We are here, that is we are at Old Bahama Bay at West End.
We left Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday 2/25. Our weather window was until Sunset on Wednesday they the winds would "pick up" to 20 knots but still SSE.
We went through the 17th street bridge by 9:30 and had sails up and sailing by 10 am. We soon were out in the Atlantic, rolling waves and maintaining at least 7 knots and enjoying long runs of 8+ knots. It was a beautiful day of sailing, long rolling waves, just the right temperature (though Tom said he was chilly), I got a good deal of knitting done. No excitement or drama.
Towards sunset we were still 30 miles and south of West End. The wind was picking up and we noticed that our Depth sounder was blank. Still in over 2000' of water that wasn't as bothersome as we later realized. Sunset was beautiful but wind a brisk 19 knots gust over 20. Took in Jib and reefed the main. The waves were getting a little chop into them but still manageable.
Dark.... we are 25 knots wind on average 30+ knot gusts and waves average 5' + we brought down the sail rather messily as holding into the wind became nearly impossible.
Around 10 pm we tried to anchor, lost anchor.... that is a whole story by itself.
We decided to head for West End but Tom (rightly) would not try to enter channel so we circled outside from midnight until 6:30am. I finally got a security guard and in Tom timed the waves to finally get into the harbor. The wind at the harbor entrance when we entered was 26 knots SSE with 6+ waves.
The folks at Old Bay are great, we had a day to sit on the wall and wait for the wind to die down before moving to a slip.
We are in the Bahamas...
We bought a spare anchor before we left so we still have an anchor. On Friday Tom went to work on the Depth sounder, without it we would have to return to the states. It is working now....
The wind was so strong that it bent our Wind generator mount. Lessons learned, and adventure survived and we are better sailors for it
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| Manatee drinking water in slip at Cooley's Landing |
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| Julia and Dennis helped cast off lines and sent us on our way |
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| bent Wind Generator after crossing |
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| leaving Cooley's landing straight wind generator |
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| 17th street bridge, |
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| Regina Maria, 100' S/V going to Bermuda |
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| sun set. Red skies at night sailors delight??? |
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| Tom getting chilly |
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| those are not mountains, but there are waves |
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| sunset first night at West End |
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