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Not a lot of places can claim to be truly “unique”, and actually one of a kind. Our current location, Hogsty Reef, is one of those. It is the only official atoll in the Atlantic Ocean. It has been on my list of places to see for some time, but to visit the weather has to be pretty stable and cooperative. Finally on this trip, we got here.

Our trip here from Great Inagua was straightforward, and uneventful. 45 miles in 8 hours, mostly motor sailing through somewhat contrary winds.

An atoll is a central lagoon surrounded by a coral barrier reef. In the Pacific Ocean atolls are more common and are most commonly produced when a volcanic island sinks beneath the waves, and the coral grows faster than the land subsides, leaving a ring of coral around a lagoon. Hogsty Reef has a different origin story. A couple dozen feet higher, and it would have been a typical Bahamian Island, but as the water levels rose after the last ice age, the upper surface ended up below sea level, and the coral grew in a ring of reefs around the submerged land in the middle creating a lagoon about 4 miles across.

A least one blogger has pronounced it as “the most isolated place in the Bahamas!” Nice headline, but not true. It is only 35 miles from two other islands, and there are Bahamian islands with more space around them than that. But is does FEEL remote for sure, and visits are rare.

There are two “permanent” patches of land, Northwest Cay, and Southwest Cay. We are currently anchored off the larger of the two, Northwest Cay.

We will not be going ashore here because the terns are still nesting on the island. Certainly one of the smallest places we have ever anchored at. This is also a marine protected area so we will not be fishing or collecting here.

If the weather holds as forecast, we will be spending another day or two here, and hopefully have a chance to get you some more photos from above and underwater.

We have made 800 miles in 5 1/2 days. Not a blistering pace, but respectable. After cutting over the Puerto Rican Trench, at nearly 30,000 feet some of the Earth’s deepest water, we are now approaching Anagada, the Northeastern most of the British Virgin Islands. Once we enter the Anagada Passage, we will officially leave the North Atlantic Ocean, and enter the Caribbean Sea.

Our winds continue to be almost bizarrely favorable. The only possible complaint is right at the moment we could use a bit more, but a little motoring in calm seas is vastly better than the hard-core closehauled beat this route would normally require.

It has been an uneventful trip so far in waters relatively empty of shipping. The highlight was Karen’s spotting of a distant splash, which quickly turned into a humpback whale jumping repeatedly out of the water. These waters are the winter calfing and breeding grounds for these huge creatures, so not too surprising to see them.

Martinique is about 330 miles as the seagull flies, we expect to be pulling in there in two days

We left Cape Eleuthera 3 days ago, and have covered 420 miles since. Not a terrible fast trip, but easy and comfortable. The weather continues to give us exactly what we need, and the forecast continues to look good. For anybody used to sailing in the Caribbean, the idea that anyone could sail from the Bahamas to Martinique in one go and very sail upwind will seem almost laughable, but here we are!

This part of the ocean is really very empty. A highlight of the day is if we have two other vessels within 25 miles. Not much exiting to report. Winds right now are on the lighter side, we are on a beam reach with winds from the NNW at 8, it’s sunny and comfortable.

Our expected arrival in La Marin, Martinique is April 1, making this one of our longer passages on Harmonie so far.

What does a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral look like 450 miles down range?

We were lucky, the original launch time was originally 5PM, but it was delayed a couple hours so the sun had set, but was still illuminating the sky, dramatically lighting the contrail.

This was a SpaceX launch of 23 new Starlink satellites.

We have been moving around away from the boat on deliveries, and working on refits in Fort Lauderdale, now we are back on Harmonie, and ready to sail. Karen is right now up at the marina office settling our bill. Harmonie has been waiting patiently for us in Cape Eleuthera Marina, and as a reward for her tolerance of us playing on other boats, we are taking her for a nice long ride starting today.

Yesterday, and overnight, a strong cold front blasted through, and has upset the normal trade winds for the next week. We are taking advantage of this unusual weather pattern to jump ahead of what would normally be a nasty upwind slog. If the weather forecasts hold we might get as far as Martinique over the next 7 or 8 days. Of course that is a long time to trust the weather forecasts, but we have alternatives if things do not turn out as expected.

The fly in the ointment here is we can not easily get an outbound clearance from the Bahamas here. Not a problem for the Bahamas, it is not required, but there are other countries down range that DO require an outbound clearance, and others that do not. So our next Port of Call will be at a country that does not require this particular paperchase. Our choices will be, Puerto Rico, the USVI, the French side of Saint Martin, and any of the French islands.

We are not completely happy with jumping out of the Bahamas so soon, but sometimes weather drives decisions.