After Effects

After Effects

Monday 28th - Wednesday 30th April, 2025

After a night’s sleep, we were quite buoyant.  We went ashore, walked to the Winn Dixie supermarket.  There we fell into the trap of buying too much stuff, mostly because we had not seen such abundance in quite a while.  We got an Uber back to the marina and spent quite a while putting everything away!  Overall we felt happy to be in Florida and pleased to have got some food onboard.  Having spent so many days watching the weather and worrying about the Gulf Stream passage, we were quite relieved and pleased with ourselves. By Tuesday, we were tired and achy and slightly out of sorts.  The glow of accomplishing the passage had worn off. 

We had looked at the mainsail seam on Monday. Mike re-aligned the two pieces using one row of hand stitches.  We had searched our sail repair kit but didn’t find any double sided tape,  We thought this would be useful for holding the seam together.  It seemed unlikely that we would be able to hand stitch three zig-zag seams by hand (the section that had pulled apart was about five feet long).  We identified a canvas shop nearby.  They were willing to sell us a roll of double sided tape, so we decided to take the five mile round trip to the shop.  The fact that the route would take us past the Winn Dixie for another shopping spree seemed like a bonus.  Off we went.  By the time we arrived at the canvas shop we were sweaty, tired and doubting our sanity. After purchasing the double-sided tape, we walked to the Winn Dixie.  This time we managed to be more restrained in our shopping.  However, the walk back to the marina seemed long and tiring.  

After closing the seam with the double-sided tape, stitching resumed on the mainsail.  Then we applied sail repair tape on both sides over the hand stitched section.  It’s a real fingers crossed job. We only need it to last until we get back to Rhode Island! That’s still a lot of miles…

Today, Wednesday, we dropped our mooring and went into the fuel dock of the marina.  We filled both tanks and one jerry can with diesel.  A couple of water jerries were topped up before we set off.  We motored north along the ICW and after all of about 8 miles, anchored off Cumberland Island.  We went ashore and did a sizable loop walk. It was as beautiful as we remembered it, but we didn’t get back to the boat until after six pm.  I can’t speak for Mike, however, I feel distinctly tired.  We plan to move on tomorrow, making a start on the next leg of our journey up the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) to Charleston, SC.

Gloria

30 45.397 N, 81 28.575 W

One of the two large industrial plants visible from our mooring in Fernandina Beach. We aren't sure if they are paper mills, wood processing (to make pellets) or what ...

Two images overlaid - the first a daytime shot in B&W, the second a long exposure night time shot with variable focal length.

Working on the 5ft ripped seam near the top of our mainsail. We have now had two seems rip out, which suggests the thread is degrading and we need to have the sail serviced / re-stitched (Gloria's iPhone)

Gloria looking out over the marshy section at the south end of Cumberland Island National Seashore

Lilly

The Atlantic beach on Cumberland Island

Patterns in the sand (B&W)

Maritime forest in teh interior of Cumberland Island

Sanderling

Royal Terns

Armadillo

Riding the Conveyor Belt

Riding the Conveyor Belt

Saturday 26th  Sunday 27th April, 2025

Well we made it back across the Gulf Steam in one piece and are now on a mooring in Fernandina Beach. Since leaving the Exumas, we have been following a plan that was based on using the Old Bahama Bay marina, at the west end of Grand Bahama, as a jumping off point. It looked like there should be a reasonable weather window and we monitored that closely. Using PredictWind we were able to determine the best departure time and route, and slotted in a couple of rest days, one at Bullock’s Harbor in the Berry islands, and one at Old Bahama Bay prior to the Gulf Stream crossing.

The Gulf Stream is an astonishing phenomena. A wall of water, several miles wide and a mile deep, flows northwards from the Caribbean up the west coast of the USA at speeds of up to 3.5 knots. It influences local and global weather, and is renowned for nasty, steep waves if the wind has any northerly component (wind against current / tide effect). Our weather window was based on the persistent NE winds and seas of the previous week settling down, and completing our crossing before the next weather front rolls off the east coast of the USA, once again generating northerly component winds. On the whole, the promising weather forecast held up and on Saturday morning we were up at 5.30 am, off the dock and on our way by 6 am.

The down side of our chosen weather window was light winds. From the outset we had the main sail up and motor sailed westwards to join the Gulf Stream as soon as possible. Within a couple of hours we were already picking up beneficial current, and as we turned northwards we also deployed our Genoa and were able to use the light winds to help boost our speed. I should add that the mainsail also helps to dampen rolling in these conditions. We were flying along quite comfortably, riding the awesome conveyor belt of water at speeds of 9-10 knots until noon. At this point Gloria noticed that we had blown out a seam at the top of our mainsail. We quickly dropped the sail and spent a little time considering our options. 

Repairing the sail underway was certainly possible, but would require dropping it completely onto the deck and then taping and hand stitching, whilst being bounced around. This did not seem like an attractive proposition and I was concerned that I would get seasick and find it difficult to recover. We talked about cutting out to Fort Pierce, the closest navigable inlet, but didn't really want to lose the opportunity to ride the Gulf Stream. So in the end decided to continue as we were, and repair the main sail once we had arrived back in the USA and were safely anchored.

The conditions in the Gulf Stream were about as good as they get, with about 4 foot swells (7 seconds period) and a light, wind driven chop on top of that. It still felt pretty bouncy and the night was pitch black with no moon. We did some fishing and hooked a small mahi-mahi, but he threw the hook before we could get him on board. This was perhaps the best outcome because he really didn’t look big enough to keep. We had prepared food in advance and enjoyed a Mediterranean style pork casserole for dinner. Mostly, we just lazed around the cockpit doing a lot of nothing! Whilst there were periods when we might have been able to make adequate speed sailing with the main and genoa, but without the former it would have just been too slow. So for the remainder of the passage we motor sailing with the genoa and the engine running at ~ 2000 rpm. In the end, our timings worked out really well. We covered 295 nautical miles in 36 hours (with an average speed of 8.2 knots) and arrived at Fernandina Beach on a rising tide with favorable current. The only issue we had at the end was getting to the last available mooring ball. We saw depths of 6.5 feet, which was unnerving to say the least, but around the mooring itself there appears to be more water. For now, we are safe and comfortable and will spend the next couple of days resting and preparing for the next leg of our journey.

Mike

30 40.113 N, 81 28.251 W

Sunrise off West End, Grand Bahama

A couple of hours later and you can see how being in the Gulf Stream has bumpier conditions

Sunset Saturday night - Gloria said it was another 'green flash' event, but i must have looked away at the critical moment

Sunrise on Sunday morning in the Gulf Stream

We had a brief visit from a migrating Yellow Rumped Warbler. He looked exhausted and still had ~ 40 miles to go before reaching land

Passages to West End, Grand Bahama

Passages to West End, Grand Bahama

Monday 24th to Friday 25th April, 2025

We have been working our way northwards in single day hops, with the intention of staging out of West End, Grand Bahama for our long passage back to Florida. The sail from Shroud Cay, Exumas over to Nassau crosses the Yellow Bank - a shallow area where “Visual Piloting Rules” apply and you need to be on the lookout for coral heads. The sail itself was fast and furious, with 15+ knots of wind on the beam. As we approached the Yellow Bank we were somewhat relieved that, despite heavy chop, we could actually see the sandy bottom and that the isolated coral heads stood out a mile. We anchored on the south side of Rose Island, 2 or 3 miles east of Nassau. It turned out to be a pretty miserable, rolly anchorage under the conditions. 

The following Day, Tuesday, we were up and on our way before 7am. We had a good sail up to the Berry Islands, making full use of our “code zero” sail. This is what Rod calls our “storm gennaker” … it’s meant for reaching in fairly light winds, but its quite we’ll built and not the lightest fabric. Nonetheless, we have become more familiar and comfortable using it, and a broad reach in 12-14 knots we were flying along. We navigated around the northern tip of the Berry Islands and large areas of shallow water, and headed into Bullock’s Harbor. We had covered 72 miles in just over 11 hours, half of which we sailed and half we motor sailed because the winds were too light to maintain adequate speed. The Bullock’s Harbor anchorage is wide open to the west, but in the north easterly winds we were experiencing it was completely flat. We spent a couple of nights here and spend the day visiting the small community on shore, getting a few provisions, dumping our trash, and preparing for the even longer on Thursday. We needed to make an early start!

Mike

When the alarm went off at 3:45 am, I felt less than delighted.  Even worse it seemed like my brain was scrambled, getting dressed was a struggle! We hoped to be away by 4 am.  

Somehow, I forgot that it would be chilly at 4 am, many additional trips below for warmer gear were needed.  We put up the sail while still at anchor.  By 4:15 am we were underway.  We were able to follow our track from Tuesday, back across the shallow areas to somewhat deeper water.  Moving along in the dark has an unsettling impact on me.  Soon we were out in Northwest Providence channel.  What we had forgotten was that this stretch of water is quite busy.  We saw 3 cruise ships and two tankers before it got light.   

The journey to West End was about 85 miles.  Although the marina was open until 8 pm, we wanted to arrive in before sunset.  Anchoring in the dark is one thing, docking into a slip in the dark seems an entirely different proposition.  The result was that we felt time pressure for the entire passage.  When the wind speed dropped in the morning we rolled up the genoa and hoisted the gennaker.  We continued in this fashion until we came close to Lucaya/Freeport.  In this area,  the wind diminished to about 5 knots.  We took down the gennaker and started the engine.  After about an hour, the wind filled in robustly from the north east and we were able to sail the last two hours to our waypoint off the marina.  Once we knew it was a starboard tie up, we got dock lines and fenders ready. Even though we had been to this marina once before (Jan 2013), neither one of us could remember a thing about the layout.  Seeing the dock master waving at us from the slip was a big help.  Mike executed the docking maneuver fantastically.  It’s SO much easier with people on the dock to help with the lines.  It was a great relief to have the boat tied up in plenty of time before dark.  An early night was on the cards for me.  Mike stayed up late following the first day of the NFL draft.  I don’t know how he could manage staying awake.

Today is Friday, preparations are underway for an even bigger passage.  We washed the boat down with fresh water, reducing the appearance of Cotinga as salt pan.  Water tank and water jerries were refilled.  Mike pulled the knot meter and cleaned the paddle wheel.  We changed the engine over to run off the main diesel tank. Mike prepared food for the passage, while I did laundry. We still need to make coffee, download some audio books, get out some warm clothes.  Generally it’s about being able to easily get to things like medications and toothbrushes.  Our hope is to get to Fernadina Beach, some 290 nautical miles away.  Sadly the winds are forecast to be quite light, so it might be mostly motoring.  As for how long it takes, that depends on how fast we can travel.  If we are making 6 kts through the water it will be about 40 hours!  The Gulf Stream adds a lot to the speed over the ground (+3.5 knots). We will try to get an early start—probably 6 am.  Hopefully, it will all go smoothly. 

Gloria

reminder ... you can view our track at :

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Cotinga/

Leaving the Nassau area on Tuesday morning

Flying the 'Code 0' foresail 

The 'Code 0' sail is contained in a 'sock' and raised using the spinnaker halyard. Once everything is set up the sock is pulled up to the top using the blue lines that are prominent in this picture. When you want to take down the sail, you pull the sock down over the sail and wrestle the resulting sausage to the deck. All good fun on the bouncy foredeck! 

Stirrup Island on the north of the Berry Islands is owned by a cruise line company (presumably "XXXX of the Seas"). They seem to park their boats here and then perhaps motor over and pick up passengers from Nassau

We passed 'Disney Fantasy' on our way to West End 

Exumas Finale

Exumas Finale

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th April, 2025

We were fortunate to have light winds whilst we were at Warderick Wells, because it gave us snorkeling opportunities that might not have been possible under windier conditions. As we moved up to Hawksbill Cay and Shroud Cay, the weather changed and we had strong easterly winds for the following three days. We were perfectly comfortable moored (Hawksbill Cay) or anchored (Shroud Cay) on the west side, with very little chop or surge.

Both Islands are part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, and have beautiful sandy beaches on all sides. The islands themselves are low lying with hills comprised of ultra-sharp rocks, along with low lying tidal lagoons in the center. On Hawksbill Cay we hiked across the island to the Exuma Sound (east) coast, which looked amazing, but scary with the winds blowing onshore at 20-25 knots. At Shroud Cay we took the dinghy up a tidal creek, through the central lagoon and across the far side of the island. We had done a similar trip in 2018 whilst cruising with our friends Lyn and Lee, but on this occasion I think the light was better and the scenery seemed even more dramatic. We timed this trip to the top two hours of the tide, and even so had to be careful to pick our route through the deepest water.

We have had a fabulous time in the Exumas, but it’s time to move on. We are starting to get low on provisions and in any event we need to make tracks to get back to Rhode Island by early June. We had planned to go north to the Abacos and from there on to Florida, but persistent north-easterly winds along with residual swells from the past few days of strong winds, have made the first part of this route less than attractive. So we have made the decision to head north-west towards Nassau - the Berry Islands - West End (near Freeport) and then on to Florida.

It seems fitting after such a great time in the Exumas that we should finish up with a ‘green flash’ sunset. We had heard of this phenomena decades ago, but hadn’t seen it, and frankly were skeptical that it was real. However, in the last six months I think we have seen it 3 or 4 times. Below I show a couple of photos that I think prove that it is real. In fact when we worked at Framingham State University there was a poster on the wall explaining how it comes about. My understanding is that that as the sun drops below the horizon the light gets bent around the curve of the atmosphere of the earth. Different wavelengths get refracted to a different extent  (just like a rainbow) and what you see is the green part of the spectrum. Honestly, the size and intensity of the ‘flash’ is pretty small … but I do think it’s real !

Mike

Looking south along the 'banks' (west) side of Hawksbill Cay

A stunning beach on the Exuma Sound (east) side of Hawksbill Cay

A small nurse shark in the shallow lagoon inside Hawksbill Cay

Taking the dinghy up the creek and lagoon that crosses the middle of Shroud Cay

The water colors are amazing

At the first (of two stops) on the Exuma Bank side we were impressed by the surf rolling in

The second stop must be somewhat protected and it was "gobsmackingly" beautiful

Gloria is paradise

Another dinghy from a superyacht had dropped clients at this location and are about to head back across the creek and lagoon

Three sequential shots at sunset showing the evolution of the 'green flash'. Note: these photos were all taken with the same 340 mm lens and are exactly to scale - the flash is tiny relative to the size of the sun!

Here is the third shot again, cropped a little tighter, and shows the 'green flash' more convincingly (perhaps!)

Titles can be tricky

Titles can be tricky

Thursday 17th and Friday 18th April, 2025

When Mike went up the mast on Wednesday afternoon to take photos, he noticed a fraying area on the main halyard.  Consequently, on Thursday morning after breakfast, we found a length of Dynema to use as a messenger line.  Mike tied the Dynema to the tail end of the main halyard.  I fed out the messenger line as Mike pulled the halyard down onto the deck. (Naturally, he had to detach the end from the sail in order to do this.)  As we  got close to pulling the whole halyard down, it became obvious that the Dynema line wasn’t long enough!  There was a bit of a mad scramble to find another piece of line and attach it.  Once the halyard was on the deck, I could see the area of wear was on a section that had an anti-chafe guard installed.  It’s a bit of a mystery why this chafe had occurred.  Fortunately, we had some chafe guard material on board.  We fed this along the halyard from the tail to the spliced end.  Mike then lashed it in place with some rigging twine.  Then we reattached the messenger line and pulled the halyard back up the mast.  Once it was fed through all the correct turning blocks and the rope clutch, we were back in business.

Next on the day’s agenda was a snorkel trip.  Having studied the “not to scale” hand drawn map of snorkel spots, we elected to go to the area near mooring ball number one.  We zipped over in the dinghy at about what we thought would be slack water.  A couple of boats were already tied to the dinghy mooring.  We joined them and swam around the tip of a mini island.  There were plenty of fish, coral and sponges.  The clarity of the water was amazing.  Not far from the shore of the small island, the bottom fell away but it was possible to see down to the deeper area quite clearly.  We did observe the arrival of a Bahamas Defense Force vessel.  This was something of a distraction as they launched their dinghy and motored off at great speed (noisy in the water!).  We did see a huge barracuda stationary on a section of reef with it’s mouth wide open! What a sight!  Thankfully it swam off.  

Having had such a successful swim, we decided to go on to another spot on the map.  This small cay was on the other side of Waderick Cut, but because it was close to slack tide it didn’t seem like a tough dinghy ride.  We anchored the dinghy, slid into the water and swam northwest along the shoreline, looking at fish and coral.  After a bit we realized that we were being pushed along quite fast by a strong current.  We agreed that it was time to turn back.  At first it seemed like we were not making any progress.  More vigorous kicking was implemented.  I made the mistake of looking up toward the dinghy.  It seemed an impossible distance away.  By this point I was out of breath and quite panicky.  We stopped holding hands and swam independently, allowing us to use our arms properly.  After a while Mike resumed snorkeling, while I carried on swimming until I got near the dinghy. I thought it would be a bad idea to jump back in the dinghy after such a panic. I forced myself to calm down and look around. Being out of the current, I was able to swim around and inspect the fish (near to the safety of the dinghy, of course!). We were rewarded by the sight of an enormous lobster.

After lunch and a rest, we went to the headquarters building and paid for another night of mooring.  Returning to Cotinga, we started to make preparations for our departure on Friday morning. Tasks like taking the engine off the dinghy, putting the dinghy on the davits, topping up the water tank from the jerries, topping up the diesel tank and tidying up the cockpit.

This morning, we left Warderick Wells and genoa sailed up to Hawksbill Cay.  We were happy to find an empty mooring in the south mooring field.  Later this afternoon, we hope to take a walk on shore.    

Gloria

24 28.042 N, 76 46.189 W

It's hard to get a good perspective on Warderick Wells, so I had gloria haul me up the mast to take photos from 'up top'

The north mooring field - looking south towards the Park Headquarters. The Emerald Rock (south) mooring field is through teh narrow channel (dinghy only) and beyond the Park Headquarters.

The north mooring field - looking north towards the entrance channel

The north mooring field - looking east towards Exuma Sound, behind the barrier island

Large Rays seen from our dinghy. We snorkeled with a group of 12 Eagle Rays in the "Rangers Garden" on the previous day - absolutely amazing.

Gloria on the rocks above Exuma Sound

A rare photo of Mike on the cliffs near Pirate's Lair (Gloria's iPhone)

I have been trying to generate panoramas from sets of wiide-angle photos. However, it's a bit hit or miss whether the computer can align the images correctly. In this case 'not' ... so I created this 6-frame collage of Exuma Sound, avoiding the overlay and concentrating on keeping the horizon level