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After spending most of the month of November in Deltaville, VA, with Liberty hauled out for work and the crew enjoying the summer home graciously provided by Nancy and Whitey Lipscomb, we were ready to get to the islands as quickly as possible. Our original plan had been to motor the 1100 miles or so from the Chesapeake through the Atlantic IntraCoastal Waterway to Miami, then cross the Gulf Stream into the northern Bahamas and work our way southeast. Because our boat work took longer than expected, and winter seemed to come on cold and strong, we decided to head straight for the Bahamas. Dave's brother Gary joined us for the passage, and we planned (weather permitting) to stay inshore from the Chesapeake to Beaufort, NC (Mile 201 on the ICW) then go offshore directly to the Bahamas.

We splashed Liberty at Zimmerman Marine the day before Thanksgiving, and after a mostly successful sea trial, we turned our attention to moving our belongings from our shore accommodations back on board. We did find time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner - a pressed and formed, stuffed turkey breast with cranberry sauce from Sam's Club and some other trimmings - amidst the hustle and bustle of packing. Gary joined us very late on Friday, November 28th and we departed Zimmerman Marine and Deltaville on Saturday, leaving the dock at around 10:30 am. The air temperature was about 50 degrees and the water temperature 42, so we were eager to get south. We had a great sail through the Chesapeake Bay to our anchorage that night at Mobjack Bay. The winds were so cooperative that we were able to commission our brand new spinnakers - an asymmetrical spinnaker and a mizzen spinnaker. We had ordered both at the Annapolis boat show, in a red, white and blue star pattern. With both flying at the same time, Liberty cuts a dashing figure through the water! With 2 knots apparent wind from the stern quarter, we sailed 4 knots, and with a little more breeze, we made over 6 knots! Although Mobjack Bay is just one bay south of Deltaville, and we covered only about 20 miles that day, we still were glad to be on the way to sunnier climes.

We arose very early Sunday morning and got underway to Norfolk and the ICW. We raised anchor at 6:30am in a cold rain and motorsailed through the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, VA where we entered the Atlantic IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW) at Mile 0. Sunday was a good day to transit the Norfolk area, as there are several bridges and locks to negotiate. On weekdays there are restricted times to get through the bridges (i.e., they close to boat traffic during rush hours and other peak car travel times), but on weekends they will open on request. The locks at each end of the Dismal Swamp operate on a 4 times per day schedule, however, and making (or just missing) a lock opening can impact how far one is able to travel on a given day. We arrived at the Deep Creek Lock just in time for the 1:30 opening and locked through into the Dismal Swamp, a canal dug in the 1700's by George Washington and business associates in order to log the cypress and cedar in the area. Today it is a Wildlife Refuge under the control of the Army Corp of Engineers. We transited the Dismal Swamp back in June coming north, and really enjoyed the trip. On this Sunday we traveled 18 miles of the canal in cold, foggy, rainy weather and then tied up for the night at the North Carolina Welcome Center. The Welcome Center serves both a highway and the canal - imagine your typical state welcome center/rest stop on the highway, but with a big dock out back and boats tied up.

On Monday, December 1st, we completed the last 5 miles of the Dismal Swamp Canal, locked through the South Lock at 8:30am and entered the Pasquatank River. The Pasquatank twists and winds its way through North Carolina, with very tall, dark trees growing right to the riverbank (and sometimes falling into the river). When the wind is still, the reflections on the glassy water are truly beautiful. Monday's weather was clear, sunny and a little warmer than the day before, but the winds picked up to 25 knots around midday, just before we arrived in Elizabeth City. We had hoped to keep going 'til nightfall, but we were advised not to cross Albemarle Sound (a fairly open stretch of water) in such winds. In fact, the Alligator River Bridge closed and would not open in the 35+ winds they were seeing, so even if we had braved the sound we would not have been able to pass the bridge just south of the sound. We tied up to the free town dock in Elizabeth City, with the help of a couple of Navy old-timers who hang around for the chance to help and to welcome boaters to their fair city. Docking was a challenge, but we finally got Liberty secured and went ashore to explore this beautiful old city. We found the local gym for showers, but after Dave and Josh spent more than a fair amount of time enjoying the hot water, Chris and Gary (and Nancy too) ended up with warmish to cold showers. The gym refunded two of the $3 shower prices, and we set out to look around the interesting old town.

Early the next morning, we spoke with Chris Parker, who runs the Caribbean Weather Center and provides weather information and passage planning via the SSB (short wave) radio. Chris advised us that north winds were predicted for Friday, so if we wanted to go offshore to the Bahamas we should get across the Gulf Stream before then. The Gulf Stream flows in a northerly direction at up to 3 knots, so winds from the north blow against the current and can cause high seas. So, we made the decision to travel all the way from Elizabeth City to Belhaven, NC (73 miles), so that we would be in a position to get to Beaufort by the next evening and head straight offshore. No one minded getting underway early to make the long trip - it was a cold, cold day and the forecast for Tuesday night was 26 degrees. Liberty's new motto became "we are going south until we can no longer see our breath!"

We arrived at Dowry Creek Marina near Belhaven that evening at 6pm, after dark, and after tying up (with help from the very friendly staff, who stayed late to take care of us), we took on fuel and water, did a final load of laundry, changed the engine oil, took our last long, hot showers (well, some of us - Gary again mistimed it and got another cold shower!), and enjoyed a hot stir-fry supper. Even with space heaters, we were sleeping in sweats to stay warm! It was so cold that the olive oil stored deep in a locker had congealed, and we vowed to cast off the lines and not stop sailing until it liquefied and we could shed our long johns for swimming suits.

We awoke Wednesday morning to find that Jack Frost had visited during the night and covered Liberty in an inch of frosty ice. The boys had fun collecting it into "snowballs" while Dave, Gary and Nancy got us ready to leave. Having now seen all four seasons here on the East Coast, we were sure it was time to head for the islands. We motored all day in the ICW to Beaufort, and went straight offshore at 5:20pm, just as the sun was setting, to begin our six day passage through the North Atlantic directly to San Salvador, Bahamas (the island where Christopher Columbus anchored the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria on October 12, 1492 after his passage across the Atlantic). Under a perfectly clear sky, full of stars and highlighted by the moon, Jupiter and Saturn, we motorsailed in calm winds and seas, hoping to arrive at the Gulf Stream by morning and be through it by the next evening. Our first night at sea was quiet, motorsailing until around 2 am and then sailing for the next four hours. We saw lots of dolphins that night. They would first show up on our fish finder as a large group of fish all bunched together and then all of a sudden, whooosh, up they would come. They jumped and played right next to the boat, as if they knew that, in the dark, we wouldn't see them at the bow. We actually had seen dolphins many times in the previous days, the first time as we left the docks in Belhaven, next in the ICW as we arrived near Beaufort and then several times as we began our sail in offshore waters. We felt like they were accompanying us on our way. It is always very exciting to see dolphins, and we never seem to tire of it.

On Thursday morning at around 6am, the wind started to die and our boat speed slowed to about 2.5 knots. At about the same time, Nancy noticed that although our boat was pointing 180 degrees (south), our course over ground was 80 degrees (east northeast). We were in the Gulf Stream! The current was so

strong, that in those light winds and with our slow boat speed, we were being swept north. A check of the water temperature - 73 degrees - confirmed that we had indeed crossed the edge of the Gulf Stream. Had we done nothing, we would have been carried northeast to the Azores! Even though Gary and Dave may have enjoyed visiting the islands where they grew up, it was not our current destination, so we turned on the motor and were able to overcome the strong current. With the help of the engine, we set a course of 155 degrees and made 135 over the ground, which was perpendicular to the Gulf Stream and the fastest route across. As we approached the Gulf Stream, the air temperature seemed to correspond with the higher water temperatures. By Thursday morning we were able to ditch our foul weather gear in favor of sweatshirts, and by that evening, even sweatshirts were becoming optional. By late Thursday afternoon, we had crossed the stream. We were able to sail for the rest of the day. The winds filled in during the morning, gusting to over 20 knots and disturbing Gary's afternoon nap as he dreamed he was bouncing on a galloping horse! As the sun set there were angry, dark clouds menacing us from the horizon, but no rain came our way that night.

At the end of that first full day offshore, we were seeing light winds out of the south, proving the old sailor's saw that the wind always seems to come from the direction of your destination. After motoring so much at the beginning of the trip, we decided to sail slightly more easterly than we wanted while we had wind to sail, and then motor in a more southerly direction when the winds died. As it turned out on the passage, the next time we turned on the motor, except for a brief period Saturday evening, was to get into the marina at San Salvador.

Friday brought a good day of sailing. When we spoke with Chris Parker in the morning, we were worried that we were sailing to Bermuda, not the Bahamas, as the winds were too southerly to make a good course to San Salvador. He assured us that a front would shift our winds eventually and we would be able to set a better course, and until then, we should sail as close to the wind as was comfortable and not feel the need to turn on the motor. The temperature continued to rise during the day and we slowly shed layers of clothing, although we were still not in shorts. Dave optimistically came topside after a nap wearing a bathing suit, but that didn't last long. As we approached the end of our first 48 hours offshore (Friday afternoon), we had traveled 236 nm. We turned the engine off late Thursday morning, around 11:00, and sailed close-hauled for the next 30 hours, averaging 5 kts, with winds from 8-15 knots (and higher gusts). The winds clocked for a while during the afternoon toward the west and we were able, at least for a few hours, to sail south on a rhumb line for San Salvador, Bahamas.

Saturday, December 6th was a beautiful day. We woke to clear, sunny skies, deep blue ocean as far as the eye could see, and Dave was finally able to change into a swimming suit. In fact, the entire crew donned short-sleeve shirts. Yippee! We sailed all day with winds out of the south and southwest at 10-15 knots in 12,000 to 15,000 ft of water. While that did not exactly put us on our rhumb line, it was a comfortable day of sailing. On Saturday evening we decided to motor for a little while in order to make some more southerly progress. At that point we were more than half way to San Salvador, Bahamas, having traveled 362 nautical miles with approximately 339 left to go.

Monday, December 8th was a good day of fast downwind sailing all day, averaging over 6.5 knots in 15 to 20 knot winds from the north and northeast. When the sun set, anticipation was high among the crew, as we had one more night to go! If we only knew at sunset what the next 16 hours would bring! Winds were forecast to be 15 to 20 knots out of the east, but when we copied the weather forecast we failed to realize it was 15 plus 20 knots! By late Monday evening the winds had built to over 25 knots, with higher gusts, and the seas built accordingly to over 10 feet. Around 11 pm our autopilot decided the following seas were just too strong, and Dave and Gary began what turned out to be an entire night of hand steering. By morning the winds were 30 knots, gusting to over 35, and 12 to 16 foot seas were breaking over the decks. The most frightening moment of the passage came around 8 am on our last morning, almost within sight of San Salvador, when a huge wave lifted Liberty up and then rolled us about

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Where did he sail in days of yore?
To the Bahamas - San Salvador.

Then in December 2008,
The Gohlkes met the very same fate.
They sailed the oceans to discover new lands,
And our Christopher stepped in the very same sands
As Columbus did many years before --
We made landfall in San Salvador!

Later Saturday night, the winds and seas picked up and continued through Sunday, making for a pretty bumpy ride. The cold front Chris Parker had been promising passed Liberty's position during the mid-morning, bringing only a little rain but causing the winds to clock around fairly abruptly to the west and northwest. On that mostly cloudy, cooler Sunday we were able to sail a good course all day and ended the day with about 250 miles to go.

25 degrees, just before a second even larger wave, coming right on the heels of the first wave, broke right on the side of the hull, rolling us nearly horizontal in the water. Our rigging never touched the water, but the fishing pole on the "downhill" side of the boat fell out of its rod holder (saved only by the safety line tied on). However, sailboats being designed to stand upright, Liberty popped right back up and her decks shed the water like a duck's back, and she surged forward to meet the next crest. Dave, Gary and Nancy were in shock for a while, but ultimately came to appreciate the tough conditions this boat can sail in.

A couple of hours later, we sailed from deep blue water right onto the aqua banks of San Salvador, going from 1000 feet to 40 feet in just a few boat lengths. In the still strong winds, we turned on the engine, dropped the sails, hailed Riding Rock Marina on the radio and motored in to tie up alongside their bulkhead wall and clear into the Bahamas. Even our entry into the marina was a potential disaster - while we were maneuvering at idle-speed, trying to get close to the wall in the brisk winds, the engine died twice because our fuel filter had clogged up (the heavy seas tend to stir up gunk from the bottom of the tank). We dropped an anchor quick, got the engine going again, and made it to the wall safely. After clearing customs and immigration (where they couldn't believe we had come directly from the US and swore they had never seen such a large sailboat clearing in at San Salvador), and getting our cruising and fishing permits, we spent the afternoon cleaning the boat and drying out. The biggest disappointment of the trip was not catching a single fish. Chris, being the social kid he is, chatted up the crew of a sportfishing boat in the marina and scored us some fresh Wahoo for the grill, which we enjoyed with piña coladas while anticipating sleep!

We left Beaufort, NC on Wednesday, December 3rd at 5:20 pm and sailed 740 nm in five and a half days, averaging 5.4 knots. We had three good days of sailing, 1½ days of rough sailing and the last 24 hrs. was the sailing day to beat all sailing days. During that last 24 hours, we came to truly appreciate another old saw about offshore sailing: "a big guy comes along, stuffs you in a small closet, takes $100 bills from you hourly, beats the crap out of you constantly, and occasionally throws a bucket of cold saltwater in your face."

We were very grateful to have Gary on board with us, as it would have been a bit much for us without additional crew. The challenging passage was worth it, as we made it to the islands 6 to 8 weeks before we would have had we stayed in the ICW all the way down the US East Coast to Florida before crossing to the Bahamas.

In our last hour at sea, with the azure waters of San Salvador in sight, the giddy crew collectively penned this little ditty: