We first met Sonni and Brad back in 2018. They’d sailed down to Mexico in Luego, their sleek Tartan 37, and we enjoyed cruising in company with them on and off from Baja, across to mainland Mexico, and then back to Baja again.
Since that fantastic season of sailing Sonni and Brad have sold Luego, bought 50 acres of forestland in Montana, and become ranchers. They’ve been milling their own lumber from their own trees to build a barn and house, and raising horses. They’re the kind of folks for whom no obstacle too formidable – they figure out a way to get things done and the problems just become good fodder for stories over a cold beer.
Even though they live on land now, they still have a little saltwater in their veins. So it was fantastic for us that they agreed to sail with us for a week, because we got to reconnect with old friends. And it was fantastic for them to come to the Bahamas, because it’s still winter in Montana – they left from and returned to snowstorms.
Being former sailors, they instantly agreed to take a somewhat marginal weather window to sail north from George Town to the central Exumas. Steady winds over 20kts made for fast sailing, but the long fetch in Exuma Sound also made for significant waves, and after 50nm the entire crew was happy to pull into the first deep water cut to get some protection on the leeward side of the cays on the Great Bahama Bank.
Once on the bank, we enjoyed a week of nearly uninterrupted sailing, running the engine only to pull up the anchor while leaving an anchorage and once we’d arrived at the next. Miles of uninhabited sandy beaches, the famous swimming pigs, the equally famous Thunderball Grotto, and plenty of relaxing in the water and onboard with frosty beverages filled out time.
And all too soon, it was time for a mostly dry dinghy ride to the impossibly tiny airport at Staniel Cay, where Sonni and Brad headed home and left an empty feeling aboard Oso. See you guys again soon.
