We're off to Florida!
23 April 2007 | Little Bahamas Bank, Bahamas
Jim Lea
Saturday night we had Cracked Conch with rice & beans and plantains for dinner, with Guava cake (with whipped cream) for dessert. A typical Bahamian dinner. Bahamian food is delicious, but not too healthy, high in fat (cracked conch is fried in a lot of oil) and in calories. But we wanted to celebrate both our anniversary and a great winter in the Bahamas. Jeannie brought up the question of next winter, and I realized that our start (September) is only 4 months away! So I guess it is time to start thinking. One idea is Belize and Guatemala. But we will have to do some planning before we decide. Yesterday morning (Sunday) we decided to sleep in as Chris Parker is not on on Sunday, and it is his 6:30 am weather forecasts that gets me up. So I was awake at 6:15 anyway, up reading. I then sent an email for the NOAA weather forecast for the gulf stream (I email a computer and specify the file I want, and have the latest forecast in about 5 minutes). It still looked good for Monday, so our plan was still on. Then we had time for a big breakfast, so I made poached eggs with fried ham and toast. And of course we have been careful to keep the coffee inventory high, so we have fresh ground "Kicking Horse" coffee with it. By 8:00 am, we were pretty well ready to leave, and about half the boats had left, so we hoisted sail and set out for Great Sale Cay, a distance of just under 40 miles, in a nice following breeze. But as the morning wore on, other boats began appearing until we were a parade of sail with 21 boats. Rounding up to the anchorage at Great Sale Cay in early afternoon, we entered the large (fortunately) anchorage and found 28 boats already anchored! By the end of the day, the count was over 50 boats at anchor! This cay, looking like it is located in the middle of nowhere (as it is) is quite a yachting center for today at least! It has an excellent anchorage, but that's it. There is no where to land due to the rocky shoreline, and even if you could land, the dense growth would prevent going anywhere. But it was just as well, as I had a few jobs to do before we leave. And Jeannie baked some muffins for us on the crossing. Dinner was Bob Gray's stir-fry chicken and vegetables as it will be something that will give us leftovers that are easy to re-heat. For dessert, we had some more of our coconut pie with whipped cream. This morning (Monday) we listened to Chris again, and the weather looks good for today. So we were off at 7:30 am in a east-north-east wind of about 15 knots. An ideal sail across the banks. It is about 60 miles across the bank where we will enter the Strait of Florida and the gulf stream. We will be there in late afternoon, and when we get into the stream, turn NNE and ride the stream up along the Florida coast. This will give us a boost of 2 or 3 knots, so greatly improve our speed. So tomorrow morning should see us off Port Canaveral where we will decide whether to head in there or carry on further up. It will depend on the weather, which is for lighter winds tomorrow. How light will be the deciding factor. If they are too light, we would just be motoring in a swell, not fun.