s/v Galena's
Bahamas Adventure
2004 – 2005
For several years we had been planning on making a trip to “The Islands.” It seemed that we had checked all the blocks on the checklist. We were ready (enough) to cast off and go.
We were going to approach this cruising thing with a strong fallback option: we were going to keep the house and keep the cars. While I was fairly certain that I loved the sea I had never actually cruised before. I was aware that many would-be cruisers find they love the idea of cruising more than the fact of cruising. So unlike many of the friends we would make over the next couple of years, this was just a wintertime hobby for us, not a full commitment.
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Shore-side arrangements had been made for mail and bills (Thanks, Michelle)
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The boat was seaworthy (Thanks, Archer/Atkin/Crealock).
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The captain and crew were trained and (somewhat) prepared.
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The provisions had been loaded aboard.
It was time to go. We were not 100% ready, but it’s said that if you wait until everything is just right, you’ll never leave. So we left.
Just before we left, Jane designed our ‘Boat Card.’ Most cruisers are using these to introduce themselves. They also make it easy to remember names and places. This is our boat card:
For the first trip Jane would draw each card by hand. And they were individual works of art. But when we returned I scanned one and printed up a stack of them for the second trip.
So we went. On a cold raining morning in early November 2004 we cast off and headed south down the Chesapeake Bay on the great adventure. Our original plan was to sail down to Norfolk and then directly to the British Virgin Islands. That plan would change a few weeks into the voyage. We ended up heading down the Intracoastal Water (ICW) to Miami, FL. Then we crossed to Nassau and on to the Exumas. Once there in the 'real islands' of the Bahamas we continued south to George Town, Exumas, Bahamas. We spent a few weeks there and made the return run to Maryland. The whole thing took about 6-months.
(NOTE: The first time you load a page using the links above, the index may be thrown off as the images load. Just come back here and touch it again.)
View Route Interactively in Google Earth
On this trip I separated the logs monthly. Below are links to those logs.
Where are all of these places? I you don't want to use Google Earth you can see a set of charts showing the route we followed and the places we stopped.
For a list of all the boats we had the pleasure of meeting, see this boat list with links to the logs where they are first mentioned.
View Boat Card Gallery
) and marina (
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