We were sitting and waiting for the wind to stop howling, part of a group of six boats waiting out the weather at Meeks Patch in Eleuthera Island just outside of Spanish Wells. It was pretty much agreed among us that eight or nine days is long enough to be stuck in one spot. Happy hours gave us plenty of time to discuss our next move toward the States, until finally, the wind died down and it was time to get moving again.

A good friend and myself headed out past Royal Island to the Northeast Providence Channel and then across to the Northwest Providence Channel. We sailed all night with winds picking up to about 20 knots. The sailing was great and we arrived at Lacaya Grand Bahama early the next morning. The weather was good and after a day or two we got a favorable weather report to head for the good old US of A. As most everyone knows it’s best not to cross the stream in high northwest winds. Due to the previous high winds, no one was heading for the States but now that the weather was cooperating everyone seemed to be taking off. We left about noon hoping to enter Palm Beach Inlet around morning the next day. My buddy boat was smaller then mine but we sailed together well.

Photo courtesy by US Coast Guard

That is, until about 10:00 p.m., when a weather cell hit us hard. We’re not just talking about a squall here, but steady winds of thirty nine knots, gusting to close to fifty. We were about forty miles from Palm Beach and really getting hit from the Northwest. Consequently, with the wind blowing against the current, the Gulf Stream was building fast and we were sailing almost beam to the waves. My friend and his wife got pooped a few too many times and hove to. I wanted to stay with them but there was nothing I could really do. To complicate things, on my radar screen I saw a target about three miles away closing fast. Wondering who would be out in this I finally saw a range light and a red light. It was cutting across the bow. Just as I was wondering why, with all this ocean around, would someone pass so close, the running light changed to green meaning a starboard to starboard pass. It had to be the Coast Guard and it was. They pulled up along side and turned on all the lights on the vessel.

They hailed me on the VHF and wanted to know where we were heading. I told them Palm Beach and they said they wanted to board us. I replied “Why don’t you have someone at the inlet meet us where its much safer?”, but they insisted. I then told them that they were more then welcome to board me, but that I would not be stopping. They said that’s okay. My friend who had gotten hurt in a knockdown was listening and I called him to ask if he needed help as the Coast guard was available. He declined and started to sail again.

The Coast Guard launched a rubber dingy with a jet drive in it. The mother ship was about 300 yards behind me, and on the way over they had four people on board the dingy. One nice wave about eight or ten feet broke in their dingy and swamped them. Once again over the VHF, I suggested they should follow me to the inlet and board me in calmer waters but they insisted they would be back. And so here they came again, with three people this time. They bounced off the side of my sailboat a few times and finally one of them jumped aboard. I helped him in the cockpit while another guy comes flying into my dodger. Meanwhile, the boat is still sailing very fast. They checked my safety equipment and when my wife told them that if they were looking for drugs we were out of them, they said that they were actually looking for Haitians. They called in the numbers on my firearm and jumped back off the boat into the dingy to beat their way back to the mother ship. You have to give these guys and girls a lot of credit to put themselves at risk under those conditions. Because of the windy weather we had before, the Coast Guard didn’t check many boats offshore and when the weather calmed I guess their C.O. probably said "Go get em guys." Overall, it was a good experience for us.