On route to West End, Abacos, Bahamas!
14 April 2024
• Sailing through the Northerly Berry Islands to West End, Abacos
by Helen Humphreys • Sunny, East Wind 8-14 Knots, Lumpy Seas

We slept in, which was great. The water was pretty much flat overnight. It was a picture perfect place to be. After checking weather for what is coming over the next week, Mark started engine checks, getting ready to leave. He also unzipped the boom cover, as we plan to sail today.
We waited until after lunch before hauling anchor, as we were transiting the shallow Banks heading to a Cut between Market Fish Cay and High Cay. We motored through shallow waters of so many different colors and it was down to 5 feet at one point. Mark's course took us very close to edge of Hoffmans Cay near high tide.
Just before heading out the Cut, I steered into the wind and Mark raised the main sail. Then, he added the full genoa sail. We were sailing at 6 knots as we exited the Berry Islands into the Northwest Providence Channel.
Mark started our water maker. We are sailing in water that is 40 feet deep. We only plan the water maker for an hour or so.
Our speed goes up and down based on the wave heights of 2 - 4 feet. I saw speeds over 7 knots, but also down to 4. All is going well on Sunnyside!
We will sail overnight for 17 hours or so, depending on our sailing speed. We plan to anchor at West End and rest up. Then, we will sail Tuesday overnight to Pt. Canaveral. However, anything can happen to change our plans.
We saw many ships at night all lit up and they were mainly cruise ships from all different companies. The lights from Freeport were many and we were close to shore, so I kept wondering if any were ships. Yes, we had AIS, but not all boats had it. Also, the stars were incredible in-between the clouds.
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