Monday, March 3, 2014 Marsh Harbour to West End Cay

We got up at 6:30 am to begin the next chapter of our journey.  It's been 6 months that we've been gone and now it's time to journey home.  The only thing left to do this morning is to roll and stow the power cord and to take the lines off the pilings.  A few of our early bird friends were on the dock to see us off: Jim from mv/Mollie, Ed from mv/ Southern Pilot, and Catherine and Martin from mv/ Mohee.  When we backed away from the dock, Ginger from sv/Grace popped her sleepy head out of the foreward hatch to wish us a safe journey.  We are going to miss everyone!!! Leaving is so bitter sweet.  One of the favorite boater sayings is "take some sand in your shoes" and you will return someday.....heck, we're leaving with sand in our boat, so that must really mean we'll be back!  LOL

Motoring out of the harbor, we have Rising Sun in the lead, Whisper close behind him, Happy Hours II,

and Circe II picking up the rear.  The sun is on the rise, the water and winds are calm, and we are heading for Baker's Bay where we'll pick up the channel which leads out to the ocean. The ocean has some good size swells this morning.  Chuck measures them to be 5-6 footers with and occasional 8-10 footers.  Our four sailboats are looking good and handling the large ocean swells without any difficulty! A Moorings 39 foot charter sailboat falls in behind us at Baker's Bay.  We motor sailed around Whale Cay and through Whale Cut by 10 am.   The ocean was crashing into Whale Cay and the swells followed us back into the Sea of Abaco until we got further away from Whale Cut.  From here we found water with just a little chop on the surface.

It's a nice day.  Temperatures are to get to 78 degrees.  We have some clouds but it's mostly sunny. The forecast isn't calling for any rain, but you never know if a squall might pop up.  The winds are out of the SE at 5-10 mph.  We already had high tide at 9:30 am which is 3.1 feet above MLW.
Ah ha....change in plans already!  since it's so nice, we're thinking about trying to make it to Great Sale Cay and pass Allans-Pensicola Cay.  Yes, let's do it!  I liked that little cove when we anchored there our very first night on the Bahama Banks.   No! Change in plans again and again.  We all agreed that if we went to Great Sale Cay, we couldn't arrive until 9 pm.....in the dark.  No one wanted to attempt that. So, we finally settled for anchoring on the north side of the West End Cay.  This is the very western end of Little Abaco Island.  We end up in the lead because Billy's Ipad went on the fritz.  When we got to our destination, everyone was tired....a 11 hour day...and oh so ready to set anchor and relax. Circe and Whisper set their anchor on their first try.   Not the case with Rising Sun and HHII!  We both had a terrible time!  The bottom here is  rock or coral.   We had to raise and drop our anchor six times before we were successful.  Our anchor finally grab onto a rock.  We seem to be secure for the night. Finally! We are able to relax at 6 pm.  Keith is still moving his boat around trying to hold bottom.  I can just imagine the frustration he must feel.  Believe me,  Chuck and I were getting to that point also!  It's just a good thing that the winds are to be light and variable tonight.

I'm ready for bed!  What a gorgeous sunset!!