Day 146, Year 10: Almost There
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2015 @ 5:45 pm
Weather: Sunny and Hot, Winds SE 15-20 AM, SSW 8-10 PM
Latitude: 25 54.217 N
Longitude: 079 20.626 W
Location: 5 Miles from Entering the Grand Bahama Bank; 52 miles from Key Biscayne
After listening to the morning weather report, we decided to go for it. It is now early evening and we are still not quite on the Grand Bahama Bank, but we will be there just after sunset and continue on until around midnight. At that point, we (Sea Turtle and Windbird) will simply drop our anchors and sleep for about six hours before continuing on. At least that is the current plan. We could just motor sail on overnight, but not sure everyone is up for that. The goal is to reach Chub Cay in the Berry Islands tomorrow, check in, and then continue on to Rose Island just west of New Providence Island (Nassau) for Saturday night. On Sunday we will start the trek south through the Exumas, weather permitting.
If you are not familiar with the Bahamas, this probably all sounds like a bit like Greek. So here are my quick notes to help you better understand the territory. The Abacos and Grand Bahama Island (Freeport) are on the Little Bahama Bank. These places are in the northern Bahamas and at the closest point are about 50 miles due east of West Palm Beach in Florida. Bimini and Cat and Gun Cay are further south and are about 50 miles due east of Miami and are on the Grand Bahama Bank. Mark’s definition for the ‘bank’ is simply, “A shallow place.” So we left Miami heading across to Bimini BUT the Gulf Stream runs rapidly north in the waters between Florida and the Bahamas. If you want to go east, you have to sail south. And since we left with strong SE winds, we were carried further north than we would have liked, but we knew the wind was going to die mid-afternoon and that we could then make our way back south. Of course, the wind went further south as well, so we are still motor sailing into the wind, but it is now only 7-8 knots with 1-2 foot seas. That’s a whole lot better than 15-20 with 6-7 foot seas. We could have waited until tomorrow and motored the whole way, and in retrospect, maybe that would have been smarter because this morning was rough. Mark and Lee talked on the VHF radio a number of times today about navigation issues, but we had really not heard how they are doing. So I just called and Lee said his butt is sore from sitting behind the wheel all day and that Lynda spent most of the day below sleeping. So she should have lots of energy tonight! The seas and winds are calming down nicely, so hopefully it will be a relaxing night on the water, whether we anchor around midnight or keep on motor sailing.
Now back to the notes about the geography of the Bahamas. We have the Abacos and Grand Bahama Island to the north of us and Bimini and Cat and Gun Cay to the south. Just a couple of minutes ago Mark yelled out, “Land Ho.” We can see Bimini, but we are not going to stop there. We are headed right on to the Grand Bahama Bank and will end up in the Berry Islands tomorrow (Chub Cay). From there we will sail about 35 nautical miles to Rose Island just east of New Providence Island (Nassau). To the east of there is Eleuthera and to the south is the chain of small islets (called cays, pronounced keys) of the northern Exuma chain. This is where we will be spending all of our time. Further south is Great Exuma and Little Exuma Island and the cruising mecca of Georgetown. To the east of there is Long Island and Conception and to the south the Bahamas continue to the southeast all the way to the Turks and Caicos. South of there you in the British and US Virgins.
So, yeah, we are here. I got my birthday wish. The one thing I didn’t want for my birthday, however, was a website that is not working. But I got that, too. For some reason, when I tried to get on handleysail.com this morning, I got an error message. It is like the website is just no longer there. I sent an email to Justin and hopefully he will be able to get this fixed. But the timing was horrible. I am sending this log directly to a number of you and hopefully Justin will be able to get the website back up and running soon. Patience, patience . . . not one of my virtues!
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