Back in the Berry's
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Mon 4 Apr 2011 23:08
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25:36.7N 077:43.75W Between Fowl
& White Cays, The Berry Islands
After 4 weeks on the marina, we finally set off
from Palm Beach on Saturday morning. It was nearly a false start, as Mike woke
up in the middle of the night not feeling comfortable with the hydraulic oil
levels. James had been thinking about joining us for the crossing to the
Bahamas and so I quickly texted him at 6.30am telling him of our delay. But
to our rescue he came, rushing by his workshop to pick up some oil and so we
were able to get away just before 8am...sadly without James, or his boys.
We hope they will be able to join us later for a few days.
It was a perfect day, virtually no wind or swell
and we did the 83nm to Lucaya very comfortably in 10 hours. Time 2
performed brilliantly and our only problem was the new AIS which seems to have a
loose antenna connection and makes a very irritating beep from time to
time. We were also using our new Furuno VX2 chartplotters for the first
time, and we enjoyed the much larger screens. Sadly we had no bites
on the way over ..but the freezer will be filled soon! We stayed on the
same marina we visited last year with the Learmonths, clearing customs (slow!)
and cleaning the boat (very salty)
Sunday morning we headed south to the Berry
Islands, again a beautiful clear day. We had intended to head down to Bullock's
Harbor on the west side, as we knew some strong easterlies were expected.
Unfortunately our deep draft (just over 2m) lead to a rather nervous passage as
we got on to the banks. Mike decided not to proceed, as we passed over a
pinnacle about 30cm under the keel. He backed out quickly and we anchored off
Little Stirrup Cay for a bit of a bumpy night. It may not have been a good
anchorage, but the sunset was magnificent!
This morning we headed into the deteriorating
weather to go to our favourite anchorage, between White & Fowl cays. It was
a good test for us on the new boat with far rougher weather. What a pleasure to
be on Time 2 - doing this trip on Indigo would have been a nightmare. With the
wind and swell on our nose, she just punched straight through. We had water
spraying up over the windscreen on to the flying bridge, but we were very cosy
inside.
We spent a lay afternoon lying on our bed watching
movies (Yes - we have a TV/DVD in the cabin!) and then at sunset Mike decided to
try to catch a fish. I 'donated' some prawns from the galley and very quickly he
caught 4 little Groupers!. Yum - we have a delicious dinner ahead.
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