Some notes from our passage

2:00 P.M. Thursday, April 28, 2016

Kailani anchored by Devils Cay

We're sailing south along the Berry Islands. The wind is a bit light and shifty, so our speed is varying from 3 knots to 5 knots. That's walking speed range, from a stroll to a brisk walk. It's not fast, but it'll work for us. We need to cover 70 miles in 19 hours, no faster. We are sailing down to Black Point in the Exumas chain of islands and we'll be crossing the Great Bahama Bank. The Bank is a huge shallow area and we want to pass over it during daylight hours. When we pass onto the Bank the depth will go from over 2000 ft down to just 20 ft and we want to be able to see when we do that. It's not so much the depth, but the possibility of coral heads or small reefs. Those can reach up close enough to the surface to  cause problems. If we average faster than 3.8 kph we'll reach the Bank at night, so we're just taking our time.

Berry Islands as we leave them in our wake

We have AIS (Automatic Identification System) on our boat. That broadcasts and receives a signals to and from other boats. All commercial vessels must have AIS; for recreational vessels it is optional. Among other things AIS broadcasts you boat name, speed and heading. The sailboat Manana passing us heading north just called to ask if we were the Kailani with Dave and Christie on board. Funny to have someone you don't know call you  by boat name on the VHF out in the middle of nowhere.

Our autopilot is keeping us on course. I adjust the sails occasionally, but mostly just sit around. We read, write, listen to music, talk and eat. Mostly we relax. I always loved sailing our little boat on Lake Travis. The only problem was the lake was so narrow that we constantly had to change course and change the sails, plus we had no autopilot, so we had to hand steer the whole time. It was fun, but it was work. This isn't. Scan the horizon every 10 minutes, watch the sails, feel the way the boat is moving, listen for any odd noises and relax.

Occasionally, we'll see flying fish. Some are really good at flying covering distances of about 100 yards, others, not so much. So far we haven't seen any other sea life.

5:00 P.M. Thursday, April 28, 2016

We have left the Berry Islands in our wake and can no longer see land  in any direction. Kailani is in the middle of the Northwest Providence Channel. The wind has filled in and we are moving along at 4.5 to 5.5 kph. Faster than we want, but the wind is forecast to die down at night, so we'll take what we can get for now. The day is perfect sailing weather; seas 1-2 feet, wind about 10-12 knots directly on our beam, not a cloud in the sky. The depth here is nearly 10,000 ft, so no chance of running aground. At our current speed, we should pass by the west of of New Providence Island just after sunset.

Right now AIS shows five vessels within range of us. A couple of cargo ships, some sort of small pleasure craft and two large yachts. My Sky is 167 ft and Starship is only 141 ft. Our AIS  is my favorite upgrade to our boat. In addition to showing information about other boats around us it also shows their course, the closest they will come to our boat and how many minutes until we reach that point. If they are going to get within a mile of us the AIS will beep so we can alter our course to increase the margin.

As I wrote, the Atlantis hotel popped up on the horizon. That's our first sighting of New Providence, so we were completely out of sight of land for all of about 15 minutes. Later tonight we'll be out of sight of land  for 10-12 hours.

9:00 P.M. Thursday, April 28, 2016

Sunset over the ocean

We have just sailed past New Providence and are now heading down the Tongue of the Ocean. The Tongue of the Ocean is a deep channel that runs down through the Bahamas. It can easily be seen if you look at a satellite view of the Bahamas on Google maps. It is over 5000 ft deep surrounded by water that is 20 feet deep. Go look, it's pretty cool.

Our speed has been ridiculous. We only wanted to average 3.5 knots, but we've been averaging over 5 knots. The wind should start to die down now, so we'll see what happens. If we keep going at this pace we'll reach the Great Bahama Bank way too early. If that happens we may drop anchor and sleep a few hours. Easier to do that than to try to sail with one of us holding a spotlight off the bow looking for coral heads.

Very little ship traffic comes down the Tongue, so there is not much out here. No other boats are showing up on AIS. Once the lights from Nassau disappear it is going to be really dark and empty out here. That's a good thing. Lights are confusing at night on the water.

Midnight Friday, April 29, 2016

Wendy has gone below to try to sleep. We need to get sleep when we can, so  that someone is rested enough to make sensible decisions.  When Wendy gets up, if we haven't reached the Bank, I'll go down.

It's nearly pitch black, the only light is from Nassau 15 miles behind us. The lights from the city reflect off the clouds and we can see a soft glow if we look off the back of the boat.

The wind has NOT died down. We are sailing along at 5.5 to 7 knots. That's no longer a walking pace, that's a running pace. Like running across a field at night hoping there are no holes to step in. The seas are still pretty flat, but the few larger waves we hit catch us off guard because we can't see them coming.

There is a lot of phosphorescence in the water. As the boat creates a wake you can see dozens of little lights in the foam. It looks like a flock of fireflies are swimming in the water.

We are way ahead of schedule now. We had hoped to reach our turning point around 7 am, now it looks like we'll be there by 2 am. We've been looking at the charts and it looks like we may be able to continue onto the Bank at night without worrying about coral heads for a few miles. We'll see how we feel when we get to that point.

My view at night

5 A.M. Friday, April 29, 2016

The wind died down about 12:30 this morning. With a course change and lighter wind we were about 4 miles off the Great Bahama Bank at 2:00 A.M. We started the engine, turned directly into the wind and dropped the sails. We crept onto the Bank at 3:00 A.M. while watching our depth and checking our electronic and paper charts. After quickly dropping to 20 to 30 feet of depth the Bank leveled out at 21 feet. It will stay that depth for about 15 miles and there is no coral. We slowed down so that by the time the depth drops to just 15 feet the sun will be up. We are still way ahead of schedule, so no big deal to go slow for a few hours.

After getting onto the Bank I took a short nap, now Wendy is trying to sleep. I can see the sky getting lighter already over to the east. The wind is supposed to shift to the NE today and that will allow us to put the sails back up and shut off the engine again.

8:45 A.M. Friday, April 29, 2016

Sailing across the Great Bahama Bank

We made it through the night. From New Providence to our current location we saw only one other boat. Most boats go around to the east of the islands, instead of coming in from the west.

When the sun came up we were in 17 feet of water and there was no land in sight. It felt odd to be in  shallow water, but not close to land. As the sun rose the water turned from black to gray to green. The depth is now 21 feet and while the water is green is is still clear. We can easily see the bottom.

We're back to motor sailing.  The wind is a good angle; it's just too light. As the day goes on the wind should pick up and we'll be able to shut off the engine. I love the relative quiet at the point the engine is turned off; so peaceful.

Our original plan was to make it in just before sunset. At the rate we are now going we should be in by 4:00 pm. Then it's time for a nap.

1:00 P.M. Friday, April 29, 2016

Engine off, light wind, slow sailing. We're protected from waves by the Exumas chain of islands, so it is completely flat here. We're not moving quickly, but it's a beautiful day and we're sailing in the Bahamas. We've got nowhere to go and all day to get there.

Around 10 am I tried to take a nap. Just as I was starting to fall asleep I heard the engine rev then die. We had the sails up, so we weren't dead in the water. We were only moving about 2 knots, though. First thing I checked was the fuel filter. It seemed to be ok, so I moved on to the engine. I opened up the engine cover and started checking it over. Nothing looked wrong; I checked the oil and added a little. That wouldn't cause the engine to  die, but it wasn't going to  hurt to top it off. Next I turned on the electric fuel pump and bleed the lines. Some bubbles came out which meant that air had gotten in the lines. After bleeding the lines we tried cranking the engine and about 30 seconds later it roared back to life. There is a small air leak in the fuel line that I still need to find; that will have to wait until the engine cools off.

Couldn't get back to sleep after that. I'll try again after we get anchored for the day. Still looks like we'll drop anchor around 4 pm.

5:00 P.M. Friday, April 29, 2016

Finally anchored at Black Point in the Exumas. 28 hours total. We could have gone a little faster at the end, but we were enjoying sailing and didn't want to use the engine. We'll stay here for two nights then sail down to Emerald Bay.

As the day went on the green water turned to a brilliant turquoise. The pictures don't do it justice, I've never seen anything like it.

The water around the Exumas is amazing

I found out why we didn't see any boats while sailing – they're all here. This is low season and there are literally hundreds of boats here. Plenty of islands and places to anchor, so it's not crowded, but I can't imagine what it would be like during the high season.

Wendy was concerned about being out of sight of land before we did it. Now that we've done it a couple of times she says, “No big deal.” I agree, it seemed like we would feel tiny out there on our own, instead we prefer being away from land and other boats – nothing to run into.

The engine died and wouldn't start again right after we dropped the anchor. I guess I'll be working on that tomorrow.

During our passage Wendy got about an hour of sleep and I got even less. We'll need to correct that for longer passages. Lack of sleep leads to poor decisions.