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Tuesday, May 2nd - Harbour Island, Bahamas
We
have been trying to get to Harbour Island, off the east
coast of Eleuthera, since Hope was onboard three weeks
ago. It was the one place she said she really
wanted to visit. She even emailed me a couple of
weeks in advance to make sure that it would be possible.
"Of course," I assured her, "our only boundaries are
weather and time." Naturally the weather didn't
cooperate and by the time it was possible to make the
trip, we had run out of time. Eleuthera is a full
day's sail from the Abacos and it was too much to cram a
trip there and back in their remaining time with us.
Then, we were all set to take off on Friday, we had a
perfect weather window, but we didn't get our repaired
daggerboard back in time so we couldn't leave until
Saturday. By Saturday, the wind was blowing 25
knots and there were 10 foot seas, so we decided to wait
until things calmed down a bit. We are making the
trip today, with a little less wind than would be ideal,
but who's complaining?
Actually, what I really want to complain about are these
damn fish. We've had three solid bites so far
today and every single one of them managed to wiggle off
the hook. It isn't that our lines are breaking, we
aren't loosing any lures, but we just can't get the hook
to set. I'm afraid my beginner's luck has run out.
Jennie showed me this great book she has called A
Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing. I glanced
through it and am convinced that I need to learn a whole
lot more to be a really successful fisherman. I'll
be making a few equipment purchases, as well as getting
myself a copy of that book, at my next available
opportunity.
In
the mean time, we are starting to think hard about our
passage to Bermuda. The plan is to be there by
June 1st, when the girls and I have tickets for a trip
back home (we are hoping Joe joins us for at least part
of the time, but that is still up in the air). It
will be roughly 750 miles and take us between three and
four days. It looks like we will have another crew
member who has volunteered to come along for the ride.
Larson Thune, nephew of our good friend Alison Cunard,
is hoping to fly down and meet us in Marsh Harbor on May
15th. We'll start looking for a good weather
window for the trip starting then. This continues
to be the hardest part of cruising, figuring out how to
plan the passages.
So, it doesn't look like we will be able to make it all
the way back to the Exumas, like we had hoped, although
I guess it really depends on how much time we spend in
Eleuthera. Our friends on Cenou, who we had hoped
to meet down there, have had a few equipment
malfunctions that are going to take them to Nassau.
We sure would like to hook up with them, but at this
point it is uncertain if that will be in the cards.
Nassau is a big ugly city and not our first choice of
destinations so we are hoping we can meet them
elsewhere. They are trying to figure out where
they need to be for their repairs. They had a sail
blow out on them and need to install a new set of
batteries, all of which takes precedence over meeting
friends. They are making the passage over to
Europe as well, so these things definitely need to be
taken care of as quickly as possible. Hopefully
we'll hear from them while we are in Harbour Island and
we can come up with a plan from there.
There is also a town called Spanish Wells on Eleuthera
which is supposed to be interesting. In order to
get there from Harbour Island, we will have to transit
an inviting stretch of coastline known as the "Devil's
Backbone." Sounds fun, doesn't it? Actually,
all the guide books say you are crazy if you try it
without hiring a local pilot to show you the way.
Strong current and narrow cuts between sand bars and
coral reefs make it one of the most challenging passages
we have seen. I'm not sure if we will tackle it or
not, but we certainly won't attempt it without a local
pilot. Our insurance agent would kill us!
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I've started playing around with some maps and would
like to add some pictures of our routes to the website.
The picture above I got from doing a screen shot of the
Devil's Backbone from our navigational software. I
also added a page called maps and
loaded a few that I found on the internet. I
haven't gotten to adding our routes yet, but maybe I'll
do one for the Bermuda trip. I have to give credit
to Dana for inspiring me to do this. She sent me
one of the maps and initiated the idea. Thanks
Dana!
We
are about an hour away from our destination.
Another damn fish just hit our rod. It got my
brand new cedar plug this time. ARGH!
All our best,
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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