Great Sale Cay offered excellent protection and a very nice anchorage. There were about a dozen boats there when we arrived and a few more came later. The anchorage on the southwest corner (known as the northwest anchorage) offered excellent protection from winds and swells from anywhere in the north or east direction. The wind was blowing out of the northeast and expected to turn southeast over night so this was an excellent anchorage. We tried to anchor further north on the western side but the swells from the northeast came around the end and made the anchorage very rolly.
Great Sale Cay.
Our spinnaker run
Trying to get a selfie from the bow with lots of wind coming.
Our route would be northwest to hit the Gulf Stream, then north, then northeast, then east, then north. It would be slightly shorter to go straight east of north but then we wouldn't pick up the advantages of riding the Stream. The Gulf Stream can provide at least 2kts of speed over a sustained time. That's about 50 extra miles a day. The challenge is that with northeast swells as forecasted it could be rough with the swell opposing the current and the swell opposing the wind.
We left about an hour before sunrise and motored as the wind was dead behind us and we expected to go to spinnaker once it got light. The sea was relatively flat with a slight southeast swell that built as we got further up the Bank. We had about 60 nm to the edge of the Bank and then another 40 to the Gulf Stream. Forecast had been for a dominant swell from the northeast that would eventually subside but we didn't feel it until after we got off the Bank.
Once we got to civil twilight we raised the spinnaker and sailed for about 6 hours until the wind dropped and our speed fell below 4 kts. From that point we motored the rest of the way. Wind, when there was any was behind us and usually 10 kts or less. Occasionally at night it got up to 15 kts for a while but would have required the spinnaker which we didn't fly at night. So we enjoyed the stream motoring most around 9-10 kts.
Linda enjoying the sail.
Storm clouds off to starboard.
Weather our first day out was generally nice with a stray shower. But Wednesday we woke to an ominous sunrise which quickly developed into many squalls. We passed by a large squall off to starboard and later in the day the skies cleared and we hoped for better weather. Thursday's sunrise also was bright red and portending bad weather. Again there were squalls all around but eventually cleared and after we got on a mooring we had a beautiful sunset.
The trip was uneventful with a few dolphin encounters and also an attack by Flying Fish. About 130 in the morning while I was on watch I was working on our satellite email and had a loud smack on the dodger right next to my head. I looked around and didn't see anything but later smelled fish and went out and found a Flying Fish lying on the deck. When Linda came on watch later I showed her and then tossed it off. The next morning I found 3 more laying on the deck.
We left Great Sale Cay about 0500 on Tuesday and about 58 hours later came in the Cape Fear River inlet making landfall about 1400 Thursday covering just under 500 nm although the actual distance was higher given the vectors taken to take advantage of the Stream.
After making landfall we slogged up the Cape Fear River against the outgoing current and turned off through Snow's Cut into the ICW and turned into the creek by Carolina Beach where we picked up a mooring and enjoyed our first night back in the US. We checked in with Customs and enjoyed a nice dinner under a beautiful sunset. The air was much cooler than we were used to but we were looking forward to a good nights sleep after being offshore for 2 nights.
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