Sunday -- December
9th …. The Crossing
Finally... here we are … crossing to the Bahamas! Day #15 since leaving Brunswick on November
24. Since Sunday is actually sooner than
we had expected to see a good crossing window, we are optimistic and
excited. The last big debate was to pick
a time to leave the Lake Worth inlet, crossing into the ocean. Tides had to be taken into account. We had to estimate our travel time, which is
actually the hardest thing to do when you don’t know how the winds and seas
will help or hinder you. We generally
plan on 5 knots for a passage, and usually we can make 6. For this trip, we wrestled with two choices:
Stop at Great Sale Cay for the night (which means arriving no later than 2am
cuz who wants to go to the trouble of anchoring if you’re not going to get a
decent amount of sleep for your effort). Or go straight through the night to
our entry port of Spanish Cay (which means arriving at Great Sale Cay at
dawn). In the end, we figured we’d just
have to go do it and see.
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| We had sun for several hours before the clouds closed in |
This is our 3rd crossing. Not our best, but not our worst. We cleared the Lake Worth inlet into the Atlantic at 8:00 am, leaving a littler later than usual b/c we are anticipating a southerly wind to fill in after noon ... which is just want we want to give us wind for sailing across the Gulf Stream.
We motored into an east wind, which means that it's coming right on our nose. The best thing we had going for us is that the swells were down to 2-4ft and
the wind was less than 5 knots. A
sail would be of no help, so we relied on Mr Westerbeke for the entire
journey. The 10-15knot south wind we had waited for never materalized, so we were stuck with a 5kE wind the entire trip. Without any boost at all from
the wind, it took us 4 hours to cross the strongest parts of the GS as our speed dropped to 3.5
knots. People run faster than we were
navigating 180 miles of ocean! It all, it took us 10 hours to get to the Bahama Banks.
At any rate, the ride on the boat was rolly, but not the
horrible kind. You miss the
stabilizing effect of the sail with the swells.
Not much we could do as we watched the GPS push back our ETA to Great Sale Cay by hours … and hours. We realized once again that “it is
what it is”. We can plan our passage
all we want, but in the end, you take what you get.
Highlight of the day:
We listened to the Viking beat the Bears, 21-14!
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| In the Gulf Stream, approaching line of scattered squalls. |
Interesting observation of the day: Scattered showers/thunderstorms were
predicted along the Gulf Stream, and sure enough, as we approached the GS, it was amazing to lierally see a line of storm cells neatly spaced along the GS, running N/S, as
far as you could see in either direction.
Some of the cells were big and dark and the heavy rain was visible with
the binoculars; while others were smaller and lighter in impact. Which one would hit us was all a crap shoot …
at what point would we pass thru the line of storms?
From the stories I heard from other cruisers who left LW ahead
of us, the earlier boats had much rougher conditions, so we lucked up by waiting to depart.
We had to put up the cockpit enclosure when the rain came, but there were no
high storm gusts or choppy seas.
We hit the Little Bahama Bank around 7pm.
Too dark to see the change in water color, but you knew it was there.
And you could see the sand that reflected from our boat’s steaming light. And you felt it. The deep swells and roll that you’d lived
with for the past 11 hours were gone. By now, we realized that we'd be sailing all night, straight into Spanish Cay Marina, so we started our assigned shifts -- Nancy = 7-1am. Dan = 1am-6am. We are still experimenting with shifts, so we kinda take a "go as long as you can" attitude. Traditionally, shifts at night are 3-4 hrs, but I don't mind going longer if the weather is settled, and and I definitely want to sleep more than 3 hours when I finally get to lay down! We both always are up for dawn!
Monday:
We passed Great Sale Cay, an excellent anchorage, at 5:30am,
so stopping for sleep was no longer can option.
We were only 6 hours from our destination. And now we were changing direction which
would help our chances of getting the right wind for the sails.
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| ahhhhhh! |
By 9:00am we were sailing!
Just wait, and life changes … We
had a terrific end to the day as we approached our entry port of Spanish
Cay. If you spend the night at the Spanish Cay marina, the Customs officer comes to the dock, so
clearing in is easy. There were 6 boats in the marina, so we hung out on the veranda, sipping beers, soaking in the view, waiting our turn with Customs. Next came the long hot shower and a most excellent nights sleep - the best part about being in a marina!
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| s/v Maja, Spanish Cay Marina |
Tuesday - December 11:
All six boats at the dock cleared out at about the same time, heading in one of
two directions, depending on whether or not you are navigating around the Whale
Cay channel today. The "Whale" is a narrow channel around a small island, with reefs on
both sides, so it's a good idea to pass thru the 3-mile channel stretch in calm conditions,
because you don’t want to meet outgoing waves on an incoming tide. Three of us headed for the Whale channel, and
since we are the slowest boat in any threesome, we got to hear about the
passage long before we entered it. It's was not big deal, and we sailed on to our first anchorage in the Bahamas ... Great Guana Cay.
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| First sunset at anchor ... it never gets old. |
Wednesday - December 12:
Now to relax to island time. We've got 12 days to make the 3-day trip down to Rock Sound, Eleuthera, where we'll meet James on the 24th. Whew! After all the worry about getting here in time, we now have time to take the day off.
Today was sunny, but windy, so we slept in and hung out at anchor at Great Guana. We are in a great location to make water, which is still a novel treat for us! There is a storm moving in Thurs, Friday
Saturday, so we'll move over to Marsh Harbor and wait for the front to pass.
Thursday - Sunday
Our stay in Marsh Harbor stretched into 4 days as the front brought steady NE winds at 25knots plus regular rain squalls. We were still able to get off the boat for long walks, shopping, and of course, sampling our first island rum drink! We'll leave here tomorrow and start the 3-day trek to Rock Sound. Day 1 will be a 25mile run down to the southern harbor on the Abacos, Lynard Cay. Day 2 will be a 50mile crossing of the Northeast Passage to Royal Island. Day 3 involves moving around the end of Eleuthera into Rock Sound. It sounds like the dinghy dock is located right at the airport, so that should make a good first impression on James!
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