Cruising on Alexia

An informal update of our travels for Family and Friends

05 September 2013
27 June 2013
27 June 2013
27 June 2013
20 June 2013 | William wears kneepads to protect from the heat of the deck
17 June 2013 | Torrential rain for six hours
13 June 2013 | Herring Bay off Chesapeake Bay
08 June 2013 | Miles River, Maryland
08 June 2013 | Amelia at the helm with a helping hand from DAD
28 May 2013 | Just a short half mile journey across the River
27 May 2013 | Free dockage at the city marina
24 May 2013 | Narrow and shallow
24 May 2013 | Visitor Centre Dock
24 May 2013 | We're at the top
24 May 2013 | Going up
24 May 2013 | The gates close behind us

No Breaking Crests

06 January 2012
Green Turtle Cay - Man O' War Cay, Gt Abaco Island
We left Green Turtle Cay this morning bound for Man O' War Cay having waited several days for the Atlantic swells to subside following offshore bad weather hundreds of miles away.

You might wonder why on earth we were in the slightest bit concerned with weather patterns so far away but we needed to navigate the Whale Cay Channel, a shallow, rocky bar set between uninhabited Whale Cay and the Channel Rocks, which is adversely affected by wave action and which is the unavoidable route if one wants to get further down the island chain.

The entrance is swept broadsides by the surge from the Atlantic but the hazardous thing about this passage is that it can smash you onto the bottom if you attempt it in the wrong conditions - wave height is crucial and there is a lot of water coming in fast, with depths shallowing from several hundred feet a few miles out down to only 10/15ft at the bar. Waves can treble in size as they hit the shallow and squeeze through the Channel into the Sea of Abaco - it causes unstable conditions for any boat.

It certainly looked forbidding from a distance - huge white breakers crashing onto rocks either side of the narrow channel throwing spume high into the air and a boiling mass of water seeming to extend right across its width.

As we got closer it was obvious there was indeed a wide passage through but still the breakers to left and right were awesome and we were now is 5/7ft swells - it was quite rolly but there were no breaking crests.

Alexia and the Captain were having a great time - I was praying that my breakfast would stay where it belonged - inside me!

It was comforting to pass a motor boat going in the opposite direction and to know we weren't alone......he was certainly rocking more than we were - we waived a cheery hello to each other and kept going.

We reach our anchorage at Man O War Cay about an hour later, dropping the hook in 7 ft of crystal clear water, 100 yards offshore from the narrowest part of the island, beyond which we can see the Atlantic rollers and hear the surf gushing onto the shore.

The Cay is only about 4 kilometers long and perhaps 100 metres wide and famous for superior boat building for over two centuries. The earliest settlers constructed ships as well as smacks.

Today, their heritage is the Abaco Dinghy, pictured here, and their art of sailmaking, necessary for those early ships, has evolved into a smart canvas business to supply sturdy bags for tourists that come to the island.

Vessel Name: Alexia
Vessel Make/Model: Hallberg Rassy 42 built in 1998. She's extremely comfortable aboard with two ensuite cabins. Endless useful equipment like microwave, bilge pump counter, bowthrusters, Mastervolt generator, air conditioning, 12v freezer,
Hailing Port: London, United Kingdom
Crew: William Spouse and Frances Rogers
About: William has been a competitive sailor most of his life and introduced Frances to the boating life 29 years ago. In that time they have chartered many sailboats in Europe and the Caribbean finally purchasing Alexia in 2007.