I AM TIRED AND SORE

February 29, 2012  Dateline: Nassau, Bahamas

Yesterday morning I left North Bimini Island and headed for Chub Cay some 90 miles away.  As I sailed past Guy Harvey’s Big Game Marina, I asked Carol to take a picture, which she did.  I wondered how she got this sexy yacht in the middle of the picture.  The inlet to North Bimini Island had been tricky going in, but going out I was lucky as a large yacht pulled out of Guy Harvey’s and led MY WAY and me out.  Rich called to thank her, her captain replied Rich was welcome and it is easy for him as he has made the trip many times.  The inlet was so narrow that a sportfish boat had to wait for the three of us to get out before he started in.

The trip was uneventful other than passing through the Gun Cay Cut which is a narrow passage between two islands.  Here is a picture of the lighthouse at the cut.  The water in the Bahamas is very interesting.  The islands are the tops of mountains or hills on the top of a plateau.  Within a quarter mile the water can go from several thousand feet to 1 foot.  It makes navigation kind of interesting and very challenging.

The waves were choppy and so we bounced some coming from the Northwest Passage to Chub Cay.  The waves caused MY WAY to lose her dinghy off of her lift.  Wayne was able to recover it and continue on.

By midafternoon I got to Chub Cay.  The marina is beautiful with concrete floating docks.  The marina has been in receivership for several years now.  They do seem to be doing anything to attract customers, the dockage rate is $4.35 per foot, electricity is $30 per day and water $0.65 per gallon.  With rates like that they will not attract many customers who will stay more than one night, no matter how nice it is.  The marina seems to be the island.  There are several beautiful homes surrounding the marina.  The dock master knew an individual who used to keep his boat at Canyon Club, my home marina.

I was up early this morning, again, to head off to Nassau.  MY WAY and I left the Chub Cay Marina to get underway just before 8 AM. As we turned at the end of the jetty, we got hit with heavy seas.  While the trip was only 41 miles, I knew it was going to be rough.  One leg of the trip was 37 miles, almost straight into the wind.  Before long Rich throttled me back to idle speed, 8 knots, now what was to be a less than a 2 hour trip turned into one that was going to be 5 hours.  The wind changed direction and was coming on my beam.  Suddenly I was twisting and bouncing in all directions.  My freezer door opened and EVERYTHING fell out on to the saloon floor.  Carol was on her hands and knees trying to put the freezer contents back into it while I was rocking side to side.  There was a slam and my pilot house door opened so that wave splashes could come inside the pilot house.  At one point Carol asked Rich if she should get out the life jackets.  Rich told her yes, but not the ones that inflate when you hit the water.  He wanted the Class I ones that are for ocean travel and will right you so your face is out of the water.  The good news is that they did not need them.  As a side note they didn’t do anything for me, just like Lake Simcoe, but I soldiered on and got them through it, just like before

Rich captured a few pictures of the waves I was going through (remember you can increase the size of the picture by clicking on it).  The first one shows my bow punching through a wave.  The second one shows another wave fighting back. For those of you who have not seen me in person, my anchor is about five feet above the normal level of the water.  Note that you cannot see my anchor in that second picture; in fact my whole forward deck is covered.  This happened about 4 or 5 times during the morning.  Later in the day I was able to get up to 10 knots, however, I usually travel at 18-19 knots.

Here is a picture of MY WAY so you can see the waves differently.

By early afternoon, I arrived in Nassau.  There were several large cruise ships in the harbor.  It must be bedlam when all of the passages are let off the ships for the day.  I sailed passed Atlantis and Carol got a picture of the famous resort.

I will be in Nassau for the next two weeks.