I woke up on Tuesday morning to troubleshoot an issue with the running lights. As usual, when you need something to work, it stops working. I tested it the night before precisely for that reason and discovered it wasn't turning on. It only took me a few minutes to figure out the problem and fix it. Afterwards I made breakfast, raised the dinghy, and left around 9 AM. Undaunted followed closely behind.
The winds were a bit stronger than forecasted, I got to the nortwest channel during an ebb and the current was ripping, it was bumpy and steep but not difficult or scary... On my way to the channel, I observed what looked like an exposed reef just a few feet from my boat. I rushed to check my GPS location while at the same time keeping an eye on the reef. The GPS confirmed that I was in good water, then I realized the "reef" was actually the dark topsides of some type of whale, and that there were a few of them swimming around! Obviously this only happens when there is no one around to confirm your story when you are telling it at the bar.
Once on the banks, I set my course for the Cat Cay waypoint... ETA 2am... I figured I might end up anchoring somewhere in the banks. The wind fell and so did my speed, so I shaked out the reef in my main. The wind shifted direction a few times, sometimes it would be just behind the beam, other times it would be directly on my stern. For a while, I even rigged a sort of whisker pole by putting a block at the end of the boom, and running a line from the cockpit, through the block, and into the jib clew. Undaunted chose the northern route through the banks. I wanted to check the cat cay route, so we slowly parted ways. They reported having caught a 12 pound Mutton Snapper while trolling on the banks, so i threw a line out to test my luck... We chatted on the VHF until we could tell our distance was making our comunication difficult, so we said goodbye, like I've had to do with so many awesome people during this trip. I caught a chunk of seaweed on my lure, the ocean sure owes me a large amount of fish by now, the odds have to be stacking up in my favor. I have a feeling that the ocean is like "the house" at a casino, the odds are stacked in it's favor, but if you spend enough credits, it gives you a couple back to make you think you will win in the end, but sailors, fishermen, and other gamblers should know that in the end, "the house" always wins... but I digress.
A lonely dolphin swam along my boat for a while in the middle of this featureless dessert of sand and sea called the Great Bahama Bank. Night fell and although the wind was not strong enough to warrant putting a reef in the main, I did so anyway just so I might not have to do it at night. To my surprise, my speed did not drop, and the jib filled up with better wind than before. By this time, the stars had started to shine and everything was perfect. There were no boats around and it felt kind of spooky to be sailing alone in the middle of nowhere, headed towards even shallower banks which I would have to navigate by moonlight (and GPS). I took a couple of short naps. My speed rarely dropped under 5.5 knots and the wind was building at the rate of a third world construction site (slowly). I got to the east side of North Cat Cay at around 11:45 PM and started to look for an anchorage. I couldn't find any calm water so I ended up sailing all the way to South Bimini through some really shallow spots, in strange waters, super tired, and at night... basically begging for something to go wrong... somehow, Murphy spared my last night and I made it to Nixon's Harbour in South Bimini around 2:00AM... not bad for 90 nautical miles. By the way, the wind increased throughout the night while I was sailing, at the end, I was doing 5.5 knots with a deeply reefed main and deeply reefed jib! What ever happened to the promised night lee that Bruce Van Sant claims occurs in the banks after a sunny day and a forecast of under 15 knots????
Anyway, this morning I woke up and was pleased to find that the nameless Catalina 27 was anchored a few yards away, they made it around 5:00 AM! We waited for slack high tide and motored over to Browns Marina. Southern Blue and Wandrian are still somewhere on the banks...
Today I will experience the elusive activity called a proper shower, which, if I remember correctly, aids one in getting to that mythical state of being called "clean".
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