Abacos
Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Sat 30 Apr 2011 22:54
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26.32.859N 077.03.448W
Despite the weather forecaster's threat the weather
did not really get bad but we stayed on and went for lunch at the Easter Monday
"Cookout" on the beach at Staniel Cay which raised funds for the local primary
school.
  Easter egg
hunt
A "Craig Cat"
Tuesday we headed north to the Exuma National Park
at Waderick Wells but in the prime position all the moorings were taken and
anchoring is prohibited so we anchored "around the corner".
Wednesday we lifted the anchor at 08.00 and headed
north on the west side of the Exuma Cays, sailing fast at up to 8 knots but
sometimes in only 10ft of water! By 1400 hours we had cleared the Beacon Cay and
headed north across the banks. Here the wind died away so we motor sailed in
glorious sunshine but dodging the dark patches in the water which were coral
heads, probably with enough clearance but you never know! At 1800 we cleared
through the Fleeming Channel into deep water again; I was relieved to do this
navigation with a chart plotter but obviously for years there were no such
luxuries!
 eWe watched the rain squall coming up astern and
suddenly there was a 30 knot gust and torrential rain which at least should have
washed salt off the sails. We had a further 60 miles to sail overnight to the
North Bar Cut to enter the reef in the Abacos so when the wind settled into the
east we had to shorten sail to slow down as we did not want to arrive before it
got light! Later the wind went further aft and the motion was uncomfortable as
we were not really sailing fast enough. Dawn showed us the reason for our
discomfort- 8ft easterly ocean swell with a 2ft wind generated wave from the SE
on top! As we headed west into North Bar Cut the sea shallows from several
hundred metres deep to 6 metres in a short distance so we surfed in on
rollers at 0630 between breaking crests through what seemed a very narrow
gap!
I had planned to anchor somewhere behind the reef
but the strong wind and grey hazy morning were not conducive to it so we
threaded our way to Marsh Harbour where we anchored in 7ft of water at 10.00hrs.
Amusingly we were between a British yacht 'Moonlight 'and an American yacht
'Moonshadow'! 144 miles in 26 hours.
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