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Onward’s Cruise Journal 2017
Bahamas

Updated: 4 March 2017

February 2017

1 Feb 17; Wednesday; Lynyard Cay to Current Cut

• Sunrise was about 0650 so we weighed anchor at 0540 in the complete darkness and made our way slowly toward the Cut. I noticed Toby was on deck as we passed Comocean. We transited the cut in the pre-dawn light an found the waves to be ~ 1.5' making for a very easy passage. As we headed south to Eleuthera, I used the excellent cellular data connection to order new Keens for Miles Cherkasky to bring along when Ariel crosses to the Bahamas next week. I also decided to buy a new cellular data hotspot as the MiFi 2372 has been behaving strangely. The new one is supposed to also do 4G data — we'll see. I then remembered the need for a backup / replacement LED port bow light that is very dim; and while at it I bought a white and a blue waterproof LED light that had been recommended by the Catalina 42 in Hope Town.
• I went below and turned the helm over to Peggy who lost the sun and the calm seas. We motorsailer on the 10-15 kt E wind making 7 to 8+ kts the entire passage. We arrive at the Egg Island waypoint at about 1330. I checked and found the bow section of the old wreck was still there although it appears to have been moved N closer to where it is shown on the charts. We arrived at Current Cut about 1500 and anchored just NE of it to get some screening from the E wind. About an hour later, Comocean came in and anchored nearby. They had originally intended to go to Royal Island but pressed on due to the good conditions. They invited us over for cocktails.
• We Ventured over to Comocean and finally met to talk with Toby and Joanne. Peggy baked a batch of her cabbies to take along (I mused out loud about her hiding this wonderful appetizer from my for a couple of years). We had a fine time talking with the Comoceans and hope to see them again — if not in the Exumas then near Cape Cod where they keep Comocean near their home.

• The wind dropped to a calm overnight. I went on deck at 0715 to weigh anchor and discovered that Comocean was gone having gotten an early start on its planned transit of the Fleeming Channel toward Highbourne Cay.
• We entered Current Cut at about 0745 with the current flowing SW into the Bight of Eleuthera. We saw a maximum of 2.2 kts at the narrowest point of the cut in calm waters with little turbulence.
• Yesterday I again did research on the tide at Current Cut. Navionics eCharts have a tide station for Royal Island that gave high tide at 0431. Various sources report the tide offset as 2.0 to 2.5 hrs AFTER Nassau.
• Nassau: Low at 0530; High at 1133; From Navionics and tideforecast.com
• Royal Island: Low at 0431; High at 1035; from Navionics; showing the highs and lows to be earlier than Nassau as makes sense with the flood moving to the West.
• The confusion may be due to the impedance of the cut which results in current continuing to flow to the SE (~100º) after high tide. See discussion in www.bahamascruisersguide.com for Current Cut.
• So today Onward transited at ~0800 about 2.5 hrs ahead of high tide at Royal Island and saw a rather mild 2.2 kt following current.
• Note: in Current Cut, the geography — it lies on a NW to SW axis — "reverses" normal tidal flow directions: The tide floods E (~100º) and ebbs W (~280º) in the cut
• Today I decided to attempt the direct route S from the Cut instead of paralleling the shore after passing through the cut. A couple of years ago, I had seen a vessel of Onward's size take that route S from the cut. Using its AIS signal, I put waypoints along the track that it took. I was able to raise its Captain on VHF and he told me the controlling depth was 7' to 8' at low tide but otherwise it was 10' to 15' over most of the track. The new Navionics chart for the area clearly shows the channel and as I traversed it the depth profile agreed with the Navionics data. I found the controlling depth at this time to be ~7.9' at the shallowest point (marked 7') on the Navionics chart. So, based on this transit, I will take this route in the future unless it is at an unusually low tide. It beats the hair-raising route along the shore that requires sharp turns in the current to avoid being swept on a sandbank and shallow points equivalent to 7.9' or less.
• We had an easy motorsail across the Bight. I left Peggy in charge while I made breakfast; leaving her with calm seas and sunny skies. I came back after breakfast to a rain-spattered boat and cloudy skies and ESE winds. Ah well.
• I checked the engine before departing and found that the coolant leak was still there. I located it to behind the fresh water cooling pump pulley. A sign of the need for a new water pump.
• The rest of the transit was easy and we had cellular voice and data coverage for essentially the entire journey. I was able to do more research on the water pump leak and verified that I needed to replace it. I then began a search to see if I could find a unit that Miles could bring over next week.
• We arrived at Powell Point at 1400 and entered the basin proceeding directly to the fuel dock. The trip from Stuart Fl to Powell Point consumed 58 gal of diesel. Not bad. That done we put a couple of loads of laundry into the washers then moved Onward to slip 110.
• Peggy fixed us libations and we headed over to the pool. The new restaurant, is open and we made plans to have dinner there. While Peggy enjoyed a rest and her drink in the sun, I went for a swim. The water temperature was definitely in the high-shrinkage zone and became very enjoyable after a few minutes. After drying off we walked back to do a laundry switch.
• We went to the new restaurant for dinner. The entire upper floor of the big building on the point is now the restaurant. They did a nice job of putting ceramic tile flooring on the entire wide deck that surrounds the building. Peggy and I found the interior "Baracuda's Bar" and restaurant to be too cold due to air conditioning. We took a table on the deck in the lee of the building overlooking the inlet channel. The conch fritters we had for desert were the best I've had; light, very crispy on the outside, nicely done on the inside, Delish! I had fish piccata that was heavenly delicately cooked and flavored with a nice touch of lime. Peggy enjoyed a great chicken club sandwich. All in all a very enjoyable evening. Dinner done, so was I. We enjoyed a fairly still night.

• A brief rain squall moved through as we prepared to depart the marina. After refilling the mid-starboard water tank, we headed out in calm winds and seas under fully overcast skies at 0900.
• I called a Yanmar parts dealer in Miami area that Miles had recommended. Unfortunately they did not have the fresh water pump in stock so there was no way to get it to Ariel to bring over.
• Winds were initially from the E so we set a furled main to steady the boat. After a bit them moved to the SE and then S and we experienced some minor wind squalls. Within 15 nm of Warderick Cut the winds became totally fluky often coming from the SW. Warderick Cut was well behaved and we made a peaceful transit.

• Before we lost cellular internet connection in the Sea of Abaco, I sent an email to Exuma Park "warning them" of Onward's approach. I called on VHF-09 when we were ~15 nm out and was greeted by the dulcet tones of Henry; aka "HH" who had a mooring assignment near the Park Office. Team Onward did a masterful job of picking up the mooring. However when I went to make the attachment to our bridle we found the 1.5" triple-strand mooring pennant eye to have 2 of the 3 strands chafed through. I alerted HH and we scheduled a replacement tomorrow.
• One of the things that stuck me once we were on mooring 15 located right off the picnic beach is the even greater destruction to the island's plant life by the Hutia. Where once there was dense undergrowth right up to the edge of the beach, now it clearly been eaten away. Talk about unintended consequences.
• Peggy and I both crashed and when we had recovered it was too late to go into the office. Peggy got energetic and made a delicious pork chop dish with rice and french style green beans.

• During the night I awoke as winds increased from the calm we had when we went to bed. They remained steady enough that I didn't bother to get up to check. However as a result, I had dreams about the weakened mooring pennant and made putting a safety line on it a priority until it could be replaced.
• The morning was totally overcast and Chris Parker talked about how we were graced with a frontal trough that was responsible for all the variable winds we had in the last 24 hours. The good news was it was heading S today.
• I worked on writing tasks until about 1100 when I put a safety line to the main rope on the mooring buoy. Then we went in to the office to check in and have a reunion with HH. Henry said the Hurricane Matthew had not done a lot of damage but the did lose some electronics and had some roof and ceiling damage to the structures. There is some good news on the Hutia front as the severity of the problem has finally been recognized and a program to cut back the Hutia population will begin in the next year. A lot of red tape is involved because the Hutia was designated an endangered species; obviously no longer the case on Warderick Wells where the destruction of the plant environment is emence.
• After lunch and near slack tide, Team Onward switched to mooring 14 so the pennant on 15 could be replaced tomorrow.

• The early morning sky was fairly overcast but by 0800 it had begun to clear. We decided to move on to Shroud Cay and dropped the mooring at 0900. As we approached the banks, we set the genoa with winds E @ 10-14 kts. and after turning to the N we had a peaceful lazy sail at 5 to 6.5 kts all the way to the Shroud Cay Anchorage.
• The 2017 Navionics eCharts are a substantial improvement over my original version that had large sections with essentially no data combined with small sections that had over-detailed to the point of almost readable bathymetry. I realized my mental chart of these areas is based on the less detailed charts and I had to reorient myself to the more accurate data. Places where I'd tickled sandbars with Onward's wing were now clearly evident instead of the "blue unknown".
• We anchored in 11' to the S of the ECLSP mooring field. We had more that 10 boats for company. Peggy and I declared a lazy day of reading and napping.

• First order of the day was to whip up dough for pizza and calzones.
• About 1600 we Ventured off just before high tide to explore the creeks and salinas at the northern end of the cay.

• Another beautiful day in Paradise that is the Bahamas. Peggy decided today would be a beach day. So I worked on the MacGyver project until about noon. We loaded up Venture and headed out to the sandy beach we could see at the outlying cay to the SE. So loaded with lunch, a chair for Peggy, we headed out for the ~1.3 nm trip. As we approached, two kayaks came into view heading for the same beach — probably from the sailboat anchored to the SE. In the time we've been here, I'd never seen anyone at this beach and now it looked like we would have to share it. We landed and met a cruiser from Minnesota and his visiting daughter. They explored the small cay, found a nice piece of driftwood for a signboard, and kayaked off. So we had our own private beach; the second COB of the season. I went for an invigorating dip and then we had lunch. Peggy sat in her beach chair while I worked on erasing my tan line, reading, and napping with intermittent refreshing dips. Peggy spied some needlefish that were jumping out of the water and that put paid to the idea of getting her to go for a swim as she has a phobia of "Creatures" lurking about her in the water (thankfully, I don't count).
• We headed back to Onward in time to enjoy cocktail hour and watch the sunset.

• After breakfast I started work on the MacGyver stores. There was nothing for it but to take everything out of each of the disintegrating bins and lay it our on the salon floor to do triage and reorganization. At 0900, we weighed anchor and headed N to Highbourne Cay

• I awoke several times during the night expecting the surge of winds that marked the arrival of the cold front — but there was almost no evidence of its passing.

• I had taken advantage of our stay in the marina to rationalize the MacGyver stores and actually decided a good bit of the stuff I'd been hauling around needed to go. I also cut up all the polyethylene water container that had served so long and well as storage bins. So after working a couple of hours on the MacGyver Project, I got all the trash off the boat and filled the water tank.
• As we checked out, I spent some time with the office staff updating information about Highbourne Cay for the BCG. They told me that the fishing trawler boat I'd seen yesterday traveling along the E side of the cays to the S was Yamacraw, the weekly freight boat that servers Highbourne. I also got to meet Joe, AKA Cool Runner who happened to be in the store. He runs a catering and fishing guide business based out of Highbourne.
• We departed the marina at about 1130. Once underway we decided to visit Normans Cay and headed S. We arrived at the entrance to the SW anchorage at about low tide. I followed the route I've used many times previously and had no problems and saw a minimum of 7.4' depth. We anchored at the usual spot off the beach near Mac Duff's. After lunch, nap, and more MacGyver Project, we decided to explore ashore about 1600. We were able to find a sandy spot to land Venture — something not always easy to do here. We walked down the beach and followed a new trail to MacDuffs. It had been closed down in 2015 by the developers of the new White Tail Resort on the island and I had heard reports that it was reopened last year. It was obvious that the new owners had invested in infrastructure improvements: new buildings, walkways, drip irrigation, shrubbery, improved maintenance. We found the bar open and met Portia the bartender. They serve lunch and dinner — but dinner reservations need to be made by 1500 — so there was no opportunity to eat. The bar is much the same. We had a couple of rum punches as we talked to the staff. The price, $36, was steep. I guess the

• We weighed anchor at 0915 after contacting Exuma Park and making reservations for Onward and Ariel in the N field to frolic and wait out the coming fronts. Once out of the anchorage, we set the genoa for a lazy sail S with the wind E at 10-12 kts. While Peggy sailed I went back to the seemingly endless task of rationalizing / organizing the MacGyver stores into the new MacGyver Bags I had made.
• After we had sailed about 1.5 hrs at ~5 kts, Ariel came by and went on to Warderick Wells. We picked up mooring 10 about 1400. I got serious about the final push to clean up the salon. Peggy has been really great about putting up with the disorder for a week. However she invited the Ariels for dinner knowing that it would motivate me to clean things up. A cleverly devious woman.
• By 1800 when our guests arrived, the salon was back in order and I was cleaned up. Peggy made a delicious beef stir-fry dinner after which we introduced the Ariels to Quirkle — which, surprise, surprise, Peggy won (she must have eyes in her fingertips to pick the high-scoring tiles from the bag). We all agreed that while this game was fun, Farkle was our favorite as it offers continuous engagement and interaction between players and was much faster moving.

• It cooled during the night and about 60% cloud cover arrived with the sun. Most of the clouds burned off during the morning leaving a pleasantly cool and dry day. We caught up on boat and life stuff aboard.
• Fellow Corinthian Sandy Davies / SV Heron heard me on VHF and called to say hello. They were on Exuma Sound heading for Rock Sound, Eleuthera on their way back to the US. I was disappointed that I didn't know we were close as I would have hunted him down over the last few days. I expect we will meet on the Corinthians NE Cruise this July.
• Mark and Cindy from the Amiel "Cream Puff" moored next to us came by in their dinghy to say hello and tell us how useful they found the Bahamas Cruisers Guide.
• After lunch we checked in at the ECLSP office and then headed out to explore and do the beach. We met up with the Ariels to say hello and then headed off to go around the southern part of Warderick Wells Cay. I was surprised that even an hour before low tide we had no problem negotiating the route through the flats and reaching the SE anchorage at Hog Cay. We then Ventured back towards the north mooring field and I took us to one of my COBs. Peggy read on the beach while I swam and basked in the sun before heading back to Onward.
• We were invited to Palazzo Ariel for dinner. Peggy whipped up a great salad and we Ventured over. Cocktail hour was followed by dinner with turkey tenderloin with a fresh mushroom sauce and salad. We then had a rollicking game of Farkle that Peggy was kind enough to allow Miles to win. We all agreed that we enjoyed Farkle as the best boat game because it keeps everyone engaged while being fast-moving with constant surprises.

• A very cool and calm night led to a calm and sunny morning. Peggy made me a delicious Valentines Day surprise: chocolate truffles — what a delight!
• After lunch, we Ventured off to the S and visited the beach at the Hog Cay anchorage. The Ariels had already arrived and we challenged them to a game of beach bocce. With light winds from the SW it got a bit warm on the leeward beach so after a game, we headed back around to the W side of Warderick Wells Cay and chose another beach to play another game. The Ariels, who always claim they no nothing about bocce, always manage to win or make it a close struggle. They departed as the tide approached low. Peggy set up her chair in the shade of a tree on the beach and read her newly acquired book. The low tide had turned it into a private beach. I napped in the partial shade and did a bit of sun soaking before we had to depart to make cocktail hour. I grilled some chicken cutlets, sauted some green beans and mushrooms, and tried some microwave reheat Kung Pow noodles. We spent a quiet nigh

• The night was very calm. It is nice to see it becoming brighter each day when I get up to listen to Chris Parker. About 0700 a sailboat in the anchorage announced that its dinghy had gone walkabout. The complication was that the wind had begun to come up and it wasn't clear which way the dinghy would have gone. Another reminder that a dinghy should always have a second, safety line, in this area.
• We invited the ECLSP staff along with the Ariels and Exuberants over for pizza so one of the first orders of the day was to make pizza dough and pepper biscotti dough.
• Peggy decided to make a Death by Chocolate heart-shaped cake for desert — such a clever baker she is!
• Guests arrived at 1830 as the pre-frontal winds were beginning to pick up. We can always tell how much folks enjoy the pizza by how much is left from the two large sheet pizzas. There is never more than half of one and this time there was less than a quarter. The cake was a big hit and Peggy was successful in giving away more to prevent us from eating too much.
• Peggy and I learned that Pru is a gifted basket maker. She works with the long needles of souther pines and produces baskets amazing in both design and workmanship. She sometimes gives classes in George Town.
• Cherry did a good job of helping Peggy work on the large batch of planters punch she worked up. We finished the evening with a rollicking good game of Farkle. David and Cherry enjoyed it enough to want the rules so they can add it to their game collections.

• The cold front passage began during the night as winds began to clock from WSW to W - WNW with > 70% cloud cover and winds of 15 kts +. In late morning rain squalls came through with winds to 25+ kts but just a little rain - not enough to wash off the boat.
• Today was pepper biscotti baking day and I got started on that after breakfast. I updated the Farkle Rule document to be more complete for new players. I also prepared Onward Farkle Gift Packs for Cherry, David, and the
• I also took the opportunity to learn how to use MovieMator, and app for the MacBook for video editing. Some of the movies I converted to mp4 files had to be done in two segments because HandBreak will only convert ~1:30 of some videos and then say it is done. I then have to convert a long enough piece the end section to be able to splice them together. MovieMator does the splicing. I also plan to use it to splice together groups of my "Crazy Grandpa" videos that I send to Elena and Kian.

• When the Park office opened, I delivered Onward Farkle Gift Packages (Instructions and 6 dice) to Cherry and David and talked over updating information for the BCG. We dropped the mooring at about 0945 and headed out the cut. Exuma Sound was well behaved with winds from the E at 10 - 12 kts. We motorsailed S to Bell Cut which we found fairly peaceful and the transit was easy. There were a few open moorings but I continued S and found space in our anchoring hole. Peggy went up on the foredeck with our intercom headsets and alerted me when we came to a good patch of sand to anchor in. We got a good set right off! Nice. Ariel had followed us down and anchored nearby.
• We spent a quiet afternoon and evening just chillin' and reading in this beautiful harbor.

• About 1130, we set out with the Ariels to visit Rachael's Bubble Bath at the N end of Compass Cay taking along lunch. Traversing the cut was not too bad but there is always the challenge: go fast enough to get Venture to plane, but not too fast to avoid the shocks when it occasionally falls off a crest. Peggy sat on the tube to reduce the shock. Right after we arrived and secured the dinghies, we noticed several other boats headed in. We got to the Baths and decided to eat lunch while we waited for the tide to come up enough to generate more bubbles. As we ate while overlooking the Baths, we got to watch a parade of visitors walk in including a large group that had come in from a large charter yacht. The first group of four were apparently from Germany and were having a grand time when we joined them. The large group of younger folks from the charter were content to just drink beer and champagne and watch — never getting in. I remembered the first few times I came here it was at low tide and without the bubbles & froth formed by breaking waves near high tide, it wasn't very impressive. However, having experienced the great fun of being spritzed and sloshed about in fizzy foam I really enjoy the revisits.
• Dinner was hosted at Plazzo Ariel where Laureen whipped up a delicious chicken curry. I was unsuccessful at getting a video on my iPad to play on Ariel's very sophisticated AV system. We did get to enjoy watching the HDTV rise majestically out of its cabinet. Then Miles got to show off his DirectTV system as we watched the remake of Cape Fear. This was the first time I had actually seen the whole movie and was impressed.

• I was up just after 0500 and was very busy doing computer stuff until after 1000 when I fell soundly asleep for over an hour.
• At 1430 we Ventured in to the beach with the Ariels and went for a hike over to Bell Rock and the northern highlands. Peggy finally got to try out one of the hiking sticks we bought in Maine and she encouraged me to use the other. I was really surprised to find how useful it was. We hiked to the N end of the island and I was pleased that my right hip and left knee were not complaining. Looking N across Bell Cut, it looked so wide one could drive a ship through it — but that was because the calm water hid the rocks that block off the southern half.

• I forgot to run the generator yesterday. Today the generator shut down due to too high a temperature so I had to let it cool for a few hours before charging again. I had to do this several times and could not get a full charge. Then I recalled a funny noise that had been bugging me — it must have been the inverter/charger cooling fan complaining. Something to check tomorrow.
• We had the Ariels over for a chili stew dinner. Miles has decided to head to George Town tomorrow to get ahead of the bad weather coming later this week. Due to the replacement parts en route to Staniel, we need to stay in the area.

• A nice sunny day came with the dawn. The GRIBs, Synoptics, and Chris Parker all point to nasty weather on Wednesday to Friday as a low pressure system develops in the Gulf of Mexico and then things get flaky but the sure item it will not be nice. About 0800 I looked out and saw a vessel at the N end of the anchorage that looked strange. I got out the standard binocs and it looked like this was a sunken vessel with just a bit of the cabin and a hull edge above water. I was surprised that we hadn't hear anything on VHF. Then I noticed that Ariel was weighing anchor. As I was calling Miles to warn him, I got out the stabilized binocs and they revealed that there was a small catamaran on the northernmost ball.
• Again the inverter / charger problems cut off due to too high a temperature. I checked and found that the internal cooling fan wasn't working. I was able to temporarily install a spare AC cooling fan to allow the unit to work almost as long as it usually does for a normal charging cycle.
• Cellular modem problems; personal hotspot iP5

• Continued inverter / charger problems.
• Cut back to ibuprofen.

• inverter / charger struggles
• Anchor reset
• Pasta & meatballs; Gosford Park
• The front arrives
• Nasty night

• Quiet day. Patricia departs. Squalls Thorn Birds; switch to iP 6

• Bump in the night
• Christmas Song with two daughters.
• Farkle Chalenge; Bob & Judy, SV Greenstone
• Tim & Dianne; MV Acadia; neighbors Gene in Hampton
• Summer of 42; Walt. A veteran cruiser in Bahamas.

• I had a peaceful night and was able to change sleep position without the intense shoulder pains of a couple of weeks ago. The ibuprofen regimen seems to be working.
• A beautiful sunny calm morning greeted us with the dawn. After rechecking gribs and synoptics and listening to Chris, it confirmed my plan to depart on the high tide for Staniel Cay. We weighed anchor at 0830 and headed out of the S channel. At ~ 2 hr after high tide, I saw a minimum of 9.4' about 150' SSE of the choke point at the little cay. We found the Sound to be nice and peaceful with ~1' chop in the light W winds.

• As we headed S we passed by trawler Aurora fishing its way S toward Staniel. Summer of 42 crossed our bows as we began to turn for Rock Cut.

• Donny Ferguson; lunch; walking tour

• Propane
• Taste & Sea
• Pizza

• We weighed anchor at 0730 and headed in to the fuel pier to be the first in line only to have to wait for two T-tops that zipped in while we were on the way. We got all the important stuff done: 38 gal of diesel; 6 gal of gasoline; 113 gal of water; and our trash offloaded. Life was good.
• As we finished topping off the water tanks, a Caroling Skiff came in with thee 55 gal drums to take on diesel. It turned out to be a guy who lives on Little Farmer Cay. He said he uses about 1000 gal each year transporting it this way. We chatted for a while and he invited us to come ashore the next time we anchor in the area.
• We headed off to Black Point at ~0930. Once we reached Harvey Point, we set the genoa and sail at 6.5 to 7.5 kts with it alone in the 15 to 20 kt E winds. We sailed past the tip of the S headland for the anchorage before tacking and coming in. I recall doing this several years ago — but this time I remembered my shorts. As we came down the S channel I noticed a brand new substantial wooden pier had been built parallel to the shore just W of Regatta Point. I later learned from Ida it is to be a new marina with fuel and water.
• I found a great place to anchor near Rockside laundry. In short order we were Venturing ashore to do laundry.