The Race South Continues

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.

Whisper passing the dock

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

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. 

Swimming with pigs

The Liberty Clipper in the Entrance to Big Majors