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Time 17:21 local
Lat: N 22° 19.8′
Long: W 73° 28.1′
Abrahams Bay, Mayaguana, Bahamas

We are safely anchored in Abrahams Bay on the south side of Mayaguana. The sun is setting, the water is gin clear and flat calm, and there are dolphins playing around the boat. Pretty perfect.

We had an uneventful trip last night sailing when we had wind, motoring slowly when we didn’t. We arrived off the northeast corner of Mayaguana at sunrise as planned. Most of the morning we spent fishing while. waiting for the sun to get high enough in the sky that navigating into the shallows around the reef by eye was easier. On our first pass by the south west corner of the island we had a strike on one of the deep lines. We got the boat stopped, and Karen took care of the other lines while I held on and watched my line disappear off the reel–very, very fast.

Nothing to do but hold on as 1000 yards of 50 pound test line scream out into the ocean. The amount on the spool kept getting smaller and smaller. I have never had a fish take all of my line before, and this one looked like it was setting up to do just that. Seeing no evidence that this freight train was even thinking about slowing down, I tightened the drag, risking breaking the line, but hoping to turn him around. Nothing changed… so I tightened it some more… still no change. Now I am down to the last 50 yards or less of line, when everything stops and goes slack. He’s gone. Even empty, reeling in all the line from the spool is tiring. When I get to the end, there is the whole lure and rig, slightly chewed up, but otherwise none the worse for wear.

What was it? I have no idea. I have caught really large wahoo, and they are that fast, but have no where near that much stamina. A big billfish? Or large tuna? All possible, but it will just stay “the one that got away.”

Later in the morning we caught a small albacore, and a skipjack tuna. Fresh fish for dinner!

Time 20:00 local
Lat N 22° 56.4′
Long W 73° 40.4′
Enroute to Mayaguana

The wind has continued to be a bit fickle. Fading to nothing in the hours before sunrise, so we motored most of the day, but it has returned and we are back under sail on our last leg toward our destination. Light wind are moving us at 3 to 4 knots. Slow, but if we went faster we’d arrive at Mayaguana before sunrise, and just have to wait for good light to pick our way into the anchorage.

After traversing what seemed an empty ocean yesterday, more evidence of life was around us today. Birds, pilot whales, fish strikes on our trolled lines. We had two wahoo hit, but missed hookups, what was likely a mahi-mahi broke off when the line tangled on the strike, and we landed a rather large barracuda. Unfortunately for us barracuda, especially large ones caught near offshore reefs, are likely carriers of the toxin the causes ciguatera poisoning so we let him off the hook.

Speaking of offshore reefs, we hooked the barracuda as we approached Samara Cay. As I am fighting the fish, I can see the bottom over the side of the boat. Now that’s not an immediate problem. The water here is really clear, and the sonar says it is 42 feet deep. The problem is the chart says it is supposed to be over 400 feet deep at this spot. It seems the reef is almost 3/4 mile away from its charted position. Another lesson, safely learned!

Time 01:15 local
Lat: N 23° 37.7′
Long: W 75° 06.6′
Enroute to Mayaguana, Bahamas

After an early start, we motored most of the day in what would charitably be described as “light” winds. As the moon rose just after midnight, so also rose the wind. Right now we are on a comfortable beam reach in 10 knots of wind making 6 knots straight toward our destination in flat seas. Glorious! At this rate we’ll be arriving at Mayaguana early tomorrow morning.

If we did not have to stop in Mayaguana to check out of the Bahamas I’d continue straight on the the Caicos!

Sometimes getting the right weather wind to make a passage is less about waiting, and more about being ready when opportunity knocks. The forecast toward the end of this week is looking a bit gnarly, so if we had stayed to play for two days it would likely have cost us well over a week.

If the weather follows the models this time tomorrow will see a high pressure ridge drop down from the north and push the tradewinds far to the south of us.  It looks like several days of light and variable winds.

Based on that we expect to be underway out into the ocean about noon tomorrow to cover the 240 miles or so to Mayaguana.  Depending on which model is “more right” we could end up motoring for most of the 2 days it will take us to get to there. There is a place or two along the way that might tempt us to stop if the weather is settled enough, but Plan A is to to go all the way in one straight shot.

Lat:  N 24º 10.92′
Lon: W 76º 27.69′
Big Majors Spot, Bahamas

Today we sailed about 30 miles south on the “inside”, that is , west of the Exuma Cays on the shallower water of the Bahamas Bank.  It was a great sail, close reaching and close hauled all the way in 20 to 25 knots of wind in a short, steep chop, at boatspeeds of 7 to 9 knots.  Sort of like sailing back in San Francisco, except with clear blue water and warm wind!  A short video…

We are now anchored off Pig Beach, so named because there are semi-tame pigs here on the island who expect every boat and dinghy to bring them food, and will swim out to meet them. They have become quite the tourist draw, to the extent that there are other islands who are promoting their own swimming pigs.  But these are the “Real, Original” swimming pigs–if that matters.  We haven’t been ashore yet to get pictures and close-up experience, although there are definitely pigs on the beach.  And chickens too.  Bacon and eggs anyone?

Our weather outlook is very good. In two days the forecast is for the trade winds to die off, giving us the chance to make good time to the south and especially to the east. I expect we will be taking a two day ocean passage all the way to the island of Mayaguana, our last stop in the Bahamas.

Another of the most beautiful places ever!

And here is a slideshow of the pictures from our exploring yesterday I promised…

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Lat: N 24 31.6′
Long: W 76 47.8′
West side of Shroud Cay, Bahamas

Yesterday we had a delightful sail down from our previous stop. We took the ocean side–hoping to snag a fish, but that wasn’t to be.

Today we did a little exploring around the island of Shroud Cay which is part of the Exumas Land and Sea National Park. There is a shallow winding cut all the way from the Bank side to the Ocean side. Lined with mangroves it was a beautiful dinghy ride to the amazing empty beach on the ocean. On the way Karen spotted her first Bahamas sea turtle. We expect to get pictures posted tomorrow when we hope to have an internet connection.

We’d spend a lot more time here snorkeling and further exploring, but we want to be further south to catch a coming weather window. Our challenge here is we need to move quite a bit East to get to the Turks and Caicos Islands. When the trade winds are hollowing at 20 knots out of the east every day that’s not so easy.

In three or four days we expect a break in the trades, and we’ll take advantage of that to get as far to the East as we can, certainly to Rum Island, maybe as far as San Salvador.

Log: N 24º 44.9
Lat: W 76º 50.3’
Allen Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

We waited for our weather window to cut across the “Middle Ground” from Nassau to the chain of islands in the Bahamas known as the Exumas. Although it was only a few days, it did at times feel like we should be getting somewhere instead of waiting! One of our guide books uses the reminder “Safety, Comfort, Pleasure” to remind us why we are out here and that sometimes waiting for the weather to cooperate with our plans is the best thing.

When I woke this morning just before daybreak the wind was nearly calm, I roused Karen, and we were weighing anchor as the first rooster on the island crowed. Our sail over to Allen Cay was delightful, fast and fun. The winds picked up a bit, and steadied between 15 and 20 knots all the way with enough North in them that we were on a close reach at 8 knots the whole way. We arrived just about noon.

We are tucked into a small anchorage between Allen and Leaf Cays, both uninhabited islands. We were a bit surprised when we arrived to find one of Harmonie’s sister ships anchored here under a French flag. Finding our own spot took a bit of sailing by braille, as we harmlessly bumped bottom in sand a couple times.

We are in a narrow cut that channels water between the shallow banks and the deep ocean, so a strong current reverses with each change of tide. To make sure the boat sits in a safe spot and doesn’t swing out over shallow water as the current changes we set two anchors in what is called a “Bahamian Moor” that keep us more or less centered in the channel as the current reverses. I think this is my first time setting this up in the “real world” although I have taught an uncountable number of students how to do it.

These uninhabited islands are nature reserves for the native rock iguana. The islands are small, but host a huge number of these large lizards. Posted signs ask visitors not to feed them, but they certainly behave as if they expect a visiting dinghy to be bringing food.

Karen is having the time of her life. I have lost count of the number of places we have been she has pronounced as the most beautiful place she has ever seen. But she’s right, each place has been more beautiful that the last.

How many different colors of blue are there???

Harmonie (on the right) and her sister ship, the Marie-Alice

First there was one…

Then there were two.

Then there were four…

Ok, this is starting to get creepy…

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As of yet, no unicorns have been sighted, but rainbows are definitely around.

Tonight’s moonrise over Rose Island

The first rule of making your way to windward in the trade winds is to not argue with Mother Nature.  In steady, settled weather the wind blows steadily–and hard–from the East or Northeast, day, after day, after day.That’s just great if you want to go south or west, but if your destination is to the east you have two choices: wait for a break, or beat yourself and your boat up going upwind.

Those breaks in the weather typically come from those winter cold fronts that bring snow and freezing temperatures to much of North America.  By the time they get down this far south, the freezing part is long gone, but they push the trade winds back for 24 to 36 hours as the wind clocks around to the west and northwest

Right now our next destination is to the ESE, about 30 miles away, so a good strong cold front would be nice, but there doesn’t seem to be one on its way for the forecastable future.

When I woke up this morning, hoping for a break, the winds were still roaring at 20 – 25 knots out of the east. So I did the smart thing, I went back to sleep.

The forecast for tomorrow is for a little bit of a break down to about 15 knots, so if that holds up, we’ll wake up early again and again see what we hear outside the boat.  We are both getting a bit itchy and want to go somewhere new and fun.

Taking over the saloon for dinghy bag repair.

Well, part of a day at least. The storage bag that came with our dinghy we use to store the dinghy when we have it on deck.  The bag is of a reasonably functional design, but some of the materials were not chosen with an eye to long term sunlight exposure.  The strip that attached the zipper to the bag literally turned to dust with a few months of tropical sunshine.  So it needed to be taken apart and reassembled with materials more suited to the outdoors. That was most of my day yesterday.

And one dinghy back in the bag.

If the winds stay on the lighter side we will be headed off of the Exumas tomorrow.  For tomorrow the forecast is marginal, so it is possible that we’ll have to wait one more day. The forecast for the next day (Thursday) is good, so we’ll be out of here soon in any event.

It’s usually nice when the weather forecast you made your plans on turns out to be spot on, and that’s what we had yesterday and last night.

We are in an anchorage that has pretty good protection all round.  To the north is Rose Island, to the south and east are shallow reefs with only a narrow opening to the west.  The Guide Book lists this as especially good in Southeast winds.  Which it is, but (there is aways a “but”): The reefs certainly block any dangerously large waves from the Southeast, but small waves come over the shallow water, and then run into the island to the north of us.  That would be the end of that if it was a sandy beach, but it is not.  It is a sheer cliff of coral rock, so the waves bounce back.  In a little while the boat is being smacked by waves from the front and the back at the same time. Very noisy and uncomfortable.

We put up with that the other night, and then, just as forecast, the wind started to clock around to the South, then the West, as the line of clouds that indicated the forward edge of the cold front were visible approaching from the Northwest. The wind continued to clock to the Northwest as the front blew over with a modest lightening show and a little bit of rain. Late last night the wind continued to clock around to the Northeast and settled in to blow hard, 25 to 35 knots. Our anchor was set well and deeply in sand and had done right by us, not shifting in any way as we pulled on it from different directions.

A catamaran did drag its anchor most of the way across the anchorage last night, coming to a stop just a few dozen feet from a rocky reef. That would scare me, and not just because of the immediate danger. If your gear has trouble holding bottom here in shallow, deep, clear sand in 30 knots of wind, you’re going to continue to have trouble in lots of conditions where you really NEED to stay in one spot.

We’ll be sitting here for a few days until a break comes in the wind to let us safely and comfortably head south and east toward the Exumas.