Guana Cay ...

March 20 - Marsh Harbour to Guana Cay, 16.8 nm in 4:30 hours with a maximum SOG of 7 knots. This is the first sail Penelope and I have had together.  She was pretty nervous about it, but caught on quickly to everything ... successful "so far," as she always says.  It began with light breezes out of the NE which built to a nice 12-15 knots for a couple of hours, and then for the last hour around 1400 built to 20 knots.  We poked our head into Guana Harbour and decide it was too shallow for our comfort and would probably be a noisy anchorage, so we popped around the corner to Fisher's Bay and found a lovely anchorage in about 10-12 feet of water. 

I had to dive the prop and cut away some fishing line (my own line, but very light weight).  What fun that was.  We went ashore and trekked to a couple of the spots one is supposed to visit: Nipper's, which overlooks the Atlantic, and Pirates Cove, a little roadside bar and barbecue where we shared the best rib dinner we've had so far.  Met David, from Indianapolis, on the Grand Banks trawler Initiative, who is anchored just a couple of hundred meters east of us.  All in all very nice, though another front came through on the 21st which dropped a lot of rain.  Today, the sun is out, it's in the 70s, and the wind is 15-20 kts.  We may stay here, or we may go to Green Turtle Cay.  No rush at all.

Bay area sailors may appreciate the fact that folks out here think anything over 15 knots and a swell over 4-6 feet is inclement weather.  They actually cancelled a "cruisers" invitational race at Hope Town last Thursday when the first low started coming through because the winds were predicted to gust to 25 knots.  And today they were talking about how one should stay on the lee shores to avoid the rough water in the middle of the Sea of Abaco that's being stirred up by the 15-20 knot winds.  As I look out there, it is gorgeous sailing weather.  Y'all would die for it.  Well, different strokes ...


Just posted the log of our crossing from North Carolina to the Bahamas.  Scroll down to the March 9th entry.

It's hard to post photos with shakey wifi connections, but eventually I'll get some up.