Tag: Indian Rock Passage

With everything working on Cerca Trova and a good weather window we left West Palm Beach on the evening of Sunday, April 21^st, and crossed to West End, Grand Bahama Island. We left at 7:40 pm for the overnight passage of 60nm and arrived 13 hours later at 8:40 am, tired but ready to clear into the Bahamas. I knew that the Gulf Stream would put us North of West End, so we motored SE for about half the passage and then let the Gulf Stream carry us North until we were out of the current and able to head SE to our destination.

The crossing was mostly uneventful, but a bit lumpy while we were motoring into the Gulf Stream until we turned and let the current carry us North. We motored the entire way as the wind was at an unfavorable angle for sailing (this seems to be the story of our sailing life – wind on the nose).

Clearing into the Bahamas was quick and easy. Both Immigration and Customs are in a small building at the marina, so we walked over and went through the process. Once cleared in, we checked into the marina for 2 nights and went for a late breakfast at the restaurant onsite. We were tired from the overnight passage, so we hopped into bed and slept until evening. I fell asleep thinking it was good to be in another country again after being in the US for over a year.

The usual first stop after leaving West End is Great Sale Cay. It’s a 48nm passage and we were doing it with the wind on our nose. Not a strong wind, but the wind direction was forcing us to motor and not sail. We left Old Bahama Bay Marina for Great Sale Cay at 7:00 am on the 24^th. The route took us through Indian Rock Passage, a narrow and shallow path. It is not necessarily dangerous in calm weather, but it certainly is shallow. I noted water as shallow as 8′.

We saw few boats and no marine animals along the way. We did have a radio conversation with another sailboat that had just left Great Sale Cay. They mentioned needing to be aware of downed trees in the anchorage from a previous hurricane, so we kept that in mind when we arrived and picked an anchor spot. Luckily, we saw no trees. The anchor was down and set at 3:40 pm. We were ready for sundowners and snacks.

We used Great Sale Cay as an overnight anchorage and left the next morning around 7:00 am. The next passage was 47nm to Powell Cay and again, into the wind, so we motored the entire distance. Powell Cay was another overnight anchorage for us, so we spent the night and left around 7:00 am the next morning for Manjack Cay North anchorage. Manjack Cay is only 9.6nm from our anchorage at Powell Cay, so we made good time motoring into the wind and dropped our hook at 9:18 am. It was nice to have a short passage for a change. Here’s where the fun begins.

Manta catamaran owners are a very close-knit group of sailors. We have a very active online forum and Facebook group. Many owners have been friends for years and meet in the Bahamas or other locations yearly. Manjack Cay was to be our first encounter with other Manta catamaran owners on this trip. We met Karen and Duane on S/V Sojourn, a 1998 40′ Manta. We had sundowners and snacks on their boat that evening and thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.

The next day Jim and Michelle on S/V Skyfall, a 1997 40′ Manta, came into the anchorage. That evening we hosted snacks and sundowners on Cerca Trova and had a great time meeting and talking with them along with Karen and Duane from the previous night. Both couples knew each other quite well, so we were the newcomers and were received with open arms. What fun!

During this time our watermaker broke down for the 6^th time. Ugh! I spent much of the day working on it, with text messages and phone calls to tech support people. The feed pump had quit and upon dismantling it I found that the motor brushes were shot. With luck, I had a spare used pair that were in better shape than the ones in the motor. I replaced them and got the motor working, only to have the control board go out. With help from tech support, we were able to get the watermaker working in a manual mode that served us until we got back to West Palm Beach, where a new control board would be waiting for us. I can’t believe how unreliable our watermaker has been. Not fun!

Sojourn and Skyfall were on their way back to the US, so they left the next morning. We knew that Jason and Monica on S/V Breathe, were at the next bay South, so we weighed anchor at 3:00 pm and made the 2nm passage to Crab Cay to get together with them. They are a couple we met several years ago while looking at Manta catamarans and we spent some time with them last year in New Bern, NC. Jason is the admin for the Manta forum and they are great people to have as friends.

Crab Cay was a delight. The water was clear and there were lots of things to do. I went snorkeling with Jason and Monica and saw many turtles and small sea creatures. There are two wrecks in shallow water in the area and hiking trails. Lynette and I did an art hike through the trees at Manjack Cay that was quite interesting. We stayed at Crab Cay for 4 days and had several get-togethers with the Breathe crew.

We left Crab Cay for New Plymouth on May 3^rd at 1:30 pm, a very short 4.6nm motoring passage that took a little over 1 hour. The anchorage was crowded, so we anchored a bit far from shore. Not the best anchorage as it was a bit choppy and every time a power boat went by we got hit by their wake.

We lowered the dinghy and went to shore the next morning to stretch our legs, dump trash, eat breakfast, and buy some provisions at the store. New Plymouth is a quaint little town and the people are very friendly. We sat with a gentleman at the picnic table in front of Nick’s café and chatted for a bit. Good food, great coffee, and an excellent conversation.

We were unhappy with our anchorage at New Plymouth so I did a little research and found a very protected cove just a bit north of our anchorage, so we decided to move there for a less bumpy ride at anchor. We raised the anchor at 3:18 pm on May 4^th and went the 1.7nm to Bluff Cove. The entrance was very shallow with water that was less than 7′. Bluff Cove is a very small anchorage with houses surrounding it. There were no other boats anchored there, and we only got disturbed when a few boats came into the cove causing a little wake. Otherwise, the water was very calm. We didn’t get off the boat, but we did stay for 3 days, enjoying the solitude and calm water.

We were told Hope Town was a popular and very cute little town to spend time in and we shouldn’t miss visiting there. We planned Hope Town to be our turn-around point for this trip. Our anchor was up at 6:20 am on May 7^th for the 28.4nm passage to Hope Town.

The passage to Hope Town took us through Whale Cay Cut, which separates the northern area of the Abacos from the southern area. It can be a dangerous passage when the weather is bad. Cruising guides mention the danger of attempting Whale Cay Cut in bad weather. Knowing this, we planned our passage on a calm day, and the planning paid off. The weather and seas were mild, and we had no issues.

Hope Town has a picturesque red and white striped Lighthouse, British Imperial commissioned in 1863. It is one of the last kerosene-fueled lighthouses in the world and is only one of three manually operated lighthouses in operation. It uses a weight mechanism that must be hand cranked every several hours to maintain the sequence of five white flashes every 15 seconds. The lighthouse is free to visit and climb the 101 steps to the top. I counted them, just to make sure there were 101.

There is no anchoring in the harbor, so we took a mooring ball for $30 per night. The first night we went to dinner and walked through the town. The next day we met up with another Manta family Skye and Alan on S/V Tangent and climbed to the top of the lighthouse. What a view. We stayed only two nights on the mooring ball and then moved to an anchorage outside the harbor for two more nights, as we didn’t want to keep paying for the mooring ball.

Lynette and I dinghied to town to have lunch and to get some essentials. Key lime pie is essential! The next day I went in with Skye, Alan, and their kids to play Mexican dominos at the pool. I had never played before, so they were patient with me and taught me the rules. I was bad at it and lost miserably, but we had a blast. The pool was a nice refreshing break from dominos.

A blow was expected in the evening of May 11^th, so we departed the anchorage at 9:20 am for more protected water before it started blowing hard. Our destination was Marsh Harbour, an 8.1nm passage that took 2 hours. Marsh Harbour is the largest town in the Abacos, and from the anchorage looked to be on the industrial side. We didn’t go ashore, so can’t say what the town was like, but it certainly didn’t have the charm of Hope Town from the water.

There had been fires burning in the hills of Marsh Harbour for days. When we first anchored the smoke wasn’t blowing in our direction, but when the wind shifted, we were right in its path. It was so smokey we couldn’t stay in Marsh Harbour more than one night, so we left the next morning at 11:00 am, got fuel, and started our journey back to Florida.

We retraced our steps through Whale Cay Cut back to Crab Cay, a distance of 26nm. Whale Cay Cut was, again, uneventful as we made our way north. We arrived back at Crab Cay at 3:40 pm. For some reason, the anchor would not grab. We made several attempts at the same location we had anchored before with no luck and then moved twice toward Manjack Cay until we got it to hold. This was the first experience we had where the anchor just wouldn’t bite.

The next morning the wind was finally blowing in a direction we could sail. All this time we had been motoring due to the unfavorable wind direction, and finally a break from burning diesel. I prepped the sails to be raised and we weighed anchor for Great Sail Cay at 7:50 am. This was a fantastic sailing day! We started with the spinnaker and were making good time until the wind changed to dead downwind. We doused the spinnaker and raised the jib to run wing on wing with preventers on both the jib and main. We tucked a reef in the main as the wind increased to about 20 knots, and then finally lowered the sails to come into the anchorage at Great Sale Cay. This passage was 55.6nm and we did it in a little over 10 hours. What a fun day!

The anchorage became a bit bumpy in the night as the wind direction changed. By morning we were no longer protected from the wind and decided at a moment’s notice to move to a more protected spot. The previous owner of Cerca Trova had texted me about an abandoned development on the south side of West End, on Grand Bahama Island. After reading comments about this anchorage in the Navionics app, we decided to make that our next destination. The place is called Ginn Sur Mer. It has several dredged canals and an excellent entrance channel.

So, with that destination in mind, we left Great Sale Cay at 9:20 am with 4 other boats and sailed for a good couple of hours before the wind had reached an angle close to the bow. We motor sailed to Indian Rock Passage before we struck the sails and motored the rest of the way to Ginn Sur Mer, a total of 50nm, which we did in a little over 8 and a half hours.

When we got to Indian Rock Passage the wind was blowing over 20 knots and the waves had built to 3-4 feet. It was a sporty ride through the cut and even worse once we got through the cut. We had been running in relatively protected water in the shallows north of Grand Bahama Island, and now we were experiencing the full force of the wind over the Atlantic Ocean, with nothing protecting us from the wind. We were in 4′ to 6′ seas hitting us on the beam, so not comfortable.

We made the turn into the Ginn Sur Mer channel, and the water instantly became calm. What a welcome change. There were three other boats in the anchorage with room for 3 to 4 more. The water was very calm considering the 20-knot wind. We were very happy to have decided to leave Great Sale Cay and come here. Sometimes spur-of-the-moment decisions can be the best decisions. It was 6:00 pm when we anchored. It was calm inside the anchorage, and we were tired and hungry.

Early the next morning we received a call on the radio from one of the other boats that had traveled with us from Great Sale Cay. They were not having a good time where they chose to anchor and wanted to know how it was where we were and if there was room for 3 more boats. I told them there was room and that it was very calm where we were. They immediately weighed anchor and headed over.

We had a huge lightning storm the second night. Quite the light show. If it’s one thing that scares me on a sailboat, it’s lightning. You can’t run from it, and you never know where and when it will strike. Strong winds accompanied the storm front that caused us and several other boats to drag anchors. Another boat came in that had been hit by the lightning. They lost all their electronics and wanted to get to Florida to have repairs done. Several of the boats, including us, told them that we would be going over in a pack after the storms and he could just follow us over (he made it safely to West Palm Beach).

Two boats left the evening of the 16^th and 5 of us left the next morning around 7:00 am for West Palm Beach, FL. The waves were still up when we left the safety of the channel, but they quieted down as the morning progressed. The wind was light and on our nose, so we motored the 10.8 hours to West Palm Beach. It was a great day to cross the Gulf Stream, but it would have been better if the wind had not been on our nose. We motored a bit south of our destination to take into consideration that the Gulf Stream would carry us north. We arrived at West Palm Beach and anchored in our usual West Palm Beach spot at 5:30 pm on the evening of the 17^th. Our trip to the Abacos was over.