Moving South

Moving South   …   Monday 4th March 2013

Yesterday afternoon we heard our names being called and when we went on deck we found our friends Shirley and Bruce from "Ode to Joy" hailing us from their dinghy. (We met Bruce and Shirley up in the Abaco and then made the passage to Eleuthera in convoy with them - see blog entry "No Fans of Fan Belts"). It took me a moment or two to recognize them - either my eyes aren't that great without my specks or they were looking particularly bedraggled from their dinghy ride, or probably both! They came aboard and then Bruce promptly had to retreat to his dinghy to go rescue his shoe which he had inadvertently dropped overboard! Anyway we spent a happy hour catching up on what we had been doing since we last met. After they left, the secondary cold front came through and the wind picked up with a vengeance blowing 25+ knots all night. We were fortunate to be in the channel and relatively well protected. Bruce and Shirley were in a more exposed area to the south called Emerald Rock and when we chatted to them on the VHF radio this morning to share weather information it was clear that they had a very bumpy evening.

The wind settled down mid morning, as predicted, and we headed out of Wardewick Wells at 11am and had a very pleasant downwind motor-sail with the mainsail and Yanmar (a fine combination!). The seas turned out not to be too bumpy and we covered about 38 miles in 6 hours, reaching Galliot Cay at 5pm. We did try using just the sails but our speed was fairly slow and we figured we wouldn't make the anchorage before dark - so we kept on truckin'. It took us three goes to set the anchor, not because it wouldn't grab, but because the first two times, although we dropped the anchor in good depth, by the time we fell back on the chain we only had about 8ft and we were only half way through the falling tide. Third time worked a charm! One of the golden rules of anchoring is that once you have it set, you must put on the kettle and have a cuppa tea, which forces you to sit back, relax, let the anchor settle and check everything is looking good. So of course we did this, then watched a beautiful sunset and finally settled down to a fine dinner of left overs. Now it's really peaceful. The boat is rocking gently in the current and we should be all set for a quiet night. There are two other boats anchored about a half mile away but other than that there is nothing and nobody around here. It is so dark that until your eyes get adjusted you can barely make out the horizon and the stars are spectacular. We should now well placed to exit Galliot Cut tomorrow morning at slack tide, so we can continue our journey south on Exuma Sound - the deep water side of this island chain. 

Mike

23 55.653 N, 76 17.547 W

Late afternoon Galliot Cay, Exumas

... and after the sun has set 

A long exposure - looking up at the stars as we swing on our anchor - Galliot Cay