Onward’s Cruise Journal 2018
Cruise in the Bahamas & US


Updated: 8 May 2018


May 2018


1 May 18; Tuesday; Staniel Cay


2 May 18; Wednesday; Staniel Cay

3 May 18; Thursday; Staniel Cay

4 May 18; Friday; Staniel Cay

5 May 18; Saturday; Staniel Cay
  • I laid out a rough plan to take advantage of o forecast weather window to move up the US E coast next week. The plan was to depart from Staniel Cay Sunday and spend the night at Shroud Cay. Peggy needed to be able to make phone call on Monday morning which should have been possible from the Highbourne Cay tower.

5 May 18; Sunday; Staniel Cay
  • In strong rain squalls and tropical downpours, the connection between the dodger and leading edge of the connector has leaked a bit — just enough to be annoying. I had asked Charm City Canvas to attach a rain fly to the dodger to close
  • Today I put a piece of 1'" wide white electrical tape over the top of the top zippers along the forward end of the connector. I then put a 1" x 10" piece of rigid plastic over the center where the two zippers meet and there is a small gap. That done, I took a needle and thread and tacked the rain fly on the rear of the dodger down to close over the canvas covering the zipper on the connector. Now there two pieces of canvas completely cover the zipper.
  • In early morning, the tanker Ocean Energy pulled into the SCYC fuel dock to fill their tanks. It ended spending the entire day there only leaving at dawn on Monday. This required a change in our plan as we needed to get into SCYC to top up fuel and water before starting the passage back.

6 May 18; Monday; Staniel Cay to West Bay, New Providence

7 May 18; Tuesday; West Bay to Great Harbour Cay, Berries

8 May 18; Wednesday;

9 May 18; Thursday;

10 May 18; Friday; At sea; West End to GS centerline E of FL coast.

11 May 18; Saturday; At sea; GS E of St Marys Inlet
  • The wind died about 0230 during Peggy's watch. In my sleep I was aware of it being peaceful. At 0400 when I cameo watch, the SOG had dropped to 7.6 kts. I furled the genoa, increased rpm from 1800 to 2400 to bring SOG back to ~9 kts. Began turn to E from 8º to 12º to follow centerline of GS. Long period 2 3' swells from a variety of directions.
  • In the pre-dawn brightening of the horizon at ~0515, I looked out and saw a dark smudge against the horizon 30º off starboard bow; no lights were visible; it looked like a small island. I had the display on radar - 3 nm to be able to see smaller vessels near in. At 6nm the return from a ship was evident. AIS showed it to be an MSC container ship doing more than 25 kts to the SE. This vessel had literally come from nowhere in < 45 min since I'd checked out to 150 nm for shipping. Go figure! These guys are usually lit up like a Christmas display but I couldn't see the lights on this one.
  • At 0715, I spoke with Chris Parker and he confirmed that conditions will continue to be good for the remainder of the passage; winds should build from SE this afternoon; die off tomorrow morning; rebuild and increase in the afternoon and continue to the approach to Beaufort.

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