Wednesday, November 30th, Great Sale Cay anchorage!! Bahamas!!

The wind died down about 3:30am. By 7am it looked great. This would put our timing off, getting to Great Sale Cay at night, but it looked like our only opportunity for awhile. I hailed Southern Heat and they were thinking the same thing. South Wind hailed us, but we couldn’t catch the message. It sounded like he’d left, probably when the winds died, and he was on his way. We never caught up with him.

We were underway at 7:30am. Just as we were going out the Lake Worth Inlet, a huge container ship was coming in. We were on our way! Ken kept an eye on the water temperature. When it was a steady 87-88 degrees, we knew we were in the Gulf Stream, plus the water was cobalt blue. And the waves were big, big enough the autopilot couldn’t manage so Ken steered most of the way. We kept wondering when they’d lie down, like Chris Parker predicted, but it wasn’t until early afternoon that it calmed. There were flying fish, their little fins beating fast like wings. Other than that and a couple of ships, one huge mega-cruise ship, we didn’t see anything but Southern Heat’s sails ahead of us. It being rolly, we were both nauseous and avoided going below. It would have been very uncomfortable doing this at night with the waves large and the autopilot unable to manage.

At 4:30pm we were on the Bahama banks! An 8 hour crossing! Yea!! We were still motorsailing with both m’sail and jib, wanting to make our destination ASAP, and going 6.8-7knots with the wind out of the north. Things were going well, even in the dark with not much to guide us but the chart plotter, Southern Heat’s lights ahead, a few dim stars in the cloudy night, and the compass. I was at the helm and Ken was resting in the cockpit when the boat veered off course due to the strong wind. I put the autopilot on standby and tried to get the boat back on course but was completely disoriented by the lack of anything to focus on. Other night crossings, like going up the New Jersey coast and through Lake Erie and Lake Huron, there were lights on the horizon, but here there was nothing. Finally, we got back on course, but furled the jib so the autopilot could manage the wind.

Because of the lack of lights, the lights from the anchorage were visible 5 miles out, and it looked like there were only a couple of boats in there. Southern Heat hailed us to let us know what was in there: a few boats with anchor lights, but some without, which is stupid because this in one anchorage where boats do come in at night. We took down the m’sail right before the anchorage, in the dark. I’d thought of insisting we take it down before dark, but forgot how important that would be. We slowly motored into the anchorage, distances deceptive. We dropped the hook out in the middle far away from any other boat, and still somewhat sheltered from the north wind. What a relief! We were sore and achy, cranky and exhausted and seasick. But we were in the Bahamas!!