Panacea Blog 2 2017
The Race South Continues
In the predawn greyness,
there was an urgent bustle among the sailors at Bimini Blue Water Marina. As I
walked past the WiFi hotspot at 5:45 am on my way from the showers to Panacea,
I recognized several cruisers from ‘sundowner’ get-togethers of the
past few days. Everyone was getting one last weather forecast or sending that
last e-mail before going back to sea.
The winds would be ‘in our
teeth’ but gentle. There would be two separate flotillas. One would travel
northward before turning east, in the hope of being able to close-haul on a
south-easterly course. The southern flotilla would comprise Bonavista,
Whisper and Panacea. We would pass through the barrier islands to the
Great Bahamas Bank at triangle rocks and motor due East for over fifty miles.
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| Whisper passing the dock |
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| Bonavista first to cast off |
This plan changed almost as
soon as Bonavista increased throttle. The fuel delivery problem which
had detained her in Bimini was uncured. Craig and Sharon radioed to say that
they were returning to Bimini to deal with the matter further. Whisper
put about and stayed with Bonavista. In Panaca, we pressed-on.
With an incoming plane to be met in Georgetown,
we dare not risk getting storm-stayed so far away. Our departure from Bimini
had been an hour after sunrise so we would not be able to make it to Chub Cay
in daylight. Instead we anchored on the bank, about twelve miles short two
hours before sunset. We watched the northern fleet as they arrived abeam to
anchor for the night on the other side of Mackie Shoal from us for the night.
We weighed anchor at 5:45 the
next morning after a lively night at anchor. The cruise south to New Providence Island was fast, but also wet. After
last years crossing of Tongue Of The Ocean ( TOTO ), this one was gentle by
comparison. Even so, I was certain that we had again lost our ‘outdoor’ gecko,
such was the soaking that we received.
We arrived in West Bay
at 2:00 in the afternoon to find some of the best places to anchor …..
available. Yippee!
Not believing our good
fortune we held six knots until the depths diminished to only seven feet,
closer inshore than we have ever gone before, lest someone try to sneak past
us, as has happened before. Here we were assured of a comfortable stay for as
long as the winds were from anywhere but westerly.
The hurricane damage from
Mathew is worse here that it was in Bimini. The clamour of chainsaws and
construction equipment continued unabated through the daylight hours. The trees
of the National Park that adjoins the anchorage at ‘Jaws Beach’
were decimated by the storm and the park is closed. The dinghy dock is destroyed
and the trash receptacle unattended. Many of the oceanfront homes of the rich
and famous have suffered roof damage and Peter Nygaard’s personal theme park – the
one out on the point which I have previously described - has suffered more than
most. We were saddened to learn that his stereo sound system survived
unscathed.
High ZZ’s from the northern flotilla arrived late in the day,
in loose company with an unusual ketch from Lunenburg named Gamma
Gamma. ‘Sundowners’ were scheduled and Susan and Debbie, the first
mates (read: Admirals) immediately
began to plan efficient use of our stay in West Bay – with a grocery shopping
expedition the very first matter to be addressed.
My own task would be to commission
the water-maker, from which I had (apparently) removed and lost the supply-side
pre-filter. This was an almost ideal opportunity as parts would be available…and
only a bus-ride away, in Nassau.
Tristan took the dinghy into
mega-yacht country at the Lyford Cay Marina, refuelling us by jerry-can with
the ‘cheapest diesel prices in the Bahamas’ again this year. The fuel
attendant even remembered Tristan, from when he had assisted in tying-up an
incoming ‘biggie’ on an occassion when they were short-handed last year.
Our tasks were all complete
well before we got together for ‘sundowners’ aboard High ZZ’s. The owners of Gamma
Gamma were expected, but apparently did not make it back to the
anchorage before dark.
Two days later, Susan and I
celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a trek to Nassau. Most of the items on our shopping
list were found, most especially Susan’s new prescription dive mask. Happy anniversary sweetie!
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| Dawn departure from West bay |
Two days later we departed West Bay
in the early dawn, our next destination: Shroud Cay in the Wardrick Wells
Nature (and diving) Park. As we passed Coral
Harbour we were happy to hear Nick
Wardell, the voice of Basra Weather for Nassau,
promising clear skies and fair winds on channel 72.
The fair winds are still a
little too ‘on-the-nose’ for Panacea. So far we have been a
power boat since leaving Florida,
excepting only a very few hours as we crossed the Gulfstream in the Florida Strait. We have concluded that this is a
contributing factor to salty encrustations forming on our topsides. Without the
stabilizing influence of a sail aloft, Panacea is being ‘quite active’. I
was flipped over and back again during a rest break in the forepeak bunk, with
the unhappy consequence of re-detaching whichever shoulder-blade joint was
first ruined when I was hit by a car in the 1990’s.
Naproxen and reduced mobility
for myself have made a difference, as of a week later. We hope that tuning the
rigging might help Panacea’s weatherliness.
And speaking of words like ‘weatherliness’,
I have been catching myself using Jack Aubrey’s vocabulary a lot lately. I
caught myself referring to a hatch as a scuttle yesterday. Not that it was
particularly inaccurate. Our kind of small sailing vessel doesn’t have a hatch
in the classic early nineteenth century sense of the word.
This whole business is a
reflection of the reading materials that I managed to ‘lay-in’ during our stop
in Vero Beach before departing for the Bahamas. I have
read nothing but Patrick O’Brian novels so far. His mastery of vernacular
archaic English always brings a smile, and inevitably I use the words too, in
much the same way that I was speaking my boss David’s Britspeak after only a
few weeks of sharing an office with him.
We are at least a knot faster
this year due to the new propeller. This may be contributory to our perception
that the ride is ‘wetter’ this year. When it gets particularly rough, the
cockpit is hardy a refuge. While the boat is ‘dry’ to solid water, we get sprayed
perpetually. We are already planning to get a full width windshield to replace
the present narrow one. We will probably enclose the cockpit at the same time.
The salt spray has had the beneficial effect on me of finally curing that pesky
nasal infection.
We dropped the hook within
fifty feet of our previous ‘nest’ near the mooring field at Shroud Cay. As the
sun dropped to the horizon we had a very pleasant visit with Jean of Sebast
from Montreal, single-handing his Oceanus 40 southward this year, his wife
awaiting knee surgery at home in Montreal. We swapped a number of stories about
the usual subjects; such as engines that we have know and (liked) or (disliked),
the port-to-port cruising permit fixation among many of the Customs Officers in
‘off the beaten path’ US ports of entry, and consequences to Canadian cruisers
who fail to file a US Cruising Plan, the consequences of smoking cigarettes,
and so on.
Jean had a serious ‘event’
when crossing from Canaveral to the Abacos this time. He referred to it as ‘a
really bad day’. The standing wall of water and generally heavy seas which inhabit the Florida Strait in north winds caused him to ship some
blue water over the nose. His dodger was ripped free of its connections to the
cabin-top, and the main bimini top and the davits went over backwards like a
house of cards. His high-mounted solar panel ripped one of the pontoons of his
hypalon Rigid Inflatable Boat.
Jean had only been in the Bahamas for
four days at the point when our paths crossed yet he had managed to restore
almost everything. Everything that is except for his RIB dinghy. Being the
premium model, it was constructed of hypalon – that old bug-bear. Good old ‘unpatchable’
hypalon.
The career of hypalon was
necessarily short in the field of industrial roofing. Who needs a roof that
cannot be patched when, for example a new air-handing unit or plumbing vent is
required? Owners, specifiers and installers did not shed a single tear among
them when it disappeared from the roofing market. What a ‘bill-of-goods’
yachters have been sold with this material.
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| Anchorage at shroud Cay |
We remained at Shroud Cay for
a beautiful sunny day and used our (pvc) inflatable tender to cruise through
the mangroves and flats to the Atlantic side. We drift-snorkled with the
incoming tide and Susan and I enjoyed a ‘beachy’ sunbathe. The place is
idyllic. There was less wildlife than ever, this time around, however. We
listed a few turtles, including one who was quite large, among the fauna to be
seen.
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| Mambo sailing off to Warderick Wells |
Shortly after we returned we
were visited by friends Colleen and Bruce in Mambo, a Pearson 40. We exchanged greetings (Bruce to us: “ Hey,you’re
wearing clothes!” [- such notoriety!!])
and updated each other about mutual cruising friends as they sailed past on
their way over to the main park anchorage.
In the ‘never a dull moment’
department I managed to ‘scrape’ my dinner plate right out of my hand, instead
of scraping the chicken scraps from the plate, as I leaned awkwardly over the
side at sunset. I checked the compass heading and went to bed. Of course when
the sun came up the wind had shifted 45 degrees and risen so that waves
obscured the view of the bottom. It was twenty four hours later, with another
wind shift before we again saw the plate and Tristan netted it. In my dreams I
was to be served meals on the brown enamel dish for the duration of the voyage.
Whew! That was a close one. Until that nightmare I had no notion that Melmac is
a step UP from enamelware?
Our next stop was at Wardrick
Wells where we anchored among eighteen other boats near the southern mooring
field and dinghied around, checking out the other boats and familiar beaches.
This was to be only a one-night stay. We were early away to claim a place at
Big Majors Spot (home of the famous “swimming pigs”) to ride-out an anticipated
blow.
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| Swimming with pigs |
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| The Liberty Clipper in the Entrance to Big Majors |
