(5/9 – day of departure) After a good night’s sleep in West Bay, we awoke Wednesday morning refreshed and anxious to start our journey home. We planned to travel straight through the day and night and all day Thursday taking two hour shifts for the 31 hour trip. Despite our eagerness, we delayed our departure till around 9 am. Tommy calculated that starting at this time would have us exiting the Bahama Bank at dawn. We’d be able to clearly see two important marks at this point:  1) the “Hen and Chickens” Rocks – a passage between two small land masses on the northwestern tip of the Bank that leads into the Atlantic Ocean, and 2) as we entered the ocean we’d get a first-hand glimpse of the conditions to verify the weather forecast before committing to crossing the Gulf Stream. If we found ourselves too tired, or saw something we didn’t like ahead, we could turn south and head to Bimini as a bailout.

After hoisting the sails just outside the anchorage we began our two-hour watches immediately. The idea was for each of us to get as much sleep as possible while “off” so we wouldn’t get too tired. Since this was new to Paula, we chose a short time interval, one in which the helmsman could easily stay alert. Paula knew there would be times when Tommy would need to be awakened during his “off” shift for advice or muscle power in trimming sails. We wore life jackets at all times, and also tethered ourselves to C Ghost once the sun set. The sleeping crewmember slept in the cockpit on the “low side” for comfort, except for necessary trips below.

Paula had coffee and soup in thermoses and lemonade in Big Tervis cups for us to drink. For chow, there were individually-wrapped sandwich halves in Ziplocs in the fridge, as well as fruit, cheese, and salami slices for easy snacking. Paula watched our fluid intake carefully to prevent us getting dry in the sun, wind, and excitement.

The day was remarkably pleasant, especially compared to all the days we spent waiting for weather in Palm Cay. We put the sails up immediately upon exiting the anchorage, turned on the autopilot, and had a delightful beam reach for the first 50 miles across the northern part of a very deep body of water called the “Tongue of the Ocean”. We were each easily able to sleep while off watch as the wave conditions were light (1 – 2 feet). There were a handful of other sailboats on our general path, including our friends who anchored near us at West Bay, and it was nice to see them sailing in the same direction 3 to 5 miles away. Late in the afternoon we went past the Northwest Channel Light which marks the narrow entrance onto the Bahama Bank. We were now in much shallower water (8 – 20 feet) for the next 75 miles. The wind was NE at 10-15 knots gusting to 19, and the waves were a little over 2 feet.

At around 7PM Tommy changed our sail combination to something safer and easier to handle during the night. First, we reefed the mainsail to about 80% of its full size. Next, we furled away the genoa (big headsail) and set our staysail. As a cutter-rigged boat, C Ghost has a third smaller sail in between the big genoa and the mast. This is the staysail, and one of its big advantages is that it sets on its own boom which allows it to be self-tacking. This sail combination of a smaller mainsail and staysail reduces all the forces in play and is very forgiving of wind shifts or if we had needed to tack. It also slowed us down some, which was intentional and calculated into our timing. It additionally lets the boat sail with only a slight heel for added safety in the dark.

As night fell, the companion boats that entered onto the Bank with us progressed away from our track and C Ghost was alone except for an occasional passing freighter. As the sun set, Paula admits she felt some awe and angst doing her first ever night sailing shift. When the sun disappeared from view, Jupiter rose to our stern, and the magnificent colors of the sunset gradually faded to purple/gray and black. Paula felt C Ghost and her crew were very small against the backdrop of the starry sky and vast water. She studied the chartplotter carefully for radar signatures. Although Octavious our autopilot was steering and keeping us on course (thankfully!), it was up to the human crewmember to be aware of the AIS signatures and radar targets that meant invisible boats or obstructions.

(5/10 – next day) In the ghostly pre-dawn we felt well, and as the morning light grew we were able to see the wide gap between the Hen and Chickens rocks right on schedule. We passed through the gap without any problem and entered the Atlantic. We had about 17 miles of ocean to cross before we got to the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream. The most recent forecast we had was now 24 hours old with no way to hear the new updates and so far the conditions were still as predicted. The wind had lightened up a bit and began shifting a little more to the east. We were counting on this predicted wind shift to the east to have occurred by the time we got to the Gulf Stream (another reason for going slower at night). When we got to the edge of the stream, the waves increased a little (2 -3 feet), but were not uncomfortable. At this point we committed to the full journey. The Gulf Stream current comes on gradually on the eastern edge, so we knew we weren’t guaranteed  these conditions all the way to Lake Worth. The next 25 miles went well, although we were a little surprised at seeing few other boats.

Once we got into the main part of the Gulf Stream, two things changed. Our speed increased a lot and the waves got a little bigger (2 – 4 feet). The wind never completely came all the way around to the east, but it was more east than north, and the wind strength stayed relatively low (~10 knots). Because the wind had dropped, we were now motor sailing. About 25 miles from the Florida coast, the wind kicked up to around 15 knots and the waves were now 3 – 5 feet with an occasional 6-footer (when we finally did get this day’s forecast after the fact, these somewhat rougher conditions were predicted). The boat performed magnificently and despite what was now the bumpiest part of the trip, we each were still able to get rest on the off watch.

As we caught sight of the coast of Florida, a pod of about 10 dolphins, including babies, swam all around C Ghost, racing her bow, jumping all around us, surging by, and then turning back to us, for about 15 minutes. It felt like a welcome home.

Conditions flattened rapidly once we exited the Gulf Stream at its western edge, and we had a smooth traverse of Palm Beach inlet into the Lake Worth anchorage. It was familiar to us and we had an uneventful anchoring.

We looked at each other, amazed and gratified that we were home safe. Suddenly tired, we quickly did our necessary chores, ate dinner and fell asleep in the cockpit. Paula served all pre-cooked foods, warmed on the stove top: meatloaf (Tommy’s favorite), streamed green beans, and fruit salad – mixed canned and fresh.

(5/11 Palm Beach) – In the morning we had coffee, tidied the cabin and inflated Poltergeist for the trip in to Customs (Poltergeist was rolled up and lashed to the foredeck for the gulf stream crossing). Tommy readied every piece of US entry documentation we had and we filled out our customs declarations, carefully itemizing all our produce, meats, and goods as required. Tommy then called to verify time and place to present this documentation at the customs office knowing he’d have to dinghy ashore and  then walk there. The customs person on the other end of the phone said we could potentially clear customs via a new phone app without having to appear in person. We were skeptical of this since we did not have a chance to complete all the prerequisite steps for the easy phone-in customs clearance before we left for the Bahamas. Nevertheless, Tommy downloaded the app onto his phone and entered all our declaration information, including pictures of our passports. The last step was to hit the “submit” button on the app. Once he did this, a twirling icon appeared with the words “submission waiting to be reviewed”. After 30 seconds, another message popped up saying the review was done and a customs agent needed to start a one-way video call. Tommy hit the “agree” button and the agent began talking. He could see us but we couldn’t see him. He first asked if it was just the two of us while looking at Tommy via the phones front facing camera. He then asked to see Paula wave at the phone and after that said, “OK, you’re all cleared in, have a nice day”. We were stunned – “poof” we were cleared in less than 5 minutes! We’d heard lots of horror stories from other cruisers about how onerous this process could be. Still in disbelief, Tommy checked his email to find the official clearance note from the US Customs Office. This was a great use of technology resulting in a super easy and efficient official entry.

Paula had begun some yogurt and bread, anticipating that Tommy would be some time ashore. Now with unanticipated time on our hands, we showered, had a light lunch, and got in Poltergeist to do some exploring ashore. The Palm Beach Sailing Club has a dinghy dock for cruisers only a half mile from where we were anchored, so that’s where we headed. Shortly after arriving, Tommy proceeded to innocently get us into an embarrassing predicament. We brought a bag of trash with us to throw away in the dumpster at the club after we checked in (there is a small fee for tying up Poltergeist). There was no one in the office when we got there so we proceeded on our walk knowing we’d pay on our way back. Tommy went to the dumpster and found all the side doors were locked. So he just tossed the bag up over the top presuming it would fall in onto the pile inside. This particular dumpster happened to have a “roof”, and much to our surprise, our white bag of trash was sitting on top of the dumpster in full view of the Sailing Club office windows. It was too high up  to reach with no way to climb up and get it down. So we left knowing when we returned we’d have to own up to it.

It was a nice 1.5 mile walk to the small neighborhood of Northwood Village. It was an up-and-coming arty little district of shops and eateries. There was a beautiful butterfly garden (featured picture) which filled the air with a flower fragrance and fluttering Lepidoptera. There we found a nice little French café and had some pastry and tea. Next we found the post office and mailed back our Bahamas immigration cards to Nassau with the official date we left the islands. We didn’t hand these in before we left, not knowing if we would be stopping in Bimini again on the way back if something went wrong. We did some window browsing and made our way back to the sailing club.

We paid for Poltergeist’s “parking” spot and owned up to the trash bag incident (they were very nice about it). We then returned to C Ghost for a rest and a dinner of braised pork with sour kraut, zucchini, and freshly made bread from this morning. All-in-all, a very nice day here. Poor weather is approaching this area tomorrow at noon and may persist for a while so we may be here a few days.