The First Long Passage

New Years and we’re moving from Mayaguana to the Turks & Caicos. We left one of the nicest anchorages we have seen in the Bahamas with 15 feet of crystal clear water on a white sand bottom. (Liz only looked at it from near the boat ladder due to the overly curious 4 foot barracuda). At midnight we started our last leg of a 250 nautical mile passage that started at Georgetown on the Monday morning. We had left there more than a little nervous and bucking 15 knot winds and 4-6 foot waves that were right on the nose. The first leg of our journey would be relatively short, 25 miles, because we got a late start that morning as we needed to access the internet weather and try one last time to extend our Bahamian visa before leaving their waters. No success with the visa as a boat load of Haitians arrived somewhere nearby and the immigration folk were in an uproar.

We made Long Island in the afternoon after tacking back and forth along our designated route. We stayed at a beautiful beach at Hog Cay. The picture doesn’t do it justice. The next morning bright and early we left for Rum Cay. A great trip with both fishing rods out. We must have had 3-4 hits before we got into a school of mahi mahi. First one rod started to sing and before we could get more than 10 feet of line in the second one started to tear of line. Liz proceeded to slowly bring in the first fish while I tried to bring in the second on the lighter rod. Both fish were jumping and in the end the one on the lighter rod got away. Liz brought hers in close to the boat and we got it on board. A nice 8-10 pound mahi. Cleaned it that afternoon when we got into Rum Cay and had it that night for supper. Better than anything we have had in any restaurant. A 6 foot nurse shark cleaned up the mess we had thrown overboard. Talk about efficient garbage service.

We left Rum right after supper on our first overnight passage. Both of us were quite nervous as we hadn’t ever done this before and we did not have a buddy boat with us. The conditions were perfect. Almost flat seas with no chop but a 4 foot easy swell that didn’t give us any problems. Winds were light so we were motor sailing with full sails up and we were doing more than 7 knots most through the night. Instead of arriving at our next destination in the middle of the afternoon, we arrived at the Plana Cays at day break. Both of us had napped during the night and sunrise was a spectacular and welcome sight. We decided to keep going right on through to Mayaguana and arrived in the middle of the afternoon to enjoy a dip in the water before having supper and getting to sleep before our last step of the trip. The dolphins we saw as we were coming in unfortunately did not come around the boat.

We left Mayaguana at midnight and wished each other a Happy New Year. We believe that we saw the fireworks at the Turks and Caicos reflected off the clouds on the horizon to the south. As we weighed anchor the bioluminescence in the water was spectacular. So its 2:00 AM, I’m watching the meteorites zipping across the sky, Liz is having a nap on one of the cockpit cushions, there is very little wind and we’re making our way south at 6 knots using the engine. After having worried about the first night passage, this second one is peaceful and enjoyable. We left in the middle of the night because we wanted to arrive first thing in the morning before the convection winds started to blow from the east over the shallow Caicos Bank.

Our next big step will be to jump to the Dominican Republic from the Turks and Caicos, another 80 mile passage in very open water. After having sailed in the Bahamas where the water is very shallow, to be in several thousand feet of water is also a little unnerving. The deep blue colour of the water is also something we’ll both remember. Time to get back to the helm.