Neither of us slept well with the constant rocking from the high wind. We were up at 6am and Mark got the latest weather. It was calling for high wind out of the SW shifting to West. So, we decided to go.

Mark hauled anchor and we motored into the wind to hoist the main sail. The wind was blowing 15 knots from the SW. We motored out the Little Harbour Inlet, adding the jib sail. Every few waves seemed much larger, as our sail was pinching on the wind. Our speed was 5 knots.

The bashing was excessive and we decided to return to Little Harbour Inlet just as it started to rain. We tacked and turned around and the wind changed to the West – NW. We were riding the big waves which also increased our speed. I saw 10 knots at one point. Mark furled the jib sail and got soaked in the process, as it was raining hard.

So, with the wind from the West, we decided to turn around and continue to the Eleutheras. However, we still had big waves with our bow smashing into them and we did not want that for the entire day.

So, once again, we tacked and headed back to Little Harbour. Mark furled the jib sail and then we used our engine to help us jibe as we turned and motor/sailed back to the Inlet. We chose another anchorage location due to the wind direction. Mark furled the jib and dropped the main sail. Bridges Cay is where we anchored, with much flatter waters.

It continued to rain with breaks and sunshine. I turned on Starlink and Mark took a rest. I ran my rife and checked emails and FB before making a few phone calls. When Mark woke up he worked on boat jobs: anchor bridle and rigging for the spinnaker; checked our water levels and the tank was half full, so Mark started the water maker for two hours and almost filled our tank. He added two towel hooks in the guest bath. Then he cleaned up a work cabinet that tipped over in the rough seas. Our solars were providing power, so we ran a load of laundry and hung it out on the lifelines to dry. I did boat cleaning and cooked pasta for lunch.

We both took a short nap. The sun was finally shining, so Mark launched the dinghy and we motored to the beach in front of us on Great Abaco Island. We had a lovely walk. There was loads of debris washed up the rocky edge up to the tree line. On the dinghy ride back we headed to the next beach. It was much bigger with live conch. We were glad for the walk. Mark wore shorts and a t-shirt, but I added a light sweater, as the wind was still cold. It will take us around 9 hours out on the ocean tomorrow, heading to the Eleuthera Islands. We’ll see if the weather co-operates.