Captains Log 05/10/07

Located in Mayaguana, Bahamas

Today we covered the longest run on our path from Georgetown to Luperon. It was the 120NM or so due SE. We left around noon time, with intention of traveling through the night and arriving at Mayaguana on the next day. The afternoon was lovely with near calm winds. Occasionally the winds would pick up out of the south so we motorsailed in the general direction north of Samana Cay. I had couple of hits on the lure, but unfortunately the mahi was just too big. Lost it again. By the time evening arrived, we started noticing some squall activities in front and NE of us. The entire area of south Bahamas is the epicenter of scattered showers and thunderstorms. They are very much so stationary and easy to spot, but the winds in them are very strong as we came to find out. After talking to Carry Okies and Songbird, the two boats we were traveling with, we decided to head south of Samana Cay. It looked that we could avoid some of the squalls by heading south instead of north of Samana Cay. We rounded the western point late in the evening. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated rapidly after that. Light winds picked up to 15-20 out of the south and it didn't look like we could sneak by on the lee shore of Samana Cay. So we altered tack to head towards Acklins island, near by to the west. The entire area was filled with storm pockets and getting around them required some careful planning in avoiding the shoals around the islands. Heading due S we soon ran into some violent weather. Lightning all around, was fortunately in the upper clouds. We noticed very few ground hits, but we decided to tack and head back due east. We managed to build considerable fetch south of the lee shore of Samana Cay, and decided to try and push through the storm pockets and head east. As the storms kept appearing the wind clocked a bit to SW, which actually gave us a bit of a push. But then the storm pocket would go away and reappear at another location producing backing winds that headed us. In all the storm activity, I was most concerned with staying away from South side of Samana Cay. We had about 2 hours of rough weather riding to clear the eastern shoals of Samana Cay. Those two hours dissipated along with storms by the early morning hours. All we were left with is disturbed, boiling seas, and very light winds. By then we were able to alter course and head for Betsy Bay, on the NW shore of Mayaguana. As we made our way south the waves were subsiding and the winds actually picked up a bit out of E-SE giving us an opportunity to sail. That morning I lost another mahi, and the lure. They are just too big for my equipment. I will have to revisit our strategy on fishing in tropical waters. Line definitely has to be stronger than 80lbs. More like 100 or 200, and wall mart is no longer a place to get all the supplies needed. We'll have to visit bait and tackle shops. The rest of the day went by very smooth and we decided to head all the way around Mayaguana on to its south side and anchor in Abrahams Bay behind the reef. That's where the other boats were heading as well.
The anchorage turned out to be very pleasant and after we anchored, we headed over to Carry Okies for some sundowners. The following day we rested, fished on the reef and had a pleasant relaxing day planning to go to Turks and Caicos on the next day.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com