3) West End to
Spanish Key
After several days exploring West End (well, that took a couple hours), and spending a lot of time keeping warm, we
finally identified a good time to head to Great Sale and hence towards the
Abacos.
First stop, transit the reefs that mark the western edge of
the Bahamas
.
The entry, marked by Memory Rock, clears about 7 feet at high tide in the
shallowest point. Visual navigation, combined with the GPS charts (Explorer
Charts on the Garmin 476c) helped us slip our way through the shoals. Beautiful
morning, probably around 65 or so, but warm enough in the sun.
Cleared the reef, then headed 20 miles to Mangrove Key – an
uninhabited island at the north end of Great Bahama to spend the night. Then
sailed from there to Great Sale the next day. Well, actually both of these were
motored-sailed, as the wind was directly from the East, and we’ve got the blast
reach on the jib roller-furler, not the blade jib, which would help us point
better.
Got to Great Sale – a u-shaped harbor the next day. Anchored
nestled in close to the northwest corner, protected from the W to SE, but open
to the southwest. Of course, that night, a major thunderstorm built in the SW,
and jammed us up close to the coastline, with breaking waves and just 8 feet
indicated under the keel. No sleep that night.
We spent two days in Great Sale, then headed over to Spanish
Cay. Forecast was for 20 building to 25 in the PM, and it was a dead run down
to Spanish Cay. We set up for the long run – it was around 40 miles down there,
but with that breeze, it should be a quick ride down.
Headed out at 7 am,
Beth pulling up the anchor, and us raising a double-reefed main and no jib to
motor sail around the NW point of the island, before cracking off to rocket
down to Spanish Cay. Conditions freshened to 20, building 25 almost
immediately, and continued to build after we made the turn to a sustained 30 to
35, with guts to 40. Wave state built as well, to 3 to 5 feet in the protected water, solid whitecaps and
occasional breaking waves – just under a full gale. We dropped the main and
secured the boom, then, raised 2/3 of the blast reacher on the roller furler.
We saw a high of 32 knots over the deck, roughly 40 knots, a high of 9.2 knots
surfing down the waves. Sinbad (the Simrad TP32 autopilot) drove the whole
time, generally pretty well although the waves were pretty short and choppy. We
ended up jibing 10 times or so down the channel. But then, it was cold and gray
out.
We did see a porpoise come over to play with the boat. That
was pretty much the only civilization we saw until we had to get into the
harbor.
Turns out, Spanish Cay harbor, while shown on the chart as
having a major breakwater, was largely unprotected from the NW due to the
breakwater being under built and having substantial gaps. As we approached the
harbor, we had a sustained 30+, and 3 to 5 foot waves in the harbor. On
reflection, we should have anchored out, but Beth, by this time, needed to get
off the boat and find some peace and quiet.
At that wind speed, Arcas will be difficult to turn through
the wind pressure, making her much less maneuverable. That, combined with her
light weight made the docking very difficult. But in the end, we nailed it,
pulling into a slip, with Beth on the bow to hand the lines to the three
helpers.
Spanish Cay to Man Jack and Green Turtle
Had a nice sail in 10 – 15 from Spanish Cay to Man Jack Cay.
See Beth’s blog for some updates on that leg.
Spend 3 nights in Man-Jack Cay, and then proceeded to Green
Turtle, where we anchored for two nights. Finally, we had a lovely sail down
through the Whale Cut (open and impassable in some conditions), before heading
down to Marsh Harbor
At Marsh Harbor,
we flew in to meet my family at Long Island
.
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