Little Harbour Cay, Berries to Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island March 16-18
2009
We left you at breakfast in the anchorage between Little Harbour and
Cabbage Cays in the Berries. As we always do, we timed our departure
taking not only the tide, but also our expected arrival time, into
consideration. We planned to leave in the mid-afternoon based on the
forecasted wind shift and the expectation that we'd arrive at Lucaya
after dawn.
Because we were at a relatively high tide, but would not be leaving
for some time, we took advantage of the extra depth to move around
behind Cabbage Cay shortly before lunch. Our exit, assisted by the
confidence gained by my going out in the dinghy with the handheld
depth finder, was much less nerve-wracking than our entrance! Once in
the Cabbage Cay anchorage, we found that the other boat which had been
there when we arrived was gone, so we had an easier time of finding a
secure anchoring point. As well, the wind was nearly the opposite of
our arrival wind, so we were not in danger of blowing into the shallow
area.
As I always try to accomplish my boat 1-2-3's (the little chores you
do to keep ahead of the maintenance), one of these for the day
included sewing the zipper on our aging MackPack sail cover. This was
a continuous spiral nylon zipper, and the stitching which held the
nylon part to the tape which was attached to the cover had aged enough
that some of the end near the topping lift had failed.
The nylon "string" of zipper was therefore unattached to the
supporting cloth tape, making zipping and unzipping more challenging,
as well as having the risk of deforming the zipper, as the spiral
would stretch if not held by the stitching. Given our experience with
the zippers for our windows in the cockpit enclosure, which has seen
one after the other of them fail, this became a priority for us.
Digging out my trusty sail needle (small, of course, for this task)
and our UV resistant thread, I laboriously resewed the two feet or so
on one side, and about a foot on the other, which had failed.
When we get to a place that's convenient (presumed to be our shoreside
residence for a while, Saint Simons Island, where we'll go to take
advantage of the hospitality of two of our angels while Lydia plays
Gramma and we give her mother a ride to the plane), we'll take the
cover off and restitch the entire length of the zipper. If part of the
stitching has failed, it's only a matter of time before the rest of it
does! Like every other boat chore, this took longer than expected, as
I had to deal with a stiff breeze and, as well, look under the zipper
each time to make sure it was coming out in the right place. Once we're
ashore, using the SailRite sewing machine on manual crank will make
that chore relatively simple. Once we have the machine's feed interval
dialed in, we may even be able to use it on slow feed with the motor.
Of course, the wind was in exactly the wrong spot to leave, and no
sooner had I finished the sewing, about the time the shift to our
advantage had been forecast, it died, nearly entirely. As we have no
enthusiasm for running the engine, we thought for a time we'd not
leave at all. Our planned departure had been for about 5PM, but there
was little to no wind, with what there was in the wrong place.
However, some clouds appeared, and, right on schedule as forecasted by
Chris Parker, the wind did nearly a 180-degree shift, and eventually
picked up substantially. Forecast conditions were for 050 at 18 knots,
with 5' seas. As we were heading north, that would put the seas on our
beam, but with the wind stiffening us on nearly a beam reach, it would
be a smooth ride. All right! Anchors up!!
We sailed off the anchorage at 7:15 and motorsailed through the
headwind out the entrance. We'd put in a single reef due to the winds
and the night sail, but due to our point of sail (the wind hadn't
clocked as far as expected), we were unhappily running the engine
until we cleared the Berries due to what turned into headwinds. We
continued motorsailing on a very close beat, about 20* apparent wind,
in a rock-and-roll accompanied by pitching fashion for about 3 hours
in what (happily) turned out to be a dry ride, if not a bit like a
roller coaster :{))
For reasons I've yet to figure, the Cap'n, our electronic charting
program that we've been using in this area to help give a much closer
look at the terrain under us, crapped out on us before we left the
Berries. Fortunately, our other program, MaxSea, had good detail
charts for this area, so I just switched over. One of my shoreside
1-2-3's is to load our many charts such that MaxSea can read them.
There's some proprietary modus they use, and most charts won't come up
regularly on MaxSea without a transformation process, so we have only
some of our inventory loaded in readable format. Getting them in a
recognizable format is a tedious chore, but, at least, it CAN be done
so that's high on my "to do" list, particularly since we find MaxSea
to be a bit more user-friendly than the Cap'n.
By the end of the Berries, where we were able to make our turn for
Lucaya, we were on a beam to close reach by midnight. Our shift from
nearly head-into the wind, a very close beat, to this, made the seas
much more comfortable. Not long after we cleared the Berries, I saw
three fairly closely spaced boats in the distance, but it appeared
that we'd clear them comfortably.
One of them hailed me to say that he had me in sight, and would give
me a 2-mile berth on his pass. Shortly, however, he called me back and
said that the next boat in line was a bit nervous about how close he
was, so he was going to divert to port. That would take us on a very
close track, and he asked if I'd mind falling off a bit to allow him
to have comfortable clearance, even though, due to our position and
also as a sailboat, we were the stand-on vessel. No problem, as we
were in open water, and he passed about ΒΌ mile in front of us. The
other power boat passed, on a reciprocal course (going directly the
other way) close to starboard but well off any potential collision,
and the last, a cruise ship, was far off in the distance by the time
we came anywhere near his prior position.
One of the small pleasures we have in the middle of the night is
chatting up other cruisers, and this was no exception. We've got an
ongoing problem with our radar, determined, due to recent
conversations with the manufacturer, to be a misinstallation by one of
their factory-authorized dealers. That misinstallation has been
frustrating for a very long time, and had at least something to do
with why we wrecked, what seems a very long time ago. (Long-time
followers will recall that Flying Pig was successfully salvaged from
the rock shelf off Content Key, and rehabbed, which is how we are
where we are today.) Thus, I was not able to track these on radar, but
it also means that we just keep a sharp lookout at all times, and chat
up any other boat which may impinge our path as a matter of course.
We made comfortable progress toward Lucaya, but at about 5AM the wind
shifted again, to nearly on our nose, making for a very uncomfortable
ride. After Lydia had been thrown around in the bunk for a while, we
hove to at 7:30 to let her get some sleep. By 9:30AM, the wind again
made a change. This time it was totally fluky, and despite trying to
tack, we finally gave up and motored the rest of the way to Lucaya
with the main only, for stiffness, at 10 degrees of apparent wind.
Earlier, I'd called one of the marinas and we were told that the
controlling depth at low tide for the entrance was only 6' - and low
tide was about when we thought we'd be arriving. Thus, the delay
induced by heaving-to allowed us to gain some more depth, as well, not
only due to the delay but also because our track on heaving-to led us
nearly directly away from our entrance. We arrived at 11AM, nervously
negotiating the narrows as we came in, but we never saw less than 8' -
perhaps the local knowledge was incorrect?
Once inside the harbor, we made preparations to anchor in one of the
locations shown in the Explorer charts as an anchorage. However, it
was too close to a marina, and we were somewhat chased off (well, not
somewhat) by one of the marina-owned boats. Another fellow cruiser had
heard our calls and suggested we anchor right next to him, further
down the canal. When we saw how close the quarters were there, and
knowing that the wind was supposed to shift, as well as pick up
substantially, later in the day, we elected not to take him up on it.
Instead we wandered around looking for other likely places, finally
choosing the area immediately to the left as you enter the harbor.
Unfortunately, that's an area of cable crossings, so we moved on,
still wandering in the wilderness, so to speak :{))
After two passes of the length of both ends of the canals, no likely
anchorage presented itself, all of them being much too tightly bound
for our comfort, particularly with the very soft mud bottom making me
nervous about our anchoring security. Eventually, at 2:30, we tied up
at one of the many unused, unoccupied, and looking abandoned, areas in
front of a trashed lot. We then went to chat up some folks working on
a boat across the way and learned that the massive poles we'd tied to
were used only in hurricane expectation by the guy who owned the huge
schooner we'd seen on a couple of our passes. Since he was out of
town, the locals were quite certain that we could stay there
overnight, as others had been there in the past, sometimes for weeks!
Accordingly, now settled, we got out the dinghy and headed to shore,
enjoying a dinner at one of the local eateries ashore. Lucaya has many
shops and restaurants in the local area, all very enticing, so we made
plans to return the following day. Our spot was about 10 minutes by
dinghy from the town's dinghy dock, located in a marina.
The next day we lazed around until nearly noon, but went ashore to
explore. The local cat met us at the gate, and solicited and received
much attention, but we reluctantly left her. As always, you meet the
most amazing folks while you're cruising; this time it was the vendor
of collapsible hats/vases/bowls, or whatever else you may care to make
of them. I'll leave his story for you to enjoy when you're there, but
it's very entertaining and touching :{))
Dinner ashore again, courtesy of Lydia's Mom, and ice cream on the way
out had us stuffed, again threatening our diet. Despite eating like
horses, all of us have lost weight in our time in the Bahamas - Louise
thinks 30#, and Lydia and I lesser, more gradual, losses. All of our
pants are falling down!
An early evening, with a movie, capped off our lovely day. The next
day, Lydia and Louise wanted to do some shop exploration from some
they'd seen on the way in, so, after our usual leisurely morning
routine, we headed to shore again. Much window shopping, and jewelry
making ideas later, we returned to Flying Pig to make ready to leave
in the evening. Our weather forecaster had said this would be the best
time, but some of our recent acquaintances thought it would be best to
head up to West End to depart the following day, thinking they'd get
that small jump on their own crossings, to Fort Pierce and Savannah,
respectively.
We'll leave you here as we raise the dinghy and make shipshape for our
departure.
Stay Tuned!
L8R
Skip and crew
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
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