03/20/2010, Great Bahama Bank, Bahamas
Heading for the USA March 2010 II
Saturday, March 20, 2010 - 11 AM Great Bahama Bank, Bahamas Water temperature 69 F
Our trip has been uneventful so far. We bounced around a good bit for the first 12 hours but then things smoothed out and we have been riding nicely since then. The wind is down to 10 K and on our beam. We have all three sails flying and are motor sailing at 6+ K. With any luck we will be able to shut the engine down this evening once with get out in the Straits of Florida and we will be screaming downwind as we approach Ft. Pierce noonish tomorrow. Of course, with the wind which will have us hauling butt will come eight foot seas.
Meanwhile, we are part of a big boat parade. Many boats are taking advantage of this weather window to head back to the States. We just came through the Northwest Channel and have a dozen boats in sight right now. Boats get funneled together approaching the channel but once they get through the channel, they fan out into several different directions. We're heading for Mackie Shoal now and will then head for Great Isaac. Once we pass between the Hens & Chickens and Great Isaac; we will be in the Straits of Florida looking for the Gulf Stream. The navigating is so much easier the third time around.
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03/19/2010, Exuma Sound, Bahamas
Heading for the USA March 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010 - 4 PM Exuma Sound, Bahamas Water temperature 71 F
We decided this morning to head for Ft. Pierce, FL. If all goes well we will be there Sunday evening. We have bee motor sailing since we pulled anchor this morning and might have to motor sail the whole damn way. We have plenty of fuel. If things get ugly we have several safe havens we can stop at along the way.
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03/18/2010, Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas
Rock Sound March 10 VII
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 10 AM Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas Water temperature 71 F
On Tuesday we finally got to Rock Sound Settlement, dumped our garbage, bought groceries and dropped off our laundry at Dingle Motors. Yesterday was a dead calm day I took advantage of it to haul diesel fuel to the boat. We needed to get diesel before we headed back to the USA. We had planned on stopping at Spanish Wells, where there are fuel docks at marinas, to fill our tanks. As I struggled to find an acceptable weather window to get us back to Florida, the detour to Spanish Wells reduced our options. There are no fuel docks in Rock Sound Settlement but Dingle Motors (Esso) is a short walk from the dinghy dock. We don't carry any diesel fuel cans on board but our two gasoline cans we use for the dinghy outboard were empty. The two gas cans fit inside our wheelie cart and that made the hauling much easier. We anchored the big boat just off the dinghy dock and with three round trips, boat to dinghy dock to Dingles to dinghy dock to boat; we put 40 gallons of diesel in our tanks. That almost completely filled our tanks and we could now motor 500 miles if we had to.
Once I had thoroughly washed the diesel off my hands, we walked up to Sammy's Restaurant for a fine Bahamian lunch featuring fried Grouper. With our tummies filled it was time for some exercise so we headed east to the beach on the ocean side of Eleuthera. We needed to stop back at the boat first to get the backpack and some water bottles so we stopped at Dingles and picked up our laundry on the way. Once the laundry was back on board and we were properly outfitted, we went back to the dinghy dock and started walking east. It is a mile and a half across the island but a kind Bahamian lady stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride so the walk over was shortened. We walked the beach for some distance, picking up a few souvenirs, and then headed back west to Rock Sound Settlement. On the way back to the boat we stopped at Mills Grocery to buy the raisins I forgot to get on Tuesday and then made one final stop at Dingles for ice cream bars.
Once we were back on the boat, we crossed back to the west side of the sound to be ready for the front that was forecast to bring NW winds. When we dropped the anchor, we were ready to quit, all that running around had us whipped.
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