Jan. 28
Had another nice walk on Crab Cay; Mark and Greg did a quick snorkel on the reef and then we were off for George Town. Sorry to leave Crab Cay. It was wonderfully quiet and private.
We will fill up our water, get some cash out of the bank ( no banks from here to Eluthera) pick up some essentials at the grocery store, and then motor the mile across Elizabeth Harbour to Hamburg Beach. This will put us in place for a quick departure out the cut when the winds decide to cooperate.
The plus side of coming into George Town...I get to eat out at the Peace and Plenty Restaurant. :)
In case you are wondering...it's not all sunshine and roses down here. Today the temperature dropped to 21 degrees and I had to put on my jeans and long sleeved shirt tonight. Brrrrr....
Jan. 29
Had a very quiet day today. Took a walk to the other side of the island and very thankful we didn't have our hearts set on leaving today. The ocean side was a rolling fury. It would have been ludicrous to attempt sailing in those waves. After the walk we took the dinghy to the three holes where boats are kept seasonally or moored for extended periods. The holes are just behind Volleyball Beach and the Chat and Chill Restaurant. Very good hurricane protection, but I suspect you might not survive the insect attacks. We sat at the Chat and Chill for a beer and fries, and then made our way back to the boat for a lazy afternoon.
This is a great anchorage, but I would never want to stay here for long as I would never be able to adjust to the number of boats. At last count, which someone here does once a week, there were almost 266 boats spread out over Kidd's Cove (George Town), Sand Dollar Beach, Volleyball Beach, Monument Beach, and Hamburg Beach. Keep in mind that you can dinghy to all these anchorages in about 1/2 hour, so there is not much of a delineation between them...ie. boats are fairly close together. Give me the likes of Crab Cay any day!
Jan. 30
What a long day. We're not used to spending a full day sailing. We covered 38 miles in 7 hours. We were supposed to have NE winds which would have been perfect. Instead we had NW all day and the last 2-3 hours was on the nose. The weather is great, but so far we haven't had a lot of luck when it comes to good sailing weather. Other then two or three days, we always seem to have to motor-sail. I guess we need to learn patience and appreciate a slow sail, or learn how to enjoy tacking.
We came back to Cave Cay Cut, an anchorage we enjoyed on the way down. Unfortunately, we were faced with a NW wind instead of the NE, so we had no protection from the land. To top it off, we must have dropped our anchor six or seven times trying to find good holding, and each time it would pull loose when I backed down. One time we had a good hold only to find our boat drifted back over a coral head. We were both getting pretty frustrated at this point but one more try was the charm and I think (fingers crossed) we are good for the night. This is only the second time that we had trouble with the holding. The other time was in Staniel Cay. You really have to watch to be sure to hit only sand and not drop the anchor in any sea grass. It's easy when the water is calm, but when it's rough and wooly, it's hard to see the bottom.
A couple of fisherman came by this evening selling lobster and conch. I was looking forward to BBQ lobster tail, but when he asked $20 each, we nearly chocked. He dropped the price to $15 each, but we had to decline. We don't pay that much at home, and our lobster are so much better then these.
Jan. 31
So now I know where the Canadian Weather Forecasters go to do there training. They come to the Bahamas. They graduate when they get the weather completely wrong here at least two days in a row. You should be seeing a new crop of them in Canada any day now. I can't believe the winds we have been getting. They were supposed to increase this morning getting to 13kts by 10am and reaching 18kts by afternoon. Therefore we left at 7:00am to be in Black Point by 10:00. By 8:00am it was blowing 18kts. By 9:00 it was pretty steady at 20-22kts apparent. Our OGS (over grounded speed) was 4-6kts, and I was pinching all the way. When we finally turned in to the harbour our speed dropped so much I thought we were having engine problems. We could only make 1 - 2.5 kts and it took us another hour to go 2 miles. As always we had to motor sail. What a horrible sail!
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