This morning I pulled up anchor with a bit of wind blowing. Hard work. Tomorrow I will use the engine to give me some slack in the beginning. I motored the six miles back to Nassau to pick up Roger where we last left him. As always, I checked in with Nassau Harbor Control on VHF 16 as I neared the channel entrance. They want to know where you are going, what port you are coming from and your documentation number. Docking at the fuel dock was tricky with the current running fairly hard. I ended up just drifting down on the dock and using the engine to keep from going backwards.

On the way to Nassau, I went through a pass that Jerry had avoided the first time due to my six foot draft and the charts on Paradise Hunter. My charts said it was okay, but I was sweating the entire time going through there today. I am getting better with interpreting the water color. Going through a cut on the way back to Rose Island was interesting. The wind and waves were against the current and that made it a washing machine for a few minutes. One wave was particularly steep. Straight up we went, then the bottom dropped out at the top - seemingly there was no water. We came crashing down and almost buried the bow. We made it through, but it was a good lesson on what cuts could be like and why you would avoid them at certain times. This was a minor cut, so the wild water was short lived, but still impressive. Those catamarans full of people that we were seeing in the afternoon didn’t go through there in the morning. They just stopped in the Nassau channel to let folks swim there.

My paddle wheel now works and seems accurate. Hooray! Tomorrow we leave Rose Island for our first stop in the Exumas. I am bouncing here again and am tired of the swells. This morning I finally tried sleeping on the cabin floor. That spot has the least motion, but also has the least comfort. I will try the V berth again tonight, but if it is not working, I will switch to the floor. If the wind would shift a bit and lighten up, it would be better. Low tide is also good, since now I am downwind of a reef that blocks the swell at low tide.