It works!

Here's a recap. When I left No Name Harbour at 7AM I was in company with a Westsail 32 named Calypso and we had a nice forecast of winds out of the WNW at 5-10. As we headed out into the Stream it became apparent that the actual conditions diverged from the forecast but it was still pretty good. The wind was NNW, and a good 10-15. This meant the wind was opposing the Gulf Stream and the seas were higher than forecast. Not at all bad, but it made me decide not to stop at Bimini, where the entrance can be dangerous in those conditions for a boat of my draft.

As the day wore on I pulled ahead of Calypso but checked in with them by radio several times. There were a number of other boats out there and several ships as well. I raised land around 1:30 and by about 3:30 I had sailed around the north end of Bimini and on to the Great Bahama Bank. My new goal was to make it to Mackie Shoal, another 30 miles, which I did, by around 8:00 PM. At this point I anchored in about 15 feet of water, which is a bit bizarre, being out of sight of land. I had a miserable night's sleep, due to the incessant motion and the frequent looking out for other vessels. I saw a number of them. Needless to say, I was showing my anchor light and also a solar powered light on the cabin top. There were several other sailboats anchored a couple of miles further on.

In the morning the wind started to build as I was listening on my new radio to the forecast. I only listened for a couple of minutes because the motion was getting worse and I needed to get the anchor up ASAP. It was a process, especially as it was now blowing 15-20 and the banks were covered with whitecaps. The motion was excessive. I put on my harness, clipped the tether to the backline, and crawled forward.

To be continued....