2 March 2009 - Nassau
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Mon 2 Mar 2009 20:40
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Well, it surely is never dull in The
Bahamas!!!
We left Cat Cay by beautiful sunshine and blue
skies. MPS up and nice sail. We saw a killer whale very close to the boat which
was exciting. Arrived in Great Harbour Cay early afternoon. Beautiful bay with
little islands, white sand, fantastic water. Had lunch, a rest, a swim
and dinner. We lifted the anchor at 18:30 with the intention to sail overnight
to Bimini.
And guess what? About an hour later all hell broke
loose again! The wind picked up as well as the sea, massive lightening,
torrential rain and we battled wind in the noose for the whole night, bashing
and crashing. Took so much water on deck that the bilges filled up and the
electric pump didn't cope. So Mike had to pump manually with me lying on the
floor holding the end of the pipe in the bilge. At that point, Mike decided that
carrying on would be too much risk and that it was wiser to turn round and run
so as to not take water on deck anymore. So by day break we turned round and the
only place we could head to was Nassau.
As I write we are just under 2 hours from Nassau.
We can already spot the high buildings of Nassau on the horizon. It is 16:30.
The wind and sea have calmed down a bit but the fro hasn't passed as
yet.
This is so frustrating and a very sad end to a
wonderful few months sailing.
We will not be in time back to Miami to see Cindy
off so she will have to fly or ferry from Nassau to Miami the day after tomorrow
and stay in a hotel before catching her flight back to Brussels on Thursday.
Luckily, she can travel with a friend who has been on board with us for the past
10 days and who is also flying back to the UK on Wednesday night.
Mike and I will wait to check the weather
forecast before deciding when we will leave Nassau and sail to Ft Lauderdale in
one hit (180nm). We hope to be able to leave on Wednesday.
So never a dull moment here. We are safe and ok as
well as the boat and that is the main thing.
Unfortunately,we just heard that Mike's Mum is back
in hospital with possible water in her lung. We are waiting for the result of
the X-ray.
More news later
Love
Mike and Catherinexxxx
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