January 10, 2008. Well, we’re outta Marathon.

A weather window has finally presented itself to us to make our crossing of the gulf stream to the Bahamas. After a hectic couple of days our upcoming 24 hour non-stop trip will be the most relaxing thing we’ve done in a while.

We were aware that Thursday was looking like a good day to head out. So we did our last minute food shopping for fresh meat, bread and vegetables the day before. Once that was done Christy went up to the marina to do laundry while I took the bicycles back to the boat and stowed them.

I wanted to stow the bikes as far forward in the v berth as I could since we will not need them in the Bahamas. Of course, that meant that first everything had to be emptied out of the v berth. The pile of crap that came out of there was pretty impressive. Now with the bikes stowed, everything could be jammed, um err, neatly put back in place.

We were only making a 25 mile run to our rally point at the Channel Five bridge for the jump off tomorrow so we wanted to be underway by noon or so. We slipped our mooring and headed under the bridge to Poncho’s fuel dock. We topped up our water, diesel and gasoline tanks and were on our way by 11:15.

The trip east was a bash to windward, motor sailing with just the mainsail up. After a few hours we were able to roll out some of the genoa as well. We had the anchor set by 15:45. First order of business was to jump in the water and clean the hull. Christy had done it last time, so it was my turn. It went quickly and the bottom growth was minimal even though we had been sitting in Boot Key harbor for just over a month. I was pleased to find that our zincs were still there and in pretty good shape.

There are 10 boats gathered here for tomorrows crossing.

After dinner there was a lot of chatter concerning a problem one of the boats was having, (one of the lead boats that has crossed many times). They had a leak somewhere near their shaft log and they couldn’t get a handle on exactly where the leak was. Because we have to walk the dogs we were the only ones with a dinghy in the water. So it was only natural for me to go over and see if I could help.

It turned out that there was a crack behind the shaft log and a steady stream of water was spraying into the bilge. After a quick trip to another boat for the right size hose clamp and a sheet of rubber, things quickly fell into place. I was able to cut a strip of rubber and get it wrapped around the leaking area and wedged firmly into place with the hose clamp. The leak went from pretty serious to practically dripless. It’s only a bullshit repair but it should get them safely back to Marathon for a permanent repair. During all this commotion they also discovered that they have a serious transmission leak in their transmission cooler hose, and it must be fixed to travel safely.

Their best friend and buddy boat in our little group happens to be our leader, Jerry. Jerry has opted to forego the trip across and see his friends safely back to Marathon for repairs. One or two of the other boats will turn around and head back, but not us. The wind is swinging around the way it’s supposed to, so we’re set to go, we’re going.

The only real concern I have is that there will be no moon, it’s going to be dark as hell. We won’t arrive at the Great Bahama Bank until after dark, so I’m a little concerned. We will be traveling in water that is 2700 feet deep for about 40-50 miles and then SUDDENLY when you reach the banks the water is 10-15 feet deep. It literally goes from 2000 feet to 12 in 200 yards, quite a contrast. There is a trade off here, we can leave early in the morning and make it across the gulf stream in the daylight and arrive on the Bahama Bank in the dark and possibly anchor and catch a few hours sleep, or we can leave late in the afternoon, cross the gulf stream in the dark and arrive on the banks in the morning. But if we do that we won’t make it to check in and be into Nassau by Sunday. There’s supposed to be some weather coming late Sunday so we need to get to a port to check into the Bahamas on Saturday and I’d like to be in Nassau on Sunday and weather the storm out there.