Sailing To Nassau – Feeling Funny & Damn Fish

Nikki Wynn

Mar 5, 2017 — 4 min read

It couldn’t have been more than half an hour after we set sail when we heard the request for local information come across the VHF.

Another boater was responding before we could even pick up our VHF. “Yeah, I’m out here just past Slaughter Harbour and the winds are 15-18 knots and the seas are 6-8 feet, what size of boat are you?”

“38ft monohull” responded the inquiring boat.

“I wouldn’t attempt it if I were you, conditions should be better in a couple of days”.

I looked over at Jason who had the same puzzled expression I did. Sure, we’ve seen better days but we certainly wouldn’t have said “I wouldn’t attempt it if I were you”. Why give a response that instills fear and doubt?

We considered chiming in but decided against it. It was one of those moments where we felt our newbie selves should keep our mouths shut.

It was also one of those moments that reminded us to continue to think, assess and test conditions for ourselves. Because what one person considers “not worth attempting” might seem like another fun day of sailing to us. Or, on the flip side, what seemed like fine conditions to one sailor, could be our worst nightmare.

We’ve got our handy dandy Iridum Go that works with Predict Wind to update us on conditions, read the notes on our charts, check reviews on Active Captain, and use the wonderful world of the internet to search for any additional info. Combine that with the knowledge we learned in sailing school, the bush worthy advice of Kent Grimbeek (AKA school of hard knocks), our own gut instincts and we feel as prepared as we can be.

So, with that in mind…if you’re ready for a couple of fun days at sea filled with crazy waves and fish on, hit the play button.

Our sail from the Berry Islands to Nassau was another well-appointed challenge from Mother Nature. It felt like just the right amount of action and excitement. Luckily Jason’s moment of feeling funny was nothing more than hunger and not sea sickness. I think our sea legs are growing stronger along with our confidence. Now, if we can figure out how to land each fish we catch…we might just make it around this globe after all.

This is what fishermen call “paying your sea tax”.

reading on a sailboat — Books and podcasts have become my favorite downtime sailing entertainment.

Sailing Report

To see our full map with interactive pins, click here: gonewiththewynns.com/map

Dates: January 16-17, 2017
Nautical Miles Sailed: 67.5
Anchorage: First Night was Alders Cay in the Berry Islands. When we arrived to Nassau we anchored near Jaws Beach in the West Bay. Both had good sandy bottom holding and plenty of room for lots of boats.
Cell & WiFi: Our BTC signal was decent and great with our booster on. But what really came in handy here was our Wifi Ranger, we were able to pull in a free wifi connection that worked great in this anchorage.