Yesterday we did a road trip down long Island. Along they way we crossed the “Tropic of Cancer” You can click on the link to see why that is significant! Let me back up a bit and cover the time from Black Point to where we are now and then say a bit about what is to come. (I will do this over a couple of posts) You can check out our FB pages to see some pics and some of our experiences along the way.
After we left Black point we went out into the ocean through a cut in the islands. The reason for this is that the inside gets very shallow and you have to travel significantly further to get to your destination. I decided it would be good to break it up into a two day journey to Georgetown. Upon reading the reviews and recommendations I settled on Lee Stocking Island as our stop over. A short day sail with good protection. We could wait there for a weather window if needed.
We set out the next morning and had an uneventful passage down the Exuma chain and made our entrance through Adderly Cut and found our way around to the anchorage in front of the old Caribbean Marine Research Center. This is an abandoned station, that has been bought by a developer to make a high end marina someday. We have noticed that there are loads of places like this where there has been a start and a stop and an abandonment of development. Things happen on island time… or they just don’t happen at all. If someone happens to tell you that they will be putting a roof on a new building next week, chances are they have been saying that for 10 years or so. They might put a roof on it in the future or maybe not at all.
We spent the night and since the weather looked strongish the next morning we thought that we might spend one more day to let it settle some more as we did have to go out the cut into Exuma Sound again. It was at about 11:00am that we discovered we had no more fresh water. Not a problem I thought as I turned the valve for our 40 gallon reserve tank…… not a drop! Still not sure what happened but I suspect that I did not have the valve fully off and over the last couple of months the contents of it drained into our other two tanks! I used to regularly check it and top it off when I filled the other tanks, but it was never down, till today!
I knew that we were going to soon need water and also to top off on fuel and would like to do that before Georgetown, since there is no dock in GT that you can do those two jobs. In GT you need to take the dinghy into the town dock with jugs and lug back water and fuel. One would think that with 300-500 boats sitting in the harbour for months at a time, someone would have put in a proper fuel dock!
Our only option was a rather high end Marina about 13 miles away called the Marina at Emerald Bay. It is a Sandals Resort. The entrance is tricky, especially in East winds over 20. It was blowing a solid 15. I called them to ask about their entrance and they assured me it was passable. You do have to radio ahead to make sure that the channel is clear of traffic as you approach because you can’t necessarily see vessels that are about to leave.
The most exciting part of the day was about to happen. There is a phenomenon that some of you will be familiar with called “Wind against Current” When this happens the waves get steeper, break and get higher too. As we left Adderly Cut this was what we encountered. Two knots of current flowing out vs. 15 knots of wind coming in. The sailing instructions said to veer off the main channel as soon as you had cleared the submerged reefs at the entrance of the cut….. but not too soon. Waves were breaking at about 8-10 feet and we were taking some water over the bow. This is usually fine, since the boat is well designed to shed water and continue on.
When it is hot we open our hatches…….
Usually we close them before we head out….
After the first wave Val went below to secure the hatches but was unable to move toward the forward hatch due the the motion of the boat and a couple more waves soaked our sheets and mattress!
By the time we got things battened down we were out of the channel and on our way to the Marina.
At one point I saw three flying saucers… not UFOs but actual corelle saucers flying from the port side of the galley across to the navigation station. Thankyou Dow Corning and NASA engineers for coming up with a material that can stand high impact and not break!
The entrance to the marina was as advertised. We got in, took fuel and water and got out in less than an hour. One of the good things was that because the water was metered and our tanks were completely emptied we got a measurement on our capacity for water. We now know that the two side tanks are 25 gallons and the forward one is 40. I had always thought it was more than that and wondered if because of the position of the tanks they were never emptied. Now I know. 12 gallons of fuel and 90 gallons of water cost $103. Now to Georgetown.
The timing was tight. I did not want to be doing the tricky dogleg route into Elizabeth harbour in less than ideal light, even along the deep water route. We still had 15 knots on the beam so we would be able to make it before sun set.
Georgetown and Elizabeth Harbour, for most people that go there, is the “end of the rainbow” ; It is the pot of gold and the final destination. Each year yachting snowbirds sail toward Georgetown, drop the hook and don’t go any further for 2-3 months. There is a very organized community there that can fulfil every interest.
We entered the harbour and found a spot right in front of Chat N Chil and dropped the hook. Within the next few minutes we heard a chorus of Conch shells being blown to signal the setting of the Sun! We have arrived!