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Adventures Bahamas Bureaucracy Sailing Videos

Mission Panamania: Operation Nassau to George Town

Nikki Wynn

Nikki Wynn

— 5 min read
Mission Panamania: Operation Nassau to George Town

I had to squint hard and force a few tears out to rub the grit away.  I had slept so hard my eyes were nearly crusted shut.  I didn’t realize just how stressed and exhausted I had been until this first night at anchor.

peace sailing at sea

It’s been little more than three days since we left Florida and all the craziness that happened in the couple of months we were there.  Everything about our time in Florida was good, but it was jam packed, non-stop, go go go.  There were countless meetups, endless decisions to be made and a literal boat load of projects to tackle.  It took a toll on both of us.

Now, here we are just a stone’s throw from Nassau.  We’ve only sailed a couple hundred nautical miles away but it feels like Florida is a distant memory.  With each breath of salty air I feel the tension in my shoulders slowly loosen and that warm-fuzzy feeling of being a nomad slowly coming back.  We’re on the move and it feels oh-so-good.

Traveling Chromosomes, Where We’re From

Our target destination for this voyage is Panama but we’re in no hurry to get there.  We’re savoring the journey and getting back into the cruising groove. It’s all salt spray, sunny skies and starry nights ahead for us!

When I said thanks for watching at the end of the video, I really did mean it.  It’s all of you watching, liking, sharing, commenting, shopping our gear store and supporting us through Patreon and our semi-hidden tip-jar that makes sharing these adventures possible.  While it’s not always easy to publish our lives to the world (ya can’t have the sweet without the sour), it’s here on our website, our virtual home, that we find strength in our community.   Thank you for being here, for your words of encouragement and becoming such an impactful part of our journey.  We appreciate it more than we know how to express.

That said…I will blame the excessive fresh air and sunshine for that bout of emotion.

If you’re wondering why we checked into the Bahamas, it does seem to be a grey area.  Lots of people said if you’re sailing through and have no intentions of going ashore, you don’t have to check in…on the other hand we’ve read if you’re sailing in their territorial waters, fishing their seas and anchoring near their shores it is proper to check in and get a cruising permit. We couldn’t find a straight answer and even had varying responses from customs officers. Some people we chatted with said we could have skipped checking in and saved the $300+ bucks, but it just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. Plus, we weren’t in that big of a hurry and welcomed the break for some land fun.  If you want the scoop on checking into the Bahamas we covered that here: www.gonewiththewynns.com/bahamas-blowing-line-checking-in

Lightning at Sea

When Jason showed me his photo’s of lightning he captured during his shift I was crazy impressed.  I struggle to photograph lightning strikes at night on dry land, add a moving boat to the mix and I thought he was magical. Turns out he cheated…big time.  He has a new toy called strike finder. It’s a nifty device that detects the lightning and triggers the shutter…or maybe he is magical?!? 🙂

If you are a lightning photo fan, check it out here: https://strikefinder.photo  And, if you use the discount code WYNNS at checkout you’ll get 10% off.  This device is new to us and we’re sort of excited and scared (ya know, lightning and sailboat masts don’t exactly mix well) to see what we can do with this gadget.

lightning at sea
photographing lightning at sea

Sailing Report

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

nassau to bahamas

Dates: July 17-20, 2017
Nautical Miles Sailed: 241
Anchorage: Old Fort Bay, New Providence Island.  Just outside of George Town.  Anchorages can be found easily on Active Captain.
Cell & WiFi: Our BTC cell phone signal was good.

Gear Used In This Video

Cameras Used to Capture This Video

Thanks for being a part of our journey!  If you enjoy what we do and you want to help us keep the videos and posts flowing, check out our Say Thanks page. It lists out some ways you can show us some digital love and most won’t cost you a penny.

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