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Homeward Bound, 2004 | ||||||||||
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I left Great Sale Cay, bound for West End on Grand Bahama Island. To get there I needed to go through Indian Cay Channel at mid-tide or better. Mid tide was about 8:30pm or so, just before sunset. So I was balancing water under the keel vs. losing the daylight, choosing to err on the side of shallow water, as the tide was rising and would lift me off pretty quickly if I ran aground. So I stopped at Mangrove Cay, about 28 miles from West End to put a new zinc on the prop shaft, as this would be the last crystal clear water I would see, and also to wait for the tide to rise. I moved on, making my way towards the start of Indian Cay Channel, (this channel is a narrow path through the shallow area of the Banks, marked by a few unlit pilings in the water - I navigate through it using GPS waypoints and the pilings as references) winds were light, from the east, and as I was motoring along my oil pressure light came on, indicating a major engine problem. I killed the engine, dropped the anchor and checked things out. Engine temp was normal, and there was plenty of oil in the engine. I was thinking the problem was with the sensor itself, but I am no diesel expert.... But I do have a sailboat, so I raised the anchor and set the sails and continued on. But with the light winds, I was not making near the speed I had counted on. So as I am navigating my way throught the channel under sail, the sun went down and I used GPS and radar to find my way off the Banks in the darkness and sailed over to the entrance channel to Old Bahama Bay marina at West End, starting up the engine at the last minute to get into the marina and tie up - no warning light! So I had a diesel mechanic check it out and he agreed that it was the sensor switch - the engine was fine and I was set to continue the journey home.
So now I was at West End, committed to singlehanding across the Gulf Stream to somewhere in the US, trying to decide when and where to cross over to. I was in a hurry to go home, and I did NOT want to go up the ICW in Georgia and South Carolina - lots of current and big tides and it takes a long time. So I am balancing that against my relative inexperience in passagemaking, particularly by myself, so I decide to go to Cape Canaveral, a trip of about 125 miles that I estimated that would take 20-24 hours. The next obstacle was weather. I did not want to cross over in rough conditions. So I spent the first day in West End getting the engine checked out. I was planning on leaving the next day - the forecast was for 10-15 knots of wind from the east with 3-5 ft seas. So I was at the fuel dock, topping off the tanks and looking at the whitecaps on the sea when who should pull into the marina, but Raymond and Aylin on Rhythm, some friends from my last trip down here. They had just crossed over from Florida and told me that the wind was blowing pretty hard, as I could see from the marina, so I decided to wait another day. The next day the wind was considerably less and the forecast was the same - so, saying goodbye to the Bahamas, I set out.
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The crossing was pretty easy, in conditions that varied from 10kts to 20kts of wind and waves from 2 - 6 feet. Ther waves were off the starboard quarter, resulting in a constant side to side rolling motion that made taking any catnaps impossible - so I had to stay up all night. Very little shipping traffic, and with the wind blowing I made great time, sailing under a poled out jib, arriving before sunrise, so I had to kill time in the morning waiting for the sun to rise because I did not want to try the inlet in the dark. Arrived in Florida, very tired with the Georgia/South Carolina problem remaining to be solved.
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Decided to take the inside route today, I did not like the Atlantic forecast. When I got to Titusville I was hailed by Jillie-Q, who I had met in the Bahamas! They have a plan to sail from Ponce Inlet in New Smyrna Beach to the Cape Fear River and I may buddy boat along with them. The cruising world sure is a small one....
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With the Atlantic forecast calling for high winds and seas, we decided to run up the ICW to St Augustine. All day long there were hundreds of small yellow butterflies flitting back and forth across the ICW channel.
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Refueled 16.9 gal
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Back home at last. Another long strange trip.
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