Monday, May 13, 2013
I woke up around 0630 to a glass calm, slightly hazy, no wind, gorgeous day! The crystal clear water on the Bahamas Bank was spectacular.
Aside from engine room checks, all of my chores waited until we were underway. I listened to the SSB weather, and decided that I would head for Berry Island Club east of Frazer Cay in the Berry Islands to clear Customs, and ride out the high winds forecast for midnight.
I lost my glass calm before 0900, though the gentle SE wind made for an easy ride. I spent an hour or more on the bow, wondering when I was going to take the time to stop and dive some of the miscellaneous coral heads scattered around. It seems like I'm always in a hurry when I'm passing through here. I did mark a couple of likely looking numbers to return to some day during lobster season.
Today those mangoes that smelled so awful yesterday, smelled delightful, and I cut them up into ziplocks, except for the one I ate.
I came through the Northwest Channel passage at 1315, and kept doing the time calculations to get to Morgan's Bluff, clear Customs, and head for West Bay. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. I remained headed for the Berry Island Club.
I woke up around 0630 to a glass calm, slightly hazy, no wind, gorgeous day! The crystal clear water on the Bahamas Bank was spectacular.
Aside from engine room checks, all of my chores waited until we were underway. I listened to the SSB weather, and decided that I would head for Berry Island Club east of Frazer Cay in the Berry Islands to clear Customs, and ride out the high winds forecast for midnight.
I lost my glass calm before 0900, though the gentle SE wind made for an easy ride. I spent an hour or more on the bow, wondering when I was going to take the time to stop and dive some of the miscellaneous coral heads scattered around. It seems like I'm always in a hurry when I'm passing through here. I did mark a couple of likely looking numbers to return to some day during lobster season.
Today those mangoes that smelled so awful yesterday, smelled delightful, and I cut them up into ziplocks, except for the one I ate.
I came through the Northwest Channel passage at 1315, and kept doing the time calculations to get to Morgan's Bluff, clear Customs, and head for West Bay. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. I remained headed for the Berry Island Club.
The sun had ice crystals around it for much of the day, though my camera wouldn't allow me to capture the whole circle in its lens. The Tongue of the Ocean was its spectacular blue, though the winds and currents had created a driftline of floating debris on the northern edge of the Tongue, where I was running.
I turned into the channel along the east side of Frazer Key @1535 and went up to Berry Island Club to grab a mooring around 1600-ish. I cruised past several, looking at lines, anchors, and chains before grabbing a likely looking one. Then I took the Whaler and spoke to a couple on the only other boat in the vicinity, to see if they had any info on the conditions of the moorings. While alongside, Howard, the manager of the Berry Island Club, returned from a provisioning trip and assured me that the chains and anchors on all the moorings were new this past year, and just to check the conditions of the floating lines. I returned to the mooring I was already on, and ran an extra line to it for my stay.
Howard cruised by and I made arrangements with him for transport to the Chub Cay airport to clear Customs and Immigration in the morning.
I spent the rest of the evening straightening up the boat as I listened to an audio book. The mooring field eventually attracted three other boats, bringing our floating community to five. A sportfisherman anchored well below us.
I made a mango-banana smoothie, enjoying the rapidly melting ice from the ice chest on the Whaler. Life is good.
63nm travelled today
No comments:
Post a Comment