The winds kicked up from the northwest in the night while we were anchored at Great Sale, so we waited for them to slack a little before lifting anchor and heading for Spanish Cay late Saturday morning. (Not that we are sure what the winds actually were. In the early morning, while it was howling, our anemometer read 13-17 knots, but then a bit later it was stuck on zero again. I called another boat for a check, and he was reading 16 when I called, and 22-25 that morning. So we figure we have
a binary wind instrument: if it reads ANYTHING, there's too much wind!)

We motored out to the entrance waypoint, motorsailed the next mile north to clear the edge of the island, and then were able to put up some jib and turn off the engine. Hard on the wind for the first four miles or so, but then we turned basically straight downwind and it was lovely. The mainsail was rolled in and the jib, completely unfurled, ballooned out in front of us like a giant parachute. Protected as we were by islands and reefs to the north, the waves weren't big enough to rock us around
much, and we scooted quickly along, hour after hour.

At Spanish Cay we splurged on dockage at the marina, where we had to pull in anyway to clear customs. The customs official was a cheerful young woman who did not seem at all bothered by our arrival at nearly 6 pm on a Saturday, and we chit-chatted in our cockpit as we filled out forms and signed here and there.

As a second splurge we decided to have dinner at the marina restaurant. We provided two big hunks of the mahi-mahi we caught during the crossing, and the chef cooked it in a really nice cream sauce with tomatoes and yellow peppers. Of course, we were charged for their fish entree. And we brought our own wine and were charged $10 corkage, and even with no electricity or water the boat slip was still nearly $100. But hey. It was our 16th wedding anniversary, so. Splurge. And we did have a pleasant
soak in the marina hot tub!

Yesterday's light winds meant a very slow sail, but sail we did to Powell Cay, a huge distance of about five and a half miles. Then we spent an hour and covered another .2 miles just trying to anchor; finally, Britt dove in and set the anchor by hand, which (as we discovered when we looked at our logbook) he did the previous time we were here, in 2000.

The plan is to meander slowly southward and hit Hopetown on Tuesday, when the winds are supposed to get quite strong from the south in advance of another front. We'll tuck in then and wait for the north winds that come after, and use them to make more progress south and east.
- posted by S/V Windom @ 4/09/2007 [link]