Departing Fort Pierce, FL at dawn
Kent at the helm
Crossing the Gulf Stream
Anchored under the full moon at West End
We had company when we woke up the next morning
The next morning, after checking in at Customs at West End, off we sailed, up and over the northern edge of Grand Bahama Island, across the Little Bahama Bank, stopping for the night at Great Sale Cay. We had little to no wind, so we mostly motored through flat, glassy seas in depths of only 12 to 15 feet. It was a short day--46 miles--and we anchored mid-afternoon, spending the remainder of our day sunning on the bow and listening to music. It's a dog's life!
Silky seas to Great Sale Cay
When Kent and I were in Annapolis, MD this fall for the sailboat show, we looked hard at the furlers there for sale. Our gennaker sail is large, heavy, and unwieldy to set manually, and we were hoping to find a good furler to make it easier to use.
I don't know a thing about gennakers so I've recently done a little homework. A gennaker is used when sailing downwind, and is a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker. It is asymmetric like a genoa (unlike a true spinnaker) but not attached to the forestay, like a jib or genoa. The gennaker is rigged like a spinnaker but the tack is fastened to the bowsprit. Anyway, the point is that our gennaker sail is too big and heavy for us to handle by ourselves. A furling system has the sail attached to a torsional (look that up!) cable and hoisted by a halyard. To take down the sail, it's furled, or spun, winding the sail around a looped line. In light wind, with a furling system, we can hoist the sail and be ready to go. Then, as soon as we turn down, all we have to do is release the furling line, pull on the sheet, and voila! the gennaker is put away. No more struggling to get the sail in and out of the locker and manually attaching it. (Sorry if this is all too much information for you, but this is my life!)
This is a furler for a gennaker
At the sailboat show, we were not surprised, but disappointed, to learn that a furler would cost us at least $3,500. So we passed on purchasing one. So there we were, in December, at Great Sale Cay. I'm searching for my trusty knee pads, which I use for taking up our anchor (that's another story for another blog), and Lo and Behold! we find an almost new furler in our sail locker on the bow--hiding underneath our gennaker sail! Apparently, the prior owner of our boat used the gennaker and furler only when he and his crew crossed the Atlantic from France to Martinique. We didn't know we had a furler on board. See the photo below. It's that silver thing by the yellow cord at Kent's feet.
Surprise--a furler for our gennaker, hiding in plain sight!
Great Sale Cay, by the way, is uninhabited, privately owned, and FOR SALE for a smooth $10 million. It's a small island, long and skinny, only 370 acres, surrounded by turquoise water. The anchorage is beautiful, and there's a blue hole for divers and snorkelers in the shoal area. I'm surprised a developer hasn't snatched this place up.
Anchored off Great Sale Cay
Sunset here is spectacular!
Great Sale Cay, a thin strip of island, is ahead
Our next destination was Spanish Cay, leaving the "northern Abacos" and sailing into the "central Abacos." As always, Kent and I watch the weather reports daily, and by now, we were aware of high winds and seas ahead, likely giving us a short 2-3 day weather window to reach our ultimate destination of Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island. So we decided to push ahead to Green Turtle Cay, bypassing Spanish Cay. This decision was a wise one, as it saved us a day of uncomfortable sailing. In the last three hours of our trip that day, Bangarang streaked down the northeast side of Great Abaco at 9-10 knots in increasing winds. A taste of what was to come!
Green Turtle Cay is one of Abaco's many "out islands" and a popular stop for boaters and tourists. New Plymouth, a settlement of about 500 residents, is perched on the southern end of the mile-long cay and looks like a quaint fishing village with its pastel houses, picket fences and stone walls. Many of the residents can trace their heritage back two hundred years to the earliest settlers who were seamen and boat builders. The island has a rich history which includes gun-running during the American Civil War and rum-running in Prohibition years.
Unfortunately, Kent and I saw little of Green Turtle Cay because we were in such a hurry to keep sailing ahead of the expected bad weather. That night, the wind kicked up to 25+ knots. Safely dug in at anchor, we were cozy but rockin' and rollin'!
The settlement on Green Turtle Cay has the look of a colorful fishing village
We woke in the morning to cloudy skies and 15+ knot winds and ate breakfast inside our salon while planning our day's trip. From Green Turtle Cay to Great Guana Cay is a short 23 mile sail. Our big debate/decision was whether or not to stay inside the "out islands" or go outside into the Atlantic Ocean. If we stayed inside, it would mean navigating the Don't Rock Passage which is known for its shallowness, its vulnerability to well-documented Atlantic Ocean "rages" and its history of shipwrecks. If we chose to take the route outside in the Atlantic, we risked high winds and choppy, rough seas. When the seas build up in the Atlantic, the cuts north and south of Whale Cay can be very dangerous, even without strong winds. So, we kind of felt like we were about to dive off a high dive. We looked at the charted routes, the tides, the wind and weather, and the expected seas. On a scale of 1-10, Kent said he was an 8 on the nervous scale about using the Don't Rock Passage. That's pretty nervous. In the end, we elected to avoid the shallow, unpredictable Don't Rock Passage and take the less protected but deeper Whale Cay Passage outside into the Atlantic. The wind was blowing and the swells were about ten feet and very choppy. We strapped on our PFD's, clipped ourselves onto the lifelines, and headed outside into the Atlantic. We had all our chart systems going at once to help us navigate the exit into the ocean and back into the Sea of Abaco: Garmin, Navionics, and Plan2Nav. After six miles and a rough hour (seemed like forever!) in the Atlantic, we safely motored back into the Sea of Abaco and anchored at Great Guana Cay.
Rough choppy seas
We decided to remain anchored near Delias Cay, basically a very large rock in the well-protected harbor of Great Guana Cay, for a few nights in anticipation of the 25-30 knot winds expected that night. We ended up anchoring seven times in that harbor and, I'm embarrassed to say, two were successful. Luckily we watched and knew we were dragging. The holding there is known to be only fair. Good practice for us!
Great Guana Cay is known for having one of the longest and most beautiful beaches in all of the Bahamas. It is also home to two famous restaurants/bars: Grabber's Bar and Grill, and Nipper's Beach Bar. It was easy to dinghy up to Grabber's, just a couple hundred feet in front of our bow. We were starving the first night and wanted dinner there, just to find out that the kitchen was closed for a private event. However, the bartender came out later with a huge platter of ribs, and generously served those of us at the bar--unlimited and free of charge. We ate some of the best ribs we've ever had. They didn't make any profit on us that night!
Our view of Grabber's from our bow
Excellent ribs
Sitting in Grabber's looking out into the anchorage at sunset
Nipper's, famous for its Pig Roast on Sundays
After three nights anchored off Great Guana Cay in high winds and intermittent rain, the wind calmed to the usual 15 knot trade winds and the sun come out. It was time to leave the out islands and make the short trip over to Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island. Motoring across the Sea of Abaco, about two miles from the mouth of Marsh Harbour, our port engine failed. Luckily, our catamaran has two engines. I took the helm and motored in circles while Kent changed the filter. That didn't help. So we limped into the marina on one engine. (A mechanic has since serviced the engine and a diesel feed pump is on order.)
Marsh Harbour and the surrounding cays are likely to be our home base over the next couple of months. We're now docked at the Marsh Harbour Marina (along the space on the left bottom edge of the photo below) in close proximity to the famous Jib Room for food, drink, and friendship with the many boaters here. More about our adventures in Marsh Harbour in a later blog post!
Docked at Marsh Harbor Marina with a view of the Sea of Abaco beyond
Marsh Harbour is not too far from Florida
Trooper says "Happy 2017!" to everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment