Lee Stocking Island and onto George Town.....
Ananda
Ron Welch
Mon 4 Apr 2011 13:08
April 1, 2011
"Rocking and rolling all night long"......the seas did not die down....it was definitely time to leave Black point.....no protection from the west.....early breakfast and we were off. Through the cut at White horses....a few minutes of silent concentration as we passed through the tidal surge......rage, i think they call it......Ron concentrating on keeping us on course in four to six feet standing waves, and me concentration on "controlling" the four to six feet waves... ha, ha,. Short period of time though....and if I didn't look back to see it was just that we had made it past the place where a large amount of water is forced into a small opening between cays, I could believe that I was successful at "commanding the seas", because from that point on it was much easier.....a little bumpy as we were going into the wind, but we arrived at our sweet anchoring spot behind Leaf Cay off Lee Stocking Island with time for a relaxing sunbath and read before dinner. This anchorage spot had been shared with us by Brian, a fellow we met in Nassau. He described it perfectly.....secluded, quiet, and safe. It was right off of Lee Stocking Nature Preserve where they are studying Stromatolites....a type of coral that was thought to be extinct for about 650 million years......they have since discovered it in the Bahamas and Australia......it only lives in areas where the water is too salty to support multicellular life forms.....some thing new to learn on every cay..... Another early morning and we followed our tracks out on the chart plotter screen, being careful of the depth and the coral.......this was a day of sailing that is dreamt about......winds 17 to 22 knots from the south, south west....about 60 degrees off the forward starboard side....ocean was relatively calm....with sails set at close reach, we clipped along averaging around 6knots.....doesn't sound fast...but it feels like it. Quite exhilarating when the wind gusts in the 20s and the heel of the boat increases......an absolutely wonderful sail putting us in George Town at twelve-thirty pm. The oceans kaleidoscope of colors along the journey added a memorable dimension...turning from aqua to royal to silver to grey after......amazing after the orange of the sunset the evening before......with the water depth changing from only a few feet or so to over 3-4000 at some places........anchor is down and we are off to see what the little town of George Town is all about.......