Escape from Nassau

As planned we left Nassau on Sunday that would usually be the last day of February (but this is Leap Year) to head to the Exumas. We had lots to do before we left so we got up early and got out and about while things were quiet. We visited Starbucks to do our final internetting before leaving because it could be days or possibly a week before having access and then had a few remaining items to pick up at the Fresh Market.

Once the errands were completed we readied for departure. We left the slip shortly after 1100 which was far later than we intended for the ~50 nm trip to Shroud Cay. Forecast was for winds out of the northeast 15-20 which would be perfect for our trip.

We motored out of the harbor with little traffic. There were 2 small J-22’s sailing about in the good wind but there was little traffic around Nassau. While we were at the marina it was not very full which was probably a function of the bad weather keeping people from making the trip from Florida or the north winds keeping people from heading north. There was one boat that came in on Saturday who had crossed from Florida on Wednesday to Bimini and had just made his way into Nassau. They said that they had really been beaten up in the crossing and Wednesday was supposed to be calmer than Tuesday the day we crossed.

As we cleared the last shoals and coral heads that make the Nassau channel challenging I raised the sails and when we reached the waypoint at Porgee Rock we turned due south and began sailing. The boat jumped in the brisk breeze and very soon we were sailing faster than we were motoring. We set the course for 180 which we would follow through the pass between the 2 large shoals that surround New Providence, the island of Nassau, to the south and east.

Beginning just to the north of the Exuma chain is a shallow bank with numerous coral heads and rocks that run northeast to southwest known as the Yellow Bank. It ends just to the southeast of New Providence. From near that point and running east to west south of the island is the White Bank but there is a gap of about a mile between them that is not really shallow and there are no coral heads near the surface. We’ve never seen less than 15’ through there. The Explorer charts actually have courses that go straight through the Bank but on a rough day we prefer not to go that way because the waves make it difficult to see under the water and the waves also distort the depth when looking for shoals.

So our course took us due south for about 11 miles where we began to turn southeast to meet the route from the west side of New Providence to Norman’s Stake. These are map waypoints plotted by the Explorer charts for safe passage through the shallow and often spiny water of the Bahama Bank. We followed the course southeast until we passed another large Bank and then turned more southerly and straight into the anchorage at Shroud Cay.

For once the wind was as advertised. We had pretty constant 15-20 with occasional up 25 out of the ENE. As we sailed our first leg the wind was anywhere from 80-100 degrees of our course which was perfect for using all 3 sails and we sailed 7.5-8 kts sometimes more with little heeling from the angle of the wind.

After we crossed the Banks and began to turn southeast the wind angle tightened. We were sailing anywhere from 45-60 degrees keeping speed and heeling a little more than pleasantly but Amekaya handled the waves well with good speed. We began bringing in the sails about a mile or two from the anchorage so we could get them secured and get ready for anchoring. Sailing our 45,000 lb home at high speed through the continual chop was exciting.

By the time we got into the anchorage we decided to opt for a mooring instead of anchoring for the night. It would be easier and quicker to get settled and we would anchor on Monday. We were on the mooring ball by 1730. We completed the approximately 50 nm trip from slip to mooring in a few minutes over 6 hours an average of better than 8 kts. Unlike the trip across to the Bahamas we didn’t have any seawater issues. But I found water under the stove that I cleaned up twice. Linda went down to investigate and found our fresh water hand pump was ejecting water across the counter when we hit waves. I had filled the tank up right before we left and with the boat heeling the waves forced the water up and out the pump. We remedied by running some water into containers that we kept for later use. Since we are in a water conservation mode we can’t give up any. More about our water conservation in another article. But had Linda not actually see the water come out I could have working for days trying to solve a problem we didn’t have.

So now after months of travel we are finally in some beautiful islands to enjoy swimming, sailing, kayaking and island exploring in gin clear water.