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......................................--- Highborne Cay ---................................ ..........................................................--- To --- ..........................--- Rose Island (north side) ---

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....................................................................(May 12th) Anchorage --- N 25º 05.352´ ==== Trip Mileage = 914 miles .7................W 77º 13.891´ ==== Day's Mileage = 40 miles

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Leaving Highborne I tried sailing off the anchor with not good results. I got sloppy and didn't have the main up before pulling the anchor up. I thought I had plenty of room astern to drift into but as I was drifting back and pulling the main up the boat started towards a boat on anchor off to starboard. I had to stop hauling the main up and get on the outboard and came about to port to avoid possibly hitting the other boat. Once clear of it I got the main up and genoa out and the wind was just too high for that.

I got the main back on the first reef and also reduced the genoa some but the boat carried too much speed and would go over 7 and round up. Finally dropped the main and ran on a full genoa and that worked fine and the autopilot was able to then keep up with things and I averaged over 5 for the rest of the day.

Above you can see the dark water just above one of the coral heads and ....

....another shot of one. You run past these in ....

.... the Yellow Bank area shown above, center of the chart. Most of the coral heads have enough water over them where you could run over them, but I didn't take a chance and steered the boat around them and would recommend anyone else to do the same.

I was running this entire leg and was still having problems with the dinghy surfing down some of the larger quartering waves and hitting the back of the boat. At the end of the day I redid the lines to the dinghy so that I could let it out further putting it back a set of waves behind the boat and that helped a lot.

Other boats were also running north under sail and ....

... under power.

As I approached the turn at Porgee Rocks the wind picked up more and more. I felt I'd be exposed on the south side of Rose Island, which is just east of Nassau, where I had anchored going south so decided to go to the north side.

I quit sailing by Porgee Rocks and then motored north about 3 miles through the cut at the west end of Rose Island where there was considerable current and around to an anchorage on the north side of Rose Island.

I was still somewhat exposed to the wind on the anchorage so tucked in as close to shore as possible. The large yatch above was anchored just to the north by a small island there.

There were a lot of young kids off the yatch on shore swiming and playing volleyball and the kid above was pulling other kids around the anchorage right between a nearby cat and me.

The first time he went past he nodded an apology for running so close to the two of us and sending wakes onto us but then did it again. I lost my cool and told him there was a whole ocean out there and he didn't need to be running between us and he quit.

The cat had a number of Aussies on it and one had swum over to shore and on his swim back stopped and we had a nice talk before he continued on.

It was a good day with the Mac making 40 miles with all of it under sail except for the last 3 or so. I was ready to get up and head for the Berry's in the morning over 40 miles away across the deep water of Northeast Providence Channel. I'd had a rough crossing going the other way at the start of the trip and was hoping this crossing would be easier.

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