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.........................................--- Shroud Cay ---................................ ..........................................................--- To --- ...................................--- Highborne Cay ---
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....................................................................(May 11th) Anchorage --- N 24º 43.191´ ==== Trip Mileage = 874 miles .................W 76º 49.861´ ==== Day's Mileage = 21 miles |
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Leaving Shroud I motored off a couple hundred yards and then sailed north to Highborne Cay where I wanted to get some gas.
I started with the main on the single reef and the genoa out.
I got some impressive speed for me running in the mid to high 6's and ....
.... even saw some 7's just before the boat would round up. Again too much sail up.
I went back to the main on the reef and no Genoa and the boat and I liked that and still ran mid 5's which I'm happy with.
As I turned more north I started to get more...
... following seas with some sets in the 2-3 foot range and ...
.... the dinghy would ride up them and then surf down into the ladder or outboard. I let the dinghy out further and that cured the problem on this day. Once later in the trip the dinghy actually landed on the top of the ladder before I let the line out further.
I lucked out and the scattered storms missed me on this run.
I wanted to try sailing right into the cut going into the harbor at Highborne and succeeded pretty good.
I had to make a number of tacks with shallow water to the north and south limiting them. I also found out I could tack much closer into the wind by abandoning the tiller-pilot and hand steering the boat. I could pick up another 10-12 degrees by doing that watching for the sail to just begin luffing.
On the last tack to the NE the mega yacht above came in behind me wanting to anchor just off Highborne there and had to slow and wait for me to finish my tack and start back to the SW. He was patient though and I only held them up 5 minutes or so. I doubt most on board even knew what was going on as you hardly ever see anyone out on the decks on these yachts.
I went into the harbor and ...
... anchored just outside the breakwater there where I had anchored on the way south. I had wanted to spend the night inside here but there was a lot of surge and waves coming in from the Atlantic side of the cut with the strong winds so decide to move back over where that big yacht had headed after going ashore and getting gas. More information on Highborne and the anchorage I used going south ( HERE ).
I topped the 20 gallon internal main tank off with 7 gallons of gas from a 2 gallon and 5 gallon container and then took them ashore and filled them along with 2 gallons in the tank that is on the transom of the dinghy. This left me with about $40 in cash for the rest of the trip after I also bought a loaf of bread in the store but probably plenty of gas to get to FL if I continued sailing . I have a little over 300 mile range motoring with the gas I have on board with the main tank filled (20 gallons) and the other containers filled (12 gallons) plus some reserve in the 2 ½ gallon tank in the dinghy.
Back on the boat I pulled the anchor up and headed over to my anchorage on the NW side of the cay. I thought I was far enough from the cut to get away from the surge but still had some.
The day came to an end and it was another really nice day of sailing and not having to listen to the outboard run.
===================== Tip of the Day =========================
When the boat heels over the outboard will fall from one side to another. I keep the brake on the shaft just loose enough to turn the outboard by hand as sometimes I want to turn the boat in a tight arc. So it takes a bit for the outboard to fall over but it does and besides hitting something there it is hard to pull it back upright to lower it back in the water as it is at an awkward angle/position to get to.
I use to have a rubber stop on the motor mount for the dinghy motor to the left of the outboard and it had a hook on it to hold the outboard against the stop. I had taken that mount off when I moved the dinghy's outboard mount to the starboard side of the boat and forgot about the outboard falling over when I did that.
I took a spare cushion I had and tied a line to into it with a short line off of the cushion to the outboard with a carabiner on that end which connects to lines on the outboard and off the cushion the other way a longer line that goes over to a cleat. Don't want to loose the cushion overboard.
Can't really see it but the line is tied to the handle on the cushion and then goes to a carabiner that clips to one of the two lines on the backside of the outboard that are used to lift it with the block and tackle. Later I took the long line around the upright one more time and to the starboard side of the boat. That way I could unclip the carabiner on the outboard and lower it and the cushion would stay in place better.
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