Jamaica to Bahamas Passage Summary

Hi everyone,

We arrived at Matthew Town, Great Inagua Island, Bahamas at 2130 last night after a nice reach across from the Windward Passage.  We are anchored in 6m over sand at 20 57.01N 073 40.82W.  Rolly, just as it says in the guides!

Zen Again anchored off Matthew Town

Here are the usual plots..

Track

Arrival Track (on Explorer chart)

Sailing Graphs

Electrical Plots (Orange line shows engine on)

Here are the vital statistics...

• Distances/Speeds
• Route Distance = 240nm (direct)
• Log Distance = 334nm
• Track Distance = 286nm
• Duration = 2 days 14 hours (62 hours)
• Average boat speed = 5.4kt
• Average ground speed = 4.6kt
• Average day's run = 128nm (through the water)
• Best day's run = 133nm (5.5 kt)
• Minimum boat speed = 3 kt
• Maximum boat speed = 7 kt
• Weather
• Minimum wind speed = 3kt
• Average wind speed = 10kt
• Maximum wind speed = 14kt (gusts to 18kt)
• Apparent wind angle range = 40 to 90
• Seas up to 1m
• Swell up to 1.5m
• Broken small cumulus gradually clearing to a cloudless sky
• Engine
• Total = 23 hours (37%)
• Failures
• ProFurl furler not accepting line into drum cleanly (2nd time in 10 years)
• Stars
• The engine (including its new mounts)
• Autopilot (Raymarine SPX5)
• Starlink for accessing GRIB files and email
• Icom IC-7300 SSB for 12 hourly position reporting net with friends
• the cook!

We did a lot of motoring on this passage!  Not what we'd hoped for but it wasn't a surprise.  The motoring was an excellent test of our new engine mounts.  And the sailing we had was good, marred only by the furler problem.  This required me to go forward to sort it out or to guide the furling line onto the drum.  Copped a greenie once which gave me a full body shower.

The stats show we encountered a lot of current, adding about 50nm to our trip.  That's presuming our log isn't over-reading.  Predictions showed a lot of cross-current which seems to justify the extra miles.  Our heading was frequently 20-30 degrees off our CoG (course over ground).

Reaching north toward The Bahamas

Ready for arrival

Arrival into the Matthew Town anchoraage at night was very straightforward at night.  There are no offlying dangers.  We have the OpenCPN Explorer electronic charts of The Bahamas.  They are excellent - practically mandatory here.

This morning I dinghied into the harbour.  In the middle there is a small craft jetty where dinghies can be secured.  Then it was a 100m walk to the pink building on the southern side of the harbour.  There I found a gentleman who called customs & immigration, and gave me arrival cards to complete.  The officials turned up within a few minutes.

The customs man had printed and stamped the Cruising Permit we applied and paid US$300 for online.  That gives us one year, multiple entry cruising in the country.  The immigration lady took our passports and completed arrival cards away and returned 15 minutes later with everything completed.  We paid a US$40 immigration fee.

Small craft jetty in Matthew Town Harbour

Pink building for clearing in/out

Yes, it is rolly!

It's great to be in The Bahamas!  We have about 4 weeks to cruise our way to Nassau where we will have our US visa interviews.  Looking forward to sailing downwind again!