Starry Night Passages... and Bye Bye Bahamas.

Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Fri 3 Jun 2016 22:27
In the last couple of months, we have done quite a bit on night time sailing. I have really come to love these times. Most of our night sailing has included thunder and lightening all around, and scary looking clouds which are clearly visible in the flashes of lightening, but despite this, night sailing is very peaceful and offers a great time for reflection and thought without the usual disturbance from two small children! When it is windy, it allows us to really enjoy sailing the boat properly, and when it is not so windy (as it is while I write this!) It allows time for writing, reading and generally catching up with yourself.

The stars out here are amazing. The entire sky is flecked with little white shimmering dots. You feel like you are in a big dome. We have seen the most incredible moons, in all stages and all colours. The phosphorescence is breathtakingly beautiful - I never could imagine this before, but it is like we are leaving a trail of glitter behind us as we skip along through the water.

Off Haiti one night, we had a few Dolphins swimming with us- the only way I knew was that they glowed underwater with phosphorescence. It was the most unbelievable and magical thing I have ever experienced.

Tonight, we are crossing a sandy bank, just North of Nassau in the Bahamas, en route to West Palm, Florida (trying to outrun some bad weather due in here next week). We are sailing along at 6.5 knots in only 7metres of water, which, before the Bahamas would have made us all rather nervous, but here, we are getting used to sailing along in water where we can see the bottom a bit too clearly!! As our friend Hamish said, “out here, you have plenty of water if you have 6 inches under your keel……..” I have to say, we do try to have a bit more than that under Arion’s keel, but you certainly have to check your tides as many places are only accessible to us at high water.

We are really sad to be leaving the Bahamas. Our time here has been cut a little short due to some bad weather which is inbound, so we are making the dash to Florida. I know that the magical gunk holing and swimming of the boat has probably come to an end, but it has made us hungry for more, and definitely want to come back to the Bahamas one day. We have only just scratched the surface.

Leaving Nassau this morning as the sun rose, we went under two of the city bridges and were surrounded by large buildings. In the last 6 months we have not seen a large city and it seemed so alien. We are now looking forward to the next phase of our journey up the East Coast of America. Arthur cannot wait to run around on grass, and I cannot wait to see some leafy trees and flowers!!