Captains Log 03/18/07
Located in Salt Cay (New Providence)
We started the day a bit late. My intention was to beat the sun, but by the time I woke up, it was already light out. I wanted to have a coffee and wake up with a slow morning routine but it was not to be. I raced against the sun to get the mailsail up, make coffee and raise the anchor so that we can start at sunrise. We were about half hour late. Leaving Cherokee sound gave us a nice lee to sail with. As we sailed further and further away NE swell and N winds were picking up and I could feel the rolling of the boat get stronger and stronger. That got Crystal up and about the cabin. She made a quick bite for us to eat before it got too rough. As the morning wore went on I plotted our options for Eluthera, Royal Island and even main harbour in Nassau. Still, the best option was Salt Cay, just in front of hotel Atlantis. The thought of fishing came to my mind several times but the swell was just too great to be comfortable running around the cockpit. We just had to gut it out motorsailing in what turned out to be huge swell. Some of the waves were breaking and were over 7 feet. Crystal handled it really well. Towards the last part of the leg, she was at the helm while I tinkered around with the usual stuff, electrical and mechanical equipment. Steering the boat helped her fight the seasickness that was slowly creeping up on me as well. But by the time we saw the first hotel buildings we felt much better. She kept the helm for the entire afternoon all the way to the very dangerous entrance to Salt Cay. The breakers were very big and the entrance was completely exposed. But according the charts there were plenty of water and just behind the reef, there was protection in the lee of Salt Cay. I was tempted to take over simply because of adrenaline rush and because its usually me that steers near rage seas. However I wanted Crystal to get the hang of the reef waters, currents, swell, and all the other heart pumping and nerve wrecking action that comes with entering the cut. I was telling here where to go and she was steering. And we watched the depth meter go form .00 meaning very very deep beyond the range, usually 2-3 thousand feet, to teens in a matter of minutes as we came to less than ½ mile from the cut. The nice thing about large breaking waves is that they give off the location of all the reefs. I was hanging on to the mast trying the get the picture of the shoreline based on the breakers. Then I would verify it against the charts we had, before telling Crystal where to go. It worked good. Even when we got to less than 15 feet of water I was not worried. Very soon we made the turn and found ourselves in the lee of Salt Cay. Just in time for the sunset. The water was just as clear as in the Abacos and I got my mask and fins to do the usual, anchoring maneuver of digging the tip of the CQR into grassy bottom. By now we got very good at it and it took only few minutes to anchor. The next morning we were gonna take the Nassau Harbour entrance and find a good place to spend the next week with my sister. She is coming in few days. I am very very glad that we made it here because the weather was starting to deteriorate rapidly. The next few days turned out to be very gusty and in no way would we ever be able to make this leg a day or two later.
We started the day a bit late. My intention was to beat the sun, but by the time I woke up, it was already light out. I wanted to have a coffee and wake up with a slow morning routine but it was not to be. I raced against the sun to get the mailsail up, make coffee and raise the anchor so that we can start at sunrise. We were about half hour late. Leaving Cherokee sound gave us a nice lee to sail with. As we sailed further and further away NE swell and N winds were picking up and I could feel the rolling of the boat get stronger and stronger. That got Crystal up and about the cabin. She made a quick bite for us to eat before it got too rough. As the morning wore went on I plotted our options for Eluthera, Royal Island and even main harbour in Nassau. Still, the best option was Salt Cay, just in front of hotel Atlantis. The thought of fishing came to my mind several times but the swell was just too great to be comfortable running around the cockpit. We just had to gut it out motorsailing in what turned out to be huge swell. Some of the waves were breaking and were over 7 feet. Crystal handled it really well. Towards the last part of the leg, she was at the helm while I tinkered around with the usual stuff, electrical and mechanical equipment. Steering the boat helped her fight the seasickness that was slowly creeping up on me as well. But by the time we saw the first hotel buildings we felt much better. She kept the helm for the entire afternoon all the way to the very dangerous entrance to Salt Cay. The breakers were very big and the entrance was completely exposed. But according the charts there were plenty of water and just behind the reef, there was protection in the lee of Salt Cay. I was tempted to take over simply because of adrenaline rush and because its usually me that steers near rage seas. However I wanted Crystal to get the hang of the reef waters, currents, swell, and all the other heart pumping and nerve wrecking action that comes with entering the cut. I was telling here where to go and she was steering. And we watched the depth meter go form .00 meaning very very deep beyond the range, usually 2-3 thousand feet, to teens in a matter of minutes as we came to less than ½ mile from the cut. The nice thing about large breaking waves is that they give off the location of all the reefs. I was hanging on to the mast trying the get the picture of the shoreline based on the breakers. Then I would verify it against the charts we had, before telling Crystal where to go. It worked good. Even when we got to less than 15 feet of water I was not worried. Very soon we made the turn and found ourselves in the lee of Salt Cay. Just in time for the sunset. The water was just as clear as in the Abacos and I got my mask and fins to do the usual, anchoring maneuver of digging the tip of the CQR into grassy bottom. By now we got very good at it and it took only few minutes to anchor. The next morning we were gonna take the Nassau Harbour entrance and find a good place to spend the next week with my sister. She is coming in few days. I am very very glad that we made it here because the weather was starting to deteriorate rapidly. The next few days turned out to be very gusty and in no way would we ever be able to make this leg a day or two later.
posted by sundowner-cruise at 1:02 PM
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