I’ll admit that sailing from George Town to
Black Point last Saturday wasn’t the best choice I've made lately. The forecast wasn’t bad. Easterly winds 15
gusting to 20 knots, but we were going northwest, so the apparent wind we would
feel on the boat would be less because it would be slightly behind us. Waves were supposed to be 3 feet or less and
again, on our stern quarter. As we prepared to raise the anchor Karen asked if
this was a day we should say “maybe not" because it was gusting over 20
knots in the anchorage. “No" I said,” we'll put a reef in and we'll be
fine", and off we went. Heading out the cut was fine, slightly bigger
waves than expected but we were going to change course so they would be farther
toward our stern. Plus there were a few boats ahead, and I saw more AIS markers out on the sound. How bad could it
be? Suffice to say it was a very
uncomfortable, long day. The wind kept
building, I saw 27 knots at one point and with the wind the waves grew so that
they were a good 6’, and with a very short period between them. Helmut our
autopilot really did a great job steering but every once in a while he would
steer a little into the wind and a wave would push us a little farther
resulting in our being beam on to the waves, and our getting laid over, the
rail nearly in the water. Nearly everything stayed where it was stowed except
when the locker under the stove opened and our Yeti thermos flew across the
cabin snacking into the head door with quite a crash. Karen was none too
pleased with me, spending most of the trip on the cabin sole wedged between the
table and the settee feeling sick. However, we made it, nothing broke and we
were very happy once the anchor was down in Black Point and we had Dark and
Stormy's in hand to sooth our nerves! But I digress.
After saying goodbye to Sue and Randy on
Wednesday, we motored into a short chop from Staniel Cay 1 ½ hours south to
Black Point. As soon as we arrived we grabbed the laundry bag and headed for
Rock Sound Laundry. While the machines were running we walked down to Adderly's
grocery to see what they had, but true to form this year the boat was expected
soon, so no fresh produce was available.
Thursday my brother Kevin and Sheryl on
Quantum Leap II and Mike and Julie on Blue Train arrived at Black Point. It was great to catch up with Kevin and
Sheryl over swizzles on Trekker.
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| Hugh & Kevin |
Friday Ida from the laundry cut Karen’s
hair and after a walk around town we had swizzles with Mike, Julie, Kevin and
Sheryl aboard Quantum Leap II (QL2). Saturday we all decided to move around to
Little Bay, snorkelled with Mike and Julie and had sundowners on the beach
until the no-seeums drove us back to our boats.
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| Mike, Julie, Sheryl, Kevin & Hugh |
Early Sunday the wind shifted to the south
east and when we woke we were bouncing and rolling in the anchorage so we made
a hasty retreat back to Black Point for more protection.
Monday looked like a reasonable day to move
south to Lee Stocking, a cay that we have heard is beautiful, so QL2 and
Trekker raised anchors and headed out Dotham Cut from the bank into the
sound. We knew we would be about 1 hour
after high tide when we exited the cut but thought that the current opposing
the wind and waves wouldn’t be too bad.
We were wrong! In fact there was
a little rage going on that we watched QL2 pound through, and then it was our
turn. Thankfully after about 4 waves
where we felt like the boat was standing on its stern going up the waves we
were able to veer south out of the worst of the waves and current and head
south. After about an hour we noticed that we were quickly gaining on QL2 following
which they called to say their engine had stopped. We stood by while Kevin got it going again
and at their insistence carried on south.
Nearing Lee Stocking we made another change of plans, to go straight to
George Town so that we could have a calm day Tuesday to cross Elizabeth Harbour
in the dinghy to provision. So on we
pushed, arriving George Town after a 9 hour day of motor sailing. As usual
George Town was really busy with about 250 boats anchored and after cruising up
and down the harbour dropped the hook nearly where we had last year.
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| Elizabeth Harbour (George Town) anchorage |
Tuesday we made a couple of runs across the
harbour, first for groceries and a coffee at a new café, and then to fill my
water bladder with free fresh water provided on the dinghy dock by Exuma
Markets. After pumping the water into our tanks we dinghied to St. Francis
resort where we shared a pizza for lunch.
Wednesday the wind blew as predicted so we
stayed on the boat just in case we or someone else nearby dragged anchor.
Thankfully once we settled to the new wind direction we didn't move.
Thursday the wind continued to blow but I
was pretty confident in our holding by then so we dinghied to Stocking island
and walked across to the beach. A couple of kite boarders playing in the waves provided
great entertainment!
Friday we bought some more groceries, had lunch at Lumina resort on Stocking Island and
prepared for our Saturday run north as previously described!
Sunday we spent a lazy day in Black Point
enjoying a walk and a 4 hour lunch with Allan and Linda on Touch of Grey,
another Hanse 415 that we met in Jersey City in 2017.
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| Touch of Grey |
Monday we had a lovely sail up the bank to Highbourne Cay at the top of the Exuma chain. Touch of Grey took a bunch of fantastic photos of Trekker under full sail, including some with our spinnaker flying.
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| Trekker from Touch of Grey |
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| Trekker under spinnaker |
Today we motored across to Eleuthera and tucked
into Cape Eleuthera marina for a couple of nights while another blow comes
through.
Next it's up Eleuthera and then across to
the Abacos, one day at a time!
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