Day 35

 

Forecast was West winds 5 to 10 turning north west 10 to 15 after midnight Sunday. That little bit of North component to the wind against the Gulf Stream concerned me so we left Lake Worth Inlet Sunday at 2 PM instead of at dusk. Motored in light air across the stream to memory rock at 11 PM.  Even though my plan to enter the Little Bahama Bank was following a charted route, I saw 7 feet at one spot on the chart and it was dead low tide at 11 pm. Kim and Jessica were sleeping and there was absolutely no one around for 50 miles except an occasional Disney cruise ship 10 miles away.  Being totally on our own, I decided to wait 7 hours until dawn and high tide to traverse the Bank. Of coarse at this point the wind and waves pickled up to 15-18 knots with the gulf steam fetch building the swells.  But I was bound and determined to wait and play it safe. So I spent the seven hours tacking back-and-forth in the dark to save fuel and stay off of the Lee shore, the Bank reef line. I tried to keep the boat as calm as possible because Kim and Jessica were sleeping. I don’t know how anyone could’ve closed their eyes in those conditions! Turned out to be 10’ of water on the charted route.  34 hours in a row on the helm, but we are here! Yahoo…..then we found a beautiful Anchorage called great sale cay The three of us took a walk on the beach and found some unique looking starfish and enjoyed stretching our legs after being on the boat for two days of sailing.