.....................MacGregor Index Page.......... 2015 Bahama Trip Index Page

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.......................................--- Hoffmans Cay ---................................ ..........................................................--- To --- ..........--- Hard Bargain - Mores Island ---

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.............................................................(May 19th to 20th) Anchorage --- N 26º 18.602´ ==== Trip Mileage = 1027 miles 7................W 77º 34.629´ ==== Day's Mileage = 53 miles

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The plan for the day was to get across the Northwest Providence Channel which is 25-30 miles of very deep water. I'd hope to do the shorter distance from the cut just north of Market Fish Cays to Sandy Point on the south end of the Great Abaco. Doing so would require a northeast course but listening to the wind report sounded doable. If that didn't work then my alternative was Hard Bottom on Mores Island northwest of Sandy Point by about 20 miles on a more northerly course.

I headed north from the anchorage at Hoffmans about 3 miles to the cut between Market Fish Cays on the east and High Cay to the west. I'd sailed off anchor and felt good about that. I started the outboard at the cut not knowing what to expect but I went through at slack tide and didn't need the outboard so pulled the outboard back up and tried to sail in the direction of Sandy Point but wasn't having much luck as the wind direction wasn't good, so I ended up mainly sailing north and decided to change my destination to Hard Bottom on Mores Island.

I was making good progress until the wind started to die. If I was going to have to motor I decided to change back to the heading that would take me to Sandy Point which was closer. That didn't go good as I was down to about 3 knots pounding into waves so after a few miles tried motor-sailing back towards Hard Bottom. I was lucky and after a few miles the wind came back up and so did the outboard and it was back to sailing. After the previous days of sailing alone I was now spoiled and hated running the outboard.

I was making pretty good time under sail alone and ....

.... clicking off the miles but it was a long hard day and tiring heeled at 15-20 degrees the whole day. Dark was approaching and I was nearing the eastern channel, one of two, that would take me from the deep water on into Hard Bargain. It was about 7+ miles of shallow water on either side of the channel and most of it was in the dark. I followed my route using OpenCPN and stayed off the bottom. I felt my way over to what I thought would be an anchorage and talked to two boats on anchor there via the radio. They reported the holding to be pretty good but a lot of grass.

I got the anchor down and ate a little and it was off to bed as I was beat after the 50+ mile passage but very glad that it went as well as it had. I still wasn't totally comfortable making these open, deep water passages in this rather small boat and might never be.

The next day I moved closer to the main settlement as my WiFi connection had been very weak.

Nearer the main part of the settlement it was somewhat better with my long distance WiFi setup. I stayed for a second night without going ashore. The winds the second night proved to be from the southwest which put me anchored with a lee shore. Not great but the winds weren't suppose to be strong and I didn't have a lot of options. I slept good and the boat stayed put on the 25 lb. Manson Supreme. If the wind stayed from the southwest that could help me on the next leg of the trip across the Bight of Abaco as I would then be running which I really enjoy since the boat isn't heeled over near as much most of the time.

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