We left Nassau in the morning bound for Norman Cay with Gene aboard. We had spent so much time in Nassau waiting for the frontal passage and high northerly winds after the passage, that we were a bit stir crazy. So it was exhilarating to finally be headed back to the islands. The sailing ended up a bit close hauled and light winds (yes, LIGHT winds finally!!)and so we motor sailed for a while. But the final leg was a gentle sail to Normans and quite peaceful.
However, the southwest anchorage off Normans turned out to be dicey. We entered at near low tide with a 6 foot draft and saw depth readings as low as 6.2'. But we found a spot fairly close in that had 7.5' and dropped anchor. The wind had picked up from the north and gave us a bouncy time until later in the evening when the forecast south easterlies filled in. It was still a bit bouncy, but relatively good.
We left the next morning (Tuesday) at near high tide bound for the deeper waters of Highbourne Cay. The winds were scheduled to come around to the south and the Highbourne western anchorage is not protected from that direction. But we toughed it out and the winds stayed mostly out of the south east. Winds were around 20 knots so it was still a bouncy anchorage. But again it was tolerable.
Tuesday afternoon we dinghy'd over to the northwest beach and hiked around the rocky shore to the northern anchorage. It was windy in that anchorage but the waters were quiet. It's a good place for any blow that doesn't have a "north" component in it. It is just a tricky access from the banks side for a boat with a 6' draft and low tide. So better timing (rising high tide) could make for a better transit into the anchorage in preparation for bad winds.
We left Highbourne Wednesday morning because Gene had a flight to catch in Nassau Thursday morning. The sail back was dead downwind and fairly nice. We doused the sail and motored through the coral heads on the Yellow Bank so that we had good maneuverability as we dodged the ones we could see. Evan and Gene were high up on the forward deck scouting the the big "keel busters" as I swerved to miss them. So much fun! The final stretch of the sail after the coral heads turned out to be very nice punctuated by Gene catching a good sized bar jack. That rather topped off his short week aboard Koala.
Well, here we are again in Nassau. Gene caught a taxi about 7 am to take the 2 hour drive to the airport. Yep, the whole island is only 26 miles long, but the taxi driver said he needed that much time during rush hour to make sure he caught his flight. And I thought south Florida was bad at rush hour!
I will catch up with downloading the pictures from my camera and then post a few here later on.