End of Day 1 - Great Guana Cay Bahamas to Charleston USA

These Blog entries are edited versions of the messages we sent back as we completed the passage. They were sent by radio using a laptop that controls a modem and the HF/SSBradio, using the SailMail system. We sent the messages daily to Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 23 Apr 2019

Dear All,

Well we are off again on another long (ish) passage.  This one should take us somewhere around 3-4 days depending on the wind which is looking rather variable and the effect of the Gulf Stream.  We will cover something in the region of 400 nautical miles getting from the Bahamas to Charleston in the USA.

Leaving the Abacos

We left Great Guana Cay in  the Abacos at the top end of the Bahamas at 1000hrs, sailed through Whale Cut and then set ourselves up sailing as close to the wind as we could on starboard tack.  That had us heading more towards Jacksonville FL than Charleston SC (which is about 160nm northeast of Jacksonville) but, after a day of calm tomorrow, on Thursday the wind is supposed to go around to the southwest which, provided it is strong enough, will blow us up to Charleston nicely. So, we may end up sailing a somewhat banana shaped course, but we should end up where we want to check into the USA.

By our reading of the regulations we did not need to check out of the Bahamas, so we have just set off from a remote anchorage on Great Guana Cay.  We'll see what happens when we try to check in to the USA but hopefully we have properly understood what needs (and doesn't need) to be done. Charleston is a big port of entry so it should be easy to fulfil our Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requirements there.  Nicky visited Charleston with work and has always wanted to go back to show the place to me, so we are quite excited about getting there.  It should be a great stop.  Plus, we will be able to meet up with Ollie and Sheena, friends from the UK, who are going to be holidaying at Myrtle Beach a couple of hours' drive north of Charleston.

Dolphins, lots of them!

Our departure from the Bahamas was marked by a visit by a large school of dolphins (bottlenose and Atlantic spotted). They seemed to like that we were sailing at over 7 knots and they played in our bow wave for about 20 minutes before disappearing off.  Since then we have not made such good progress; the wind has dropped as low as 6 knots which doesn't really get BV moving, even close-hauled.  In addition, we had about a knot and a half of current against us for the first few hours. We checked where the Gulf Stream was sitting before we set off and that will help us north when we get much closer to the American coastline but between here and there we saw that there are couple of swirls of current against us.  We clearly found one of those!

Last look at the Abacos

We did not do a shopping trip before we set off as we still have plenty of supplies on board from stocking up prior to visiting the Turks and Caicos, Cuba and the Bahamas.  We even have some tins of stew left over from our Atlantic crossing, so it's definitely time to try to eat into the stores and try to lighten BV's load somewhat!  Fresh bread, therefore, is a DIY job and part of my afternoon activity (in addition to molly-coddling Georgina along, who didn't like the light winds) was baking a loaf so that we have some for breakfast.  Nicky also made some yoghurt, so we are all set to start day 2 well fed.

Love

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 23 April: N26 48 W77 17
Position at 2359 23 April: N27 41 W77 43
Midday to midday distance: n/a nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: n/a nautical miles
Total miles covered:  80 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 326 nautical miles

End of Day 1 - Great Guana Cay Bahamas to Charleston USA

Great Guana Cay Abacos Bahamas

Approaching Baker’s Bay, at the western end of Great Guana Cay

We eventually left Fowl Cay at 1710hrs on 21 April and continued along the chain 7miles or so towards an anchorage at the western end of Great Guana Cay where we hoped to find a suitable anchorage for a night or two.  It was very much a positioning move to get us ready for heading north towards the USA but it was also, we hoped, a good location from which to enjoy our last full day in the Bahamas.

There are some really rather large houses on the beach in Baker’s Bay

Enjoying the view of the mansions on the shore of Baker’s Bay we picked a suitable spot and dropped our anchor at 1840hrs, expected an uneventful evening relaxing in the cockpit but that was not to be thanks to a young man called Austin.  As we were setting our anchor, we saw a kayak head off away from the bay and thought little of it except for the fact that the sun was getting low.

But as the sun got really low it was clear that there was a problem on our nearest neighbour, a charter catamaran.  The ‘grown-ups’ were calling out for “Austin” and we put 2 and 2 together and guessed that Austin had paddled that kayak off towards some nearby islands.  With a strong current running and little in the way of illumination, natural or man-made, Austin was clearly getting himself into a risky position.

There wasn’t much time before the last of the light would fade and so we put the outboard on our dinghy and headed off in the direction that we had last seen the kayak.  Speaking to the parents would have wasted what little daylight there was left and we were pretty sure that we had a faster dinghy than the charter yacht so we aimed for Spoil Island guessing that he might be close to that.  Fortunately, our instincts proved correct and we found Austin bimbling along the beach.  He was just under a mile away from the catamaran which would have been a long paddle against the current.  Nicky persuaded him that he should join us on our dinghy and that we would tow his kayak back to the catamaran.  By this time, we had the dinghy’s navigation lights on and it was only the yachts’ anchor lights that pinpointed our destination.  We dropped Austin off at the catamaran and would have made a quiet retreat as Austin was clearly due for an earful.  However, it became apparent there was also concerns about the whereabouts of Austin’s Dad.  He had set off in the catamaran’s unlit dinghy in the hope of finding Austin and no one had seen him since.  We headed back towards Spoil Island listening as best we could for the sound of another outboard.  Throttling back we heard something and so aimed further east and were able to intercept Austin’s Dad and let him know that Austin was safe and that he should return to the catamaran.

All in all, it the events certainly livened up the early evening but did rather spoil our planned sundowners!

Top: Aiming for the western end of Great Guana Cay. Bottom: Looking back at the western end of Great Guana Cay from the bay between the cay and the offlying reefs where we hoped to snorkel

In the morning we set off again but only for a 3 mile passage to the other side of Great Guana Cay.

This beautiful area has clearly been identified by the ‘well to do’ and shoreline off the beach is dotted with some truly enormous houses.

The water off the beach was clear and very shallow and so to explore the reefs we decided that snorkelling rather than diving was the better approach.

The soft corals were in good shape and the shallow water helped the sunlight to pick out the colours but there were surprisingly few fish.

But, we mused, perhaps that was just the location we had picked?  Fortunately, the reefs in this area are extensive so we moved the dinghy several times to explore further afield.

Nicky’s diving ‘friend’ today was a barracuda

We still didn’t see much in the way of fish.  Maybe they were keeping clear of the rather large barracuda that was shadowing Nicky.

Sergeant majors and Stoplight parrotfish

We did see some Sergeant majors, Stoplight parrotfish and a crab or two so there were fish out there, just not as a many as we were used to seeing.

However, as a last full day lazing about in the Bahamas it suited us very well.  Lots of snorkelling, an interesting anchorage as a backdrop and a beautiful turquoise sea.  It kept us entertained until 4pm when we decided that we would return to Baker’s Bay for the night; our last night in the Bahamas.  In the morning we planned to set off sailing towards Charleston in the USA, a passage we expected to take us about 4 days.

Great Guana Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Fowl Cay Abacos Bahamas

The western end of Man-O-War Cay

Our morning passage on the 21 April started at 0910 which gave us enough time to head up to and west along the southern side of Man-O-War Cay, stop at a SCUBA diving site and then move on to an overnight night anchorage.  As we got closer it was clear that the west end of Man-O-War Cay has some really rather exclusive looking holiday retreats.

Corn Bay at the western end of Man-O-War Cay

We passed Corn Bay on our right and then turned at West Point to make our way between Man-O-War Cay and Fish Hawk Cay.

The north side of Fish Hawk Cay ahead and Fish Hawk Reef out to our right

The mooring buoy for ‘The Wall’ dive site

To the northeast of Fish Hawk Cay are Fish Hawk and Fowl Cay Reefs and between the 2 reefs, at the eastern end of Fowl Cay, is a mooring buoy where we hoped to tie up our dinghy to do some diving.  We anchored BV in the shelter of Fowl Cay just a few hundred metres from the buoy and prepared our kit.  The conditions were benign which would make diving on the outside of the reef safe for us and it was reassuring to know that our dinghy would be securely tied to a mooring buoy throughout our dive.

‘The Wall’ dive sort of lived up to its name with a drop off on the outside of the cay of about 12 metres.  We spent about 45 minutes underwater, diving to a maximum depth of 14.5 metres.

As you can see from the photos it wasn’t a ‘proper’ wall drop off; more of an edge to the coral.  Out to our right, out to seaward, the bottom was flat and sandy again as far as we could see.

Nicky’s ‘friend’, a Nassau Grouper

As seems to be normal on our dives, Nicky picked up a ‘friend’ on the way.  To date she seems to have attracted barracuda but today she was sought out by a large Nassau grouper.

Nassau Grouper can grow up to about  4ft long so this wasn’t one of the largest specimens, but at about 3ft long it’s the largest fish that we have had swimming this close to us.  We are not sure quite why but he seemed to be really inquisitive, initially swimming a metre or so back from Nicky….

…. but then deciding that it was safe to get much closer.

And then much closer still!  He stayed with us for about 15 minutes and the experience of having such a large fish so close to us was quite special.  There was clearly no fear of divers in this grouper’s outlook on life.

A large shoal of Blue tang swimming along the edge of the reef

We continued swimming west along the edge of the reef, eventually leaving our friendly grouper behind us.  But we were then spoilt by a ‘swimpast’ from a large shoal of Blue tang…

Nurse shark

… and nestled in under one of the ledges Nicky spotted a Nurse shark resting on the seabed.

Top left: Sea fans and Sea rod soft corals.  Top right: A shoal of Blue chromis.  Bottom right: Grey angelfish along with several colourful Fairy basslet

There was reasonable amount of soft coral too plus some colour from a shoal of Blue chromis and some purple and yellow Fairy basslet zipping past a large Grey angelfish.

Top: Barracuda.  Bottom left and right: Male and female Stoplight parrotfish

No dive in this area would be complete without spotting a few Stoplight parrotfish with their distinctive and bright colouring and lurking about 10 metres away from us we also saw the distinctive shape of a barracuda.

So all in all there was quite a lot to see but the highlight of the dive was really our friendly Nassau grouper swimming right beside us for the first 15 minutes of the dive.

Retracing our route, we got another glimpse of most of the fish that we had seen on the way out and the clear edge of the reef made navigating back to our dinghy very easy.

Back aboard BV we upped anchor at 1320 and motored a few miles west along the inside edge of Fowl Cay to its western end.  Here we re-anchored and then took the dinghy north of the cay to a shallow snorkelling site. Nicky snorkelled for longer than I did but eventually we had both had our fill so, after a longish dinghy ride back to BV, it was time to wash all of our dive gear and make ready to move on.

Fowl Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

George Town to various anchorages near Marsh Harbour Abacos Bahamas

We left George Town at 1120hrs on Wednesday 17 April for an overnight passage of over 200 miles towards the Abacos Islands at the northern end of the Bahamas.

It would have been fabulous to stay in George Town a bit longer but we needed to start to make progress north for a rendezvous with friends near Charleston in the USA.  To achieve that mileage we had to take the good sailing weather opportunities as they were dealt and, unfortunately for us, there were a series of fronts coming down over the Bahamas which really messed up our plans to mosey north stopping at several anchorages enroute.

Instead, we planned this longer passage towards the Abacos to make the time to still have some fun in our last few days in the Bahamas before the longer passage north towards the USA.  Leaving George Town when we did meant that the sailing conditions were excellent with an easterly 15 knot wind.  Our only real issue was deciding upon a routing.

Sunset on Wednesday 17 April heading towards Little San Salvador

The Eleuthera Islands lay on our direct course to the Abacos and so we needed to decide if we went east or west of them.  Going west would be a slightly shorter passage but we would need to negotiate some pretty shallow channels to the east of Nassau. Far easier we concluded, especially as we were sailing overnight, was to go east and pick a route though the passage between Little San Salvador and Eleuthera Island.

The overnight passage was completely uneventful.  It was just as we like it, easy fast sailing with a steady 15 knot wind on our starboard beam.  Those conditions continued all the way through until 1300hrs when we were around 25 miles short of our destination.  At that point, as forecast, the wind veered to become more from the southeast so we poled out the genoa to starboard to keep our speed up.

The Abacos were just about becoming visible on the horizon when a welcoming committee arrived to check on our progress.

We’ve seen a lot of dolphins in our travels but they still bring a smile to our faces whenever they play in our bow wave.

Turning north after passing through North Bar Channel

A couple of hours later we were through the North Bar Channel on the eastern side of Great Abaco Island and it was time to find a suitable anchorage to sit out the impeding frontal weather.

Pelican Cays

The 2 complications were that it is quite shallow here and we couldn’t make it up to Marsh Harbour before nightfall.  We weren’t the only one with those difficulties; we passed a beautiful yacht anchored to the west of Pelican Cays which was probably just too large to get much further through the shallow channels.

Approaching the anchorage off Tilloo Cay

Lubbers Quarters

Our 2 metre draft afforded us more options and, with an eye to the depth gauge, we managed to get into the edge of the anchorage off Tilloo Cay.  We scouted around but eventually dropped anchor between Tilloo Cay and the southern end of Lubbers Quarter.  It would have been nice to have been further north to get some shelter from the west but it was just too shallow for us.  However, it was a good anchorage for the time being and perfect to allow us some rest after our 30 hour passage from George Town.

The reason for wanting shelter from the west was that, with the passage of the front, the wind was going to clock around and blow strongly from the west and northwest.  We had a lazy start to Friday but when we were up we started to monitor the forecast wind closely.  On balance we decided that the anchorage off Tilloo Cay might get a little uncomfortable if the wind was as strong as expected and to complicate things moving to a more sheltered spot would need to be timed carefully to fit in with the tides.

Later than we wanted to, at 1730hrs on 19March we finally moved when there was just enough tide rise for BV to get over the shallow bar into the channel which leads around to the Marsh Harbour area.  It was too late to get into Marsh Harbour before nightfall and with the weather forecast we expected the harbour to be crammed full of yachts so a night anchoring exercise was not a sensible option.

Off Sandy Cay near Man-o-War Cay. 1000hrs on Sat just before we left

Instead we hid behind Sandy Cay, near the southern end of Man-o-War Cay, for the night of 19^th.  It’s not really a normal anchorage but it did provide enough shelter for us.  It was a bit more exposed to the south than we really wanted but it was one of the few places where we could get some shelter from the forecast westerly winds and squalls which would arrive in the early hours of the morning.  In cases like this, neither of us sleeps well during a blow unless one of us is up and so we ran anchor watches overnight which gave us few extra hours awake for some blog writing.

In morning it was thoroughly wet and miserable.  We spent a short time writing some more blog entries and I also got out the sewing kit out to mend our burgees and ensign which had taken a bit of a battering in the strong winds and were now looking a little raggedy.  But by mid-morning the wind had dropped off and the rain eased to next to nothing so it was time to look for a better anchorage with more protection from the northwest which is where the wind was moving around to.  For the first time since we were in North Carolina in December, we donned full oilskins and moved 4 miles around to the southern side of Marsh Harbour.  The afternoon remained overcast and grey (hence I took no photographs) so we did some more blog writing and plotted our move north to Charleston.  Tuesday looked to be the best day to set off north towards the USA but before we left the Bahamas we wanted to try to get in some more SCUBA diving.  That was now possible for us with the generator running again so that we were able to make lots of fresh water to rinse the SCUBA gear afterwards.  But we needed to work out where to go, so there was bit more planning needed.

Heading north past Sugar Loaf Cay and Matt Lowe’s Cay on our way up to Man-o-War Cay

An extra night sitting out the weather made a big difference and in the morning we were back to beautiful clear blue skies.  Our planning the previous evening had highlighted that there were some reasonable looking dive sites on the outside of Man-o-War Cay and the smaller cays to its northwest. So, at 0910 on Sunday 21March we lifted the anchor and, for the third time, headed up the eastern side of Sugar Loaf Cay and Matt Lowe’s Cay but this time we were going further north, to the vicinity of Fowl Cay Reef.

Anchorages near Marsh Harbour, Bahamas