up traveling by ourselves.  There were a number of sailboats we passed out there so we weren't totally alone.  We didn't see one power boat the whole way. We started out at 5AM and had to navigate out of the ICW and channel in the dark.  Not an easy thing to do as this was a crowded place and very, very confusing in the dark. Luckily at that time we were following our buddy boat. The waves and swells weren't bad at all.  It got a little rougher the closer we got to the Bahamas.  It was a really good crossing. We had both used ginger oil behind our ears - best thing possible for seasickness.  Neither of us got sick.

                                                 

First glimpse of Grand Bahama Island

 A big storm was predicted to hit at 6PM and it did, right on time.We were soo...  happy to be in a marina slip that night.  The winds were 25 miles an hour with blinding rain, lightening and thunder. The weather here changes constantly.  All of the boaters  pay very careful attention to the weather broadcasts. It is the talk on the dock constantly. The good weather windows are very short, and the storms come frequently.  Bill is very cautious!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    

Bill putting up our new Bahama flag after we passed immigration.

      That night at 7:30 a sailboat was attempting to make it into the harbor entrance in the storm and crashed into the rocks.  The people managed to jump off the boat,  climb onto the rocks and  were fine. The boat was totally destroyed and sunk immediately.  They lost everything.  The boating community and hotel here has been wonderful with everyone donating food, clothing, money, etc., etc. to help them. They were on their way to the Virgin Islands to get married.
                                                   

The sailboat that crashed into the rocks that night and sunk.  It literally disintegrated in one day.                                                     

     Helping the owner of the sailboat find remaining boat debris on the rocks