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............ .........................--- Whale Cay (Berry's) --- .............................................................--- to --- .........--- Rose Island, east of Nassau --- ...........

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.......................... ..(March 30th) ..Anchorage --- N 25º 04.926´ ==== Trip Mileage = 544 miles ....................W 77º 12.751´ ==== Day's Mileage = 47 miles

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This was one of those days you might of wished you hadn't done it the way you did at times during the day but later were real glad you did. Listening to Chris's weather report on Friday/Sat (he doesn't broadcast on Sunday) Monday was suppose to be a good day with diminished seas and wind so I was looking forward to getting gone from Whale although on Saturday the forecast for Monday was starting to look iffy.

So Monday morning.....

..... listening to the weather at dawn the good forecast for someone with a small boat went from Monday/Tuesday to Tuesday/Wed. With that in mind I decided to go anyway as the wind wasn't blowing that hard and the seas looked pretty calm from the bay looking out. Well once out of the protection of the Cay things deteriorated fairly quickly. I had already put the main up with the one reef that I usually leave in it. The wind was just enough NE to motorsail a little. I wanted to leave it up even if it didn't do much for speed as I wanted the benefit the main gives helping to stabilize the boat in rough weather, so left it up.

Within a mile or two moving away from the Cay and head SE towards Rose Island just to the east of New Providence Island (Nassau) I started getting 2-3 foot sets of waves coming in on top of the swells and between then very confused seas. If fact the seas just hadn't settled down much from the last couple days of the front passing. I'll be honest and say there was more than once I considered turning back to Whale. In fact throughout the morning until I passed the half way point I considered it a number of times especially when I'd been underway for some time and could still see Whale behind me. That was discouraging. It was rough going and with the outboard running about 3/4's throttle I was only making a little over 3 kts beating into the waves and the wind so I started to worry about getting to Rose while it was still light as there was shallow water and coral heads in the area. I could make 4 most of the time but some of the waves would knock it down to 2+ and then the boat would have to accelerate back up again. It was bad but not quite as bad as the passage from Ft. Myers beach down to Marco Island a few weeks earlier. The seas were a lot bigger and I was going to be much further from land but I did have one thing going for me and that was my angle on the waves was much better. Still the right combination of the waves on the top of some of the swells would cavitate the outboard for a few seconds. I noticed that it was always 'peeing' water so didn't worry much about the cooling but started to worry when it would rev up and worried could it rev too high and maybe damage the valve train. I moved to just right ahead of the outboard to try and help keep it in the water, but my weight vs. the total boat weight wasn't much.

So I plowed on, slowly but surely, with the boat moving over most of the oncoming seas fairly well even when it would bury the anchors or lift the outboard out of the water. I never once felt the boat itself was putting me in any danger as it was very predictable in the conditions and how it handled them. It was just very uncomfortable and you didn't want to try and move around or go below as it was hard to keep your balance. I kept my harness on and even was attached to the tether at times when I went forward to raise the main and lower it. I decided that if the boat was moving at all I'd use it any time I went forward.

Finally I was past half way and don't think I saw anyone to that point but....

.... started to see a group of very tall buildings that marked Nassau but saw the tops of them over an hour before seeing anything else. I'm assuming that this is the huge Atlantis Hotel and Gaming facility on Paradise Island.

Then the wind started to easy as Chris said they would and the larger waves running on top of the swells lessened. About 4, I'd left before 8, the seas were down to 1 foot or less as far as any waves. Now the only thing were the swells that I could finally really notice. They seemed to be 3-4 feet but were about 7-8 second intervals so no problem at all as the boat just motored on with them raising and lowering the boat as they passed beneath. Even though the wind had lessened it move to a more favorable direction and the main came back into play helping the outboard and I was making about 5 with hopes of getting to the straights I needed to go through about 4 miles ahead of the anchorage by 6 pm.

I was passing Nassau on its north side and two huge cruise ships came out way ahead of me and headed East.

Then a little later I saw another larger boat coming right at me. I must not of been paying attention like I should of. I saw from the AIS that it was the Fiesta Mail. I called them right away and asked if they saw me and he said that now he did and....

..... advised that they would change course and we would pass each other on our starboard sides. He altered his course and ...

... we passed.

As you can see this wasn't some little mail boat hauling a few packets of mail to an out-island. Seeing the big ramp at the stern you could probably mail-order a car and have them deliver it. They were courteous and efficient on the radio as were the other boats I had talked to previous to this.

Getting a radio (Standard Horizon) with AIS and connecting it to the chartplotter (OpenCPN) so that I could easily see the targets on the screen proved to be a very good idea and I'm glad I took the time to do it. Seeing them on only the radio wouldn't do me much good as it is down in the cabin. If you get AIS make sure you can see the targets on your chartplotter.

That was the last of the boats and I made my way over to the passage south into Hanover Sound between Rose Island Rocks to the east and Salt Cay to the west....

.... just north of the east end of Paradise Island. They also show a passage on the east end of Rose Island Rocks but also showed what looked like to me heavier currents there but take your pick.

I then went east ....

...on the south side of Rose Island Rocks

Water was surging over the low spots on the rocks from the surge coming in from the NE.

You run along pretty close to the rocks on your port side until you pass them and the second passage by them south and then along the south shore of Rose Island further east for a couple miles to the anchorage.

There were a number of sailboats and one powerboat at the anchorage I wanted to use that is also marked on the chart. Most were anchored west of where I wanted to go and in deeper water as Rose Island had taken all of the punch out of what was left of the NE wind and no waves or swell here. I pulled in a little short of where I had thought I'd probably anchor but saw no need to go further in. I only had two boats ahead and didn't want to try squeezing in between them and the next boat off my stern was quite a ways back.

I was beat so ate some of the food I'd prepared the day before just for this situation and ...

.... watched as the earth spun to the east and dropped the sun into the water to my west. Then it was off to bed. Slept from 9 to 6 the next morning without getting up. First time that had happened in a few years.

It had been a long hard day but I gained more confidence in the boat and myself also. You don't want to try this with a smaller boat unless you do have the confidence or it will be a long hard trip. Also there will be times the larger boats are moving and you probably shouldn't. A 4-6 foot wave on a short period between crests for a 30+ foot boat weighing over 15,000 lbs is going to be a different situation for them than for you in a boat that weighs 4000 lbs or less and with only an 8 foot beam and where you are 3 feet off the water in the cockpit. Swells of 4-6 feet on a long interval will be no problem for you it will be waves that are much steeper, especially if they are lifting the outboard out of the water. I have an extra long shaft that I mounted about the same depth as a long shaft so the controls would be easier to reach but also have the boat loaded so much that it is about 3 inches deeper in the water than a long shaft would be on a lighter loaded boat.

So this ended up being a 11+ hour day in trying conditions at times but I was happy to have the crossing behind me. One shorter one to go and I'd be in the Exumas!!

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