We were the first boat to leave Great Sale Cay and we did so at first light. David saw some long tailed tropical birds circling before we left. We headed on to the bank. We had a tentative route from Chris Parker to exit the bank north of Mantanilla Shoal. It was downwind and winds were a little light so our genoa misbehaved but we were able to sail with our main. As we neared the shoal, we had to motor sail in order to clear it and stay on our course.
Naturally, I had questions about all of this. ‘What would racers’s do? Is there a way to figure out if you can save time, even if you are adding miles, because you can go faster by sailing more efficiently?” David tried to be patient. We were cruisers. We were trying to get someplace by a certain time to avoid bad weather. We had a certain timeframe for that and motoring on our course would accomplish that goal.
Once we were past the shoal, it got a little more comfortable with the rocking. Around sunset, the winds picked up and we were able to add in the genoa without too much flapping. We turned off the motor for dinner. It was so nice to have the quiet. We watched the sunset and blew the horn out in the ocean. We were able to continue sailing and hoped this would continue.
David tried to rest around 8 pm. During my shift, the moon came from behind the clouds and was high in the sky. We would have it for maybe six hours. I don’t think David was able to rest but he had a little break from steering.
At 10 pm, he took over. There was supposed to be a rocket launch but at 10 but nothing had happened by 1040 so I went to rest. Around 1100, David called to me. The rocket launched and we watched it until we could no longer see it. We could not hear it until the booster separated and it headed out of sight. At that point we heard a boom.
The wind picked up and veered more to the south. We were able to steer a bit northward and the current in the Gulf Stream was also helping with our north direction. We were able to just sail north northwest all the way across and end up close to our destination. We alternated steering shifts through the night and snoozed a bit in the cockpit. The moon helped us steer much of the night.
Just before dawn, we took the sails down and started our approach to the inlet. It was a pretty rocky stretch. We passed some anchored ships and as we entered the canal, we started to see large cruise ships tied up on either side of the canal. Our marina was at the end of the canal. We hailed them on the radio and our slip was ready. A dock hand named Willy met us at our slip and helped us with lines. After we got the boat situated with bumpers and lines, we headed down for a nap.
Most of the day was spent sleeping. When we awakened, we went to have dinner at the Rising Tide restaurant. The burger was excellent.