Captains Log 04/01/07
Located in Allen’s Cay Exuma
Yes we made it to Exumas. It was a long a exhausting day of only 30Nm made good. But we encountered all kinds of strange conditions and obstacles. Leaving the dock was a night mare. I had to reverse out against wind and current. It was hard. Wind generator blades almost slammed into the top of one of the pilings. I think we missed it by about an inch. That would have been a costly mistake. I just wasn’t paying attention to how high the pilings were. Anyway we got the lines loose one by one as I slowly gave more and more RPMs in reverse. The hard part was keeping the boat going straight and not falling off to the side. The first attempt was a disaster and I had to shift to neutral and let the boat find its way back into the slot between the pilings. The problem was that the stern was just not going backwards, but more like sideways. We would have ended up on the cement wall with current and waves pressing us on to it. So on the second try I kept the rudder straight and gave more power. We started straight and kept on exiting the slip straight until we were far enough to turn the boat and get away from all other docked vessels. Exiting the harbor was tough. We got 3 knots of current against us. We should have left 2-3 hours earlier and not at 10:30. The trip to Allans Cay was only 30NM long but at about half way, there is a bank with many scattered coral heads. The only way to get through there is to have sun up high or at your back and steer around the dangers. That was according to the guide. So I wanted to arrive to that point in mid afternoon as opposed to late morning. Late morning would have had the sun shining in our face and reflection in the water would have made things difficult to see. So leaving at 10:30 on a day where the forecast wind was supposed to be NE-E 15-20 was perfect. Unfortunately the wind was E-SE and on the nose as we exited the harbor. The first 10 miles were horrible. With these winds over the banks that were actually much deeper than Abacos the waves built up considerably. We pounded like never before close hauled and motor-sailing to keep the course over the easiest part of the coral head mine field. Unfortunately after the wind veered even more we had to bear off, and take what she gives us. That left us heading for more dangerous section of the yellow bank with many scattered coral heads. The guide book says: Read the coral heads and steer around them. One good thing was that by the time we got to the bank the waves and wind died down quite a bit. But the mine filed was very tough. Both Crystal and me were yelling and screaming. There is something very nerve wrecking when you see these black monsters rise to the top of the water surface. The wind picked up a bit just as we were crossing the worst section. On top of it all, the engine started overheating so that made it very hard to steer around the coral heads. In fact we could steer downwind but never upwind to get around. To make matters worse, I had to go down and plot our position every 15 minutes. The engine had to remain at 1000 rpms, which gave us 180F running temperature. Anything over and the engine would overheat. I never really believed in murphy’s law, but ever since we left I am getting reassured that if something is going to break, it will do so in worst imaginable time. And so it was. We couldn’t turn back because then the sung glare was in our face. So all we had left is to try our best to navigate around the obstacles. Even worse, the yellow bank got pretty shallow. I was reading 10s and 9s. This was consistent with the chart so I was not paying much attention to it. After an hour or so of dodging disaster, I started getting some 14s and 15s and after plotting our next position, I realized that we went through the worst forest of coral heads on the chart. The rest of the area was still dangerous but with water getting deeper and deeper, the going got a bit easier. But the wind was not cooperating. It turned out of SE and the only direction we could steer was about 170 magnetic. I was dying to find our why the hell was engine overheating. So Crystal was sailing and I took a look at the most likely cause of the overheating, raw water strainer. The dirty Nassau Harbor had something to do with it. The strainer was full of crap. It took a bout half hour to clean it all up, and I was very happy. It was very nice to now I got to the bottom of the problem on my first try. Soon thereafter, we got the engine running and were motor sailing in a bit better direction. I was starting to get worried because all the problems with coral heads, wind and engine got us side tracked we were still good 15NM away from a good overnight anchorage, and the sun was getting lower and lower. So we decided to tack and see what the starboard tack would give us. We were heading due east and pretty soon we could see the exuma islands. I still wanted to have a relaxing sunset which meant getting there by 6-7 at the latest. Since we were motorsailing, I fired up the new and improved watermaker, now firing on all cylinders. I put the second membrane in and now we were back to about 35-40GPH. The first membrane was giving 20, but second one was giving only about 15. Still that’s plenty of water, and with clean raw water strainer the engine was running cool at 160F. The rest of the afternoon went by without a glitch. We dropped sails and motored dead into the wind the last couple of miles. That gave me time to sort things around the cabin. All my books, and charts went flying around while we had that first section of hard beating into the wind and waves. Coolers were all over the place and poor Bella pooped on our newly washed bed sheets. We just had them done and I found hard clunks of poop while cleaning the cabin. Later on Crystal found the wet spot so she must have peed in there as well. Normally that deserves a little spanking but the pounding on the waves was so bad that her tray got thrown around the cabin. She actually spent the entire time in the V-birth noticeably seasick. But all the exhaustion and bad experiences were completely wiped away from my mind as I jumped in the water to hook the anchor. We found a calm little spot very close to land in comfortable 20 feet of crystal clear water in which you could see every bottom detail. As I got in I realized why many consider Exumas the best cruising grounds in the world. I’ve never seen water so clear before. Amazing!! That night we had a full moon and details of the bottom were clearly recognizable. And we are in 20 feet of water. Just incredible. I can’t wait to get in the water next morning with my spear. This is gonna be good.
Yes we made it to Exumas. It was a long a exhausting day of only 30Nm made good. But we encountered all kinds of strange conditions and obstacles. Leaving the dock was a night mare. I had to reverse out against wind and current. It was hard. Wind generator blades almost slammed into the top of one of the pilings. I think we missed it by about an inch. That would have been a costly mistake. I just wasn’t paying attention to how high the pilings were. Anyway we got the lines loose one by one as I slowly gave more and more RPMs in reverse. The hard part was keeping the boat going straight and not falling off to the side. The first attempt was a disaster and I had to shift to neutral and let the boat find its way back into the slot between the pilings. The problem was that the stern was just not going backwards, but more like sideways. We would have ended up on the cement wall with current and waves pressing us on to it. So on the second try I kept the rudder straight and gave more power. We started straight and kept on exiting the slip straight until we were far enough to turn the boat and get away from all other docked vessels. Exiting the harbor was tough. We got 3 knots of current against us. We should have left 2-3 hours earlier and not at 10:30. The trip to Allans Cay was only 30NM long but at about half way, there is a bank with many scattered coral heads. The only way to get through there is to have sun up high or at your back and steer around the dangers. That was according to the guide. So I wanted to arrive to that point in mid afternoon as opposed to late morning. Late morning would have had the sun shining in our face and reflection in the water would have made things difficult to see. So leaving at 10:30 on a day where the forecast wind was supposed to be NE-E 15-20 was perfect. Unfortunately the wind was E-SE and on the nose as we exited the harbor. The first 10 miles were horrible. With these winds over the banks that were actually much deeper than Abacos the waves built up considerably. We pounded like never before close hauled and motor-sailing to keep the course over the easiest part of the coral head mine field. Unfortunately after the wind veered even more we had to bear off, and take what she gives us. That left us heading for more dangerous section of the yellow bank with many scattered coral heads. The guide book says: Read the coral heads and steer around them. One good thing was that by the time we got to the bank the waves and wind died down quite a bit. But the mine filed was very tough. Both Crystal and me were yelling and screaming. There is something very nerve wrecking when you see these black monsters rise to the top of the water surface. The wind picked up a bit just as we were crossing the worst section. On top of it all, the engine started overheating so that made it very hard to steer around the coral heads. In fact we could steer downwind but never upwind to get around. To make matters worse, I had to go down and plot our position every 15 minutes. The engine had to remain at 1000 rpms, which gave us 180F running temperature. Anything over and the engine would overheat. I never really believed in murphy’s law, but ever since we left I am getting reassured that if something is going to break, it will do so in worst imaginable time. And so it was. We couldn’t turn back because then the sung glare was in our face. So all we had left is to try our best to navigate around the obstacles. Even worse, the yellow bank got pretty shallow. I was reading 10s and 9s. This was consistent with the chart so I was not paying much attention to it. After an hour or so of dodging disaster, I started getting some 14s and 15s and after plotting our next position, I realized that we went through the worst forest of coral heads on the chart. The rest of the area was still dangerous but with water getting deeper and deeper, the going got a bit easier. But the wind was not cooperating. It turned out of SE and the only direction we could steer was about 170 magnetic. I was dying to find our why the hell was engine overheating. So Crystal was sailing and I took a look at the most likely cause of the overheating, raw water strainer. The dirty Nassau Harbor had something to do with it. The strainer was full of crap. It took a bout half hour to clean it all up, and I was very happy. It was very nice to now I got to the bottom of the problem on my first try. Soon thereafter, we got the engine running and were motor sailing in a bit better direction. I was starting to get worried because all the problems with coral heads, wind and engine got us side tracked we were still good 15NM away from a good overnight anchorage, and the sun was getting lower and lower. So we decided to tack and see what the starboard tack would give us. We were heading due east and pretty soon we could see the exuma islands. I still wanted to have a relaxing sunset which meant getting there by 6-7 at the latest. Since we were motorsailing, I fired up the new and improved watermaker, now firing on all cylinders. I put the second membrane in and now we were back to about 35-40GPH. The first membrane was giving 20, but second one was giving only about 15. Still that’s plenty of water, and with clean raw water strainer the engine was running cool at 160F. The rest of the afternoon went by without a glitch. We dropped sails and motored dead into the wind the last couple of miles. That gave me time to sort things around the cabin. All my books, and charts went flying around while we had that first section of hard beating into the wind and waves. Coolers were all over the place and poor Bella pooped on our newly washed bed sheets. We just had them done and I found hard clunks of poop while cleaning the cabin. Later on Crystal found the wet spot so she must have peed in there as well. Normally that deserves a little spanking but the pounding on the waves was so bad that her tray got thrown around the cabin. She actually spent the entire time in the V-birth noticeably seasick. But all the exhaustion and bad experiences were completely wiped away from my mind as I jumped in the water to hook the anchor. We found a calm little spot very close to land in comfortable 20 feet of crystal clear water in which you could see every bottom detail. As I got in I realized why many consider Exumas the best cruising grounds in the world. I’ve never seen water so clear before. Amazing!! That night we had a full moon and details of the bottom were clearly recognizable. And we are in 20 feet of water. Just incredible. I can’t wait to get in the water next morning with my spear. This is gonna be good.
posted by sundowner-cruise at 1:04 PM
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