28 Feb 2009 - Bahamas
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Sat 28 Feb 2009 16:01
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Left Turks and Caicos 3 days ago and all hell have
broken loose since!
We sailed off South Caicos at 14:00 on the 25th Feb
and the weather was sunny and calm. We even saw whales jumping up and down
giving us a beautiful show to watch. But the wind started picking up at around
20:00 and that was the start of a 40hrs sail through gale force winds of 35kts
and very high seas. There was also torrential rain showers. Scutch: you always
said you wanted a bit of rough, well we can tell you that this would have been
bliss for you! The transatlantic crossing was a doodle compared to
this.
Anyway, we got through ok with hardly any damage.
Unfortunately, we lost the use of the main sail quite early in the trip because
the bolt holding the boom to the mast broke. So we sailed with the staysail and
reefed Yankee. This part of the world being too shallow for us in most places
there was nowhere we could go to hide and wait for the storm to blow away. So we
had to keep on sailing.
We finally reached Cat Island, South Bahamas
yesterday early afternoon and the weather changed to beautiful blue sky
again but still a strong breeze. We stayed at anchor in 4m waters. We were the
only boat in the bay. Superb.Mike went to clear custom then attempt(and
succeeded) to repair the boom temporarily so we can use it again. We had a
nice dinner on board and went to bed at 21:00 to get a good night
sleep.
Pulled the anchor at 9:00 this morning and on our
way to Grand Harbour Cay just North of Nassau
MPS is up, weather beautiful, sea calm. Let's hope
it will stay that way.
Our last stop will be in the Bimini Islands and
then Fort Lauderdale on the 3rd of March.
So all rested and good again here.
Kisses to you all
Catherine and Mike
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