It’s been another great couple of weeks of adventure, sweetened by the fact that we could share them in great company with old and new friends. A few major lessons have been learnt one of which almost resulted in Sandy Feet ending up on rocks at 3am but let’s ease into that a little less dramatically.

It all started with Tom and Tyler joining us for a week, they had their own epic adventure just getting to Bimini, not the fun sort but the dumb sort that leaves you starting a holiday travel weary and without any bags. The lost luggage impacted our floating island heavily, the much anticipated shipment of Tim Tams and Vegemite alas never materialised and the cravings remain. We kicked off Tom and Tylers visit in true Bimini style with a pickup from the airport using a hired golf buggy and within an hour of touching Bahamian soil they were already enjoying the crystal clear waters of our anchorage.

After a short break and a dinghy ride to some isolated rocks they had their first encounters with a bunch of Caribbean Reef Sharks. With a dinner of Sushi made from yesterdays caught fish and lobster we did our best to erase the memory’s of their harrowing travels.

The next morning we explored the wreck of the Sarpona, probably the ugliest shipwreck on the planet but with a fascinating history. The ferro-cement constructed vessel was built by Henry Ford and after ending up on a shallow bank was variously used as a party palace/night club, warehouse for rum smugglers during the prohibition era and finally as a practice target by the US navy prior to WW2. They were either lousy shots or the ferro-cement design is exceedingly robust as the ship is still mostly intact and probably will still be in another century.

We’d recently met a wonderful Australian family (Terry, Coral, Jessica and Brock Howe) from Dampier also travelling on a catamaran (Howes Adventures).

With a shared love of free diving and sharks we hatched a plan to get another encounter with the Great Hammerheads. Sure enough, after barely an hour of laying a scent they showed up again and so it was that Tom and Tylers second time in the water with sharks was with the Great Hammerheads of Bimini (as well as the attendant Nurse Sharks).

Over the next few days we probably spent as many waking hours in the water as out but eventually we decided on pastures new and struck out towards the island of Grand Bahama, Howes Adventures were striking out for the US and decided to join us for the first leg.

Approximately halfway to Grand Bahama lies a small island and some lesser exposed rocks. We arrived at this group towards evening and Terry suggested we stop for a snorkel and spearfish. This is probably one of the wilder places I’ve dived, a collection of rocks in the middle of the vast ocean, hours away from any human civilisation it feels very remote. After some successful hunting (Tom got to shoot his first fish) we explored the rocks at the end of the chain and discovered a shipwreck. At this point we seemed to be in predator-central with hundreds of Barracuda schooling around us, Sharks and Rays ducked in and out and with the sun almost touching the horizon things felt tense. I was praying at this point that Tom wouldn’t shoot another fish, it seemed like everything was just waiting for the slightest excuse to start a frenzy, when the biggest Turtle any of us had ever seen detached itself from the wreck and swam towards us. Of course we didn’t have the underwater camera and the distant GoPro footage wont ever do justice to the moment it swam to within a meter of us, its head the size of a football, to give us the once over before swimming off into the gloom.

Shortly afterwards we were back onboard Sandy Feet and under the rising full moon we anchored behind the nearby Great Isaac Island. Howes Adventures had decided to continue on to Grand Bahama overnight and so we were left alone to contemplate the deserted lighthouse and buildings whilst preparing our fresh fish for dinner.

Initially we had decided to overnight at Great Issac but with perfect sailing winds and a full moon to light the way we finished our dinner, weighed anchor and set off in Howe’s Adventures wake. The fact that the abandoned lighthouse was downright spooky may have also influenced us on a deeper level! Our sail to Grand Bahama was as perfect as it gets and apart from keeping an eye on the cruise ships and super tankers on AIS we had little to do but enjoy the night. In the wee hours we made landfall albeit a little to the West of where Terry had suggested we anchor in a canal. No problem, there are plenty of marinas down the coast and so we chose the closest one to duck into for a few hours kip. And here came a lesson we don’t intend to repeat. On the chart the entry looked easy enough with two spits of seawall and markers guiding the way in but unbeknown to us the marina was in a complete state of disrepair and almost unused. The moon had long since set and in near pitch darkness with the aid of our Flir night vision camera we found two stakes marking the entrance. Too late several things became apparent; the channel was very very narrow, the tide was very low and the sea wall was missing in many places which has allowed rocky sandbars to build inside the already narrow channel. To compound the unfolding disaster we had a strong crosswind with waves breaking over what was left of the seawall. It was too late to change course or back out, we were committed to the channel. From my position at the helm all I could see was water washing over rocks far to close on either side, the depth gauge told me we had next to no water under the keels, Tom and Laura were on the starboard and port bows and both were shouting I needed to go in the opposite direction away from certain doom on their side. With gritted teeth we zig-zagged our way down the channel, avoiding rocks and sandbars with mere feet to spare and expecting any moment to feel the sudden de-acceleration and crunching noise as we grounded. Somehow we didn’t and eventually the channel widened into a manmade lagoon lined with tumbling down houses and a hotel that looked like it saw it’s best years in the 1960’s. With the anchor safely down and the rapidly draining adrenalin draining the last of our reserves we collapsed into our beds. My last thoughts as I drifted off were towards how the hell we would get back out through the channel, it’s one thing going in blind and dealing with the fallout spontaneously but having prior knowledge of something really stupid you’re about to attempt is quite another. Luckily things looked different the next morning, the wind had died and with almost a meter more water in the channel most of the exposed rocks and bars that intruded on the channel were now covered and we even had enough depth under the keels to get a reading. And so we left to the beautiful wide, deepwater canals that we should’ve gone to in the first place.

We spent Tom and Tyler’s last few days exploring Grand Bahama. Despite being the largest of the islands in the region with the biggest population there isn’t much to the place for our sort of adventures but it was nice to be around shops again and the kids no doubt thought it was the best place we’ve ever been owing to the daily trips to the ice-cream parlour.

We are now in the Abacos group of islands which are slightly more remote and far less populated. Apart from the lack of internet (which we miss less everyday) the only real stress is our dwindling gas supply without which we wont be able to cook the fish we mostly live on. There is always the option of cooking on a beach camp fire but I’m not sure we’re rugged enough for that sort of thing yet.