Day 155 the Calm before the Storm

Day 155 - The Calm before the Storm

We wake up to a beautiful day anchored off a gorgeous palm studded island.  It is going to be a good day.  The seas were calm throughout the night but are forecasted to pickup to gale force by the end of the day, we are literally in the calm before the storm.  With the impending gale coming in we have breakfast and head back for Green Turtle Cay.

Winds are starting pickup allowing us to do a slow sail/motor sail back the 5 miles to the south.  Comocean is just in front of us and has us wondering how they are doing 5 knots under Jib alone while we are doing on 3.5 with both the main and jib up.  We soon figure out the motor part of motor sailing.

By 10 we are back in White Sound on Green Turtle Cay and will be taking a slip for the next couple days to let the weather clear.  Winds are light giving us the opportunity to back into the slip.  Julie does a beautiful job and with the help of Wesley, the dock master, we are tied up well and ready for the weather.

We do a few jobs around the boat and then head for a walk over to Coco Beach and the Ocean Beach.  We are out for about 2 hours and quite enjoy the walk.  The ocean beach is beautiful with its white sand beach, waves crashing in and the dark clouds off to the north.  The only thing that takes away from the view is the amount of plastic which litters the beach.  Everywhere you look there is some plastic object from bottles to a toy truck, there is even an Arctic Cat snowmobile track flap.  You have to wonder how this piece of flotsam got here.  We had to take a picture of the flap as some of our friends back in Sudbury are in the process of pulling their sleds out for the winter.

We get back to the boat just before the real wind picks up along with the rain.  The wind is from the North East and our boat is facing North with a port tie, the wind has us pinned to the finger dock and gives us a 5 degree heel to the port.  It is like being under sail.  We place a 3^rd fender for added protection on the finger dock in the pouring rain.  We had a dinner date with 40 Roses across the sound along with Comocean but due to the weather, will contact them via vhf and break it off, as it just is not safe to be crossing the sound in a dinghy with the winds as it is now gusting up to 45 knots.   We will be taking a rain check; literally.

Toby and Joanne come over for sundowners on our boat and we head up to the lodge for dinner.   The marina offers two different rates, one at a straight 85 cents per foot ($34/day) or a 2^nd rate of $1.50/day ($60/day) the difference is that any drinks and meals you spend at the resort is subtracted from the 2^nd rate.  We both figure we are good for $26/day so we opt for the higher rate.  The meals are excellent probably one of the best we have had since starting this adventure.  With this meal we have covered 1.5 days of dockage, not a bad system.

By 9 o’clock we are back on Comocean playing bridge, tonight it is Dawson and Joanne turn to get the cards, with Dawson even winning a baby slam in spades.  By 11 we are back on our boat for a very windy night.

A note on crusing:  For people planning to cruise down to the Bahamas the Sea of Abaco offers some excellent cruising grounds with the added benefit of being easy to get to.  This area is serviced by 2 airports and has a number of nice marinas, such as Green Turtle Club and Marina.  The resort would make a perfect place to meet up with guests coming down for a week.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie