NASSAU to Highborn Cay, Exumas Bahamas.

BLAH… So, wanted to get up early (dawn) and sail out of Nassau after some very much needed R&R. Have been taking yoga classes and eating vegan means for several days now and feeling a little better since the marathon Salsa-Refit that seemed like it might never end.

So for the juicy part, got the boat all ready to go this morning so I could have enough time to make an actual sail of the trip. Then just as I was pulling up the anchor, MY HEART SUNK INTO MY STOMACH, at the end of the anchor chain instead of my beloved 35LB Delta anchor there was a huge iron rod tied onto my anchor chain. Instantly I knew what happened. I recently read an article about an anchorage in the Galapagos where one morning all the sailboats pulled up their anchors to leave the harbor and surprise, ALL of the stern anchors were gone and the anchor chain was instead tied to large rocks. They good ol’ switch-er-oo. SO, first thing I did was drop the chain back down so that I wouldn’t drift ashore. Then I set out a second anchor in the dinghy to hold me while I sorted out the mess. I re-hoisted my iron-rod anchor back up and when I saw how well it was tied onto the chain I just knew for sure my anchor had been stolen. So I managed to untie it while hanging over the side of the dinghy (this actually took a while) and then I went to haul in the rest of the chain as I debated weather or not to even report the theft and if I could replace the anchor on short notice. No big deal though since I had four anchors, 3 of them oversized. BUT when I finally got to the end of the chain, my anchor was still there!! I couldn’t believe it. So the new theory is that the chain must have some how tied itself to the iron post on the bottom, probably every time the tide changed it managed to get another wrap until it was a knot! Well I was very happy to have my anchor but running too late to sail to the Cay where I planned to stop on my way to Georgetown Exumas, but I had to get there or I would miss my weather window and be stuck in Nassau for several more days. So it was a long motor-sail close hauled the whole way. The good news is that I was able to make the required 5kts to arrive before dark without running the motor hard, with full sail up and the windvane steering the whole way.
I finally arrived here in Highborne Cay, well before dark around 5PM and it was a good thing as it was a very narrow cut, I would even call it tricky even though the guide book calls it ‘straight foward’. The bottom didnt look to good for holding and I wasnt going to go diving on my anchor in 15′ of water and a strong current so I just dinghied out the second anchor I had out from earlier to make sure I would stay put through the night. Whipped up a batch of rice threw in a can of cream of chicken soup, some canned chicken and dinner was served up with cheap beer. At least motoring here got the batteries charged up enough to run the Engel for cold beer… Mmmm… Beer… Well thats it for now I took a quick dip and rinsed off and I’m in my bunk ready to make an early departure for a 30 some hour sail to Georgetown Tomorrow. Hopefully no more Drama!

Sunday March 16th. 8PM, Exuma Sound Bahamas. I once described the trip across the gulf stream as “One of those days that make you wonder why you started sailing. Well today started out as the opposite. Left the anchorage at 8AM everything going very smooth. Then a wonderful sail all day with full sail up gliding along at 3.5kts, the perfect speed to make Georgetown by tomorrow morning if I pull an all-nighter. Around 4PM the winds died to almost nothing so I set the spinnaker hoping to avoid running the motor but the wind died and it was no use, no wind is no wind! So motored for the last four hours and now have the motor turned way down to avoid arriving to early (before dawn) and in hopes that the wind might pick up enough to sail some time tonight. I have a zillion alarms set so I could probably go to bed and just wake up there, GPS beeps if I go off course, depth sounder alarms if I go too shallow, Radar beeps if anyone gets within 5 miles of me, what could go wrong :-). Well Ill probably keep a watch all night anyway since I’m only a few miles offshore and I slept last night and can even sleep tomorrow during the day. There is a front heading my way so the wind could kick WAY up but Im not sure if thats going to happen late tonight or tomorrow after I’m already in port. I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow, as for now, just motoring along in a dead calm at 3kts. I’ll hit the spot so everyone knows where I am. Goodnight.

Tagged with:

Filed under: sailing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!