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

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..........................................--- Fox Town ---................................ ..........................................................--- To --- .................................--- Mangrove Cay ---

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.............................................................(May 29th) Anchorage --- N 26º 54.804´ ==== Trip Mileage = 1174 miles 7................W 78º 37.069´ ==== Day's Mileage = 54 miles

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Friday morning under a cloudy sky I pulled up Kera Jane's two anchors and....

.... put Fox Town astern.

I headed northerly towards the gap between Pear Cays to the left above and Hawksbill Cays to the right. They give Fox Town some protection from the north.

I wasn't too happy about the squall ahead of the boat as I headed out on a northeast heading but the rainbow was sure nice and the squall headed west ahead of me.

Once I turned west I had the wind pretty much astern and put the whisker pole on the Genoa and started running wing on wing for a while but that didn't last. The wind which at times can be quite consistent in the Bahamas wasn't on this day. I ran from the low 2's to the mid 6's at times. I donned rain gear for one squall that hit the boat. I don't like squalls. I also saw more shallow water here than running across the Bight of Abaco minus the cut by Spence Rock but still over 2 meters the whole way.

A quick hi to everyone while running across The Little Bahama Bank north of Grand Bahama Island (click HERE or above).

The boat ran along about 4 kts. for most of the day but I did have one situation arise.

A few times on the trip with following seas or running into heavy seas with the dinghy towed behind the boat I had minor problems at times with the dinghy either running down following seas into the back of the boat or running down waves and stopping and then the tow line going taught again with a big bang when the slack ran out. Running into heavy seas there was considerable strain on the line at time also.

I had considered bringing the dinghy along side the boat on the lee side where regardless of the conditions the water was usually pretty flat with the boat providing protection for that area of water. So with that in mind I decided to give it a try.

In the video above (or click HERE) you can see that it was working really well until a squall overtook the boat from behind and the wind direction changed instantly and the main sail tried to jibe over to the port side. I was running wing on wing at the time. I had preventers on the main but still it came around enough that the boat instantly heeled over and in doing so drug the bow of the inflatable under water and it filled instantly.

I released the main sheet and brought the Genoa in and got the boat stopped and got down in the dinghy and bailed her out and went back to towing her astern for the rest of the day and the trip, but feel this still might work well at times.

In hindsight I had the dinghy pulled in too tight to the boat and it was trapped when the boat heeled over. I do want to try this again and will tie the dinghy to a stanchion further ahead or to a bow cleat but let her come back and ride where she is shown above. The problem only arose due to the main jibing and the Mac suddenly heeling over considerably. I can't see a problem if one is running into heavy seas and wants to bring the dinghy up along side the boat into the relatively flat water on the boat's lee side.

After leaving Fox Town and running for about 20+ miles to the west I pasted to the south of Sales Cay where I could see a couple boats anchored on the west, lee side of the cay. Another 20+ miles to the west of Sales Cay, Mangrove Cay, seen above, came into sight.

I made course towards the north end of the cay and...

... then sailed south along the western shore and ...

.... was able to sail onto anchor for the night as the day was coming to an end . Except for using the outboard for a half mile or so leaving Fox Town I was able to sail the whole way to Mangrove Cay. It was a great 50+ mile day of sailing, but had been a long day with one thing or another to contend with. Still I was happy that I had left on this day and not the day before, with the exception of the episode when the small squall hit.

I shared the anchorage with one power boat and one sailboat.

One more day would hopefully put me at West End and if the weather window held, the next day would see me back in Florida. I needed to get home but it was still sad to think the trip was winding down.

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