Thar She Blows!

Thar She Blows!

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

We left Highbourne Cay (again) right after the 8 o'clock weather report--"Brisk winds throughout Holy Week" she reported. We don't even know what date it is, let alone when it's a religious holiday. Oh, well, Diny confirmed that Easter is this weekend, so I guess this is Holy Week.

We motored while we ate breakfast. The winds were blowing at 20 knots steady with swells on our beam; aka rolly. We raised the sails at 9:30--just a handkerchief-sized main sail and two reefs on the jib. We were getting between 6 and 7 knots SOG (speed over ground). Pretty good. The engine was shut down. Carey can't stand to leave the sails alone for long (always tweaking) so by 9:50, we had the main out a bit more with a double reef. By 10:00, the wind had reduced to 12-16 knots, so we shook out all of the reefs on the jib. At 10:15, we quickly had to release both the main sheet and the jib sheet, because we had a huge gust that was heeling us way over. Heeling isn't a bad thing unless you have big swells on the beam, which we do, because a big gust and a big swell together could knock us down. Nope, we don't want that. We always have our sheet lines set up for quick release. It worked beautifully and we levelled the boat before a wave could slam into us. At 10:30, we a
dded a reef in each sail. The wind was freshening again. Every once in a while, a rogue wave would hit us broadside and splash water into the cockpit, on us, and on our cockpit cushions. Grrrrr.

Before noon, we could see the skyline of Nassau, or at least of New Providence.

Just as we were eating lunch, a 55-foot power boat appeared and suddenly turned right toward us. I guess he just wanted to get up close to the other loony boaters out here today. He didn't hail us on VHF; just plowed on through the waves, and then he was gone.

Close to New Providence there are many coral heads and rocks, so we had to watch for them. To get into West Bay, which is appropriately at the west end of the island, we had to go out and around a tiny island and a reef, which included three wrecks. That added an extra half hour onto our trip, but we'd rather that than add a fourth wreck to the area.

We dropped anchor in 7 feet of water (at low tide) at 4:00 in 20 knot winds. There's a park on one side of the bay, a long, white beach on another side, and on the other side there is a funky looking home with its own water park monstrosity. This may be our home for a few days, so we'll have time to explore them all, perhaps.



Wednesday, April 12, 2017

After a lazy morning of checking weather (that's a constant) and the navigational charts, we dinghied to shore to look for some place to replenish our dwindling provisions. No dice. Two-thirds of the beach and surrounding area is an exclusive resort and private homes and they don't look kindly on outsiders broaching their borders. (A nice young couple in swimming gave us that scoop.) Okay, fine. We dinghied over to the park's beach to get rid of our garbage and talked to another nice young couple. They said there were no grocery stores or restaurants within miles of this area. Oh, boy, on to plan B.

Back to the boat, and a further review of the weather and charts. We decided to leave tomorrow and to go to Chub Cay in the Berry Islands. The marina and resort there suffered a great deal of damage from Hurricane Matthew in the fall, but their phone recording says that the fuel dock is operating. Let's hope so!

While Carey scrubbed away the rust on the boat, I prepared food for our day on the water tomorrow--chilled oatmeal for breakfast, Busy Day Soup for tonight's supper and our lunch tomorrow, and rice pudding for a treat to keep our spirits up when the going gets rough.

Mr. Mantus has been working brilliantly. We just checked my anchor mark on the chartplotter and we haven't dragged even a foot. Yea, Mr. Mantus!



Thursday, April 13, 2017

We left the anchorage at 8:00 am and had breakfast on the way. Jo had given me the recipe for Chilled Oatmeal and it is perfect to make up the night before and then eat after we've taken off. It's delicious and a real time saver.

We sailed all the way from West Bay on New Providence to Chub Cay today. Great sail with 9-13 knot winds and 4 foot swells. The swells make us feel like we are riding a roller coaster--sideways.

We arrived at the Chub Cay Marina fuel dock at 1:00. We filled our fuel tank and both water tanks and bought a bag of ice. Ahhhh, I like being full! By the time we had filled everything and anchored outside of the harbour, it was 2:30. Time for lunch! Late, as usual.

While we were relaxing after lunch, Carey noticed a starfish and some fish under our boat. The fish turned out to be sharks--at least five of them, each about three feet long. I put my underwater Hero camera in the water and they came right up to it. I think I got some awesome videos! I don't think I'll be swimming here, though. Although small, they looked a little too hungry!

I made Chicken Diablo in my pressure cooker tonight for the first time. I'm getting much better at adapting recipes for the pressure cooker. The cooker is great on the boat, because it doesn't heat up the boat much, plus it saves on propane. Win-win.



Friday, April 14, 2017

We lifted anchor at 7:00 and headed out. Today, we are going to Bullocks Harbour in the Berry Islands. It's only about 30 miles away, but we have to go all around the shallow Berry's Bank so it will be more like 50 miles for us. Hopefully, the shallow water will mean that the swells can't get too big. We put up the sails as soon as we left the anchorage and turned off the engine. We have triple reefs in today and are going around 7 knots. Not bad!

I made homemade bread for breakfast, which we ate with coffee on the way.

By 9:00, we were going through the narrow gap called the Northwest Channel.

The sailboat just ahead of us told another boater on the radio that we were getting 25 knots of wind. The forecast was for 20 knots, but our wind meter says we are getting 15 knots. We've been wondering about our meter, because it seems to be lower than expected quite frequently. We are sailing on quite a tilt today. I think Popeye (oops, I mean Carey) is determined to bury our downwind rail in the water. We have a very high freeboard, so that is quite a feat for our boat. By 10:50, just after we turned northeast, our wind meter was showing 20 knots. The swells were about 4 feet and we had to turn more into them, which meant banging again. Ugh.

The white terns flutter like confetti in the wind behind our boat.

At 2:00, we were noticing 25 knots on the wind gauge and the seas were building uncomfortably. We were turning even more upwind, so we decided to bring in the main. Just as we did, the skies opened up. We went through quite a squall, but it only lasted 5-10 minutes, thank goodness. It probably washed off a lot of the saltwater that we had been plastered with all day.

We got a second squall about a half hour before we anchored. Just as furious and over just as quickly. Carey was on the helm by then, piloting us through shallow water, so he got wet and cold. I stayed warm and dry under the dodger.

It wasn't the most pleasant trip, but we made it to the anchorage at Bullocks Harbour, Great Harbour Cay in one piece. There are two other Canadian boats in this anchorage. One guy, Rod, and his hired crew, Erica, came over from his catamaran to say hi. They chatted for a while and then went to shore to look for a flight for Erica to go home to Fort Lauderdale.

We had dinner, relaxed, and made an early night of it.



Saturday, April 15, 2017

Happy 39th Anniversary to us!

We are going to stay here at Bullocks Harbour for a few days while we wait for a weather system to go through. There are several other boats here with us. Today, we are having 25 knot winds and there are big swells out in the open water, but the water is relatively calm here. It was great for sleeping.

After breakfast, we dinghied into the Great Harbour Cay Marina. It looks close on the chart, but after going through the entrance from the harbour we entered a large bay. From there, we dinghied south and across the bay to get to the marina. All against the strong winds, of course, which took a lot of our dinghy's electric power.

Once we arrived at the marina, we stopped off at the main office and asked if we could use their laundry facilities. The first lady I spoke to said that it would be $10 per load plus a $10 surcharge because we weren't staying at the marina. I agreed, but when we returned after tying the dinghy to the dinghy dock, the manager said there was no surcharge. Nice! We threw our laundry in and went in search of lunch and provisions.

A friendly local man, named Eelon, was very helpful in giving us directions and suggestions, as well as general information about the area. We checked out the grocery store and the deli, and then went to switch our laundry to the dryers. We asked about other lunch places around here and found out that there was a Beach Club restaurant only a couple miles away. Too far to walk in the heat, but close enough. It turned out that Eelon rented out golf carts, but he didn't have any left for today. Kindly, he offered to drive us to the Beach Club. Wow, how great is that? We folded and finished our laundry, tucked it into the dinghy, and headed out with Eelon at 1:30.

As it turned out, although very close, the Beach Club is on the other side of the island, on the east shore. It is all outdoors, and the wind was howling there! We had to hold onto our hats, drinks, and food to prevent them from tipping over or flying away. Oh, well, at least we got out to celebrate our anniversary. I had wifi for a brief time, so got as much email, messaging, and downloading done as possible. Unfortunately, when we went to pay the bill we were informed that they only take cash. Yikes! I only had a bit of cash, but was able to scrounge just enough to pay the bill. Out of cash again, no ATM nearby, and most businesses in the area (even the grocery store, we were told) don't take credit cards. Oh, boy.

The white sand beach behind the restaurant is stunning--sickle shaped with foamy surf pounding in. After lunch, we took a walk up the beach and enjoyed the soft sand and warm waves lapping at our toes.

Eelon came to pick us up at 3:30 and took us back to the marina. We checked at the grocery store and they did take a credit card, but like most places here, they charge an extra 5% to use plastic. Fair enough, except the prices are already exorbitant. We didn't find much in the way of meat, dairy, or produce, which is what we needed, but we did find a few things. After several tries, the clerk was able to give us $50 cash back on our credit card, but when he tried it again, the request was declined. Uh, oh, I hope we're not going to have a problem with that card now. We've already lost the use of our American Express card, so if we lose this one, we'll be in dire straits.

We dinghied back to the boat around 4:30, had a late light dinner, and went to bed early.



Sunday, April 16, 2017

Happy Easter!

We are staying here today, still waiting for the weather to calm a bit, so today is a work day. I will be working on updating our supplies inventory, mending the frayed Bahamian courtesy flag, defrosting the freezer, and updating the blog. Carey is working on adjusting the dodger frame, scrubbing the rust off the boat, checking the water in the bow thruster batteries, and various other little jobs. Together, we will do the engine checks and plan our route back home. Just a nice restful day.