Well here we are at Great Harbour Cay marina at the top of the Berry Island chain. You might be wondering how and why we are so far north so soon. Things in the Bahamas can change quickly and so can our decisions on how to proceed.
We left Nassau around 8am yesterday (Saturday). The winds were predicted to be fairly light but in a good direction for a spinnaker run. We got our spinnaker ready the night before so we would be good to go the next day. Well that wind never presented itself. We ended up motoring (with the jib out) all the way to White Cay (basically in the middle of the Berrys). Jane and Steve (on Daydreams ll) left before us and were already anchored in the White Cay area when we arrived at 2pm. It was so nice to have another boat to help us get settled. This anchorage had a few challenges – limited good anchoring spots (you have to find the sand) coupled with current (so your boat moves with the tide). We eventually dropped anchor in a good spot and were secured for the night.
We woke up this morning (Sunday) and after a discussion with Jane and Steve, realized that we had a great Gulf Stream crossing coming up on Tuesday (April 5). The winds are in a favourable direction for the next 3 or 4 days but on Friday, they will turn to the north. So at about 11am this morning, we decided to pull up anchor and head to Great Harbour Cay.
The sail north to Great Harbour was about 28nm, so we knew it would take us until 5 or 6 pm to get into our next anchorage. We were very lucky that the wind picked up and we were able to sail a good part of our 28 nm. We also decided to get a slip at the marina at Great Harbour Cay so we didn’t have to worry about anchoring. As we reached the north end of the Berrys, we were greeted with a squall. We saw winds over 30knots and quite a bit of rain but it only lasted about 45 minutes. We were able to continue to our destination and actually ended up getting to the marina almost an hour ahead of our originally predicted time.
We are now in our slip at Great Harbour Cay marina. It’s super nice and we are able to run our air-conditioning so we’re nice and comfortable. Tomorrow (Monday) we will check out of the Bahamas (this is a new procedure) and then we will be ready to leave on Tuesday. If all goes well, we will be back in the USA by Wednesday April 6th. It’s a bit earlier then we had planned but we’ll take our time getting back to Reynolds Park and getting the boat ready for storage.
So I’m not sure when I will be able to post again. We will not have wifi as we cross to the USA, but our inreach will be working. It might take a few days before we have wifi again but I will post as soon as I can! (Having trouble uploading photos so I’ll try to send more tomorrow).
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 