It's 8am on 2/18. We
just finished an overnighter from Eleuthera to Freeport - about 150 miles. It blew E at 20 most of the day yesterday and
we had a great sail. We started out on a
port tack for about 2 hours and jibed over to a starboard tack that we were on
for the remainder of the day and night.
Going through Flemming Channel at the far West end of Eleuthera was a
little exiting. We were sailing with a 3
knot current through the channel with the wind at 90 degrees to the
current. It created a very steep chop
that lasted for about a half hour. We
dogged the hatches after taking on a couple quarts of salt water into the
salon. The wind finally died off around
9pm as we sailed into the lee of Great Abaco Island. We were still 20 miles off shore so the seas
were a little rough. We ended up motor
sailing all night. I'd say we have
gotten into a routine of motorsailing at night because having the engine
running keeps the batteries charged and the auto pilot (Fred) uses a fair
amount of power. Hand steering at night
in seas of any size is a pain so running the engine allows us to have Fred
steer - making watch standing much more pleasant. During the night, we must have seen 15 or 20
ships (freighters, cruise ships, etc.).
Only one came close enough that we changed our course for several
minutes. At 1am, a cruise ship passed us
and we could see a large screen TV on his upper deck (over a mile away). We are currently about 15 miles from Freeport
on Grand Bahama. We will be stopping to
pick up Dan Kotowski (another long time Pintita crew member) and will stay over
at a marina. We have had great weather
for our direction in the last week. It
has truly been fair winds and following seas.
But the forecast is for a major front to come through in about a week
and our plan is to get to the Florida coast ASAP. I expect we will be picking up Dan, provisioning,
and heading out tomorrow for a Gulf Stream crossing tomorrow and tomorrow
night. When we leave Freeport and where
we head will depend on the weather (primarily wind direction and strength). Coming into Freeport now (12 noon). More
later.
