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| Manjack Cay |
Over the past two weeks, we have experienced the
good (amazing) parts of sailing and living on a boat plus, and unfortunately,
the bad and what I would consider the ugly parts of sailing too. Naturally,
everything depends on the weather. As I have mentioned, we are constantly
checking on the weather with the various weather apps and websites that we
have. This year, Starlink has made a huge difference to our life on the boat.
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| Green Turtle Cay. |
When I last wrote, we were keen to find an anchorage that would protect us from the south and west winds. We found one, across the channel from Green Turtle Cay. We left Green Turtle Cay on Sunday at lunch time, and we sailed the 2 nmiles across the channel. We anticipated that we would be lucky to spend one night there as the ‘clocking’ of the weather (from west, NW and then north) would happen during the middle of the night – Monday night. This meant that the anchorage that was protecting us from the south, SW and west would not be suitable for us to stay in and that we would have to cross over, back to Green Turtle Cay while the winds were still blowing from the west. So, on Monday afternoon, we did exactly that. It is not safe to have the land on the lee side. This means if the stern of the boat is facing towards the land. If the anchor drags, you could be carried onto the land if you don’t have an anchor watch to alert you that you are moving towards land. It is never an ideal situation to be in, but we had no choice except to watch and wait while the wind changed. As I have mentioned before, when we have been in the same situation, we have the keys ready in the ignition, and the anchor watch on so we can respond as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the wind clocked around to the north as anticipated, and we were all fine by the morning. We checked out of the Bahamas on the Tuesday morning and made our way west to Manjack Cay which was about 5 nmiles from Green Turtle Cay.
While we were in Manjack, we also went for a dinghy
ride in the mangroves where we saw many turtles
in such a small space. The
younger/smaller turtles were skittish, whereas the big mature turtles didn’t
mind us going up close and personal with them. It was a lovely anchorage – this
is the good part about sailing. Beautiful clear blue waters and sandy white
beaches to explore.
We stayed two nights at Manjack Cay, (Tuesday and
Wednesday) then made our way back to Powell Cay as we knew that Powell Cay
would give us more protection from the strong NE and E winds, we knew we would
have from Thursday/ Friday through to Sunday morning. We sailed to Powell Cay
and Mel had the opportunity to use the whisker pole. We had the whisker pole
put onto Passages in Stuart, last year May, and Mel hasn’t had the opportunity
to use it.
Calypso was heading to Powell Cay from Manjack, but they put their motor on, and motor sailed. They arrived at Powell Cay about 3 hours before us, but we were determined not to put the engine on. It was a wonderful sail! Yes, we were only doing about 3 knots, but the whisker pole was keeping the genoa out and the sun was shining – just picture perfect. Life couldn’t be better – the good parts of sailing.
While we were anchored in these beautiful anchorages,
we were planning our sail back to the States. We knew that the Gulf Stream
would assist us this time round as we needed to sail quite far north to
Brunswick, Georgia. We needed east winds with a bit of a south wind component,
as well. We saw that the winds were blowing quite significant from the east for
at least the next 3 days (Monday – Wednesday), and then they would start to die
from Wednesday afternoon.
What do we do….. leave on Monday when the winds
are blowing significantly (20 – 25knots) and arrive in Brunswick in 3 days
sailing, but 2 nights out at sea, or wait for the winds to calm down and leave
on Tuesday, possibly extending our time out at sea (4 days – Tuesday to
Thursday/Friday)?
We decided to sail to Great Sale Cay and then
access the situation, although we were both quite keen to get to the States as
we had been living on tinned food for the past 2 weeks (Remember our fridge
wasn’t working). So, on the Sunday morning, we sailed to Great Sale Cay. Once
again it was a wonderful sail. This time we were wing on wing. This is when you
have the main sail out on one side and the genoa, with the whisker pole on the
other side. You can only do this if the wind is coming from behind you, referred
to as downwind sailing. Life felt good!
Sunday night we assessed the weather and although
I was apprehensive about Monday evening and night, we thought let’s go for it,
so we said our ‘Totseins/Goodbyes” to Calypso (remember they come from South
Africa) and on Monday morning just after 7.30am we upped the anchor and headed
NW across the Great Bahamian Banks towards the Gulf Stream and Brunswick.
Monday was a good sail across the banks although
as we slowly made our way into the main waters, with the mix of the Atlantic
and the Gulf Stream, the swell and the winds started to pick up and we were corkscrewing
down the 2 metre waves. This is what I consider to be the Bad and the Ugly of
sailing. One minute you are enjoying the sail and are quite comfortable, making
dinner, having cups of tea, and in the space of a few hours, it becomes a
challenge to do anything on the boat. Mel is so confident and comfortable; I
find it a struggle. To add to my stress, I started to feel seasick – I think it
was the processed dinner I had made for us. Not a good idea. We could see by
the speeds Passages was doing that we were in the thick of the Gulf Stream. Usually,
she can do at the most 6 knots, but she was doing well over 8 knots. This
continued throughout the night. I was of no use to Mel, and I couldn’t help
with any watches, so he slept in the cockpit keeping watch in 20-minute
intervals. Thankfully, our AIS was great and gave us sufficient warnings if a
boat or cargo ship was too close to us. That doesn’t mean we don’t do our own
visual 360-degree scan of the horizon as not every boat has AIS.
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| Brunswick Landing Marina - Mel taking down the quaratine flag. |
By mid-morning Tuesday, the cork screwing down the waves started to subside which made life bearable. We were still in the Gulf stream, so we were sailing quite nicely. Tuesday evening/night was a pleasant sail but by early Wednesday morning as we reached one of the waypoints Mel had set, we could see that we were slowly approaching the edge of the Gulf stream and the winds started to die.
We were approximately 18 nmiles from the safe
water mark of the St Simons Sound entry point where we needed to be for
Brunswick when we run out of wind and had to put the engine on. So, for the
next few hours (7 hours) until we reached our slip at Brunswick Landing Marina,
we motored. The total distance from Great Sale Cay to Brunswick was 334 nmiles
and we sailed 302 nmiles – Not bad.
While we were making our way into the harbour and
to the marina, we had to keep out of the main channel as there were three huge
cargo ships. Two were leaving and one was entering the harbour. They are quite
daunting, and you feel so minute up close to them.
So here we are in a slip at Brunswick Landing
Marina, preparing Passages for the boat yard. This means lots of cleaning, washing,
and packing away of things. We have already visited the boatyard to make the
necessary arrangements and to find out what is required of us for the haul-out.
So, the plan is for haul out on Wednesday 8 May at 8.00am.
In between, we have had the opportunity of walking
around some of the historic parts of Brunswick and enjoyed the 1st
Friday of the month food festival in the main street of Brunswick.
Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.
Best wishes, always
Mel and Caryn
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| Two of the huge container/cargo ships we had to keep clear of. |
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| First Friday Food Festival downtown Brunswick. |
