In the last several days, we've come a long way, baby, and we've hardly used the engine, which is a happy state of affairs when it comes to sailboats. From Marsh Harbour we sailed down to the bottom of the Abacos, the Bight of Old Robinson (don't ask me who he is!) by Lynyard Cay. The next morning we got moving shortly after 6:30 am and immediately hoisted sail. Yes, even before coffee. I'm amazed I managed to point the boat in the right direction, considering.

We sailed through the southernmost cut in the Abacos and headed south across the open water for Royal Island, at the northern tip of Eleuthera. With wind out of the northeast, it was a fairly comfortable ride. As the wind started to die off toward late afternoon we were reluctant to motor. So we didn't: we sailed slowly all the way through Egg Island Cut, only motoring the last bit directly into the breeze as we approached the anchorage at 6 pm.

The first time we came to the Bahamas, we spent a few days at Royal Island exploring the ruins of a fabulous estate that had been built in the 1930s (http://windom.netrack.net/logs/2000/05.08.html). Now someone's bought the island. Generators run all night, construction crews work all day, and the ruins are off limits. We didn't even bother dropping the dinghy.

In the morning there wasn't much wind, so we motored for Current Cut. Since the tide had just begun to turn, we had only a few knots of current with us - not like the wild ride we'd had on our first visit. Then the wind picked up, and we put out the white flappy things again.

Sailing in the lee of Eleuthera is a real joy. The water's deep enough that you can go anywhere, and you don't have to keep an eye out for coral or shoals. The island keeps the waves small, but isn't high or wide enough to block the wind. A few small storm cells rained on the land, but never got close enough to us to do more than sprinkle (a shame - Windom could use the wash!)

Because of the storms, though, the wind couldn't make up its mind whether it wanted to be out of the northeast, the southeast, or somewhere between those two points. Sometimes it nearly died away, sometimes it gusted hard. It was not a day where we lounged and read in the cockpit; we were kept busy cranking in, letting out, reefing, unreefing, tacking, and then doing it all over again.

It was fun, though. The only thing better would be if we got to alternate our sail-handling activities with fish-reeling-in activities, but alas, a few nibbles and one stupid barracuda were all that showed interest in our lines.

The forecast is for nearly a week of strong easterlies, the wind slowly clocking ever more toward due east, which will make it easy to get to Rock Sound but hard to get to our next island, Little San Salvador, which is pretty much directly east of the southern tip of Eleuthera. This wind regime is likely to end with a cold front, and there's not much protection from those once we're past Rock Sound.

So we're taking our time getting there, since we're likely to be stuck for a while once we do. We spent last night in Alabaster Bay, anchored off the pretty sand beach of a small resort. This morning we sailed (another gorgeous run!) a grand total of 6.4 miles to Governor's Harbour. We'll spend a day or so here before moving down the coast again.
- posted by S/V Windom @ 4/22/2007 [link]