We departed Bimini and ran to the east of Great Isaac Light towards the Grand Lucayan Canal on Grand Bahama. The day was squally, and for what was forecast to be a relatively calm day, turned into a nasty trip across the Northwest Providence Channel.
Once again, we tried to facilitate the current to our advantage. I don't enter a waypoint and head for it, I steer a compass course across the current. My most up to date current readings showed that on the south side of the channel, the current generally set to the east. On the north side of the channel, it generally set to the west. My calculations were pretty close.
The Grand Lucayan waterway canal is a GREAT shortcut through Grand Bahama. The waterway is about 7 miles long. There are two things that limit whether or not your vessel can get through. The first is air draft, and I'm afraid I don't have accurate numbers on that. There is one bridge that you cross under. One publication I have says 16', and the other says 27.' I saw no marks on the bridge, but I suspect the 27' is about accurate. In my case, I folded down the SSB antenna, and was good to go.
The other limiting factor is the controlling depth on the bank just outside the north end of the channel. I was drawing 4' 2" as I came through, and we were expecting to need the tide to get out.
The trip through the canal was interesting. Years ago, the government dredged the canal to enable financial development in that area. I don't know how many different waterfront communities were planned, but hurricanes and economic downturn pretty much halted everything. Due to the time of day that we came through, we didn't explore the south end, though I believe there are some facilities just inside the entrance, and to the west. Along the main canal, you can see a high-rise condo/hotel that is abandoned. You see a couple of houses, but no communities.
The canal narrows as you pass under the aforementioned bridge, resulting in a strengthened current which swirls when the canal widens out again. It is not difficult to maneuver through, just keep an eye for the eddy swirls. There is one other spot, "the narrows" where the canal narrows at a turn and has resulting eddy swirls. Again, nothing major, just keep your eyes opened so that you don't get turned sideways in the back eddy.
On the north end, we went up into fingers dredged to form a waterfront community. We found a finger with no houses or boats that we would block access to, and ran our anchor chain around a tree, and our stern line to a tree on the other bank. We had our anchor and a grapnel hook prepared, but didn't use either, though the grapnel would have been a good choice had a tree not been handy.
After a bumpy crossing, the waterway was a nice change of pace. Our anchorage was slick calm, a great place to enjoy our barbecue and some cold watermelon.
At around 0330 I awoke to a gorgeous bright moon, and extremely high tide. There wasn't a breath of wind. I easily recruited my lab, Mercy, to go exploring with me, and Rudy even caught the excitement when he looked around. I have a good GPS plotter with an accurate fish finder. I suggested we check out the channel, so we didn't have to wait until Tuesday afternoon to leave on the next high tide. Nassau tide read high at 2315, which is almost a four hour lag, though I've read elsewhere there is a two hour lag on the north end. Since I had just awoke, I don't know exactly when the tide turned. Remember that tide and current do not necessarily change at the same time in many locations. We crisscrossed the canal, noting that the channel was dredged, and returned to get the MERCY.
Just a note, as you go out the north end of the canal, the channel turns sharply to starboard, paralleling the island. The channel lies between the pilings and the shore, and when the channel turns to the port, there were daymarkers on both sides of the channel.
When we came through the channel at 0430 or so, I am guessing we had a 2' tide, and never saw less than 6'
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