Day 284
April 20,
2016
NM Today: 57
NM Total: 4379
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| Sunrise at Royal Island, Eleutheras, Bahamas |
I knew that
Clark would decide whether to stay at Royal Island additional nights or move on
to Little Harbor anchorage in the Abacos based partly on what he heard from
Chris Parker’s report. Even so, I did not expect him to wake me at 7:15 and say
we would leave as soon as we were ready, i.e. now! Bleary-eyed I pulled myself
together and went out to assist with raising the anchor and getting underway.
The weather,
wind and waves report indicated that we could escape the Eleutheras today,
maybe Friday, or Monday. Today’s report indicated swells but less wind until
late in the day. Leaving tomorrow was definitely out of the question. Since we
had a seven hour trip, Clark wanted to get moving.
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| Parting View of the Royal Island Anchorage |
Typically on
a long travel day I make Clark a hot breakfast – somewhat similar to an Egg
McMuffin. I brought that up to him at the helm and then sat down to eat my own
breakfast down below. To wake up I made myself a hot tea. Since my eyes felt
tired, I decided to forego the contact lenses to give them a rest. Well, I
should never have had the tea and I should have taken the time to put in my
lenses.
The
beginning of the voyage seemed calm enough, but just over an hour into the
seven hour ride, the wave action picked up. Clark said that at six to seven
foot swells, the waves were larger than predicted. Fortunately the wave period
was long enough for our boat to reduce the impact of the waves. Most of the
swells hit us on the starboard bow quarter which also softened the impact.
Unfortunately, on occasion waves came from random directions to make life more
interesting.
As I sat
holding onto my seat, I thought to myself, “I should never have had that cup of
tea cause now I have to hit the head!” With well over five hours to go to get
to our anchorage, I had to make the trip down to the head. I worked my way to
and down the steps moving hand-over-hand, railing-to-railing. On the second
step down the wind almost took my hat away, so I also had to deal with that.
Slowly, one
step at a time I made my way below waiting at each step for any slight lull in
the wave action to allow progress. Once in the salon, I had to have one hand
gripping a part of the boat tightly at all times. Fortunately we have a wooden
railing across the ceiling that reminds me of being on a moving subway train
when I need to employ it. That allowed me to make my way across the salon to
the desperately needed head.
That task
completed, I decided that if I made it back up top, I would not want to be
coming back down again any time soon. With the travel conditions being what
they were, we would not be eating lunch underway today. I grabbed a bag and
filled it full of snacks to hold us until we got to the anchorage where we
could eat lunch in a much calmer setting. Before heading back up top I surveyed the
downstairs situation. I noted that the bicycles tethered at the lower helm had
walked partway out into the salon but could go no further. They could stay
there. I also noticed that the coffee table was slowly making progress across
the salon from the starboard side to the port side. I decided that if I put it
back where it belonged (no easy task), it would just walk over to port again,
so I left it to decide for itself where it wanted to go. At least with it
lowered, it had not toppled over and hopefully would stay upright.
One more
look around and a few other miscellaneous adjustments, and I was ready to head
up top. I tried paging Clark on the boat’s intercom to let him know I was on my
way, but he did not answer my call. I decided he either could not hear me or he
was too busy handling the boat to reply. I headed up taking it one slow step at
a time with a firm grip each step of the way. Fortunately I found going up
easier than going down, but still I was very relieved when I plopped myself
down on the bench seat!
Normally
when we travel long distances, I entertain myself in between turns at the helm
with one of my hobbies. I went through my checklist:
Embroidery?
Probably end up poking myself and bleeding on
the project, so no.
Artwork?
I’m not into abstract art, so no.
Puzzle
Book? I need to be able to read what I write, so no.
Novel?
Too hard to focus on the words as they moved around, so no.
Nap?
Expect to fall off the bench seat onto the floor, so no.
Okay, I had
exhausted my list and it came down to watch the waves and hold on for today’s
entertainment.
When I had a
turn at the helm so Clark could “hit the head”, I noticed how very blue the
water appeared. We have seen dark, almost navy blue water and green and
turquoise waters, but today’s water was so blue – like royal blue. It was
beautiful. Most of my attention was focused on figuring out which way to aim
the boat to soften the impact of each wave as it came at me. I was very happy
to give the boat back to her captain when he returned on deck.
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Very Blue Water Crossing to the Abacos
(not Green or Turquoise)
|
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| Waves - 6 to 7 foot swells! |
About three
hours into the trip, Clark said “1-2-9-1-3”. I just looked at him. “Do you know
what that is?” he said. “Nooooo?” I replied. “The depth of the water, 12,913
feet deep!” Wow, and I thought 2000 feet
was deep the other day.
The port
side of the upper helm where I normally sit was in the shade and I was quite
cold even wearing long sleeves and long pants. I made my way over to the
starboard side to soak up some sun for a while and eventually decided to try
lying down for a nap. The waves just kept coming relentlessly, and as I laid
there the motion of the boat made me think of the Tea Cup Kiddies Ride at
Asbury Park boardwalk. Instead of up and down or rolling side to side, the
motion was more circular. Well the nap did not happen. I was too busy holding
on. I let go at one point and almost slid right off the seat onto the floor. I
didn’t do that again.
The wave
action eased off for a short while early afternoon, but the last hour of the
trip it got wild again. For the last six nautical miles to the Little Harbor
waypoint, Clark gave a readout. “6 NM to go, 4 NM to go, 2 NM to go”. Finally I
asked him if he was anxious to get to the anchorage. Most of the day he was
grinning as he steered the boat. I compared his tackling the waves and trying
to judge the right direction to aim the boat to playing a video game. I know he
enjoyed himself out there.
One write-up
we read said that the anchorage was half mooring balls and half for anchored
boats. Everywhere we looked we saw a mooring ball. We could have grabbed one
since they were so plentiful, but Clark did not want to pay the $20 if he did
not have to. He found a place to drop anchor.
The main
attraction at this anchorage, and the place to pay for a mooring ball, is Pete’s
Pub. Even though I had done next to nothing today, I did not have the energy to
go exploring. Clark asked if it was worth the effort to lower the dinghy and I said
I didn’t feel like doing anything. We both decided to chill until dinner time.
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| Little Harbor in the Abacos, Bahamas |
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| Little Harbor Anchorage |
They told us
about the Full Moon Party that will happen on Friday and told us several other
folks we know from our Great Loop travels will also attend the party. The location of the party was not on our
planned route, but we will try to work it into our schedule. It was great to
see someone we know after so long traveling by ourselves.
After dinner
Clark and I reviewed our travel plans, checked the location of the Full Moon
party in relation to our next stop of Hope Town, calculated the number of days
required to get ourselves back to the states, and decided that we could probably
add in a trip to the Full Moon party.
At some
point Clark grabbed the camera and managed to capture today’s sunset. I think the sunrise was more impressive.
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Sunset at Little Harbor Anchorage
(with Dark Clouds Forming)
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