South Mississippi man’s 5-month solo-sailing adventure to the Bahamas

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (WLOX) – Would you sail from South Mississippi to the Bahamas, by yourself, on a five-month, 2,000-nautical-mile trip?

It’s a voyage that Paul Tuennerman set his sights on two years ago, after completing a similar voyage with his college-graduate nephew.

The Pass Christian resident described himself in 2022 as “the least likely person to sail a sailboat” when WLOX News reported on the once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Tuennerman said, after getting back on shore, he wanted to make the trip to the Caribbean again; this time, by himself.

“It took me about six months to say, okay, I’m going to do this,” he told WLOX News on Sunday. “Then, it took me almost two years to get ready for it. Physically, mentally, because it’s a totally different voyage with totally different tactics and strategies when it’s one versus two, three or four other people on a boat.”

His vessel, aptly named the Bad Captain after his lack of sailing experience, disembarked from Gulfport Municipal Harbor on January 29, 2024.

“The morning I left, I think it was in the 40s,” he recalled. “I had to bring polar fleece onto the boat. I never even wore long pants because I was always in the Caribbean, so bringing warm clothes never crossed my mind before.”

His compass was aimed at Key West. Despite a brief episode of running aground just after setting sail, he made it there without much trouble. The real trials and tribulations would happen when making the trek from the Florida Keys to the Bahamas.

“Every three days, you would get a storm that came through. The wind is going this way, the currents are going that way, and the waves start to stack up eight, ten feet, and they get really close together,” he said. “It’s not comfortable, and it’s not safe to try and navigate the gulf stream in those conditions.”

Tuennerman looked for a three-day window: One day to let the waves settle down, one day to get to his destination, and one day as a safety measure in case anything happened while at sea.

“I just kept looking for those three-day windows, and they never materialized. It took me three or four weeks.”

While hanging around in Florida, he met a married couple that recently retired, sold their home, and bought their first sailboat. Like Tuennerman, they weren’t experienced sailors, and had never made the 270-mile expedition. In fact, they didn’t even have all the proper equipment.

“I’m like, hey, what’s your MMSI number? Which is the number that works on AIS, which is like a transponder on airplanes,” Tuennerman explained. “And he’s like, I don’t have one of those. I’m like, you don’t have an AIS? I’m thinking to myself, do not sail with this guy. So, instead, I’m like, hey, let’s go get this stuff.”

After a shopping trip to properly equip the green horn sailors, Tuennerman agreed to set sail with them.

After arriving, Tuennerman then visited around a dozen islands, patches of sand, and cuts on and off the Bahamian bank, including North Bihimi, Berry Islands, Spanish Wells, South Riding Rock and Angel Fish Cut.

While memories were made and unique friendships were formed, it wasn’t all fun and games, especially when the weather got rough.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’d sit there and say to myself, ‘What am I doing? I’m hundreds of miles from anything, it’s blowing 30 knots. Why am I doing this?’ Then, you wake up the next morning, you snap out of it, and you’re like, yeah, this is why I’m doing it, because I want to prove to myself that I can do it. Not everyone is wired that way. My wife thinks I’m crazy.”

On May 26, 2024, Tuennerman returned to home port: Gulfport, Mississippi. He pulled into his slip just after 5 a.m. and was greeted at the dock by his wife, who filmed his arrival.

Now, almost three months after adjusting to the landlubber lifestyle, he has had plenty of time to mull over the voyage and the lessons learned.

“I think it’s the thrill and the satisfaction to be able to say, ‘I did it.’ And that’s really what it is, just be able to say, I wanted to go and sail off into the Caribbean by myself, and I did it. It wasn’t always pretty and it wasn’t always fun, but there were other moments that were fantastic, and I met loads of great people.”

For other wayward souls with a yearning for adventure, he has this advice: “If there’s anything you want to do in life- these big, hairy, audacious goals- go do them, because there’s no guarantee of a tomorrow.”

As for the Bad Captain, Tuennerman reluctantly decided to put the vessel up for sale, with plans to buy a mini-yacht so he can spend winters in the Bahamas and summers in Maine.

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