While leaving Maxwells, we could see some pretty serious smoke coming from a nearby neighborhood. It turned out to be a tragic day for many, as 25 homes were lost to the fire.
A view of the smoke from the anchorage.
At 6:30 pm, we upped anchor and headed for Matt Lowes Cay. Lisa and I had spent a good part of this very warm day hiking around and past Marsh Harbor. We kind of over did it in the heat and we desperately wanted to swim to cool down. But it was well into shark dinner time so we settled on showers instead.
HEE HEE. For those of you from Rio Linda, that is signature Michael Jackson. Lisa claimed to be doing yoga on the beach, but sure looks more like MJ to me.
Yoga is so easy. Ummm.
HEE HEE. For those of you from Rio Linda, that is signature Michael Jackson. Lisa claimed to be doing yoga on the beach, but sure looks more like MJ to me.
Yoga is so easy. Ummm.
After a couple of nights at Powell Cay we spent most of a day sailing to Double Breasted Cays. This is our favorite spot in the Abacos. It's far enough off the beaten path that it doesn't get too crowded. The guide books say the area is known for shark sightings (what area in the Bahamas isn't?). But if you can work up the nerve to jump in it is a great place to snorkel and spear fish. I finally got a grouper there.
Our plan was to make the jump to Florida from here, and my intent was to scrub the prop and clean the bottom one last time before our crossing. The only problem was that a 4 foot barracuda was hanging around under our boat. We were there for 3 days and so was he.
We have swum around a lot of barracudas, and generally they don't bother you. The books say most attacks involve spear fishing (why else would you snorkel?) or if they mistake shiny clothing or jewelry for a fish. Like a shark mistaking a surfboard for a seal. I love how they always say the animal didn't mean to do it. They don't get fat because they didn't mean to. They are predators. The books also say if you try to spear a barracuda or a shark they will attack you. Better not miss. That takes them off my target list.
Another thing the books say is that barracudas chop larger fish in half and then eat the pieces. So I didn't do a final scrub on the prop or bottom of our boat.
It was time to head back to Florida because we were out of chocolate. I was reduced to inhaling chocolate milk mix out of the packet (the only reason we had that was to mix it with an absolutely horrible vitamin mix we had to drink--only way I could get it down).
We left Double Breast Cays at 11 am on a Friday. We had a wonderful sail across the bank, first on a dead run with just the genoa, then with the wind just aft of a beam reach with all 3 sails up. The light wind was supposed to clock slowly from the east through south and then finally west (on the nose) right before arriving at the Ft. Pierce inlet. We are too yellow to enter St. Lucie Inlet--shifting bars and too shoal for our comfort.
For whatever reason, the banks have hazards on their edges, so you can't just exit wherever you want. We were originally going to exit at Mantanilla Shoals, but decided to go another 11 1/2 miles south to the White Sand Shoals to get a better wind angle for when we approached the Florida coast.
Near the edge of the bank. Our last Bahama sunset as we bid the turquoise waters adios.
30 seconds later.
Our plan was to make the jump to Florida from here, and my intent was to scrub the prop and clean the bottom one last time before our crossing. The only problem was that a 4 foot barracuda was hanging around under our boat. We were there for 3 days and so was he.
We have swum around a lot of barracudas, and generally they don't bother you. The books say most attacks involve spear fishing (why else would you snorkel?) or if they mistake shiny clothing or jewelry for a fish. Like a shark mistaking a surfboard for a seal. I love how they always say the animal didn't mean to do it. They don't get fat because they didn't mean to. They are predators. The books also say if you try to spear a barracuda or a shark they will attack you. Better not miss. That takes them off my target list.
Another thing the books say is that barracudas chop larger fish in half and then eat the pieces. So I didn't do a final scrub on the prop or bottom of our boat.
It was time to head back to Florida because we were out of chocolate. I was reduced to inhaling chocolate milk mix out of the packet (the only reason we had that was to mix it with an absolutely horrible vitamin mix we had to drink--only way I could get it down).
We left Double Breast Cays at 11 am on a Friday. We had a wonderful sail across the bank, first on a dead run with just the genoa, then with the wind just aft of a beam reach with all 3 sails up. The light wind was supposed to clock slowly from the east through south and then finally west (on the nose) right before arriving at the Ft. Pierce inlet. We are too yellow to enter St. Lucie Inlet--shifting bars and too shoal for our comfort.
For whatever reason, the banks have hazards on their edges, so you can't just exit wherever you want. We were originally going to exit at Mantanilla Shoals, but decided to go another 11 1/2 miles south to the White Sand Shoals to get a better wind angle for when we approached the Florida coast.
Near the edge of the bank. Our last Bahama sunset as we bid the turquoise waters adios.
30 seconds later.
We had a wonderful sail nearly all the way to Florida with all 3 sails up. The winds were supposed to be too light for sailing, but that was not the case. The big problem was they clocked to the west far sooner than forecast. This forced us to sail further north than we wanted. The Gulf Stream makes that a double whammy because it pushes you north really fast and thus further in the wrong direction. You can't tack south into the stream unless you like hove to speed. So we ended up almost 20 miles north of Ft. Pierce at which point I had hoped we would be out of the Gulf Stream and could tack back southwest for a normal sail. By that time we were still in the stream and about to run into thunderstorms to the north, so we went ahead and tacked to the southwest. We don't like hove to speed so we turned on the motor and motorsailed due west straight into the wind until we got out of the river. Then we were able to turn southwest and head for the inlet. The water temp in the stream was 81 degrees, and it was 72 degrees when we got out of it near the coast.
It would have been faster and easier to motorsail as soon as the wind went west and just do the rhumb line, but we really wanted to sail the whole way. Then we got tired and I really missed my chocolate.
This is the sixth time we've crossed the Gulf Stream, and we've gone a different route each time. None of them are my favorite. I would just as soon have a Jeanie blink us back and forth. I do prefer crossing in the daytime.
It would have been faster and easier to motorsail as soon as the wind went west and just do the rhumb line, but we really wanted to sail the whole way. Then we got tired and I really missed my chocolate.
This is the sixth time we've crossed the Gulf Stream, and we've gone a different route each time. None of them are my favorite. I would just as soon have a Jeanie blink us back and forth. I do prefer crossing in the daytime.
After entering the inlet at Ft. Pierce, we headed south on the ICW another 30 miles or so to Stuart where we will leave the boat for a few days to visit Mom and Carol.
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