Heading To Florida

We left Marsh Harbor at 10 AM on April 2nd and motored over mirror like seas to Loggerhead Channel. We could see that the Atlantic beyond Whale Cay looked good so we proceeded around and re-entered the Sea of Abaco through Whale Cay Channel. This channel is the most dangerous in the Bahamas due to the Rages that develop there. Once around the Whale we proceeded to Spanish Cay and arrived at 5 PM to spend the night.

On the 3rd the wind had picked up and we motor sailed, sailed, and then motor sailed to Great Sale Cay. This island is not inhabited and is actually for sale for 9.9 million dollars. It is 6 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the most so if you are interested in owning your own island in the middle of nowhere this would be it. We anchored with several other boats at 6 PM.

We switched off and on with being on watch and in the second picture you can see Mike on watch. This sailing stuff is really stressful sometimes ;>)

A pod of dolphins visited us on the Sea of Abaco. There were several in the pod and they played around us for several minutes.

We made spaghetti for supper using some of the great canned chicken that I have aboard. We made garlic toast to go with it and no one got sick so it was a successful supper. We had an extra piece of toast so we through it overboard and were practically attacked by seagulls. Then we couldn't get rid if them and they sat on the dinghy until we forced them off. We were both tired so it was lights out at about 9 PM.

We got up at daybreak with a breezy ESE wind. It was all sails up with Mike at the helm. We made 5.8 to 6.x knots all the way to Mangrove Cay which is over half way to West End. At Mangrove we changed our heading so we were beam reaching and eventually close hauled with the winds a strong 20+ knots. We were really getting knocked around and couldn't hold our heading. The route through Indian Cay Channel is not forgiving so I dropped the sails and motored the rest of the way. Never the less we touched bottom multiple times before getting out to the Straits of Florida. We didn't get stuck because it was the rough seas that caused us to "bottom out" in the shallow water. We were really happy to see the depth meter go from 6 to 30 feet as we exited Indian Cay Channel.

We rounded Indian Channel Rock and headed into rollers and 4 ft seas as we proceed at 2.5 knots toward West End. Once in the harbor we called in on VHF and were assigned slip C31. Yippee!

We have some weather coming in so we'll stay put and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to Florida. It looks good for maybe Thursday or Friday right now.