Plotting an exit strategy

June 3

There's a saying in the boating world called "When the barn door opens" ... and it relates to the feeling that comes over you when you start talking more about your return trip to the states than your next anchorage.  That feeling ends up taking a life of its own, and pretty soon, you start to think "why not now?" after you listen to the morning weather forecast.

We had been idly thinking that June 15 would be a good day to cross back, for the simple reason that it's a full moon.   What better reason to make a 36+hr, overnight crossing back to Florida?  But then today, Chris Parker (the morning weather guru) suggested that Thursday, June 9, could be a good weather window between two cold fronts for sailboats looking for calm seas and good wind.... which lead the Captain to say, "why not now?". 

That's all it took, and now we are moving from an itinerary with no specific destinations in mind to one that will have us staged to cross on the 6th (.... provision, change the oil, fuel, water, laundry ...).  If the weather doesn't cooperate, then we'll hang out at Great Sale Cay (our crossing point from the Bahamas) until the next weather window, which hopefully will coincide with the full moon on the 15th.  Leaving on the 6th gives us a greater margin for making the crossing and then prepping the boat for haul out and deal with any unexpected detours..  For example:  we hope to cross directly to Jacksonville, ~275 miles/36+hours, but depending on how the crossing actually goes, we want the option to bail out at either Ft Pierce FL or Cape Canerval, both of which will add several days to our final arrival in Jacksonville.

We think we've settled on hauling the boat at a marina in Jacksonville for 4-5 months while we return to MN and wait out hurricane season before returning to paint the bottom and finish several other boat projects after the temps in FL have returned to reasonable levels.

Which leaves us counting our swims in the beautiful Bahama waters on one hand ... not to mention the rum drinks we want to sample one more time!

Of course, I remind myself, all these intentions could change after any given weather forecast ... but for now, the barn door is open, and our thoughts are focused on home. And to all of our Minnesota lifelines, watch your cell phones because the next time you'll hear from us will be by text once our phones are active again!

Time for one last trip down island to the Abaco Inn. They picked us up at Hopetown and let us spend the day at their lovely pool and beach.

P.S. For those still counting, Dan is departing with one 12-pk of Modelo on the boat!  Thanks to the generous visits of Mikel and Robert, his initial supply of beer stretched out just perfectly!  Two bottles of rum in the liquor cabinet.  We've learned that we love diced tomatoes in just about anything, and canned corn and green beans are our favorite canned vegies.  I never used one can of tomato paste (ended up giving away 12 cans to s/v Glenice!).  And I now know that there's no point in bringing more spaghetti sauce than you have noodles to go with it! And next time, we'll bring more mayo b/c it was a staple to have cole slaw on hand for impromptu dinners with other boaters (and cabbage lives forever outside of the refrigerator!).  I still believe you cannot have enough salsa or refried beans, even though the high cost of tortilla chips dampened our use of this for happy hour get togethers.  And, thanks to Renee Devereaux, because her sweet potato/turkey sausage soup was one of our staple meals b/c we can find those ingredient everywhere... and everyone loves it!

And I'd be totally remiss w/o giving a huge shout-out to Tim Ryan, who graciously sold us his Honda 2000 generator last summer, which has been the life blood of our sojourn in the Bahamas.  Energy is the key to all existence, and our boat is no exception.  We have one solar panel which isn't enough to keep us in cold food, ice, lights and an occasional DVD w/o the near daily use of that trusty generator.

And a special thanks to our dear friend, Jim G, who managed to find us at the most obsure spots via Skype!

It truly takes a village.

Lazy days in Bahamaland

May 23

Now that we're in the home-stretch of our Bahama cruising, we seem to be not in much of a hurry to do anything.  We've already spent 6 weeks in the Abacos, so all that's left to do now is revisit our favorite spots.

Marshharbor is not one of our favorite spots, but it is THE spot for groceries and rum, both of which we stocked up on ... and we renewed our tourist permit and passports for another 60-day stay (not that we'll be here that long; we only asked for a 30-day extension, but the Immigration Officer wanted to make sure we allowed for possible lengthly weather delays ..)

Favorite stop #1 was Great Guana Cay where we can anchor in Fishing Bay and dinghy into Grabbers, Nippers, Pirates Cove, Orchid Bay ... any number of tiki bars and beaches.  Not that we did any of that mind you ... like I said in the title, we are all about lazy days now!  Having "been there/done that" we find it easy to procrastinate going ashore .... looked like rain one day ... another day, I started a book I got from Sheila Yule, "My Sister's Keeper" which was soooooo good that I had to read it non-stop until the wee-hours of the morning ... another day, I worked on the teak and Dan worked on gelcoat repairs.  We did go ashore one night, drank too many rum punches and paid the price the next day ... and we find a snorkling spot where Dan practiced using his spear gun (no fish, but he snagged several beer cans off the bottom!).

Lots of lovely sunsets during our stay at Great Guana Cay

May 28

Ye gads, it almost the end of May.  Time to move on.  Most of the anchorages in the Abacos seem to be 10-20 miles apart which makes for a nice, leisurely 3-4 hour sail, no matter what direction you head.  So pick a spot depending on which way the wind is blowing ... we chose Hopetown Harbor ... favorite spot #2.

Leaving Great Guana Cay for Hopetown Harbor.

The weather next week is supposed to be stormy (all these predictions, but so little rain, and the island really needs water so we've started to hope it would, in fact, downpour for a few days).  We like Hopetown Harbor because of it's great protection on all sides, even though we have to pay for a mooring ($20/nite ... two free nights if we stay a week ... which we just may).  Hopetown is a lovely, quaint tropical town.  Nice grocery store and beaches, and of course, the lighthouse. 

That white, cone shaped thing is a mooring.

From our mooring, we can watch as the kerosene light goes on each night.  You can see the smaller windows of the structure glow as the lighthouse attendant climbs the stairs with his lantern, and then the main light slowly increases it's shine, and then starts it's slowly, stately survey of the harbor until dawn.

After several days at Harbortown, we've only had one day of rain, despite all the storms in the forecast.  The skies have been an amazing mix of huge thunderheads and dark massive clouds that kept us on the boat, figuring that all hell would break loose at any minute.  But, most of the time, the clouds either moved along in the wind or dissipated before our very eyes.  In fact, when the rain came, we were totally unprepared because there was nothing threatening overhead to give us a clue about what was about to fall.

But, Harbortown is an easy place to settle into, which is what we did while waiting for this unsettled weather to move on.

Maja at mooring by our favorite house in the harbor.

Out little, well-stocked grocery store.

Lovely little streets to explore.

And our favorite form of exercise, walking the beautiful beaches!

Most beaches have sandy shores, but some have "Iron Shore" .. craggy, sharp rock formations that line the shoreline ... sometimes that makes us worry about the anchor dragging!

June 1 ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CRAIG NELSON AND SHEILA YULE

In a couple of days, we'll be moving on to favorite spot #3 in the Abacos - Treasure Cay -- and one of the top 10 beautiful beaches in the world.  And then we'll head to Green Turtle Cay, our final destination in the Abacos.  That's where we'll get serious about watching for a weather window to "cross the pond" back to Florida ...

Return trip to the Abacos (5/19)

Thursday - May 19th

We left Highborne Cay Marina around 4pm.  The marina allowed us to stay beyond the noon checkout so that we could exit the narrow channel entrance at slack tide (due to the strong current) ... which is something we are taking seriously since we passed a sailboat hard aground at the inlet as we were coming in two days ago.  The other nerve-wrecking part of our exit involved just getting out of the slip because we were tucked into the very corner of two piers, with a huge, 157ft mega yacht right behind us. Hated the thought of leaving  paint on their white hull! Fortunately, our neighbors were there to hold onto our stern line as Dan backed Maja out of the slip, guaranteeing that we’d go to port rather than starboard (towards the yacht!). Captn Dan did a masterful job at the helm and all went as planned ... we didn’t even need help with our lines … but I still thanked everyone who came out to protect their stern during our exit!

Short day today as we are only going 10 miltes to Roberts Cay, where we will stage for our 50 mile crossing to Royal Island tomorrow. Being on the water again proved our belief that it’s definitely cooler outside of the marina. We had a pleasant sail and a wonderful night in the cockpit as the full moon brightened up the starlight sky.

Friday, May 20th

Anchor up at 8:30 and time to say goodbye to the Exumas as we passed thru Ships Channel Cay. The weather is great … all squalls appear to have passed us, and we have blue skies and puffy white clouds … this is Michelle’s kind of sky! We hope to sail most of the day on a beam reach with 10-15knots of south-easterly wind.

During this 50-mile trip, there will be 20 miles thru some heavily reefed water that is marked on the map with the ominous note: Visual Pilot Route -- Meaning that one of us will be perched on the bow sprit, watching for dark coral heads in the turquoise blue water.

Our timing was perfect for crossing thru the reef area (or I should really day “Dan’s timing was perfect b/c he set the course). We arrived at high noon with the sun directly overhead making it easy to read the black blobs in the 12-feet of aqua-green water. There’s no way to capture on film what the seascape looks like … it is like passing through a mine field … on all sides of us there are big and small dark reefs lurking under the water for as far as we can see. Fortunately, all the matters is the path directly in front of us, and with the motor on, it was easy to slalom through the field.

After about an hour of this, I went back to making bread in the cabin and Dan went back to reading the study guide for taking the test for his Captains License (ye gads ... I suppose he’ll want to wear one of those hats with the gold braid on the brim ...)  Around 3pm, we crossed thru Fleming Channel – the point where we went from the shallow banks to the deep water of the Tongue of the Ocean.

From 12 feet to over 200 feet!

Again, Dan has timed our route so that we will hit the channel at slack tide, helping us avoid the strong current that tends to want to stop a boat in its tracks while trying to clear the cut! Today, we will have passed through 3 bodies of water … the Exuma banks (lovely turquoise blue), the Exuma Sound (deep emerald green), and the Tongue of the Ocean (sapphire blue) … I shall sooooo miss these waters when we cross back to the USA.

what a thunderhead!!

We reached Royal Island, back in the Eleuthera at 6:30. 5 boats in the anchorage, but both the moorings were open, so we picked up one for the evening. We listened to MSNBC tonight on Sirius Radio and learned that the world will be ending tomorrow (FYI … there are definite advantages of being isolated from the news …) so maybe we should try and make it to “Hopetown Harbor” tomorrow!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Up at 6:00 am for the 60-mile passage today. By 6:30, we were clearing the mouth of the anchorage, leaving only one boat still at anchor.

By 8:30, we were out of sight of land and out in the deep blue ocean, with 13,000 feet of water under our keel! If the world ends today, we are at least going out on a beautiful one …. 10-15 knot north/east wind, beam reach, 3 foot swells …. Lovely conditions for a long day’s cruise. We are motor-sailing because of the distance; if we drop below 5 knots, then we risk getting into the Abacos/Lynyard Cay at Little Harbor after sunset.

Alas, the delightful sailing only lasted until noon. Then the wind died and the swells increased to 4-6 feet, making the last 4.5 hours of the passage hot and rolling. It is quite a sight, though, watching the long lines of swells come across the ocean off our beam, then lift us up, rock starboard to port and back again, and then continue off on their steady roll towards distant shores on the opposite side of our boat. Fortunately, the swells were spaced a good 10-seconds apart, so it wasn’t the rough ride we’ve had before, when the swells hit us at 2-second intervals.

Bummer – no fish though. Not even a nibble. And here we sit with an empty freezer.

Breaking waves on the reefs bordering the entrance to Little Harbor.

We arrived back in the Abacos around 4:30, with a smooth entry thru the cut at Little Harbor. We could see the swells breaking against the shore, and there was a steady line of breakers over the reef as we entered the harbor. Back to familiar territory now … and exhausted from the long day on the water. After 2 days of travel, we’ll hang here for a restful day at anchor on Sunday.

We are now done with two of our Bahama map books!

Sunday, May 22

Well, the world's still here, and we're hankful to have a beautiful world still around us. The forecast is for light winds today, so we plan to stay at Lynyard Cay for another day. The temp is 78deg, the seas are calm, so the conditions are perfect for snorkeling over at Sandy Cay. And today may be a good day a start varnishing teak and a few other projects we want to get done before returning to the states where it will be too hot to think about boat work … decisions decisions!

The snorkling at Sandy Cay was fantastic!  The reef was well over 200feet long and quite deep in spots.  When the sun shone thru the clouds, it was like turning on an underwater light -- all the colorful fish and reefs were visible in bright glory!  We saw some elkhorn coral that must have been 30feet long!  Simply amazing.

lovely lovely lovely water

Back on the boat, we nixed the idea of varnish work because there is such a coating of salt on the boat.  So, after lunch, we decided to move on to Marsh Harbor.  We need to renew our tourist permit by Tuesday, and we're out of mix for our rum drinks so time to find a grocery store!  Since the wind was down, we took the inside route to Marsh Harbor ... 20 miles of twists and turns that reminded us of the ICW except that we were meandering thru islands instead of towns. 

Anchor down at 7:00 pm, and it feels good to be back in familiar territory.  And back to where we can subscribe to internet service (definitely one of the few things we miss from USA living!).

Two or three weeks longer in paradise and then we'll start looking for a weather window to cross back to the states.....

If I were rich ....

Highborne Cay Marina ... May 17 and 18

If I were rich, I'd stay in marinas like this all the time!  Even though you don't have the cool breezes on board that you get at anchor, you've got everything else!  And of course, if I were rich, I wouldn't mind the cost of electricity to run our little air conditioner on hot afternoons.  But I suppose if I were rich, I'd be on one of the  big motor yachts docked all around us (we are the only sailboat in the marina!). All this place really lacks is a tiki bar on the beautiful beach (of course, if I were rich, I suppose I'd have crew to bring me a frosty pina colada on the beach from my well-stocked bar on my yacht ...)

It has been a lovely two days of relaxation here ... lounging on the beach, taking real showers in a real bathroom, watching the mega-yachts come and go from the dock while marveling at how bow and stern thrusters can maneuver these massive boats in such small spaces, w/o hitting anything!\

But alas, we aren't rich, so a 2-day stay in a marina like this is about all the stretch our budget can take.  While sitting in our beach chairs, we've watched the squalls pass to the west of us, over Nassau (40 miles away), and we now have a 6-day window of 10-15 knot East winds to carry us North, back to the Abacos. Sailing weather doesn't get any better than that, so we're going to take advantage of it.

10 days in the Exuma Land and Sea Park

May 7 – Anchored at Black Pt on our way to the park

Saturday …

Hard to leave the paradise at Emerald Bay Marina! We were the last boat away from the dock of the 4 cruisers heading north today, not leaving until 11:00. We parted company with s/v Glenice as they head to Georgetown with plans to stay in the Bahamas for the summer.

Greg and Janice (s/v Glenice) have caught our dock lines in NC, GA and Bahamas!

We have a 40-mile day ahead of us, back to Black Point Settlement via Dotham Cut. Since we already spent 6 days at Black Point, we figured we could arrive there by sunset because it's a big, easy anchorage to negotiate.

The winds were light, 5-10 knots, so we had to motor sail but the ocean was calm. We were running two fishing lines until something BIG ran away with our favorite lure after snapping the 40lb line! No nibbles the rest of the day (which is probably a good thing since we found the grocery store at Emerald Bay to be well stocked, so our refrig/freezer are now full to the brim for our return trip. I hate the thought of throwing out chicken to make room for fresh Mahi Mahi … but I’d do it!).

It was a lovely, easy cruise up to Black Point, where we made the crossing from the Exuma Sound (deep water) to the Exuma Bank (shallow water) via Dotham Cut. We arrived at the cut at around 6pm which was perfect timing to catch it at slack tide. This was a much easier passage than our previous one thru Farmers Cut. Dotham is wide and deep with minimal breakers and large rocks to scare the shit out of us!  But I gotta say, when the charts say “strong current”, they mean what they say! We went from 4 knots to 9 knots as we entered the cut, all thanks to the current! Good thing we were going with the current and not against it!

Sunday, May 8.  Anchored at Staniel Cay

Happy Mothers Day to me! My thanks to Dan for making motherhood possible; my thanks to James for being the best first-born a mother could hope for; my thanks to Michelle for providing us with a favorite daughter!

Today we had an easy 10-mile cruise planned to Staniel Cay. We had a delightful 10-knot wind from the east, so we were able to sail the whole way. The water on the bank was perfectly calm, so nothing to disturb our champagne glasses in the cockpit! It was one of those days that when we reached Staniel Cay, we kept on sailing b/c the day was just too nice to end.

Staniel Cay has two big attractions. One is the airport. This is where lots of boaters pick up visitors flying in from the states via Nassau ... and it's got a lot of nice rental unis on shore (hint hint future visitors!). The other is the Thunderbolt Grotto … made famous by the James Bond movie. You can actually snorkel thru a cave, into an open grotto, and out another cave entrance on the other side of the island. Very cool.

s/v Hawk

Our current travelling buddies are John and Cindy (s/v Hawk). We anchored together at Staniel Cay before taking the dinghy over to go snorkeling. You need to visit the grotto at low tide because of the current and the cave opening on the outside is quite low, so we went over at about 6pm. As we were leaving, 3 other dinghies loaded with people pulled up, so we quite pleased to have had the whole grotto to ourselves. Cindy brought corn which we used to feed the fish … and it was like being in the middle of an aquarium when all the fish gathered to go after the food!

entering the grotto

looking up at the ceiling of the grotto

Monday, May 9th.  Anchored at Cambridge Cay

Anchor up early this morning, headed towards Cambridge Cay, the southernmost anchorage in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We are very excited to arrive here b/c so many people have highly recommended it. It doesn’t even matter that we have less than 5 knots of wind and must motor to 15-mile trip. At least on these easy passages I can get some cooking underway – today was cole slaw. We plan to stop at all 3 spots in the park – Cambridge Cay, Warderrick Cay and Shroud Cay.  Best snorkling is in the park waters because the fish are protected.

There are several mooring balls in the park anchorage, but anchoring is also allowed. Since there were just a few boats in the anchorage, we found a good spot to drop the hook. We went to shore and hiked over to the other side of the island, did our duty and picked up a fair share of trash, and came back to the boat to go swimming b/c it was HOT today.

Choppy on the ocean = smooth waters on the banks

We used the sunshade while anchored for a week at Georgetown, otherwise we’ve been pleasantly surprised to not be bothered by the heat very often … the temps are typically tropical, around 78 degrees with a fairly constant wind. No wind today which explains the heat.

Low rocks protect us from incoming swells.

John and Cindy (s/v Hawk) invited us over to their boat for dinner. They sail a beautiful 40ft Brewer with a very large center cockpit … which reminded us why that was on our list of preferred features for so long! We stayed till long past sunset … sharing sea stories … a favorite pastime with new boating companions! We will probably tag along with them for a few more days, but when we come abreast to Nassau, they will head west towards home in Naples, FL.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - Snorkling at Cambridge Cay

Cambridge Cay is the best place in the park for snorkling because they have so many spots to visit.  On the map, we located 3 coral gardens, 1 sea aquarium and 1 sunken airplane!  Very Cool!  They even provide buoys for your dinghy at the dive spot which makes it convenient to locate from the water. I just wish there was an equally convenient way to get back into the dinghy. Our floating ladder tends to float up under the dinghy, making it difficult to get a good foothold, resulting in a less-than-graceful entry back into the boat!

This was some of the best snorkeling we have ever done anywhere! It was simply amazing. Tons of fish. I mean TONS of fish. We’re pretty sure that we’ve seen every fish in our Bahama underwater guide book!  Lots of big Grouper (ahhhh…to be able to spear fish in the park waters!) and the biggest lobster we have ever seen. ….at least 2 feet long and quite primeval as it picked its way across the sea floor! The HUGE 12-ft coral heads were equally impressive. It is so refreshing to see spots where the coral is so healthy and vibrant in color and growth. Many places in the Abacos, the damaged coral (from environmental pollution and global warming) was obvious.  (Alas, we don't have an underwater camera, so Dan took these photos thru a waterproof bag using his Nikon ... next year, we'll come better prepared!)

Sunken plane

Friday, May 13 - Off to Warderick Wells

Anchor up at 9:00 and underway towards Warderick Wells.  Another beautiful day in paradise as the clouds disappeared as the sun climbed in the sky, leaving us with a clear blue sky and puffy white clouds and 15 knots of wind off our beam.  We were able to sail the entire 15 miles, making 5 knots with our mail sail and both head sails out. 

We arrived at Warderick Wells at 1:30pm and begrudingly dropped our sails and started the motor to enter the anchorage.  We picked up a mooring ball in the park ($20) b/c we wanted to get internet access (the one convenience of the USA that we REALLY miss!). 

View from the deck at park headquarters.

The place is fairly deserted, and s/v Hawk is moored directly in front of us. After exploring the park headquarters, we visited with s/v Hawk and then hung out on Maja, greedy for email and internet news! I cooked up a pork roast in the pressure cooker and made pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner … yumm!

Saturday, May 14

Today we decided it was time to touch land! There is a nice trail here to the top of the island, a place called Boo Boo Hill … named for the ghostly echos you can reportedly hear from the boat that crashed on the reef and lost all hands. After spending so much time at water level, it is indeed refreshing to look out at the world from 100 feet (that's about as high as it gets around here!)

A view from the top of the island.

The island was covered with large trees at one time. After they were all cleared for sale to shipbuilders, hurricanes have stripped the land of the soil and nutrients needed for anything but scrub brush and mangroves.

That's us!

At the top of Boo Boo Hill, there is a pile of driftwood where boaters have left carved signs with their boat name. So we had to be part of that tradtion!  We were under the impression that you found a piece of driftwood on the hike up the hill and then caved your boat name on the wood once you reached the top. And that's what Dan did with his trusty swiss army knife ... however, when we got there, we found some quite elaborate signs that obviously weren't carved on the spot!

Next time, we'll bring something bigger!

After that long, hot hike was behind us, it was time for some swimming. We snorkeled around Emerald Rock and then went into the beach. It seems like you either get a great beach or great snorkeling on an island, but not both. So far, the park beaches have been very shallow, so you cannot really swim from the beach … more like wade up to your knees. It's a rocky shoreline, and the sand is not the powdery soft stuff we had in the Abacos. At least the trip to the beach caused us to return to Maja via a route that took us by s/v Forte and s/v Dragon Fly. We anchored near both these boats in Georgetown, but didn’t meet the crew until the Marina at Emerald Bay. It’s always fun to cross paths with people you have met before, and they told us about the Happy Hour on the beach tonight at 6:30.

One topic that ALWAYS dominants the conversation when you get two boaters together is the weather. Everyone watches it; everyone listens to Chris Parker on the SSB (radio) at 6:30am; everyone has a opinion about the best place to be depending on weather predictions. So Happy Hour did not disappoint as we now had 10 new boaters to share their thoughts and opinions!

Starting Monday, some heavy squall action is predicted … esp. for the northern Bahamas (Abacos) where high winds could reach 50 knots in the heavy thunderstorms. Predictions for the central Bahamas (Exuma) are less specific and less severe … we are looking at scattered squalls with winds of 30 knots from Monday to Thursday. However, the Abacos have good places to hide, while the Exumas don’t! These islands basically run North/South, so there is protection from East winds but not the westerly winds which are coming our way. The North mooring field at Warderick Wells has good protection on all sides, so the sailboats are all moving over there and hanging out until Thursday (while the power boats are able to zoom off whereever they damn well please!).. But, eckkkk, we don’t want to stay here at Warderick Wells that long, so we’re thinking that we’ll head to one of the last mooring fields in the park at Shroud Cay.  We won’t have any protection from the west winds, so it will be bumpy ride during the worst of the weather, but the moorings in the park are very secure.  Decisions ... decisions.  Only time will tell if we make a good one.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

We ate the last of our favorite food in the Bahamas today – Coconut Bread! Nothing beats it for French toast. One of the tips we learned at Happy Hour last night is that Hawksbill Cay, about 12 miles north of us, has two fabulous beaches. So, while washing dishes, I voted that we move on and see this place before we have to hunker down and wait for weather to pass. Captain Dan always aims to please, so that became our itinerary for the day!

Before leaving, we went snorkeling at the two hot spots in Warderick Wells that can only be visited during slack tide because of the strong current. Since that was at 12:30 today, it fit perfectly into our schedule. After 2 hrs of snorkeling, we were back on Maja and underway towards Hawksbill Cay. We were expecting light winds for this 10-mile run, so we were pleasantly surprised to get 10-knots of wind off the beam, enabling us to sail the whole way. Nice!

Anchor set at Hawksbill Cay by 6:00 pm, and we are the only boat here! There are 4 moorings and plenty of anchorage, but we are calling it ours! We can definitely see a long beach onshore, which will have to wait to be explored until tomorrow. Its cocktail time!

Full Moon Rising

Monday, May 16, 2011

As predicted, the winds shifted to the west and increased in intensity overnight. By midnight, it was a evident that we were in for a rocky and rolly night … which aint so bad when when you are securely nestled in the berth at the stern of the boat, but ohlala, getting up to use the head in the bow can be an experience! We were up at 6:30am to catch the morning weather forecast (who could sleep anyway!), and it appears that this weather system could hang over us for 3 days, with the only hope being that the “scattered squalls” are scattered far away from us.

Our anchorage is wide open to the west, where the increasing winds are building, so all morning we could watch a steady stream of white caps heading our way across the banks. The worst part is what they call “confused seas” … this means that the swells alternate from sets of 4-6 swells that run from the bow to the stern of the boat, and then switch to come in sets from side to side.  So, just as you get used to the bobbing up and down motion, the swells change direction and start knocking you back and forth… and then repeat cycle. Hence, the “washing machine effect” which all the boaters refer to … It’s not much fun, so we stayed tucked into our berths, reading, until the wind definitely increased in speed and whine, and we knew that a squall was coming our way.

Squalls require action! Despite the pitching motion of the boat, we had to act fast to put up the enclosures in the cockpit, drop all the hatches, cover the butterfly hatch over our cabin (which tends to leak in downpours) and let out more chain on the anchor so we have a greater margin to ride the rough surf ... and oh yeah, turn on the anchor drag alam!

Cannot due much during squally weather.  It’s too difficult to walk around the cabin, even to make coffee. Around noon, the skies cleared so I ventured forth to make Cranberry Bread and coffee and we moved out to the cockpit. At 2:00pm, I was yearning to go to shore and stand on terra firma as the seas were in a constant 3ft chop, with the waves hitting our boat every 2 seconds.  Bam, bam, bob, bob, up and down, side to side.  And all the while, I can see a mile-long beach of gorgeous white sand just 1/4mile away! Captain Dan always aims to please, so when the white caps died down a bit, we took the dinghy and ventured to shore.

Ah yes, this was a nicer place to be!

What a treat to repeatedly walk the beach while Maja bobbed up and down at anchor! We stayed for a couple of hours, until the clouds moved in again, and we figured it was better to be aboard before anything hit rather than getting caught in a squall on the beach – or worse yet, in route in the dinghy!

Bobbing at anchor.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Wow … what a night’s sleep! Or almost a night’s sleep, I should say! The wind stayed out of the west until midnight, giving us a predictable up and down motion that you could almost get used to (and I emphasize the word “almost”!), but then it started to switch to the north west, which meant that Maja was swinging at anchor in a very broad arch, that give us swells on all sides … up and down, then side to side. Yuck! It was one of those nights when you were glad to see the sky finally start to lighten.

The 6:30am weather forecast offered no relief … the winds were predicted to stay out of the west until Thursday. Since the Exuma island chain runs North/South, there are no anchorages that give protection from a westerly wind. We had planned to move up to Shroud Key, our last stopover in the Exuma Sea Park, but that anchorage wouldn't have any better protection from the west wind than where we are now at Hawksbill Cay, and no gorgeous beaches there! They have good snorkeling at Shroud Cay, but the sea is much too churned up with this wind for any visibility.

After the morning weather report, the first question was: "So, what should we do now?"  It seemed like we had two choices -- 1) Move Maja over to a mooring ball here at Hawksbill Cay which would at least allow us to spend the day at the beautiful beach without worrying about how the boat is riding at anchor... but wouldn't do much to improve our night's sleep.  2) Make tracks North in this good 15-knot west wind and duck into the Highbourne Cay marina for the night. This would mean skipping Shroud Cay and leaving the park. 

Two votes for the marina! It’s expensive ($2.10/foot), but what the hell! We have to stop there anyway for fuel and water (.50/gal), and at least staying at the marina entitles us to drop off our garage for free ($5/bag for 2 bags, $25/bag after that!).

On our way. Easier to sail in this wind and swells than sit at anchor.

Sounds like such a good idea that we’re going to stay there two nights and wait out this front that will pass us by Thursday, Then, we’ll have a good window for crossing the Exuma Bank back to Eleuthera, putting us just a few days from the Abacos….our final destination in the Bahamas. The Exumas are best for snorkeling because of the Park, but we think the Abacos provide a wide variety of sailing destinations, varied anchorages and easy access to cheap water and supplies.

Ah...this is the life!

Watching a squall pass in the distance.