Left the Abacos after a very long day.
07 March 2010
• Great Harbour Cay Marina Berry Islands, Bahamas
by Mike
This morning we were up at 05h00 and getting a quick breakfast and getting ready to get underway. We brought the dingy and Suzuki-san aboard and raised the anchors and set off at 05h45 to head for the Berry Islands. This was the point where we said farewell to Jim and Randy as Patty Jean was heading for the Eluthras this morning. They have been great travel companions and we'll miss their company. We spoke to them a little bit by radio up until 10h00 when we made our turn around Hole in the Wall at the southernmost tip of Great Abaco Island. That was when I found out that I had left one of my ball hats aboard Patty Jean last night when we went over for a pasta supper. After making jokes about ransome etc., they promised to mail it back to me.
The sail to Hole in the Wall had been a broad reach, almost a run, and when we turned the corner we began to reach across to the Berry Islands. The wind never did really veer about to the NE as predicted but we did get some nice wind to blast across the last 30 miles or so to the Berrys.
As we sailed across the Great Providence Channel I was reminded of several things: first, the Sea of Abaco is very sheltered and in the several weeks that we were there we had no large swells. For that you need deep water and the Channel answered that bill. During our time in the ABacos we had forgotten the essential skill of stowing or fastening all the small "flying" bits inside the boat so by the time we arrived we had a small amount of cleaning up to do. We sailed through spreading panic among the local flying fish populations who darted and "flew" in all directions as we went by. The other thing was that in deeper water we began immediately to see commercial shipping. In fact in the 4 hours that it took us to cross we saw more than a dozen freighters and one cruise liner so not only were the fish scattering to avoid us, but we were scattering to avoid the commercial guys.
Then, just as we were reaching our planned destination, we discovered that they were dredging the area and the place was full of pipe lines and ships, so we got on the radio and located the Great Harbour Cay Marina and Resort where we took a dock for the night. On the trip around the Stirrup Cays we saw hundreds of Portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish, which reminded me that last year, when we were at Marathon at this time, there were hundreds of them washing up on the beaches there at that time. It must be a seasonal thing or something. That adjustment added another two hours and 12 miles to our trip. On the plus side it subtracted about 6 of those miles from our trip tomorrow. The marina is part of a resort complex that was built on a manmade lagoon set off from a natural salt water "lake" which in turn was joined to the ocean by a man made canal. It is certainly secure and calm in here as I would imagine it would remain, even in a really bad storm.
We have decided to set off from here and head directly for Florida tomorrow. This will mean a midday start and an overnight passage but it will get us there by Tuesday morning or noon at least. We have been examining the cruising guides and apparently although we can take up where we left off with our original cruising permit we have to call in to US Customs and get an entry number and then present ourselves to the nearest customs office. That might be a challenge in finding its location since as I write this we don't have internet.
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