Monday May 9: Sailing!

Just the drifter at first, then we put up the mainsail.

     Yes, sailing!  We are actually sailing!  We do use our sails most of the time, but they augment the motor.  The Willie Dawes was built as a motor-sailor; our rig is too short and our rudder too small to really sail.  I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve gotten from here to there with sails alone.  We are not making any kind of time - our top speed has been four knots - but it’s quiet without the motor running and we are not in any hurry.

     We went for a long walk on the beach this morning, finding a few more shells and some more driftwood and lumber.  Dan found yet more ties to Maine:  three lobster buoys.  These weren’t the first Maine lobster buoys we’ve seen, but three all on one beach seemed pretty amazing.  He selected two for salvage.

Dan says all Maine lobster buoys are marked with initials and four digits.  You can read both on the top buoy.  The initials are gone from the bottom one.

Our last beach walk in the Bahamas - Manjack Cay

     Dan and I also had a conversation about whether or not we would take advantage of a large weather window at the end of this week.  We had planned to cross to Florida around the 20th or so with La Maitresse, but the weather this week looks ideal for the crossing and we have met people on another boat who are planning to do just that.  Mark and Gail on C-Soul were anchored with us in George Town, and we met up with them again at Crab Cay yesterday.  We have been trying to get in touch with La Maitresse but all our attempts to hail them on the radio have failed.  Finally Rosaire contacted us via email this morning, and Dan laid out his thinking, but we haven’t heard back from them.  Dan and I decided to cross this week.  It’s earlier than we’d planned, but it’s almost a guaranteed calm and comfortable crossing.  I’m sorry to back out on La Maitresse, but many boats are making their way back to the States before June 1st, La Maitresse will find someone else to buddy boat with.

     We confirmed our plans with C-Soul and exchanged MMSI numbers so we can keep each other’s position on our electronic charts and talk privately on the radio.  There may be a third boat in our convoy - Windricka - whom we have not yet met or seen.  Those two boats were already in the anchorage at Angelfish Point, the very Western tip of Great Abaco Island, when we pulled in around four-thirty.  We managed to sail off the hook right to the anchorage - we even managed to beat! - but we had to turn the engine on to get us the last couple hundred yards to where we could drop the anchor.  Tommie was beside herself all day; she usually holes up when the engine is on, but today she was in and out of the cabin, occasionally even sticking her nose up above the cockpit to see what was keeping us so busy.  We’re not sure she knew we were underway all day.      

Sunset from Angelfish Point.