We have spent the most of the last few days moving North and dealing with weather issues. Tropical Storm Colin which tore through Florida on Tuesday (yesterday) is the culprit – while it didn’t hit us directly, it created a lot of unsettled weather here in the Bahamas.
We left Big Major on Monday morning, figuring we’d go to Shroud Cay, at the top of the Marine Park, to explore its coral gardens and mangroves. We got to Shroud by early afternoon and picked up a mooring, but the wind had shifted to SW and there was quite a swell in the anchorage. This made it too difficult for us to set up the dinghy; since generally the winds have calmed overnight, we decided to spend the night and try again in the morning. Unfortunately, the winds stayed up – we had a rocky night and the swell was no better on Tuesday morning. After waiting a bit to see whether things would calm down (they didn’t), we finally threw in the towel on seeing Shroud Cay (catch it next time) and continued North to Highborne Cay, our planned kickoff point to Nassau, and eventually, the Abacos.
Highborne anchorage also proved to be exposed to the SW winds, so we went a bit further North and dropped our hook in Allan’s Cay, well protected from the SW wind – hooray, no rocking. We had a pleasant swim and dinner and settled in for a quiet night.
Of course life is never so simple on a boat – we were hit by a Thunderstorm at 2am – the wind howled and there was lightening all around – fortunately it passed quickly and did no damage although it did spin the boat around a couple of times on the hook. The threat of more rain forced us to close up most of the hatches, the air was hot and humid and with no breeze, sleeping was at best uncomfortable.
We woke up the next morning to strong (15-20) SW winds and overcast skies. Most of the weather reports indicated that thunderstorms were a low probability until later in the day, so we took right off for Nassau, which is about 30 Miles NW from Allan’s.
Because we’d be on a broad reach, the feisty winds were quite manageable, even helpful. However, we also had 3-4 foot seas on our quarter, causing us to wallow when the right sequence of waves come along – which happened every few minutes. It is incredibly impressive how the seas can push around and roll an 18,000lb boat like it weighed nothing. Needless to say, it was a wild and tense ride up from Allan’s, but it went well and we arrived in Nassau by 12:30.
The weather is supposed to remain unsettled for another day or two, so we might not get out of here tomorrow – we will use the time here to refuel, re-water, re-provision and recharge our batteries and ourselves before continuing our journey home through the Abacos.
Pix:
Sorry – we took none – too busy dealing with the weather issues!
We left Big Major on Monday morning, figuring we’d go to Shroud Cay, at the top of the Marine Park, to explore its coral gardens and mangroves. We got to Shroud by early afternoon and picked up a mooring, but the wind had shifted to SW and there was quite a swell in the anchorage. This made it too difficult for us to set up the dinghy; since generally the winds have calmed overnight, we decided to spend the night and try again in the morning. Unfortunately, the winds stayed up – we had a rocky night and the swell was no better on Tuesday morning. After waiting a bit to see whether things would calm down (they didn’t), we finally threw in the towel on seeing Shroud Cay (catch it next time) and continued North to Highborne Cay, our planned kickoff point to Nassau, and eventually, the Abacos.
Highborne anchorage also proved to be exposed to the SW winds, so we went a bit further North and dropped our hook in Allan’s Cay, well protected from the SW wind – hooray, no rocking. We had a pleasant swim and dinner and settled in for a quiet night.
Of course life is never so simple on a boat – we were hit by a Thunderstorm at 2am – the wind howled and there was lightening all around – fortunately it passed quickly and did no damage although it did spin the boat around a couple of times on the hook. The threat of more rain forced us to close up most of the hatches, the air was hot and humid and with no breeze, sleeping was at best uncomfortable.
We woke up the next morning to strong (15-20) SW winds and overcast skies. Most of the weather reports indicated that thunderstorms were a low probability until later in the day, so we took right off for Nassau, which is about 30 Miles NW from Allan’s.
Because we’d be on a broad reach, the feisty winds were quite manageable, even helpful. However, we also had 3-4 foot seas on our quarter, causing us to wallow when the right sequence of waves come along – which happened every few minutes. It is incredibly impressive how the seas can push around and roll an 18,000lb boat like it weighed nothing. Needless to say, it was a wild and tense ride up from Allan’s, but it went well and we arrived in Nassau by 12:30.
The weather is supposed to remain unsettled for another day or two, so we might not get out of here tomorrow – we will use the time here to refuel, re-water, re-provision and recharge our batteries and ourselves before continuing our journey home through the Abacos.
Pix:
Sorry – we took none – too busy dealing with the weather issues!
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