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When The Sea Turns Savage: Sailing the Bahamas’ Toughest Waters | Ep 74
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Jun 20, 2025
Join us on an intense sail from Clarence Town to the Crooked Islands in the Bahamas filled with rough waves, boat # Rough Seas and Real Adventures: Sailing Through the Bahamas' Challenging Waters Embarking on a journey from Clarence Town on Long Island to the vibrant shores of the Bahamas is a dream for many sailors. But as any seasoned mariner will tell you, not every passage is smooth sailing. This voyage, chronicled from a YouTube video by Chris Does What, reveals the gritty reality of navigating rough seas in the Caribbean. Join us as we dive into their recent challenging trip, the boat repairs that followed, and the raw beauty and trials of life on the water. Chapters: 0:00 Departure from Clarence Town 2:45 Rough seas and strong winds hit 6:30 Boat repairs underway 9:15 Arrival at Crooked Islands, calm anchorage 12:00 Navigating reefs and spotting dolphins 15:00 Preparations for the next passage Don’t forget to subscribe for more sailing adventures, tips, and island explorations! Blog Post: https://www.chrisdoeswhat.com/rough-bahamas-sailing-challenges/ Get content early by becoming our YouTube member https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUMOZBmn0CZW578hpt4ImB3CRA Follow our boat on NOFOREIGNLAND: https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/5694391589011456
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:01
so we are leaving Clarence Town uh Long
0:04
Island midsection where you check out
0:09
and it is kind of rough out here So this
0:13
is uh supposed to be
0:16
four to three seas These look like five
0:21
to six foot seas Let me turn you around
0:24
here
0:26
So of course the camera doesn't do it
0:28
justice
0:29
but these are
0:31
come up pretty damn high
0:34
And we're we are uh have our main cell
0:37
out
0:44
Okay guys this passage from uh
0:48
uh Long Island
0:51
that was called uh Clearance Town to uh
0:55
Crooked Island sucks
0:58
She's uh
1:01
already fallen off the seats been thrown
1:04
around in the boat
1:08
This is not what it I don't know what's
1:10
wrong with the weathermen these days but
1:12
they ain't telling us nothing
1:14
The only the only the only way you know
1:16
what it's like is when you get the hell
1:18
out there and then you're like "What the
1:19
hell what happened this is not 3 to 4
1:22
foot."
1:25
I mean I can see it in the camera It
1:28
looks like nothing
1:30
No
1:31
this is okay Our weight No that was a
1:34
little one
1:39
Okay that that's nothing Some of the
1:42
ones that we've been getting are almost
1:45
throw you overboard They're splashing
1:47
over the deck on the front
1:52
Yeah So we're going to Whoa Break this
1:56
stuff up
2:00
What four trips now
2:03
yeah we're going to do uh four trips
2:07
five trips I don't know And uh I got to
2:11
fix a we had a hot water uh line bust on
2:15
the way here And then our puppy Oh she's
2:18
not having it Not loving life So but uh
2:24
yeah we got Oh I'm sorry
2:28
Oh I'm sorry Squished my wife's foot
2:32
But uh yeah hopefully we can uh we got
2:36
like we're halfway there We got less
2:39
than 3 hours and uh hopefully the
2:43
anchorage isn't too rolly
2:50
The last one was horri We got stuck at
2:52
it for 9 days
2:55
and uh this was the best best weather
2:58
window and this was the best window I
3:02
mean you got to be kidding
3:06
We'll eventually make it to Dr
3:09
Ain't going to be this sweet
3:14
[Music]
3:15
So we made it to Crooked Island where
3:18
you can see it now There's the
3:19
lighthouse right there and land stuff
3:25
I got my wife back here She's telling
3:28
her girlfriend how selling sucks
3:36
and people that understand it is another
3:38
boat life right
3:41
no she was just asking
3:47
Yeah it's been uh a heck of a trip and
3:50
uh we only did 40 miles Took us uh 6
3:54
hours
3:56
and I was we're go we're planning on
3:59
doing 70 miles So
4:02
didn't get there but uh not a lot of uh
4:05
issues on this passage Two things broke
4:11
Definitely got a water tank Yeah I lost
4:14
a whole uh 50 gallons of water
4:18
Thank god we have a water Oh yeah
4:23
Hey guys We made it to the Crooked
4:25
Islands
4:28
and uh Yeah
4:30
The water color is just awesome I've
4:34
never seen this color Yeah Looks like
4:36
the blue Gatorade The ride here sucked
4:39
But that was horrible Yeah it was But uh
4:43
we were supposed to do another four
4:45
hours today Yeah we were But it just got
4:49
too much out there So this is nice and
4:51
calm This is actually a lot better than
4:53
our last anchorage we were at So last
4:56
two anchorages were so swelling
5:00
Yeah it it was hard This actually is
5:02
just it's swinging us around but it's
5:04
not Hey there's another sail Yep that
5:06
one just pulled in That was the one
5:07
beside us But also there's a lighthouse
5:10
in the back back there So that is
5:14
the sea legs are going back but we're
5:17
going to I'm going to get this up And oh
5:20
we're not going to I don't think we're
5:21
going to do much here but uh just a
5:24
layover
5:25
Got to get out on the road again
5:27
tomorrow Mhm
5:29
Okay guys We're now leaving the
5:31
northwest uh corner of the uh Crooked
5:34
Islands
5:35
into the uh
5:38
northeast corner of the Crooked Islands
5:42
And then we're going to that's going to
5:44
be our jumping point to the last island
5:46
where we uh staged for the DR But right
5:50
now we're heading towards the lighthouse
5:52
Can't see on the camera there but it's
5:54
back there And uh yeah hopefully it's a
5:57
fair passage than yesterday was cuz that
6:00
surely sucked Yeah right now we're
6:03
inside where our leaf is So it's like
6:06
protected in here Deceiving and you know
6:08
as soon as you get out on the outside
6:11
it's probably going to be I don't even
6:13
know Yeah So yeah I'm going to get back
6:16
behind the helm Maybe I can get a
6:18
close-up view of this uh lighthouse as
6:20
we go past We didn't go see it but we're
6:23
seeing
6:26
tell you the uh water is so deceiving
6:29
looking from the shore especially if
6:31
you're in a a smooth anchorage and then
6:34
you just come out here and it turns to
6:37
you'll see the waves breaking over that
6:40
reef over there Zoom in Yeah But
6:44
yeah this is this is
6:47
still a little nasty out here
6:52
And uh there's Super Trooper right there
6:54
She's making it through this
7:02
Okay guys So we're out here and uh yeah
7:07
there was another boat that left
7:08
yesterday
7:10
and the winds were higher and they said
7:13
it was champagne sailing No this is hold
7:17
my beer sailing That's what this is So
7:22
uh yeah the weather report said um about
7:25
3 to 4 foot waves
7:27
15 knots of wind maybe 20 We've been
7:31
sustaining 25 uh 25 knots of wind And
7:35
the waves have been kicking our tails So
7:39
fortunately we have u
7:42
oh
7:44
about two and a half hours left of this
7:47
and then we'll hide
7:49
But yeah
7:52
what do you think of this babe
7:56
i don't know how we're getting to
7:59
that but this is the place
8:02
That's a lot longer process Yes
8:08
but we do have uh these chill spots and
8:13
then it lasts for a few seconds and then
8:16
it goes wild this
8:19
be able to go down and make some
8:25
about
8:27
Yeah I see him building We're going to
8:29
slam really hard
8:41
that way That one
8:50
but yeah it's hard to hold the camera on
8:52
you
9:00
And our our our puppy is not liking it
9:03
right there And we've had water splash
9:07
all the way over the top It got me wet
9:09
back here You see it just rain right
9:11
there All the way over our dodger
9:16
Okay guys we're almost done with this
9:18
set We are uh 3.4 four nautical miles
9:22
from Aklland's Island
9:26
uh Lady Slipper K
9:29
and this is Atwood Anchorage
9:33
and uh yeah kind of happy to get there
9:37
This is uh been uh little rough in the
9:40
this uh in the early morning but uh yeah
9:44
Danielle said uh you know we stayed back
9:47
a little bit later She wanted some
9:50
coffee time and I needed coffee time And
9:53
now we're uh um come in here on a slack
9:56
tide So I think my babe planned that
9:58
correctly because uh that's that's how
10:01
you want to do it Not affected by tide
10:04
What are you thinking babe
10:08
not much
10:10
just uh wondering how the hack we're
10:13
going to do our big passages get to the
10:16
yard if the sea state doesn't calm down
10:20
Yeah
10:22
Seems like it wants to start picking up
10:24
again
10:26
Yeah it's sucking
10:30
We actually see dolphins here
10:34
Right there I see them
10:37
Nice
10:41
Oh yeah There they are
10:46
We finally got to see dolphins in the
10:48
Bahamas
10:53
My wife looking at the dolphins Oh there
10:56
they are We have not seen any since
10:59
we've been in Bahamas Maybe once on a
11:01
passage and that was it
11:04
Maybe they're wishing us good luck Yes
11:06
cuz we've had two terrible days Well
11:09
they're telling us to get the hell out
11:10
of the Bahamas Oh yeah Maybe they're
11:11
saying "What do you What what?" No no no
11:14
Go back where you came from
11:17
There I only We only see two of them And
11:19
they look fairly young Yes they do So
11:23
maybe their parents are around here
11:25
somewhere But Yep But this anchorage uh
11:30
right now seems pretty good But it is
11:32
swallow You can see all the boats Yeah
11:35
I'm going I'm going to have to I'm going
11:36
to side tie the boat just to so we don't
11:39
get the swell
11:42
The house is a mess again
11:46
This nat is so nasty out here Oh my god
11:48
Everything is nasty
11:50
Everything's got a layer of salt and
11:52
stickiness to it Yeah And there's the
11:54
swell There's the swell The one that's
11:58
going to ultimately drive you a drinking
12:01
salt and depression
12:05
Okay so Atwood was a pretty good
12:07
anchorage A little swelly but still back
12:10
over there Barely see it back there but
12:13
yeah it was a pretty good anchorage as
12:17
long as you uh uh countered for the
12:20
swell
12:22
What' you think babe
12:24
yeah it's all right Nothing much around
12:28
Yeah maybe see beaches but you know I
12:32
think we've seen a lot of beaches
12:35
so we didn't get off of it
12:38
But uh now we're off to uh another
12:40
studying anchorage And uh hopefully it's
12:45
not too rough It's starting out to a
12:48
swelly start And as soon as we cross the
12:52
corner we'll be well we're in the open
12:54
Atlantic right now but soon as we cross
12:56
the corner we'll have a complete pass
12:58
through with the Atlantic It'll be fun
13:02
Okay guys So we're about
13:05
uh 17 miles in this trip and we're about
13:10
to go over a coral reef
13:13
Now this is uh pretty deep here but uh
13:17
then you the uh coral reef is exposed
13:21
probably
13:22
about 02 mi uh to our starboard Let me
13:27
show you here what we're looking at So
13:29
on the map there you see yeah it's going
13:32
to be shallow I'm wondering what that's
13:33
going to feel like but we're going to be
13:34
going in between two islands
13:37
And uh yeah right now we're in the
13:39
thousands
13:41
What do you think of the strip so far
13:43
babe
13:50
more
13:51
fashion No we're not But it is still
13:55
kind of bullying It is So but it's not
13:59
like
14:01
I don't know I guess we're 10 hours here
14:06
Still can't go downstairs though
14:09
Yeah the toilet lid is a casualty on
14:11
this one I don't know what happened
14:16
But yeah I got to get down there and uh
14:18
uh fix the toilet We only have one
14:20
toilet that's really working on this
14:22
boat right now So things are breaking
14:25
and uh you know we have hot water
14:28
explosion
14:29
Uh
14:31
torch uh
14:36
Yeah Don't you don't jinx it No it's all
14:39
good The ones always going to last
14:40
forever But uh yeah we're getting
14:42
through this We're after this passage
14:45
We've got we did three and we've got
14:49
three more to do to get to the DR
14:53
So we're going over the reef and we're
14:55
at 195 ft deep now
15:00
And uh
15:04
yeah it's it's it's freaky
15:07
cuz it it just jumped up
15:12
and now it's uh going deeper again
15:16
So
15:19
and there it just dropped off Now it
15:22
says uh you can't read it anymore So
15:27
it's over uh over 200 foot now
15:30
That is weird
15:32
[Music]
15:34
Okay they say you could anchor here
15:37
I guess you could but it would probably
15:39
be pretty rolly
15:41
Has a nice beach though
15:45
Anchor here
15:56
Yeah it is a is a pretty island though
16:02
Okay this is the champagne selling my
16:04
wife likes
16:07
Wow we're in the uh this evening because
16:11
we went to two islands
16:14
got really calm Yeah we're in the wave
16:16
shadow of this island and uh that's
16:20
probably going to end in another
16:23
hour half hour Then we have uh three
16:26
hours to the next island and uh wind
16:29
shadow again That should be uh till we
16:32
get to Anchorage So we got some calms in
16:36
the eyes The last two days have been
16:40
beating seven hours straight No no no
16:44
calming about nothing Yeah But we're
16:46
still motor sailing We're doing about
16:48
six seven knots And uh yeah I've only
16:52
got a smidge of head sail out and two
16:54
reefs in the main and we are at 25 knots
16:58
of wind out here So it is uh kicking it
17:02
a bit We're at uh about 15° hill right
17:07
now So it's a it's a comfortable hill
17:16
This thing's just getting big hair
17:30
Okay guys So this is what I was worried
17:31
about It is getting really sporty out
17:34
here We're getting upwards of uh 32
17:37
knots of wind And uh this crap is kind
17:41
of sucking We got uh an hour until we
17:44
make it to a wind shadow of an island
17:48
Until then we are suffering
17:53
[Music]
17:55
What do you think of this babe
18:00
sucks
18:03
[Music]
18:05
And then it's
18:07
Yeah So yeah we were uh champagne
18:11
selling to this and really coming
18:16
hours and
18:18
we've been out here for
18:22
I don't know
18:25
7 hours
18:27
So
18:30
yeah but yeah it is healing over good
18:33
And uh yep Uh we got an hour until we
18:38
make landfall We've got about 15 miles
18:41
until we hit anchorage So we're doing
18:44
over Whoa over uh
18:49
over 50 miles today
18:54
This crap is really sinking out here But
18:58
we have uh about 20 minutes and we hit
19:01
this point And that's our safety Devil's
19:04
Point gets us out behind the island
19:07
And I can't wait to be there Guys we are
19:10
in smooth water again
19:13
It's how quickly it changes I sit on my
19:15
baby's foot over here
19:19
But uh yeah that was uh horrid
19:25
Yeah I'm glad that there's been a couple
19:28
islands
19:30
or else it would have been like that
19:33
for eight hours
19:36
Would have been like the last two days
19:38
which I don't know if you can tell but
19:41
we're pretty exhausted Yeah Feel like
19:44
I'm just a walking zombie at this point
19:47
Looking forward to some sleep cuz we
19:49
can't leave tomorrow anyways Wind high
19:52
winds are coming
19:54
Looking forward to sleeping in
19:57
Hopefully the anchorage is not
20:00
horrid
20:02
Yeah we we pushed to come in here Um we
20:06
wanted to make as much ground as
20:07
possible And what
20:11
oh yeah Definitely on your own Yeah I
20:14
don't know
20:15
[Music]
20:18
He's going to land on our solar panels
20:22
But uh yeah we're tired We're going to
20:24
put down anchor and we'll catch up with
20:27
y'all in the morning We'll show you how
20:28
this what this place looks like We shot
20:30
like two hours I know And we're not
20:33
there yet No we're not Got a couple
20:36
hours before but at least it's calm Yeah
20:41
Okay guys So I slept feel rested We're
20:46
in uh Maraguana Myaguana
20:49
uh island And uh yeah it's uh
20:53
it's a little bit rocky here but we've
20:56
had much worse So this place isn't that
21:00
bad But I've got a few things I got to
21:02
get uh uh working on the boat I'm going
21:05
to of course fix the lid on the front
21:08
head because that broke Uh that was
21:11
already broke I had already just kind of
21:13
fixed it It was broke when we bought the
21:15
boat So I got rigged it up and it
21:18
finally broke again So I'm going to rig
21:20
it up better this time I've got to uh
21:23
fill up our diesel Got to see how much I
21:25
count for fuel I think we have more than
21:27
enough fuel to make it from here to the
21:29
DR And I've got to um
21:34
work on our laser jack system that's uh
21:36
pulled out one side I think I'm going to
21:38
basically tie it down where it pulls up
21:41
on the front to help uh stop that from
21:44
happening again because I fixed that
21:46
probably three times now and I'm getting
21:50
tire fixing it So I need to uh I guess
21:53
honky engineer fix it too so it doesn't
21:57
uh pull out But uh yeah my bab's over
22:01
here She's well rested now Let me see if
22:04
I can see her And uh yeah I wouldn't say
22:08
well rested
22:10
I would say just awake She's awake And
22:15
the puppy is nappies right now She's
22:19
she's liking this that we're not moving
22:21
right now
22:24
But let me get out here and uh get all
22:26
this done Oh I got a lot of sun
22:28
yesterday though I think we both did My
22:31
wife said it's more wind for her But
22:38
okay I got all the fuel in the tank and
22:40
uh all this is 20 gallons and the tank
22:45
shows to be all the way up to full again
22:47
So doing the math this is 20 gallons I
22:51
had a full tank when I left I'll say it
22:54
was about we do the math at say we used
22:57
25 gallons just in case the tank's still
23:00
5 gallons off That means we burnt.9
23:04
gallons an hour coming from
23:08
uh going 128 miles So we have
23:14
20 uh 10 miles left and we have 50
23:19
gallons supposedly in the in the tank So
23:24
per math we should be just fine I hit
23:26
the stop button there Sorry But uh now
23:30
I'm work on some other things on the
23:32
boat
23:33
Okay so
23:36
we got the fuel got the back head the
23:39
lids back on Good There you can see the
23:41
lids back on Uh I used a wooden dowel
23:44
pin Hopefully when we get to the DR I
23:47
can find you know a little better
23:49
replacement than a piece of wood But uh
23:52
yeah it's uh keeping the lid move up and
23:54
down and like that So that's good
23:58
Okay guys So up here at the front of our
23:59
our boat still not in the bag but uh see
24:04
down here the bag's pulling out of this
24:08
track It's really bad on the other side
24:11
But what I'm going to do is I'm just
24:12
going to tie a line
24:15
from this hole right here and uh tie it
24:19
down to a cleat down here
24:23
so I can uh hold this down so our lazy
24:26
jack system works correctly Show you
24:29
what it looks like on the other side
24:32
So here's how far it's pulled out on the
24:35
other side I may have to pull this out
24:39
just uh so I can pull it back out I'll
24:41
try to pull it down but I may have to
24:44
pull this out to to uh get it back in
24:48
the track
24:50
Okay guys So I got both sides fixed and
24:54
that is looking good Now when I get to
24:58
some place I can actually use these
25:03
holes here and uh probably come from the
25:07
inside and tie them down a little bit
25:09
better So this doesn't happen again But
25:12
right now my temporary fix is just to go
25:14
down to the creeks down there where the
25:17
uh flag ties off
25:20
[Music]
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