We "did" the Bank!
SY Cookielicious
Private
Sun 5 May 2013 21:15
76:55.03W
03.00 UTC Day 7 at sea. Sunday is not a day of rest on Cookie. It was more like: "see if we can get some interesting sailing today". We upped the anchor at 7.00 and first we had to negotiate getting to the W side of Highbourne Cay, weaving through the narrow cut escaping rocky shallow bits, with 20 ft of water under the keel. We had to move from the deep Sound side on the E to the shallow Great Bahama Bank on the W side of the cut. Cookie had a tough time pushing a 4 kts current, which dropped the speed to 4 kts under engine with 1800 RPM. Very steep waves where the different water systems met. A glance to the marina in the hollowed out bit of the island showed a variety of stinkpots (motor yachts). A slight hint of envy - how easy it must be in one of them!
Yesterday it was surprisingly calm in the Sound, today it was surprisingly choppy on the Bank. The winds are not following their usual tradewind pattern; 15 - 20 kts from the WNW. For the first couple of hours we had to motorsail to stick to the deeper part of the bank with about 22 ft of water under the keel. By the time we got to the shallower part of the bank that was strewn with coral heads, we had the sunlight nice and high above us with not too many clouds casting their shadow on the water to confuse us. We had a good time spotting the "bommies" - coral heads, which are quite distinct and ominously black compared to the light green clear water and otherwise sandy bottom. Shallowest reading was 9 ft under the keel, and that was only for a short while. We could see the highrise of Nassau on the horizon before we reached deeper water.
With the Bank out of the way, we now could bear away and sail the WNW winds. We had to find a cut in the W - E positioned island chain off Nassau. We chose for Douglas cut as from there we could lay a good course to the Eastern side of the Abacos. By then we had already skipped the idea to get to the Berry Island group, as that was more to the W and therefore into the wind. New plan is sail E of Abacos in the lee of the islands and then see when the wind allows us to start heading for the Gulfstream.
We had a blast of a sail in the afternoon to reach the S tip of the Abacos, doing more than 9 kts at times. Confused seas, as only 2 days ago there were E gale force winds here. And now from almost the opposite. No wonder Cookie's bow navigation lights had seaweed dangling of them!
We were a bit surprised to loose our wind towards the evening, only 9 kts from the N made us go for the engine again. The seas are less confused now in the lee of Great Abaco Island (not that we can see any of it) still a big swell from the NE.. All in all quite a varied day. 118 Nm done since departure this morning, which brings us to a total mileage of 900.
We have planned to keep going directly onwards to Beaufort NC, as the Westerlies have been forecasted to linger for another week.
Cheers,
Geoff & Merel