Breeze On

We had another great sail yesterday from Great Harbour to Lucaya, Grand Bahama, averaging 7.7 knots over 62 nautical miles. Breeze On is now safely tucked into a slip at Grand Bahama Yacht Club, the first time she has been in a slip since November. This is our last stop in the Bahamas this winter. We will leave here to sail to somewhere in the US, but have been grappling with the decision of when to leave and how far to go. Because we have a long distance between here and home our preference is to go as far as possible when we have an opportunity. We have the right wind and seas to go as soon as this afternoon all the way to Beaufort, NC. However, one of our trusted forecast models is predicting thunderstorms off the coasts of the Carolinas Sunday evening through Tuesday. We would not only want to avoid the lightning of a thunderstorm but also the strong winds and high seas that could come with it. So, we will delay our departure. The downside is if we wait we will also lose the favora...

We left Meek’s Patch, outside of Spanish Wells, at 5 am yesterday morning and sailed 75 nm to Great Harbour Cay. The conditions were great for sailing and we were once again grateful to be able to use our mainsail. Along the way we passed one of the several cruise ship ports which had two ships in port and a great deal of construction happening on a nearby island. We have spent today preparing for our next trip to Grand Bahama, planned for tomorrow morning, but did take some time it for a brief hike.                                                                                  Full moon reflected on the water as we were leaving our anchorage yesterday.                                      ...

We left Harbour Island early yesterday morning at the end of a parade of boats—one ship and four large motor yachts. The wind was light and seas were calm which made for a good passage through the Devil’s Backbone. As we rounded Gun Point, just before arriving at the entrance to Spanish Wells, we noticed other boats anchored in the Gun Point anchorage and it seemed well protected from the then moderate S wind. We decided to give that anchorage a try. It remained calm throughout the day and only became a little rolly before sunrise this morning. Yesterday afternoon we took a dinghy ride into town to dump garbage, eat lunch at Budda’s Snack Shack, and buy some vegetables at the Food Fair grocery store.  This morning we left Gun Point and motored through town to anchor on the W side of Meek’s Patch. George ran the water maker and I did laundry and made seed crackers in the solar oven.  George driving the boat through the narrow part of the Devil‘s Backbone. The beach is closer th...

Yesterday we took a walk to a nearby point. After landing the dinghy on the beach we walked a short distance to a long set of pored concrete steps that were located in the woods. We wondered who put these very nice steps there. When we returned from our walk we found out. We had stopped to chat with three very nice women who were sitting on the beach. They are all from South Carolina and one of them owns a house near where we walked. We asked if she knew who installed  the steps and she told us that they had belonged to a hotel that used to be on the property. After chatting with the women a while longer we dinghied over to a spot where turtles usually congregate. Throughout the day tour boats come and feed the turtles to attract them to their customers. The turtles must have known that we brought no treats because saw only two and they weren’t terribly interested in us.  Today we went snorkeling for the first time in quite a while. The water temperature is cooler than usual a...

After the wind finally started to subside yesterday morning we raised the anchor and moved to the northern end of the harbor to the Man Island anchorage. It is a beautiful spot with two nice beaches. It can be quite peaceful if there aren’t too many other boats/mega yachts/jet skis, etc. The southern beach on Man Island was quite busy so we took a ride to the beach at the northern end and had a lovely walk. Off and on during the day we enjoyed watching two turtles swimming near the surface and bobbing their heads up for air. We were on Brreze On and they were close to shore so we were not near enough to take a picture.  This morning we raised the anchor again and moved closer to Dunmore Town. That area is very busy with boat traffic so we stayed just long enough to go ashore for lunch, then moved again to the southern end of the harbor.                                          ...

Early yesterday morning we traveled from Spanish Wells to Harbour Island via the Devil’s Backbone. We have made the 10-mile trip a few times before and yesterday was one of the easiest. We had relatively calm seas and no other boats passing in either direction. It can be nerve wracking if we encounter a boat going the other way when we are in the narrowest part of the route with coral reefs on one side and a beach on the other. Once we arrived in the large harbor we went straight to an anchorage on the W side in preparation for strong W winds that were due to arrive overnight. The winds did indeed arrive last night and are still with us this afternoon.  Today was water maker/laundry day. It was so windy that George rigged up a couple of clothes lines so we could hang the clothes in the cockpit rather than on the lifelines. Even so, I had to run up into the cockpit to rescue a sheet that was coming loose before it escaped off the back of the boat. The sound of a clip hitting the dec...