Sunday, December 15, 2013

We got up in time to turn Channel 68 on at 8:15.  We needed to listen to the 'Cruiser's Net' to find out the weather in the various areas of the Abaco's as well as the water conditions....especially for 'The Whale'.  I've been mentioning the Whale in the last few blogs.  It is a cut near the Whale Cay that we must pass through and then around this cay, to be able to get into the Sea of Abaco and on to Marsh Harbour.  Sometimes the water in this area can get pretty treacherous  and all are warned to take caution!!

Once we left Florida, I had to shut my cell phone off.  Since I can't rely on it for the weather and we always do not have internet, the VHF is what we have to use.  Even after listening to the report, we still were debating whether to take off.  Temps were to be 81 degrees with SSW winds of 10-20 kts.  One sailor made an announcement a few minutes ago that he just went through the Whale and was in the Whale Channel an  "it couldn't get any better than this"!   After hearing that report, we knew that if we didn't go today, the upcoming forecast would have us stuck in Green Turtle until after the middle of next week....if then.  We wanted to get going as soon as possible because the winds are to swing from the N and then NE later today. 

At around 10:00 am, we backed out of our dock at the Green Turtle Club, headed out the narrow channel, and discovered that we must not have been the only sailboat that heard the promising report.  There were 3 sailboats in front of us and 2 behind us.  Hey, that made me feel a little better about our decision!!  About an hour later, we were passing through 'The Whale' without being bombarded by any breakers and sailing along the Whale Cay heading for the Loggerhead Channel....about 3 miles.   We were going to follow the commercial channel all the way in and then decided to take a more direct course to Marsh Harbour.  The winds picked up, our sails were full and we followed 2 other sailboats into the anchorage. 

We decided to call the Marsh Harbour Marina and Jib Room to get a dock for a month.  Chrissie and family are hoping to meet us here and then Rick and Bev (Chuck's brother and our sister-in-law from SF) are going to meet up with us.  We thought with the Marsh Harbour Airport, this would make it a convenient way to connect.  It's very appropriate that Rick and Bev are coming.  They introduced us to sailing for the first time in the early 80's....of all places,  Marsh Harbour and the Abaco's.  We can't wait!! Once they get here, we'll use this marina as our home base and then go exploring!!

I must say, nothing looks the same as what I remember!!