The sail from Bimini to Freeport was a lovely cruise! For a long while, we just sailed along under only sail power, NO motor! The problem (if you want to call it a problem) is that you don't get to your destination as quickly as you might like. It became apparent that we weren't going to be to Freeport until around midnight! Oh well, it is what it is!!! On a very clear night, you were able to see the lights of the city from a long distance. Also, standing by waiting to get into the large ports, were many ships and cruise liners. So the night was lit up with all sorts of lights. Steve never likes to go into an unknown channel or marina at night, so we decided to anchor out off of Port Lucaya near Freeport. Now mind you, this is 12:30 AM by the time of our arrival. Two tired sailors and rolling and rocking seas! It takes both of us to "set the anchor" which we finally accomplished. I had just layed down to go to sleep and I hear the anchor warning sound go off....the anchor wasn't holding! SO, let's try this again!!!! I like to think I am a patient person (not comments please!) but I just wanted to go to sleep, but, we would do it again! SUCCESS! The anchor held on the next try and we settled down for a rolling and rocking night on Kathryn!
When the sun came up, it started to look like Paradise again! Everything looks better in the AM! We had to motor around for an hour or so to wait for the tide to rise! We then headed into Bell Channel and into the Port Lucaya Marina. This marina sounded GREAT in the books, but it was right next to the Market Place which is a big tourist attraction! Fun place to visit, but not the best neighbor for living next to every day. Also, they had a "sister marina" across the channel and that was where the showers, laundry facilities, pool etc were located. If you needed any of those things, you had to call for the boat tender to come and take you across! After two days, we decided we wanted to be across the channel where all the "good stuff" was at our command. So, we moved to Grand Bahama Yacht Club and fell in love with the facilities.
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| The Pool at Grand Bahama Yacht Club |
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| Pool Bar Shaped Like a Boat |
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| In Another Bar |
From our pictures, I hope you can see the beautiful surroundings at this marina! We spent a lot of time at the pool, at the pool bar (which hosted jazz night with entertainment, some good bar food, etc), and visiting with other boaters. The first day at the fuel dock, we ran into a couple we had met last year at Snead Island. As it turned out, Barb and Carl were on the same cruise schedule as we were, so we had some great times together for Happy Hours and getting good sailing info! Port Lucaya offered some fine restaurants, shopping (if you like"touristy things") and I even got a pedicure! Woot woot!
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| Marina Mascots...Ozzie & Harriet Live Under the Dock |
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| Here's Ozzie |
The biggest news, was the day I was sitting outside the laundry facility close to the docks, just minding my business and viewing my Face Book page. When out of nowhere, came around 10 law enforcement people yelling, "Stop that boat!" The captain and his partner were quickly handcuffed and seated on the deck of their boat. The officers went down below for quite some time and finally emerged with 7 or 8 illegal immigrants from China and Equador all handcuffed, too. They proceeded to take all of them off to jail and the authorities took off with their boat. The next day in the Freeport news paper, their picture (in color) was splashed across the front page with large bold print explaining they had already been to court, fined and given jail sentences. I guess they don't mess around in the Bahamas. Their plan was to take them to Maimi since their time here had expired! Crime doesn't pay, folks!
The reason I have been so lazy with my blog writing, is that in an instant, we had been at Port Lucaya for around nine days! Where that time went, I have no clue, but it is Paradise I guess, and you loose all track of time. We had planned on going to the Abacose Islands next, but the winds never gave us good sailing, so we decided to set sail for the Berry Islands and go to Grand Harbour Cay (pronounced key). That will be my next blog for all of you "followers"!