Wyvern's Wanderings

Busy morning. Listened to Chris Parker for the weather. Tim and Troy came by about 7:30 to discuss the weather and our plans. Charlie and I have decided to leave the marina today and sail back down to Gun Cay. Make It Easy and Gypsy Soul are more comfortable waiting out tonights wind storm in the marina. They will follow us down on Wednesday or Thursday. The four of us walked down to the south end of the island to check out the seas in the entrance. The seas were still bumpy looking, but considerably better than yesterday. Back to the marina, then Charlie and I walked on to the bakery to purchase a loaf of bread. When we got back to the boat I went to take a shower in the marina shower. Charlie checked the fluids in the engine, checked the diesel level and the water tank. All was fine. We checked several times to make sure everything was stowed so it wouldn’t be flying around. We cast off the lines and left the dock about 11:00. Right in the channel on the way out it was bumpy. We did put out a bit of jib to help stabilize the boat. Once out of the channel, we had the waves on the beam, so we rolled a bit, but soon was able to turn away from the waves so they were more behind us. Really, the ride out wasn’t any worse than the ride into Bimini. By noon, or a bit after we were behind Gun Cay. One boat was already anchored when we arrived and we sailed in between two other boats. One of which was docked next to us at the marina. They left about a half hour or so before us. Charlie tried his new anchoring system three times, and all three times we drug. I finally convinced him to take off the second anchor and just use the delta. We stuck that time. Ran the engine in reverse up to 1700 to 1800 rpm and stayed right where we were. I don’t know the correlation between putting the engine in reverse at any particular rpm and what the wind at any certain velocity will push the boat. Wonder if anyone has ever calculated that. Say 1700 rpm put the same amount of pressure on the anchor and chain as 25 kt winds??? We had pasta salad that MaryAnn sent us off with for lunch. It was very good. We dinghied ashore and the Johnson outboard Tim loaned us started up on the third pull. We took the look bucket with us and looked at the anchor. The tip was dug in, but it wasn’t buried up. I like buried up! Charlie and I wandered around on the beaches and rocks for a couple of hours. The sun was out and with a sweatshirt, the wind didn’t bother us much. The boat is anchored on the east side of the island, and the wind and waves are hitting the west side. On the rocky shore, the waves were still crashing and spraying water up and across the rocks. Gun Cay is only about 100 feet wide in some spots. We could see where the seas could wash across the whole island at times. It wasn’t anything close to as bad as that today. The Johnson outboard had a bit more trouble starting and staying running when we headed back to the boat, but eventually did well. The anchorage is a bit rolly. Though we are protected from the wind and the waves behind the island, some of the swells are swinging around the north tip of the island and we are rolling side to side a bit because the wind is keeping the boat perpendicular to the swells. Not bad, but just a bit irritating. Charlie had to put a new 12 volt plug on our Davis light that we use for an anchor light. I still haven’t been up the mast to fix our masthead light. We had boat food chicken and dressing, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner. Everything came out of a can or a package. Won’t win any prizes, but tasty enough and filling. The wind has started coming up and is suppose to maybe get up close to 30 kts around 1:00 in the morning. We are still holding well.