Over the past two days we have sailed 80 miles from Staniel Cay to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We dropped the mooring lines at Staniel Cay yesterday morning and had no trouble leaving the small, narrow mooring field—in spite of the strong current and nearby rocks. We sailed N to Hawksbill Cay in the northern Exumas. Our plan was to stay in a place that had some protection from the waves coming from the SE and traveling up the entire Exuma chain. We also thought leaving from Hawksbill would give us a nice sailing angle to cross Exuma Sound to Eleuthera today.
Sailing across Exuma Sound, approaching Cape Eleuthera.
Our night at Hawksbill was a little bumpy and rolly but I don’t think we could have done much better anywhere else in the vicinity. We took a walk on the beach in the late afternoon and had long chats with two separate couples at different points in the walk. One couple was on a chartered catamaran and have a dream to sail their own boat in the Bahamas someday. They wanted to pick our brains about our favorite places and they even took notes! George did share some of our experiences fixing things, just to give them a more realistic view of cruising.
We had a sporty sail across Exuma Sound today and dropped the anchor—using the windlass!!—in Rock Sound late this afternoon.
Sailing across Exuma Sound, approaching Cape Eleuthera.
The red cloth tied to the chain is a marker made of spinnaker cloth. We have three different colors tied every twenty feet so we know how much chain has been let out.
It amazes me how many miles you can travel in a short amount of time.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since we are moving at about 6 1/2 knots!
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