Passing Through 5 Star Bahamas

Entrance to Chub Cay Marina

We left Bimini on Nov 1st at first light.  We waved to the GQ lobster men on the way out of the harbor.  We had a long trip across the Great Bahamas Bank to the Northwest Channel, then onto Chub Cay.  The Great Bahamas Bank is a huge shallow water bank that forms east of Bimini and is bounded by Andros to the southeast and the Berry Islands to the northeast.

The route over the Great Bahama Bank from Bimini to the Northwest Channel is 56 nautical miles. The water is never deeper than 15 feet.  During the day the shallow water is heated by the sun which creates warm rising air when the temperature cools slightly at night.  This rising air forms an inversion that almost eliminates the trade winds at night.  Most sailors don't want to sail at night over shallow water so they miss the calm waters of the night inversion.  The alternative is to sail east during the day into the 13-18 knot trade winds and the associated 3-5 foot waves.

Moored at Chub Cay

We had these calm winds until about 8 am that morning, then the inversion lifted and the trade winds appeared right on our nose.  Fortunately, the shallow water helps keep the waves from completely developing, so we rode 2-4 foot seas over the bank.

Chub Cay on the fly bridge

I couldn't wait to get to Chub.  I had never been here, but from everything I read, Julianne would love the place.  The island functions as a private resort.  The only inhabitants of the island are the resort staff and a very few private homes that were built around the resort.  The entrance to the man made marina is beautiful, and I could see the excitement of Julianne's face when she saw the main buildings of the resort.  We planned to stay 2 nights which turned into 3!

Jim at the Office

The beauty of Chub, is that it is a 5 star resort, but you can socialize with the staff if you wander away from the main resort facilities.  Julianne and I found the staff's local bar called the Naughty Rooster.  This was a great place to get a burger & fries as well as get to know the person who waited on you the night before.

ATV to Turtle Creek

Saturday afternoon, we took and excursion to Turtle Creek.  One of the staff loaded an ATV with two paddle boards and my free diving gear and we rode about 3 miles down island to a creek that entered from the east side of the island.  It was properly named.  As we started paddling inland, we encountered dozens of large turtles that literally flew through the water.  I always regarded turtles as slow.  These boys used their back legs as rudders and their powerful front legs as fins that had them moving through the water at 15 knots.  If only Top Shelf could move that fast!  We spent the whole afternoon by ourselves paddle boarding and swimming in the 3-4 knot incoming tide to the creek.  It was Julianne's first encounter with the remoteness of the Bahamas.  She loved it...that was a very good sign!

Selfie in Turtle Creek

Julianne Drifting in Turtle Creek

Scaring the Turtles

Paddling toward the Cold Front

Sunday morning came too early and we fired up the Cummins 450's for the ride to the Marina at Atlantis, Paradise Island in Nassau.  Winds were forecast 17 gusting 25 with 5-7 foot seas.  We got all of that and then some.  It was warm, sunny, windy and wet up on the fly bridge of Top Shelf.  We decided to stay up there and get a "salt water facial" from the waves coming over the bow.

Good Form Up Current

The trip was short, 36 nm that was just over 4 hours.  We cleared into Nassau Harbor with harbor control on VHF channel 09 then proceeded to our slip at Paradise Island.  Julianne went exploring the Atlantis Resort and I spent the rest of the afternoon washing the salt off of Top Shelf.

Next:  Las Vegas in the Bahamas!