17 years ago to the day, Linda and I, my brother Jordan and cousin Wendell (who were also in New York City at the time, living in a pre-gentrification Williamsburg) received the following dispatch (via fax!) from my uncle Gene and aunt Mimi, who were anchored off of Elbow Cay in the Abacos. It must have made an impression (even though I was apparently “underwater workwise”) because, here we are, 17 years later, anchored off of Elbow Cay in the Abacos.

Here’s a transcription of the fax:
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While visiting Seattle, we’ve taken advantage of the fast Internet to add pictures and videos to some of the posts that were originally made via our Iridium GO! satellite hotspot. Check out these updates:

• Whether the Weather Be Fine
• Bahamas Been Berry Berry Good So Far
• Anchors, A Way
• Location, Location, Location
• One If By Land, Two If By Sea
• 00Soren
• Staniel, Majors, and Point, LLP

We also added a boatload of photos (see what I did there?) to what are now a whole series of photo galleries.
Hope that you enjoy these updates as much as we’ve enjoyed our time in Seattle so far!

Not the Bahamas…

We had originally hoped and planned to have my parents visit us in the Bahamas, but my mom’s current cancer treatment regime prevents her from traveling. Instead, we decided to come to Seattle to help celebrate her birthday. It’s sort of a bizarro spring break, trading the warm, sunny, and dry Bahamian climate for Seattle’s cold, dark, and wet March weather, but we’re excited to see family and friends, and have a long list of Seattle outings in the offing.

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I’ve heard that the secret to success in the restaurant business is “location, location, location”. This advice appears not to have reached Flo Darville, who started Flo’s Conch Bar on the southern end of Little Harbour Cay (pronounced “key”) in the Berry Islands, a less-visited island chain in the Bahamas. Flo passed away recently and the establishment is now run by her son, Chester Darville who, along with his helper, Lovely, and cook, Edna, make up the entire population of Little Harbour Cay. Since we were coming south through the Berries, we felt compelled to stop and eat here and we’re glad we did.

Chester Darville Portrait

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After a week and a half of waiting for a weather window, we made our first attempt to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas on Tuesday, January 28. We departed Lake Sylvia at 0200, made the 0230 opening of the 17th Street bridge, and were out of the channel into the Atlantic 15 minutes after that. Unfortunately, we found ourselves driving into a strong easterly wind and pounding into steeper-than-forecast seas. Not sure if these were the result of the outgoing current going into the wind, but at times we were making less than 1 knot over the ground and the whole thing just didn’t feel right. We decided to turn around and, after going back through the 17th Street bridge, anchored in the exact same spot from which we’d departed just two hours earlier.

Inventorying provisions in advance of our departure.

One of our Bahamas cruising guides characterized the Gulf Stream crossing as “a board game with squares marked ‘THROW A SIX TO MOVE ON’”, and that resonated with us. We were content to wait to roll a six. Luckily, our next window came only two days later.

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