Farewell Bahamas — s/v Reach

The Bahamas is a special place. We know that wherever the anchor may drop, it will always be compared to our experiences here, where the water is an impossible blue and the islands are plentiful and welcoming.

We started our cruising here in 2008. Later, we returned from the Caribbean in 2015 and rediscovered the Bahamas all over again. Starting another chapter, we bought a new boat in Antigua and once again returned to the Bahamas in 2019. With the exception of the pandemic year 2020 when we were doing an interior boat refit, we have spent recent winters sailing in these warm waters.

Those years fell into a comfortable routine. Sailing and living in nature suits us well. The paths through the seas, harbors and bays became as familiar as a cheerful walk around the neighborhood.

Finding refuge in hurricane season in Georgia allowed us to explore a different kind of island life along the coast. Visits with family and friends (some new!) in summertime provided much needed nourishment for the soul.

So far since we’ve been cruising, we have been able to visit family every August with the exception of 2020. This is a time when cruising destinations are either in the hurricane belt or starting rainy season, so it is convenient to leave the boat somewhere safe and get a “vacation” off the boat. It is a really good way to spend some quality time with family and help out where we can if needed.

Mark and I were each surprised to notice recently that I hadn’t written a post for this blog since last spring. I still have a whole summer of boat projects to update in the Boat Blog (soon!), but other than that, life over the last year was much the same as the previous year’s travel.

After our Out Island visits last year, we returned to Long Island to spend some time with Cameron and Amanda before leaving for the summer. The Long Island Regatta was on for June, one of the first regattas to start back up after the pandemic. It’s always a thrill to watch these boats compete.

The time came to sail back to Georgia for hurricane season. The marina at Brunswick Landing has been our safe haven for many summers.

We barely felt hurricane Ian as it passed over us. It is very protected and has wonderful sunset colors over the marsh each evening.

We were super happy to have had visitors to Brunswick this year!

Mom & Dad came to visit for a week in an AirBnB cottage right downtown.

John and Barbara passed through a couple of times on their travels to visit NC.

Dave and Judi flew in for a fun weekend, that included Octoberfest at the local brewery.

A rental car was needed for our family visits to Maryland and Michigan this year ~ we didn’t trust the Nissan for that distance this time around. We preferred to drive rather than fly so that we would have a car at our destination. Along the way, we got to stop in to visit Cindy & David’s new house in Virginia and see Megan & meet baby Garrett.

Heading back to Reach, we visited Klaus & Karin (formerly s/v Lucky Touch) at their home in Hilton Head SC. It was great to see them and catch up.

While in Brunswick, Mark worked his ass off every day on a great project list whose highlights included a new pantry and a porthole installation in the shower, among many other things. Our neighbors thought that he was the kind of person who just can’t sit still ~ Lol… They hadn’t yet seen how he spends the rest of the year at anchor!

I birded extensively and had my best listing year yet. This was the first of several sad goodbyes… The camaraderie of birding friends is not unlike cruising, where you share a special friendship, bond and memories.

Katy & Joe (s/v Inca Cross) were behind us on the dock and they started to join us on our Sunday nights “out” for happy hour at the local brewery and dinner special up the road. Turns out we were each looking to leave the marina in November and after a short wait for favorable weather, we both took off for the Bahamas at the same time, staging briefly in West Palm Beach.

We had a lot of fun traveling with them before we parted ways for E Carib & W Carib, respectively.

We checked in at Great Harbour Cay in the Berrys and then proceeded down to Spanish Wells (getting to see Ivanhoe & George), Eleuthera, Little San Salvador, Cat Island, Conception Island and Long Island.

This being our last time in the Bahamas for a while, we rented a car on each of the family islands (Eleuthera, Cat & Long) and explored them literally from top to bottom.

It was a lot of fun to share the adventure and the holidays with Katy & Joe and we were bummed when we had to part ways with them. As sailors say, until next time!

We also were super happy to spend the holidays in Long Island with Cameron & Amanda. There were parties three weekends in a row starting with birthday celebrations (boat tour and pig roast), Christmas Eve/Day and then New Year’s Eve.

This was also a sad goodbye to our island friends, yet thankful for all of the special times that we’ve spent together, including their nuptials.

One of our last stops in the Bahamas included about a month back in the Ragged Islands. Here we reunited with Keith & Jaime (s/v Kookaburra) to travel to the W Carib this year, among other adventures.

The weather was very nice and I got in a lot of underwater time to test out some new camera gear. Here as well, there were more farewells to too many cruising friends to name.

We are now staged in Great Inagua for a week to wait on favorable weather to sail to our next destination. This is the southernmost island and a place that we can check out of the country for points south. Weather dictated that we stay in a bay far away from the main town, but we were glad that we spent such a fun time there last spring.

So here we are in our last Bahamas anchorage for the foreseeable future, ready to set sail within the next hour. It’s sad to leave this special country, but are fairly certain that we’ll return someday. That said, we are excited for the new adventures to come!