Total Distance: 74 Miles Under Sail: 24
Average Speed: 8.79 kts
Conditions: Clear, 75-80 F, Wind Northeast at 0-5 kts, Seas 4-6 ft

Spanish Wells to Marsh Harbor
Wind light and variable, Seas 5' swells, temp 78, 75NM 18 hours sail
When I last left you I had just returned to the boat after a nice visit in the town of Spanish Wells. I prepared Rhapsody in Blue for another long voyage; put the dinghy on deck and secured the cabin. I needed to top off the fuel tank in anticipation of another motorsail to Marsh Harbor. After clearing the mooring field, I headed over to the Shell station. After a perfect solo docking, I found out they were closed and I had to head over to the other gas station further up the harbor. So another undocking and docking took place with perfection. I took on 15 gals of diesel fuel and headed out the North Channel of Spanish Wells at 1500.
The north cut out in the Atlantic Ocean is real, real tricky, both in the narrowest of it and depth. It is a narrow snake path with shallow water, reefs and coral heads to navigate. The cruiser's guide recommends a boat captain from town to help guide one's boat through this passage. Once again it is daylight, Visual Piloting Required (VPR) maneuver. I had both my chart plotter and Explorer paper charts as guides to help me out. But first I need to say a few words on my Raymarine chart plotter. I have been told by many of cruisers that the Raymarine Charts are not good in the Bahamas. I knew from my previous trip to Bimini that they were inaccurate. I update the chart plotter about a year ago after my last Bimini trip. What I found throughout the whole month was the chart plotter was very accurate and in some cases more accurate than the highly rate Explorer Charts. This turned out to be a blessing and a relief for my sometimes faint heart. It took a lot of pressure off me as I got more comfortable with the Raymarine charts. But I always use VPR to guide the boat in tight places. Reading the waters in the Bahamas is easy once you know what to look for. Rhapsody made it through the cut and into the Atlantic Ocean with the greatest of ease. With Rhapsody in Blue in the true Atlantic Ocean for the first time, the ocean decided to great us with 5' swells. Nice of Mother Ocean to have such a fine greeting, NOT! I have seen the real ocean from a few cruise ship cruises and the Pacific Ocean on a sailboat. But this is way different from your own boat only 4 feet off the ocean surface. I had some light winds on a broad reach, so I set sails for a slow sail north. Because I had to leave Spanish Wells during high tide and in the day, I left 4 hours earlier than I needed to. Why you ask? So that I would arrive at the Man of War cut into the Abaco Sea during daylight hours. If you haven't figured it out yet, a prudent sailor never enters an unknown cut or harbor at night. I did some quick math and at normal speed I would get to Man of War at 4am with sunrise at 630am. So with this dilemma a choice had to be made of either lying up outside the cut or slow the boat speed down. Now let's talk about ocean swells/waves for a few moments.
Ideally I believe one wants the waves/swells at around 45 degrees off either the bow or stern. This makes the ride more comfortable where the boat isn't being tossed about. Seas off the beam are OK as long as they are not big waves. Off the nose is a beating like I had in the Tongue of the Ocean. We call this beating because you get beat to death both you and the boat. Waves/swells dead on the stern makes for a really rocky boat, tossing everything from one side to the other. Some boats handle seas better than others based on their hull and keel designs. My boat with a wing keel, light displacement and wide stern makes for a not so ocean going boat in big seas. The trick to a comfortable ride with any big seas is to get the bow pointed in the sweet 45 degree corridor and boat speed to match the wave pattern as best as you can. Fast boats have more latitude in speed adjustments than slower boats.
So now that this discussion is done, I had a decision to make as to how I was going to sail to Marsh Harbor. The swells were around 60 degrees off the starboard side, 7-9 seconds apart. If I was in the Gulf Stream with 5' waves/swells 3 seconds apart, it would have been a nightmare. So even though the swells were 5 feet plus it was a nice comfortable ride. I have to admit when I first saw the swells I was real nervous. Ok a little scared. Ok a lot scared. Rhapsody in Blue handled the Atlantic Ocean with ease, saying she would take good care of me this trip. We were cruising along at 6.2kts having the time of our lives while I was trying to make up my mind on the course of action. Lying up at night in front the cut, solo and tired was not in the cards for me. So I did some quick high math skills and came up with 3.75 knots to get to Man of War Cut at sunrise. So at 1700 hrs, the wind Gods were reading my mind and turned off the wind for the night sail up. The iron jenny (motor) was turned on, set the RPM's to cruise at 3.75kts for the next 12 hours or so.
Northwest Passage Channel- 1700 hrs. Major shipping channel for the Bahamas. At 1710, a cruise ship was barring straight down at me. Not a pleasant sight for the feint hearted! On channel 16 hailed the ship to make sure they saw the small sailboat, me! It took several calls to the ship for them to answer me back. They came back with my exact coordinates. I double check my GPS coordinates to make sure they had me. Amazing how accurate their radar was. It was Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of Seas. We chatted a few minutes on how we were going to pass each other; they to my stern. This is the best way for any ‽BAB" (Big Ass Boat) to pass a sailboat. No wake to worry about. Now these BAB can travel very fast, usually around 20-25 knots. However, the cruise ship was in no particular hurry it seemed. Making I guess, around 10 knots at best. No particular hurry heading straight for me. No turn ever so slightly. Now my feint heart didn't know whether to beat in a panic adrenaline heart race or just quit beating altogether and just die right there. This was a very slow motion dance that lasted about 30 minutes. In the end Sovereign of Seas turned and passed close enough to my stern I could read the dinner menu. Speaking of which, when they did just pass, I called them to ask them if it was Lobster Night. They came back it was tomorrow. Dinner was off the night's menu. I asked if the chef can make a dinner for me and pass it down. This girl was hungry. We all had a laugh. After chatting with other cruisers about this incident, we all came to the conclusion they head straight for us cruising boats rather than just turn to pass on our stern to entertain their guest. Cheap thrill if you ask me. So instead of a nice dinner from the cruise ship it was another Chinese chicken noodle soup, crackers and soda. Not quite the same. After this incident, 3 other BAB passed by me without my heart skipping a beat.
1941 hours - Official Sunset- Holly Molly!!!! What a display of God's artwork. I have seen sunsets but this sunset on the high seas beats all sunsets put together times 100. The sun literally just melted into the ocean. Like a candle melting its wax on the watery table of the Atlantic Ocean. Breathtaking!! Seas dropped to 2 feet, no wind 42.77 NM to Man of War cut.
2230 -Course correction. When I first set up the course after leaving Spanish Wells the course was straight shot to Man of War cut. The lighthouses of Abaco started to be seen. I was headed straight for them. The little birdie in the back of my head said, ‽Hey stupid, check your course!" One must always listen to that little birdie. At least I do most of the time and when I don't bad things seem to happen. So I checked my position and sure enough I was headed straight for the reefs off of Little Harbor. The island of Abaco sort of bulges out at the southern end and that I didn't account for earlier. So a small course correction was put in the heading making the world right. Most important the little birdie went back to sleep. Wish I could go to sleep. Now, a word about lighthouses.
Lighthouses are a sailor's savior. They can be seen usually for 20 miles or more on a clear night. This sailorette has never seen a lighthouse before in the open sea. At 20 miles or more they look any other lighted buoy out there. So I see the first lighthouse at Little Harbor and think it is a lighted buoy. Light buoys one can see for at best only a few miles. So I say to myself, ‽Holy shit I am a lot closer to shore than I think I am"! I am supposed to be 25 miles from shore and one cannot see the shore that far unless large skyscrapers are on land. The Abaco's have no skyscrapers. So mass panic, 7 alarm bells go off in my head. The charts show a buoy near shore. I turn on all 3 GPS on the boat to recalculate my position. I was where I was supposed to be. Hmmm. Did someone drop a weather buoy out here in the middle of ocean and forgot to tell me about it? I was confused and left it at that for awhile. Turned more NE to avoid the whole mess out in the middle of ocean, in other words, headed more out to sea.
0145am hours - Wind came up to 300/8kts. Raised sails and turned off engine. Speed 3.9 kts. Another damn buoy light can be seen. Now I have two of these dang things that I cannot figure out what they are doing out in the middle of the freaking ocean. I triangulate the lights to the charts. For you non-nautical persons, that means taking a heading from the light you see to the boat. Draw that heading on a map. Plot these headings on the map with lines. Where they intersect gives you the position of the boat. I was confused before about the first light I saw, now I was dumbfounded. Not very often is this sailing girl dumbfounded. The position on the map that I plotted match up to the GPS coordinates within a ¼ of mile. Good enough out in the middle of the freaking ocean in the middle of the freaking night. Normally, after an hour or two lighted buoys cannot be seen. I saw these bloody things all night. I am going to get the bottom of this one way or another if kills me - which it might. So I turned the heading on the autopilot to the East. Europe here I come. Hmmm. I have enough food for a 30 day crossing. Water tank is full, passport in hand. Dang crew will kill me if I don� t meet them in a few days. Foiled again! Drat.
0349am- Wind died again, motor started, ghosting along at 2.5kts. Current is on the nose about 2kts. I started to get tired again at my usual hour of 2-4am. Pot of coffee was made. It was while I was making coffee trying to get those damm lights out of my head that I realized I have TV and TV shows recorded on my satellite DVR. I have a few weeks of shows to catch up on. Eureka! I fired up the inverter, turn on the TV and caught up on my NCIS and NCIS LA shows. Between commercials I poked my head out the companionway like a gofer looking for his shadow to see if any BAB's where heading my way. It turned out to be a great night with those 2 lights blinking at me.
0630 - Sunrise - 2NM from North Man of War cut. Like the sunset the previous night, God wasn't done with his magic light bulb. Sunrise was just as glorious as the sunset as it came up to light another day. My timing here was perfect. There are some big reefs out here. While the cut is big, one still needs to see where the reefs are.
0700 - Entered Abaco Sea. This reminds me of home on Key Biscayne Bay. It is shallow and full of islands all around. Only this water is a pretty color of blue and one can see the bottom very easily. My heart is full of joy as I make for Marsh Harbor 9NM away.
0830am- Dock the boat at Marsh Harbor Marina. I could not raise the dock master on either Channel 16 or 68. Since I had a reservation, I just docked the boat on the finger pier and will sort it all out later. When I went to the office, it was closed. One of the patrons said they don't open on Sunday until 11 or so. OK, I can handle island time. Welcome the Bahamas, Ms Melissa.
75NM 18 hours sail. Life is grand and another night sail is complete for the crazy woman boat driver!! Good night everyone.