Miles: 55.8. *sailed most of the day
Time: 10 hours 15 min
Avg Speed: 5.5
Max Speed: 7.9
We left Brown’s Marina around 8:00 and headed for Blue Water Marina fuel dock. The tide was going out and wind was blowing against it. We were able to get out of the slip with the help of our neighbor Carl and with the help of several boaters we landed at the fuel dock. After getting diesel we had to figure out how to get off the fuel dock – it was tricky, but Stew did it without a problem.
Once in the channel, we were golden. The sun was shining bright and the water couldn’t be more aqua – just beautiful. We pulled up the sails and after we passed the cruise line dock turned off the motor. We had a wonderful time just sailing! It was not the best conditions as the wind was out of the East and that was the direction we were headed… but Stew made it work. We tacked back and forth for most of the day. Around 3:00 the wind died and we needed to make haste or we wouldn’t be to Mackey Shoal until midnight!
We motored the remaining 20 miles with the sails up, but the wind was not helping.
Mackey Shoal, where we anchored for the night is just a shallow area (around 12 feet deep) that sailboats often anchor to split the trip when heading from Bimini to the Berries. We put out several lights to be sure any vessels heading this way would see our boat tonight.
There was no one to be seen – we had only seen one boat all day!! Very weird since we heard that many vessels regularly travel this passage. No boat, no person, no land, no cell service as far as the eye can see. But the stars were fabulous! Clear skies and you could see the stars – it was magical!!
We had a nice dinner – salmon, brussel sprouts, and we each had a bowl of leftover crab chowder from yesterday. I had prepped most of the meal while we motored the last few miles.
We both had showers and Stew went to bed. I cleaned up the dishes, made some yogurt, and watched an episode of “This is US” downloaded from Netflix. The boat was rolling, it’s funny how you can feel it much more once you anchor than we felt it all day. It reminded me of when we were anchoring in the Atlantic Ocean when we traveled up and down the keys. Once in bed it doesn’t bother me too much… it is sort of lulling actually.
Tomorrow we head for Grand Harbor Cay in the Berries! Still have to pinch myself that we are actually finally here!!
