mike
01/10/2009

January 10th. Little Farmers to Rat Cay

The wind blew from the north east all night but in the lea of Little Farmers, it was very comfortable. Steve, Barry and I talked via VHF in the morning to time our departure.

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to cruise here, there is more to the planning some of our day sails than others. The Exuma chain of islands is about 100 miles long and runs basically north and south. On the east is the Exuma Sound and on the west are the Bahama Banks. When possible (unless we're low on fish) we stay on the banks in the normally calm water. But there are times that the Banks are too shallow and we need to go out one of the cuts between the islands into the Sound to travel.

The complications are the wind conditions on the Sound vs. the Tidal Current in the cuts. Twice a day the water from the bank side rushes through the cuts going east and twice a day the water from the Sound heads back to the west to the banks. In some locations this current is only a couple of knots but. when the cut is small the current can be as much as 4 or 5 knots.

When there is no wind on the Sound the contrary current doesn't really matter. It just slows us down for a few minutes. However, when the wind is blowing in and the current is going out, the waves really pile up in the relatively shallow water on the cuts.

Such was the case this morning. High tide was at about 7am so all morning the current was flowing out the cut. The wind as I mentioned above, was blowing 15 knots from the north east.In to the cut.

The equation is further complicated by the length of your trip and the tidal current conditions at the cut that you plan on entering at the end of the day.

The last concern is the depth of the cut itself. For instance if the wave height is 8 feet and the shallowest point of the cut is 12 feet at low tide. and your boat draws 6 feet. Then the calculation is roughly 8 / 2 4.10 - 4 8 . or wave height divided by 2 subtracted from the meal low water. In this case the boat in question should have 2 feet of clearance. Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing a full moon so the tides are exaggerated to the tune of .3 M which translates to about 12 inches. So now there is only 1 foot of clearance in our scenario above and for most of us, a one foot margin of error is not enough.

I apologize for the lengthy explanation but I want everyone to know that there are times that we don't just weigh anchor and go. We all do our own calculations but it's nice to discuss them to double check. Today for instance, we knew that if we waited for the tide to turn, we might not be able to reach our planned destination in daylight. On the other hand, if we left too soon we would be fighting the current in both cuts.

We decided to leave about 11am knowing that the conditions here at Little Farmers Cut would not be nice. We spent some time battening down the hatches and securing everything that was loose. After getting the anchor up I tied a double reef in the main as we followed the narrow channel around the south end of Little Farmers. The wind on the Sound was due east at 17 when we entered the cut. "Fine Lion" went first and we could see that we were in for a ride. "Night Hawk" was second and they looked like a cork bobbing in and out of sight between the waves. We plowed forward into the waves. The bow went up higher with each wave finally getting to the point where we were at least on a 45 degree angle. Then we come down with a crash sticking the bow underwater for a few seconds. When it came up tons of water rushed back over the cabin. Most was deflected by the dodger but the gunnel areas were full and flooded into the cockpit so we found ourselves standing in ankle deep water.

We only took about 5 or 6 of these waves before clearing the worst of the cut and it only lasted about 2 minutes but . it wasn't fun.

Once in the sound we had about 15 to18 knots and seas of 6 to 8 feet but our point of sail was good and we angled through the waves without much problem. We caught one small barracuda and another fish broke the wire leader on one of our hand lines, but came up empty for the day. Barry had a couple of good hits but didn't hook up. Steve and Kim were the only successful anglers coming up with one Mahi.

We glided through Rat Cay Cut in flat water, lowered sails and motored around the island to an anchorage. We had everyone over to rehash the events of the day and made a meal of cheese, crackers, summer sausage and dip.

One episode of CSI was enough for me but Kathy stayed up a little later and ended up sleeping in the cockpit under the full moon.

Comments [1]

Mike
01/09/2009

January 9th. Black Point to Little Farmers Cay

At 4am there was a clatter on the foredeck that woke me with a start.It wasn't a small clatter. Looking out one of the forward hatches, I could see that the Windbugger's bottom lines had detached. I grabbed them to stabilize the machine but couldn't hold on. I went on deck to find the Windbugger still attached by the halyard at the top but flying crazily in the 16 knot wind.

After a few tries I was able to grab the thing, avoiding the four foot wooden propeller blade that was still doing its best to create some power. Holding the thing in one hand I had to back up about 8 feet to remove the sail cover from the main in order to reach the cleat on which the halyard was secured.

If things weren't bad enough the wind had switched during the evening to the northwest from which we have no protection in Black Point. The boat was rolling and it was difficult to move on deck without holding on to something stationary. It took what seemed to be forever, but was probably only about 30 seconds, to get halyard off the cleat and finally lower the Windbugger to the deck.

Although I went back to bed. the boat was rocking enough that I didn't get much more sleep.

In the morning after the weather report I found some new line and repaired the down- hauls that had chaffed through causing the problem.

At about 10 am "Sapphire" and Night Hawk" left the anchorage and sailed the 12 miles south to Little Farmers Cay in about 14 knots of wind. "Fine Lion" left a little later but arrived at the same time. Go figure. We anchored on the lea side of the island about 200 yards off shore.

Steve had called the marina to see if they had any gasoline (we all were in need of about 5 gallons) so we set out around the south end to the island to explore. There were no boats at the marina and we had to go out back to the above ground tanks to get fuel. The owner crawled under the tank with a 3.5 gallon plastic jug and filled it. Then he crawled back out to transfer the fuel to our jerry cans. It took awhile.

The marina was very nice by Exuma standards with a small bar, billiards room and beautiful dining room. All they needed was some business.

We motored back to Little Harbor and tied our dinghies to the main pier. Then wandered through the store and up the hill to Ocean Cabin to visit with Terry and Ernestine who own the restaurant and a few mooring balls in the harbor. We had a beer, chatted .. .and firmed up our dinner orders for later in the afternoon.

Then it was back to the boats to get cleaned up a little and waste some time until dinner.

When it was time to go we took the dinghies to shore and walked across the island to the restaurant which was about ½ mile at the most. We had all ordered Cracked Conch. and it was wonderful. Served with peas and rice and a side of slaw, everything tasted great. Terry entertained us after dinner for an hour or so (as only Terry can) before we headed back to the boats for the remainder of the evening.

January 8th. Black Point, Great Guana, Exumas

It was rainy in the morning so we worked on the computer for awhile. Between showers I fetched some water and continued filling our tank. Our water gauge doesn't work so we tore up the sole and traced all the voltages on the sending unit and found that it seems to be working. So it's the gauge that must be faulty.

(It's a 2.5 diameter Water Gauge made by Medallion. It simply says "Water" on the bottom of the dial and then an E..F gauge with an arrow. We are out of internet action for awhile but if any of you could find one. and get to Abby and Jake to bring down here. we would be forever in you debt.)

We went ashore after lunch and Kathy spent a couple of hours on the computer while I topped off our water tank. When I caught up with her at Lorraine's she was about finished but took off with Kim to take a tour of Lorraine's home.

On the way back to the dinghy we stopped at the store and purchased some frozen chicken, fish, eggs and a few other things.

We stopped by "Fine Lion" later and spent some time with them and where joined by Barry and Susan when they returned from town.

We baked some of our chicken for dinner and watched a move before bed.

Comments [1]

Mike
01/08/2009, Black Point, Great Guana Cay

January 7th... Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas

The storm that was supposed to arrive today didn't ... It was another perfect day. We farted around this morning as usual wasting as much time as we could before doing something constructive. Eventually, I emptied the water in our jerry cans into our water tank and went to shore to refill them. I am not entirely sure if we are full yet so tomorrow I'll make the same trip.

One of two supply ships scheduled for today arrived this morning and we watched it being unloaded through the binoculars. At around noon we went ashore to the Laundromat to see Ida could cut Kathy's hair today and it was agreed that we would stop by after lunch.

Two doors down at Lorraine's we posted emails that were written earlier in the day and checked out our Blog to find that there are 4 or 5 days missing around New Years. I must have messed up with the radio system somehow. But in truth I don't have a clue.

We had lunch and attempted to fix the ice maker at Lorraine's,but it was too strange to deal with without tearing it totally apart and checking each circuit with a meter.

In the afternoon Barry and I went fishing ... with rods and reels yet, but didn't catch anything. I had two good hits but my hook was way too small for the bait.

With a rare west wind we are rolling quite a bit this evening... just on the edge of being uncomfortable.

We'll probably stay here one more day to check out the grocery and hit the internet one more time before the 10 mile hike down to Little Farmers Cay.

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