We snuck into the Bahamas on the tail end of the weather window. Great Gulf Stream crossing, motorboating on glassy calm seas, and we even caught a lovely big mahi-mahi, so the fridge is full of fish. But then the front came through like a hammer, faster and meaner than we were expecting, and we ended up having a rough night anchored on the Little Bahama Bank with no real protection. (Which we've done before. And actually, we joked that it wasn't nearly as bad as a few anchorages we've been in,
which is perfectly true. One night at Samana Cay, for example, I thought I was going to get seasick at anchor!) Really, the only scary part was seeing the flashes in the surrounding squalls. When you're the only thing above sea level for miles around - with a 56-foot high aluminum rod sticking up - you can't imagine how any lightning in the area WON'T hit you!

This morning started out with winds strong enough to actually break our anemometer loose for a while, and we sailed fast and heeled over even with our sails reefed down to tiny handkerchiefs, but during the day the winds slacked and we arrived at Great Sale Cay with full canvas and a pleasant breeze. (A breeze of 0.0kt, since after that first shake, the wind indicator froze up again.)

There are about fifteen boats here. Some are flying Bahamian courtesy flags, which means they've either checked in at West End, or are finishing up their cruise and staging back to the US; others, like us, have their yellow Q flags up indicating they have just arrived and are yet to check in. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will head for Spanish Cay for the formalities of official entry to the Bahamas.
- posted by S/V Windom @ 4/06/2007 [link]