The nasty cold front was gone, and it was time for us to move on. It was a beautiful day, but there was no wind. We had done almost no motoring since leaving the US, and I wanted a calm day with no sails up to try out my fishing rods for the first time. We also wanted to make water (we can make water without the motor running, but it makes water faster with the motor on, and it doesn't drain the batteries). So we left the marina and rounded Little Stirrup (renamed Coco Cay by the Royal Carribean Cruiseline--I'm thinking they wanted it to sound less Texan and more South Pacific) and Great Stirrup Cays on our way to the east side of the Berrys. Our destination was White Cay.
At this point, Lisa is making fun of me because she can sense that I have no idea what I am doing.
About half way to our destination, the big real brought this in. After scrutinizing the fish book we decided that we were going to call this fish a Greater Amberjack. While processing him, he did change colors, matching the colors in the book.
He matches nicely my flip flop. The cockpit floor got a lot uglier in the 20 minutes that followed this picture. We did get some very nice fillets and stuck them in the freezer.
When we told a fellow cruiser that because of the size of the fish (and because it was an Amberjack), we were concerned it might carry the ciguatera toxin. He confidently told us there was nothing to worry about. So at happy hour, we gave him some fish. Since he and his 2 buddies weren't flopping around on deck the following morning, we figured it was safe to eat and cooked some up the following evening. Yummy.
The Berrys don't offer a lot of all around protection from weather fronts which is why not a lot of boats go there. Other than their 2 well protected marinas, White Cay offers the best all around protection from strong, shifting winds. Wednesday night brought winds in the mid 30s as a front passed by. At the time there were 4 boats in the anchorage. We were up around 3:00 am monitoring the situation when a catamaran dragged about 150 feet. He ended up very close to Mike's (our cup bearer for the fish) boat, but no crunching. Things calmed down soon after and we were able to go back to bed.
There was a much stronger front due in on Friday night. Weather guru, Chris Parker, was very concerned about this one. We either needed to sail to Royal Island (which might have been overcrowded, and we had not been there before), sail to Nassau and go to a marina (the marinas may be--and actually were--full), or stay where we were at. We couldn't go back to Great Harbor Cay Marina, because we would have had to pound into large seas to get there. We decided to stay put and hope that no more boats would show up--by that time, we were the only boat in the anchorage.
The forecast was for sustained winds of 35 to 40 knots with gusts over 50. We knew there would be no sleeping Friday night. Because we were the only boat there, I was able to let out 185 feet of chain in 10 feet of water. The problem with these fronts is the wind shifts. You can set your anchor well, but if the wind is strong enough, and it shifts from SE to W and then N at some point your anchor will need to reset--hopefully by itself. Our Delta does a wonderful job at this, but you still get butterflies until--well, until you eat something. I don't like using multiple anchors unless there is no swing room. They often work against each other, and more often, the rodes twist around each other. The last thing I want is to be on a pitching deck with tangled rodes in an emergency. Plus, I like having 10 fingers. My 10 cents is get the biggest anchor you can hang off the bow. It's not big enough unless other cruisers laugh at it. We have a 55 pound Delta and would have their 80 something pound one if it fit one of our twin rollers.
As usual Chris was right on. The winds came with a vengeance. We had a lot of 50s and some 60s, with a high of 72. Some sections of the Abacos saw 70 knot gusts as well. Our sustained winds were 35 to 45. During the worst part we had the engine running as a precaution. For a while I actually had it in gear to lessen the load on our anchor gear. It was pitch black, so we had the chart plotter on very large scale so that we could monitor our exact position and make sure we weren't dragging. We were finally able to go to bed at 5:00 am.
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