Sunday, April 21, 2013

Seas the Moment crosses the Tongue of the Ocean

We organized a mini fleet of boats interested in going down to Morgan's Bluff from Nassau.  The fleet loosely consisted of Seas the Moment, Southern Blue, Wandrian, Undaunted, Catalina (a nameless sister ship that we simply call Catalina), and Southern Belle (who did not end up sailing today).

Undaunted left a little before everyone else and routinely relayed the wind and sea conditions.  The sea was confused and had at least two directions from which swells were coming in... this made for an uncomfortable ride, but it was bearable.

I left a little later than I was hoping for, and since I wanted to get to Morgan's Bluff in daylight, I started motorsailing in light winds from (you guessed it) the west! The odd west wind was likely caused by some small low pressure system to our north because eventually the wind direction shifted to south-southeast as was  forecasted and I was able to kill the engine and simply sail...

The channel markers on the entrance to the harbour were characteristically absent, so I had to follow the Garmin GPS electronic charts which seemed to be spot-on (as has been the case for every single cut or channel in the Bahamas).  The actual anchorage is littered with Casuarinas and loosely resembles the Marine Stadium anchorage in Miami.

As I'm writing this stuff, Undaunted, Seas the Moment, and Catalina lay peacefully at anchor, Wondrian and Southern Blue are still sailing and may have to make a night entry... which is kind of sketchy, but given the current conditions, it will be fine (crossing fingers).

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