The Adventure Begins: SailBlogs

Blue Hole Heaven

Nancy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:31:35 -0600

After checking the weather reports and listening to Chris Parker on the SSB each morning, it sounded like we had a small weather window to head further east, before the next group of storms hits the far Bahamas. The problem we have been having is that the storms have been hitting every few days and the area we are in has even less anchorages to hide out from the strong westerly winds that blow through with the storms! We are ready to leave the Bahamas but seem to be stuck with all the storms. Oh well, there are worst things in life, right? We decided to sail approximately 32 nm to Clarence Town, Long Island, Bahamas. We left Rum Cay in the late morning because we needed a rising tide and good sunlight to get out of the very shallow entrance of Sumner Point Marina. It helped that we had our GPS track from our arrival that we could follow out. Exiting was nerve racking especially sense there was a recent sailboat that ran aground on the reef at the entrance just days before we arrived in Rum Cay. We have a picture of it sitting on the reef in the picture gallery. While we were waiting out one of the storms at Rum Cay, we watched the sailboat that was on the reef get blown off and gradually sunk...not a pretty or comforting sight! Definitely nightmare material. Luckily the captain of this boat was safe and was able to get majority of his items off the boat and supposedly the boat was covered by insurance. (Continued...)

Beautiful Island Paradise

Brian — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:28:44 -0600

We sailed from Calabash and arrived at Rum Cay at four o'clock. We anchored in the roadstead anchorage next to one other boat. This place is considered what old Bahamas is like. Beautiful white sandy beaches and only 50 people live on the island. The wind calmed for the night and the seas were light so we had a great nights sleep. A strong storm was predicted to hit us the next day so we decided to move into the island's small marina. I drove the dinghy a mile over to the marina to talk to someone about entering the very tight and shallow marina entrance. The marina manager is a big Rastafarian who's name is Rasta. A very nice guy who ensured me he would come out with his skiff and guide us through the tough entrance. They is nothing like local knowledge and we use it whenever possible. (Continued...)

Roadstead Anchorage

Brian — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:16:03 -0600

We left George Town after a week of fun and decided to continue to make our way towards the Caribbean. I had to navigate and number of different options because the wind and swell direction was a little in question. After working through reefs we made it to open sea and found we had to motor sail very close to head on into the wind but it was light so we were making some headway. After determining our speed for the day we decided to head for the Cape Santa Maria on Long Island. Our charts showed a bay called Calabash that may offer us some protection from the swell and wind. As we approached the roadstead anchorage we saw a couple of boats anchored inshore and began the slow process of inching our way in always looking for shallow water and rising coral heads. We found a shallow spot in good sand and dropped anchor. Because the wind was ninety degrees from the swell the boat was rocking side to side. This is the most uncomfortable position for the boat. I remembered a technique I read in a book about creating a bridle and having the anchor come off the windward side of the boat. I got to work and rigged the bridle. This brought the bow around into the swell, which changed the boat from rocking side to side into rocking less bow to stern. It worked out great and the boat and us were very happy. We had a good night sleep and woke up early to head out for the next island. (View Post...)