Bahamas Crossing and the Abacos!

We crossed from West Palm, FL on Sunday the 13th. It was a good crossing, we left Florida at 8 AM with clear skies and light South winds. We were headed almost due East with a push North from the Gulf Stream, which we hit about 12 miles off the coast of Florida.

The South winds help smooth the Stream out, whereas North winds make it unbearable... that's why we chose South winds. We (Brian) caught one fish, a blackfin tuna. We ate it immediately. Brian cooked it on the stove while the wind vane steered the boat, and I languished in seasickness on the settee. The above pic was taken about 45 minutes before I succumbed to total debilitating nausea. I had taken Dramamine, which helped me simply feel bad instead of actually wanting to die, which is what happens when I don't take anything at all. I was just happy that I didn't throw up the pineapple I'd eaten for breakfast.
This is Charlie's seasick face. He looks kind of drunk, doesn't he? The crossing took a mere 18 hours and we all got over it quickly. It is all worth it to make it here, to the lovely islands of the Bahamas.
Still fishing as the sun sets. The seas were not bad at all once we arrived on the Bahama Banks, a very, large, shallow sand bank that we sail over for a long time before reaching any islands.

We arrived at an uninhabited island called Mangrove Cay at 1:30 AM during a brilliant meteor shower, easily a dozen or more shooting stars per minute! It was beautiful.

We had our morning cup of coffee in the dingy taking Charlie to shore on the tiny Mangrove Cay to do his business. Mangrove Cay is all Mangrove, so there was no dry land to walk him on. He had to go on the debris of a wrecked barge.

We got a good night's sleep and put in another full day of sailing Monday to get to our next anchorage, near another uninhabited island called Crab Cay. We (I) caught a lovely yellowtail snapper which we again ate immediately, and I cooked it this time.

Charlie and Jack love it when we catch a fish! They both know the sound the reel makes when the drag is spinning with a fish on.

Spent our second night in the Bahamas anchored in light winds and a hellacious current that spun the boat around in rapid 360's for 6 full hours. It took us about 2 and half minutes to complete a 360 spin in that current, so that is about 24 rotations an hour. Brian slept like a baby, and I was up all night, timing the rotations. I'm glad our anchor held.

The next day, Tuesday (today), we sailed for 7 hours and arrived at sparsely inhabited Manjack Cay, which is next door to the more populated Green Turtle Cay.



The harbour is beautiful. We anchored in 9 feet of crystal clear turquoise water. The air temp is in the 80's and the water temp in the 70's.
I immediately climbed the mast and took pictures. There were five or six other boats already anchored here.


Brian couldn't resist joining up there. About 3 days later, we were told about a guy that was standing on his spreader and it broke off. Glad that didn't happen to us. Puff has strong spreaders on her mast, but we probably won't do that again.
Can you believe how crystal clear the water is? Charlie was the first one in.


Taking the dingy to the nearest beach!

We finally got to use the underwater camera in the Bahamian Sea!
This was our sunset that day. Pretty sweet.