[Rhodes22-list] A description of '94 Bahamas trip.

NAPOLI51950 at aol.com NAPOLI51950 at aol.com
Sun Jan 4 15:23:38 EST 2004


Ok, Ok, Ok,
          I shall include some info on the Bahamas trim on my old Rhodes.  I'll include some background and some incidents that demonstrate why such a trip is so much fun and how it can be done.  Keep in mind my Rhodes at the time was a 1976 and was 17 years old.  I had a 7.5 electric start Yamaha (as I recall) and so it had a small charging component for the batteries.  I also had a 15 or 20 watt solar panel mounted of swivels off the stern rail.  The pop top fitting was detached from the mast (I once lost the mast and it pulled off the pop top....but that is another story) and four locking pins were installed in the pop top to make it totally secure in a roll over (not much chance but...)  I also secured the lazerett so I would not lose it either.  I installed hook up points for the Sospenders with built in harness.  No GPS at the time, just a somewhat unreliable LORAN and some good dead reckoning skills.  Replaced all the through hulls and sealed the small openings into the cabin from under the seats and seat backs in the cockpit. I also installed a special  "secret" shelf that hid my camera etc in a sealed container up under the seat backs.  Oh yes, a VHF installed and a small hand-held also.  Anyway the following is a note I sent to some of those list members who asked.  (sorry if it didn't reach those intended) so here it is again.

             Baja may be out, the spring break I was hoping turns out to be 4 days shorter than I was expecting so I may just wait for July and go up to the San Juans.

       About 10 years ago, I left my company after 23 years and decided I would like to take a real sailing trip like I did when I was in high school and college in Europe.  Being in retail for 23 years it was hard to get more than 10 days off at a time, but now I had lots of time and, most importantly, my 1976 Rhodes 22.  I had bought it new from Stan and knew the boat well after sailing it all over the Chesapeake for the last 16 years.  

The first part of the trip involved getting the boat ready and replacing the standing and running rigging for the 1st time in 15 years.  I made some alterations (minor) to the hull, hatches, safety equipment, and electronics and the boat was ready.....though I did have to borrow a trailer and a tow vehicle. 

Step two was to provision the boat; something my wife did for me (we still have the list if you are interested).  She packed up everything in a series of Rubber maid containers and plastic shoe boxes and we filled the boat with basically enough supplies for 2-3 months.  

The trip down to Ft. Lauderdale was the most dangerous part of the entire voyage because of improper tongue weight and too light of a tow vehicle (beggars can't be too choosy).  I left Lauderdale on the afternoon of May 3rd amid scattered thunderstorms.  My brother was the other crew member and we had a great night sail 
Across the Gulf Stream dodging isolated t-storms.  Lots of lights from all the traffic both northbound and south bound (with a few unlighted and very fast west bound boats).  Winds were SE about 10-15 knots (a few of the t-storms that passed nearby cranked it up to over 20 but the boat was fine)  seas less than 6 feet.  Before dawn we could see Great  Isaac Light and because of the current (as anticipated) the light was almost  ENE of us.  Once the sun was up we headed south, mostly under power, for about 15 miles until we reached the entrance to North Bimini.  Navigation was done using LORAN (it wasn't that accurate in much of the Bahamas) and good ol' dead reckoning.  With GPS you wouldn't need to make such a wide margin to assure yourself that you were north of Bimini.  On the way down to Bimini a small fishing boat hailed us with 4 ladies in it who asked for water and fruit juice (one was apparently diabetic).  We gave them what they wanted and they gave us 3 fine red snappers, which we had for dinner that night.  We spent about a week just hanging around Bimini and the small cays to the south.

We crossed the Great Bahama banks to the Berry islands and spent another 10 days exploring them.  On uninhabited Great Stirrup Island we anchored at the southern tip by the old lighthouse and hiked north to the "Barbecue Beach".  The island (or at least the northern half) is owned by several cruise lines that anchor off the island and bring their guest ashore for a taste of island life (Bahamian BBQ and lots of cold & free drinks).  We emerged from the scrub jungle wearing our most touristy outfits and had a great time mingling with the other guest.  The only problem was when asked by the helpful ships' officers which ship we were off we invariable pointed to two different ships (must have been the Rum).  As the last few guest were getting on the launches back to their ship we tried to slip away, only to be stopped by one of the local ladies who come over from Great Harbor Cay to Stirrup cay to serve  the tourist.  "Where you boys tink you be goin'  You can't be goin' wit out taking all des fine leftovers and some ice back to your boat".  When asked how she knew we weren't "guests"  she laughed and said "cuz you got dem cockelburrs all over de socks and dey grow very tickly on de sout side of de island."   So, loaded down with goodies we headed back to "de sout side of de island".  We kept running in to her several times more in the Berrys, and she always had to tell everyone our story.  The Berrys are a neat group of islands with great fishing and diving with sinkholes and caves on many of the islands.

We left and sailed to  New providence island (Nassau) and did the tourist thing for a few days and then headed northeast to Eluthera and all the small islands around there.  Current cut was very neat and we saw several large reef sharks in the cut while snorkeling.  Royal island was very strange, deserted and with a lot of ruins of  a big mansion from the 1900's (it was a rum runners HQ some said).

We spent a number of weeks heading south to Great Exuma and Georgetown and then turned north where my brother left my wife and 12-year-old son and me joined me in Nassau.  With my family I retraced much of the area that my brother and I sailed in and then headed north to the Abacos and spent a lot of time there. We then left from Walkers Cay and returned via West End to Freeport.  My sister and her husband replaced my wife and son who returned to the states and we then sailed down to Gun Cay via Bimini and then made the crossing.  The crossing was made on a beam reach with a southerly wind, following seas (you know what that means ...surfing all the way) and arrived in under 10 hours (much sooner than I had anticipated and I had to wait around till sunrise as I didn't want to go into Ft. Lauderdale in the dark.

There were many situations that called for good seamanship and common sense and these were tested.  The boat always behaved great and I never felt that it would fail me, in fact on several occasions it was the boat and not me that got us out of a few tight situations.  I would encourage you to take the plunge and make the crossing using good sense and appropriate caution.  Certainly a good GPS and weather radio are essential,  planning and familiarization of your routes and proper provisioning are all you need to have a great Bahamian vacation.  Let me know if you have any questions or if there is any thing I can do to help you reach your goal.  Would you need another crewmember?

Chris Geankoplis
Medford, OR



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