The one that got away
Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Fri 17 Dec 2010 17:49
window to cross the gulf stream, but instead of stopping in Bimini we
decided to make it to Nassau. Now Nassau is famous for all the beautiful
films made there, Into the Blue, Into the Deep etc etc, but it is a very
dangerous place to be, you do not venture out in the dark and you do not go
a street back from the main road in the day, all bars, restuarent, resorts
have security. Saying this I found the place quite pleasant, and this is a
very different situation to the rest of the Bahamas. The anchorage
was a little dodgy as the wind and tide against each other causes all the
boats to
move differently, so a few nights up in the middle of the night just to make
sure we did
not bump into another boat. We also met a crowd of Canadians sailing
through
the Bahamas and a German couple, Petra and Roland, who have the identical
boat
to ours. This was great as the boys were in their element, comparing why
this had been done, why that was different etc. Petra and Roland have been
cruising for over 8 years so their boat so it almost looks like home. They
have given us some good ideas to copy!
While in Nassau, Gareth has joined us for a few weeks. It a shame American
Airlines lost his lugage for two days, which happened to have his skydiving
equipment in, and more importantly our replacement AIS unit and electronic
chart for the Pacfic. Now Gareth was one a the people who joined us on the
Atlantic crossing, for all those who have not read the blogs from the start.
It is lovely to have him on board again, and especially Lucas loves to have
another
play pal. Yes, it is like having another child on board, and yes he is very
good at winding him up before bed time.
Gray managed to find a bargain outboard - a 15 horsepower Yanama, oh my
another toy,
to replace our very tired 4 horse Yanama. Yes it was Christmas come early,
and the most exciting thing about it is that dinghy now planes, and of
course it is fast.
Yes he has to be told to be sensible every time we are out. You could water
ski behibn it!!!! I just need a water ski now.
Well we stormed through the Bahamas, down the Exmas, Staniel Cay,
Georgetown, then we decided (well I persuaded the boys) we needed to be in
the
BVI, now I will not get all tecnical Like Gray would, this route down to BVI
is called the Thorny passage, which means difficult in layman's terms, there
are very precise instructions on how to do this, which also takes weeks. We
decided to do the easier option, wait for weather window and head east as
much as
we could, then turn down, this sort of worked and we did motor a lot, until
Thursday. Well Thursday we always knew from the forcast is would be 15 knots
on the nose, which we all decided we could live with. The problem arose
when the forcast was completely wrong and we ended up with 40 knots - yes I
was very scared. We had this for about 12 hours - not to be repeated
please.
We did great catching lots of fish, tuna and dorado, it's just a shame we
did
not managed to land any of them! We kept on losing them at the boat, I know
that's what they all say. I feel a gaff might be purchased for a christmas
present.
About 150 miles from BVI we had a visit from the dophins, and we passed a
huge leather back turtle, on the surface, this is a first for me as they are
very rare. We also had a visit from a bird, who was very friendly, in fact
he
was so friendly he would sit on your finger, and allow you to pet him.
So we are now in the BVI, which of course was celebrated with a number of
painkillers (local cocktail) for the boys and frozen margarita for me, yes
head ache tablets
all round.
Second day here we managed to dive the Rhone which is a must for anyone who
dives, hopefully we have another wreck to dive next week, or will we all be
too
wrecked next week with the excessive painkillers.
We are spending Chrimbo in the BVI then off to St Barts for New Year's Eve,
so all that remains is to wish a Happy Christmas to everyone!
