Passage to the BAHAMAS: Second Leg

I cannot recall if I ever admitted that I like the BEING  in a variety of tropical paradise settings rather than the GETTING THERE part.  We have a huge, colorful chart of our chosen cruising ground on the wall in our salon.  It shows the area as far north as the Yucatan Peninsula over to Florida and the Bahamas, as far east as Barbados, as far south as Trinidad and the South American coast over to Panama,  and as far west as the countries along the coast of Central America.

When you look at THAT chart, the Bahamas don't look that far away.  But believe me- with every additional leg of this journey- they ARE really, REALLY FAR AWAY.

There was barely a breeze when we set sail in the morning after our restful night at Big Sand Cay in the southeastern Turks and Caicos. So we whisker-poled the head sail. Unfortunately,  the main sail blocked what little wind there was from filling the head sail. We changed tactics, then,  and arranged the sails to fly wing-and-wing.  For a very short time, this appeared to slightly enhance our speed...until the wind was reduced to a whisper.  Motor ON.

I don't motoring although I know that it is necessary at times.  The hum of the engine is not as loud as a speed boat, but I still dislike that it destroys the solitude for which sailboats were designed.

So we begin motoring through Whale Cut, a charted shortcut across the Caicos Bank.   This cut has much shallower water and our depth meter showed six feet or less for miles.  To complicate matters, a large dark patches on the bottom (possibly a cluster of coral heads) crossed our path repeatedly.  I held my breath every time.   The Captain continued to calmly read his book and didn’t even flinch.

WELCOME TO THE BAHAMAS!  We had studied the guide books and talked to plenty of cruisers with deep-keeled boats who had 'been there, done that.'  We were ready for a baptism by fire.

That afternoon, we finally dropped off the Caicos Bank and into thousands of feet below the keel. The wind picked up to a respectable level and we HAPPILY SAILED through the night and into BAHAMIAN waters. The next morning, we anchored in Abraham's Bay, Mayaguana -Bahamas to rest again.