High winds and anchoring
Sunday: February 15th, Highbourne Cay, Exumas
These north winds, the polar outbreaks, the major storm systems that have been hitting the east coast from Florida to Maine, have been a big influence on our voyage.
We have been hanging here at Highborne Cay Marina for a couple of days because of north winds. We hung out in Bimini 5 days the second week of February because of a similar event. We paused at Melbourne the last day in January for another polar outbreak. We left Hilton Head on the heels of a previous event, and as will turn out, we end up ridding out another one in Cambridge Cay on the 23rd of February. If we thought we had left these storms behind when we got to the Exumas, we were wrong.
That night we arrived in the Exumas, on Allen Cay, the advance forecast had been for the wind to veer from south and bring some high winds out of the north in a couple days. The prevailing wind in the Bahamas is from the east or south east. The geography of the islands, which tend to run SE to NW, creates a "windward" side and a "leeward" side - and favorable anchorages along the leeward side. But if the wind comes out of the NW or N, there is a shortage of safe anchorages. The rule of thumb is to keep in mind those few safe anchorages ready to move. Highbourne Cay is one of those places.
Highborne Cay is a medium sized island about 5 miles long with a couple of beaches and a nice little harbor. It is unoccupied other than one entity - a resort that runs a marina, a number of bungalows, a restaurant, a beach bar and a small general store. The people who work at resort all live in a compound and work 6 weeks on and one week off. It is super well run and everyone is friendly - and competent. They are excellent hosts.
Most of the guests are people who come in by boat looking for a slip at the marina or people who rent one of the bungalows. Those folks have to fly in to a nearby Cay and get picked up by boat. There are also a few day trippers, people who come in on their skiffs for lunch (hour or so from Nassau) and a few cruisers anchored off shore who come in on their tenders for dinner. There are bicycles for guests to use to get around, an ocean side beach and a bay side beach, some conveniently placed swings and palapas to sit and just take in the views. Of course there is also the beach bar which is not a bad place to end up. The island is very exclusive because it is hard to get to - but doesn't feel exclusive.
Our neighbor in the marina is Mike who owns a Hinkley 48. Mike is from Texas, or Colorado depending on the moment. He has his own business and says he is not retired but he sure does a good impression of retirement. He spends long stretches in the Bahamas in the early winter months, then heads to Colorado to ski.
On Saturday, a strong SW wind brought in an extra foot of water at high tide. That was the beginning of the storm that we had been anticipating. And as the wind shifted around we were glad to have been in the Marina! I woke up several times to adjust fenders and dock lines as Navigator jostled in the night. These winds did not settle down until Tuesday morning.
Tuesday February 17th
We left Highbourne Cay by 9 am and headed into the Exuma Land and Sea Park.
The Park stretches 22 miles along the middle of Exuma chain and includes 16 major cays and innumerable smaller cays. While it is primarily public land, and many of the cays are uninhabited, there are some preexisting, privately held properties within the park. The Park is run by the Bahamian National Trust dedicated to conserving the areas for future generations.
Access to the park is almost exclusively by boat. Many cruisers, like us, visit the park and will spend idle days either at anchor or at Park maintained moorings, moving from Cay to Cay. Other visitors are on single day excursions by high speed tour boats from Nassau - the cruise ship crowd. There are places to hike, beaches to walk, reefs to snorkel and other attractions.
We moored off Shroud Cay after a run of 16 miles and spent three nights there. The first afternoon we took the tender up a narrow river through the mangroves to a place affectionately known as the Washing Machine. The Washing Machine is located where a narrow breach in the rock backbone of Shroud Cay allows surf from the Atlantic side to wash through into the estuary. The surf flows up the beach, through the breach and into a wonderful pool.
The following day we attempted to run the tender up a different estuary, but ran into a very shallow bay we could not cross. We did encounter a bunch of turtles in the estuary - most likely Hawksbill turtles.
Friday February 20th Hawksbill Cay
Just back aboard after a nice walk on the beach, a short climb to the cairn on the headland and a swim. It is pleasant to relax in the pilot house and let the warm breeze flow past me and through the cabin. We arrived here at noon after a short trip from Shroud Cay - just 9 miles today. Shroud Cay was pleasant but it was time to move on. Also, there is again the possibility of 20 knot North wind Sunday night, so we were thinking about where to hole up.
Initially we were eyeing a little cove at the very southern end of Hawksbill that looked on the chart to offer excellent protection for a northerly. As we rounded the point and headed toward the entrance to the cove we passed a catamaran at anchor, "Shapowza". Shapowza very politely hailed us and warned us of very shoal water. He had also thought the cove would make for good anchorage, but found reality quite different than the chart. So we circled back around the point and grabbed a mooring along the SW side of the island. We still have a few days to find a spot to ride out the north winds.
The other thing on my mind was the generator. Now not having a working generator is not crucial, but it is a pain. It means no electric stove. It means very curtailed use of things like the coffee maker, wifi, and USB chargers. So, fixing it was a priority.
Usually the generators starts first time and runs fine. But yesterday it started, ran for a minute then shut itself down with a LOC (Loss of Coolant) error message. I tried again this morning with the same effect. Right away I cleaned the cooling water strainer, which did have a small accumulation of debris, and tried restarting it. Same thing. LOC.
After confirming the strainer was not the issue, I gave the rest of the coolant system the once over. Everything seemed fine - no obvious leaks. So then I considered the cooling water pump. I didn't feel like this was an obvious candidate for being the problem since I had replaced the impeller in North Carolina last April - just 50 engine hours earlier. But upon pulling the cover, it was clear that 5 of the 6 paddles that make up the star shaped rubber impeller were sheared off. The good news is that it took not much more than an hour to replace the impeller. Viola!
Saturday, Februrary 21st
That one evening at Hawksbill was enough. We spent a night with light winds out of the S, but with 1 1/2 ft waves out of the SW. That meant we rolled - uncomfortably! And we still needed to find a spot for the coming wind change. Our cruising advisor, Bill suggested Cambridge Cay. That meant skipping over some of the Parks better destinations (like Warderick Wells) and making a 24 mile run but it was time to go. The early bird gets the better mooring or anchorage space!
We arrived just past noon to find the anchorage already pretty full. Obviously we weren't the only ones thinking this was a good spot. Just as we were starting to drop anchor, a cat picked up anchor and moved, opening up a bit bigger space, so we shifted over. We dropped anchor in 12 ft. of water at half tide. I put out 60 ft. of chain and turned the anchor alarm on, thinking I would probably let out more chain later. First, I wanted to see how we rode at anchor.
The anchor alarm marks the spot you drop anchor, draws a circle around that spot. I had set the alarm at 200 ft. which means an alarm sounds if you drag anchor to the edge of that circle. But the circle drawn on the chart, along with the AIS feed from surrounding boats, also told me that of the several neighboring boats nearby, none were within 200 ft. of us.
That first afternoon we saw a fleet of rays swimming around the boat as we were launching the tender to go ashore. We ended up taking a hike to the grotto with a couple, Paul and Michelle, from Una Vida, whom we had struck up a conversation with on the beach. They are quite the sailors having sailed the Caribbean, thru the Panama Canal, and on to New Zeeland! That evening we had cocktails on the sand bar and watched the sunset. This is the life!
Sunday had a pleasant start with a light SW breeze, 75 F and sunshine. We took the opportunity to motor over to the "Aquarium" and do a bit of snorkeling. But that afternoon, we buttoned up for the blow. While a repeat of cocktails on the sand bar had been planned, no one left their boats that evening as the wind had already begun to pick up. We had a quiet dinner, watched a little TV, then checked the boats position on last time before retiring. The anchor alarm was on, as was the VHF.
I got up several times in the night. Windy, but nothing compared to that night in Melbourne, and Navigator was holding position - as were all the boats around us. At 4 AM, I heard a bump, and jumping out of bed, I found the tender for Juno, one of our neighbors, bumping our stern - still tied to Juno. Juno, being a modern mono hull sail boat, was responding to the wind and waves differently than Navigator. I saw no one on deck so I hailed them on the VHF. Once the skipper came on deck we were close enough to talk to each other. I asked him if he was dragging, which he indicated was not the case. He was gracious enough to claim that this was my problem, since we had arrived after them. Not wishing to argue in dark, I kept to myself that it would have been helpful if he had mentioned that when we dropped anchor.
He suggested I let out more chain. Hmm. That to me was an invitation to having our chains crossing - and potentially fouling. I told him as much. I was contemplating starting our engine and moving, but first I inquired how much chain he had out: "120ft" He was taking up a large area of real estate. I told him we only had 60 ft out and were holding fine. He grudgingly allowed that he could take in some chain, which he did. Problem solved. I thanked him as he stamped back down into his cabin.
The wind did pick up right at first light and we were hit with a rain squall, but it is much easier to stay oriented and keep watch in the daylight. So now we ride out the day aboard Navigator, bumping around on the anchor.
Exotic destinations and experiences for sure, as well as some risks. Your knowledge base very impressive to enable your adventures. May favorable winds come your way soon! We are far enough north to avoid the Northeast Coast blizzard, barely an inch this morning. 11 degrees F forecast for tomorrow, so all heaters will be on. Safe travels! Rick/Burl
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