We moved!
04 February 2018 | Mackie Shoal
Sunny and 75. Moderate wind.
Saturday night we made plans to leave at 8am, hoping the wind would have died down by then. When I got up at 6:30, the wind was already down, and they decided to leave ASAP to avoid trying to leave the docks against the stronger current at 8. I hate when that happens.
It was a scrambled start, and at one point we counted 12 sailboats heading north. I am off the grid tonight, but when I get back on, I will update the blog photo with that picture. It was a fun day with some sailing at the start, and some beating (sailing into the wind) during the long finish leg. It was one close hauled tack. How much one sailed and how much one motored depended on ones tolerance level. To be able to sail at all was special. We sailed in the Bahamas!
Roger and Tari threw out a line and went fishing. They caught one one fish, but the second big one got away. What happened was that I rolled out the genoa, and then so did they. This caused me to get too close to their line as they were trying to bring in their second catch. So the fish and lure caught on my boat somehow and they lost both. I wasnât super close, but the line was several boat lengths behind them. Tari was not happy with me.
The five of us are anchored near a shoal, but otherwise it is open water. There are two groups of boats, three in each group - a catamaran joined the second group. So there is no land anywhere near us (nearest is 30 nautical miles away) and the depth is around 20 feet where boats are traveling. We are anchored off the beaten path in about 13 feet of water. Boats traveling where we are would be going through the shoal, so that is not likely. There is no wind, but there are still some small rollers coming through, so the boat rolls a bit.
You can see the bottom 13 feet below, so when I let out my chain, I could see it all piled in a heap at the bottom, since there was no wind to pull the boat back as I let it out. That did cause me to pause, so then I had two piles at the bottom. I backed down on it, so the chain got straightened out. Since there is no land to look at to see if one is dragging while running the boat in reverse, I looked at the bottom. Again, not something one can do very often.
Tomorrow we leave at 7 for Chub Cay (Cay is pronounced: key).