The entrance is not straightforward and they’re are rocks in the entrance but not many.  I make a perpendicular line to the shore, straight through the deepest part of the channel.  Sea and wind from behind I run for the gap while jumping in and out of the cabin looking at charts.  Soon after I touch, I jump back into the cockpit and hammer the engine astern.  Glancing around me I see large boulders all around and water breaking on them.  When I manage to whip the boat about into the wind and get it stationed, throttle versus wind and waves, I am shocked by the amount of breaking water about me and how far I have made my way in without hitting something.  With boat under control I stand as high as possible, straddling the cockpit seats and try to plot a route through.  Ducking, diving and crabbing between the boulders I escape but keep driving on until I see 30m of water.  Definitely my closest encounter with loosing a boat.

 

So, back on my original route to Spanish Wells, I’m not going to make it before nightfall, a reef to the north forces me out another 10nm while I listen the captain of a motor yacht request a pilot to transit the northern passage, “oh so that’s how they do it”. 

 

I manage to get to the western head of the island and turn into a bay which is pretty shallow, about 3m at most but transit-able.  With 18kts of breeze on the nose I decide that this is not worth it and find holding on a small uninhabited island at the western end of the island.  I dive to check the anchor is laid correctly but for some reason I am nervous about staying in the water.  As soon as that is done I get out and cook a meal of chilly and veg and look forward to a good nights sleep.

 

Pretty disappointed with the aridness, lack of provisions, expense and lack of water under the keel, I decide to head for the largest town/city of the Bahamas, Freeport Grand Bahamas.  On arriving they’re are two options, the main resort which is $60 per night and the summer bay harbour with “great rates”,  I decide on the summer bay marina partially because of the cost but mostly because it has a draught of the 2.3m in the channel, the other only 2.0m  so with that choice made I ran the gauntlet into summer cove marina.  Being the Sunday of a bank holiday the marina office was closed but a local man came out and introduced himself explaining that he was the husband of a woman that worked for the marina and asked the cleaner to leave the door of the facilities open for me, of which I am very appreciative.

 

During the night I had somehow managed to break a cast aluminium part of the vane steering which rendered it useless. A 20$ taxi ride failed to provide any solutions regarding finding a place to repair the part.  The girls in the office in the Lucaya resort were extremely helpful but still it was evident that I was not going to be able to repair this until Tuesday at best , if at all.  With that in mind I aim to catch the next tide out of there and head for the port of Charleston.  Not being able to find the guy that looked after me when I arrived I left a note under his door explaining what my motives for leaving were along with my sat phone no.