And So It Goes

They say, if you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans. As mentioned yesterday, our plan today was to sail across the Exuma Sound, fish if possible, and anchor at Rock Sound, Eleuthera Island tonight. Alas, the wind forecast changed, losing the better south component, making for a reach on the Exuma Sound that is too tight for Hold Fast. Further, the seas were four to six feet with a four second interval. We believe it, because we had occasional three foot seas today sailing on the banks.

And so it goes, as we know Auto Paul understands, sometimes you have to sail north to sail east. We shall get to Rock Sound again, at some point. We are taking a longer, sailable, engineless route, and will in the meantime be looking for a place to hide from the next trough, cold front, low, combo weather punch.

We were the ONLY boat heading north in these strong winds and seas. It was a great sailing day, for us, although we had to keep reefing the main to keep Hold Fast near seven knots. We ended up with a triple reefed main and the jib was reefed on and off, depending upon point of sail. We began to wonder what is wrong with us to be so completely against the herd. More than 20 boats pounded, bashed, motored and tacked around us, as they headed south against the weather. We saw our sister-ship 'Anneteak' and hailed them on the radio. They were not happy and it did not look fun, but they were bound and determined to get to Cambridge Cay to hide from the cold front and ultimately to Georgetown.

It has been years since we anchored at Ship Channel Cay. It is so rough on the Exuma Sound that a swell is wrapping its way around to us. It reminds me of a tame anchorage on the Channel Islands of the west coast. In other words, a little surge will not affect our sleeping. There is a boat fishing behind us, but otherwise we are all alone.

We keep hoping we look brilliant. Tomorrow will tell.

Love to all,
Dena

{GMST}24°48.64'N|076°49.77'W|1/26/2016|3:56 PM{GEND}