This week has not been at all what I envisioned when we were planning this trip. Every day before I left Chicago, I checked the weather in the Bahamas and it was a consistent 75-80 degrees. Then we embark on our adventure and it’s been nothing but bad weather since we left. Every day seems to get worse. When we crossed the Gulf Stream, I thought that was scary. When the norther hit our nice Marina in West End, I thought that was scary. But then there was the unexpected thunderstorm out of the southwest that hit Great Sale Cay, from the one direction that that harbor wasn’t protected. And then the second norther that went howling by. And finally the 25-30 knots from the Northwest that we surfed downwind into Spanish Cay Marina, only to learn that the Northwest is once again the one direction from which the harbor is not protected.
We decided to sail from Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island where we spent the past two nights (the first of them without much sleep as we waited until 3am for the thunderstorm to pass), to Spanish Cay in order to wait out the second and third northers coming through this week. I was willing to sail in 20-25 knot winds if the end result was a nice marina with showers, laundry, and liquor. However, I was expecting it to be a MARINA, i.e., protected from the wind – the wind that ended up at 30 knots instead of the 20 that was predicted (I’ve also learned this week that weather reports are guesses at best). The scariest part of today’s sail was entering the harbor. Hill entered and the wind started pushing us into the docks. He had to execute a 360 degree turn of the boat just inside the breakwater in order to get us into the right position – a maneuver apparently remarkable enough that the other couples who are also staying here have commented on it several times.
Oh, and did I mention that today, as we sailed, I had on: jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, a fleece hat, wool socks, and my foul weather gear over all of it. By the time we finally docked, my one thought was to get the bleep off of this bleeping boat. After I checked in at the marina, I ran into two other women cruisers in the bathroom, and one of them was talking about how her son’s fiancé was seasick and was thinking of renting a room at the hotel here – in a clearly disparaging tone. I’m like, “Does she want to split the cost?”
The wind is supposed to clock around to a better direction this evening (just as it was only supposed to be 20 knots today, not 30). So I’m waiting to see what happens. But I’m not ruling out a nice comfy bed on dry land.
On a positive note: Hill is a great sailor and he’s also totally tricked out our boat. We have enough power from our solar panels to plug in and charge our laptops, cameras, ipods, and the Garmin GPS that also doubles as an XM Radio. He also got the watermaker working while we were at Great Sale Cay, so now we have fresh water from the ocean at any time. It’s pretty sweet.
Hang in there Beth!!! I just checked the weather in Exuma and this morning it is 75 degrees and fair! Hopefully as you move a little more south you will get out of the nastiness that crosses the US and nicks the northern Bahamas! Hope to see you guys next week (in our bathing suits!!).
Posted by: Beth | February 05, 2009 at 04:59 AM