MIDORI ADVENTURES

TUES APRIL 2 TO WED APRIL 3
DEPART NASSAU 0915 ARRIVE DINNER KEY 6:15 P.M.

Due to squalls forecasted to move from the west to the east, we decided not to travel yesterday, Easter Monday. The thunderstorm didn't reach Nassau until around 6:00 p.m. and abruptly ended "happy hour" by the pool where a variety of cruisers whom we had met in Warderick Wells and Cambridge Cay had gathered.

We are running a little late this morning. The co-captain (that's me) thought she had an existing route on the Garmin chart plotter, but what I had actually done was saved the tracks as a route and there must have been a zillion waypoints showing on the route - one on top of the other, on top of the other! So, I had to take some time to clean up the mess and do a new route. We anticipate it will take us 10 hrs. (49.3 nautical miles at an average speed of 5.0 knots) to get through the Tongue of the Ocean and through the narrow Northwest Channel onto the shallower Bahama banks, and we want to do it during daylight hours! With a departure of 0915, it will be "nip and tuck" to make it by 7:20 p.m.
(Note to self: check the handbook and figure out how to change the format of the tracking)

It is a beautiful, hot, sunny, blue-sky, day and the sea conditions are great - about 1' out of the NW. We just need a bit more wind which is only about 8 knots NW.

CYNTHIA GALE departed ahead of us with a destination of Chub Cay. They plan to carry on up to Lucaya and then head back to the U.S.A. Although they are out of sight, we are able to communicate by VHF radio. When they call "settled in" at the Chub Cay Marina, we are still 2 1/2 hrs away from the Northwest Channel.

By 6:00 p.m. the wind has picked up and we pass by the broken, fallen-over, unlit N.W. Channel marker at 6:45 p.m.

Although our original plan was to travel the banks to North Rock and then head south for seven miles to Bimini, we have decided to head to Cat Cay instead. It is 57.6 nautical miles away and being south of Bimini, will allow us a better angle across the gulf stream to Miami. A new course is plotted on the spot and we carry on motor sailing with both sails up. The wind is light and variable - mostly on our stern. We are making such good time that we have to stop and anchor for a couple of hours. We have never been to Cat Cay and do not want to go through the channel in the dark! We sleep a little, but the seas are fairly bouncy.

I make coffee and plot a route from Cat Cay to Fowey Rocks. We pull up the anchor at 6:15 a.m. and by 9:15 we have made our way through the rather shallow channel between Gun Cay and North Cat Cay and are in the Straits of Florida! It is 42.6 nautical miles to Fowey Rocks. The sea conditions start off being not too bad - 1 - 2 ft. seas out of the south with the wind ESE 10 - 12 knots, but for the last 25 miles the seas are 4 to 5 ft. on our port aft quarter and It is not fun being bounced around. It is difficult to walk on the boat and "stuff" gets hurled off the shelves. Hooray for the auto helm which has been working fantastically all season!!

When we are 20 miles offshore, we stop navigating to Fowey Rocks and switch to the old route that will take us through Biscayne Channel to Dinner Key. It is cluttered with waypoints, however, by this time we can navigate visually and pick out the lighthouse on Biscayne Key and the marker for the channel. (note to self: must contact the support people at Garmin as soon as we are settled!)

We arrive at Dinner Key and are assigned mooring ball #74 - which doesn't exist - so we pick up # 75.

At 6:15 p.m. we are safe & sound and exhausted and make no attempt to put down the dinghy and go ashore. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can get things accomplished before the next front moves in.

Stay tuned,

Co-Captain Lynn