Our overnight passage from Rum Cay to Mayaguana started out very nicely at 7:30 am on Tuesday morning, February 21st. We enjoyed lovely, calm conditions right up until 10:30 pm. Then it started getting a little bumpy. Since it was an overnight passage, Dave, Dad and I stood 3-hour watches starting at noon on Tuesday. I was third in the rotation, so my first watch was 6-9pm, then Dave took over from me. Around 10:30pm I realized it was getting bumpy and noisy, so I laid there not sleeping. When Dave came down at midnight after Dad relieved him, I went to lay up in the salon and still couldn’t sleep. It was getting bumpier. At one point during Dad’s watch, all three of us were up trying to decide what to do to ease the ride a bit. We changed course to go west and south of the Plana Cays, rather than north of them. This bought us a few hours of calmer conditions. Sadly, at about 3:30 am, during my second watch, we had to turn back into them. Then the starboard generator started acting up like it had back in January. I woke up Dave and we watched it for a while, but ultimately had to shut it down and turn on the cross-ship cable so the port generator could run both motors. That ‘failure’ of part of our system invoked that residual fear I have from our stranding in 2019. I realized, however, that it wasn’t as extreme this time. The fear was there a little, but mostly I was pissed off that conditions were, once again, not as forecast. The sunrise was beautiful, but seas got no better, in fact they got a little worse, and there was a period of time when we saw too many 8-10’ waves. It felt like we were in a washing machine. We did some tacking above and below our course line to keep the worst of the waves just off our bow. Eventually we were close enough to Mayaguana and its extensive reef to benefit from some slightly diminished seas during the final 1-2 hours of the trip. We were anchored by just after 3:00 pm on Wednesday the 22nd. The tacking turned our 128 nm trip into a 140 nm trip, but we still made good time despite that and beating into the seas for 16 hours. We averaged 4.5 knots, and though uncomfortable, were never in danger. Dave made fruity rum drinks and then pizza, good comfort food after a lousy passage. We started a movie, but were all nodding off, so we went to bed and were sound asleep by 9:00 pm. I slept straight through the night for nine hours.
After a good night’s sleep, I was coherent enough to take note of our surroundings. We were anchored in Abraham’s Bay, named for the settlement on its east end. The bay is huge, running five miles from east to west and almost two miles north to south. Like the anchorage at Rum Cay, this one is really just open water bordered by land on the north and east sides and an extensive reef system on the south and west sides, more extensive than the one at Rum. Also like at Rum, the reef breaks the worst of the waves, better at low than high tide, but with the seas up, it was a rolly anchorage, this time with occasional light slapping without the big vibrations. We read that the population on the island is around 200, divided between three settlements, but with the preponderance of people in Abraham’s Bay Settlement.
About mid-morning the next day (Thursday), the only other boat in the anchorage, Guajira, hailed us on the radio to say hello. They had arrived earlier the day before in the morning after having been beaten up on their passage from Crooked Island, so we compared notes. We also compared travel plans and realized we were both en route to Puerto Rico via Turks & Caicos, then Dominican Republic. We planned to get together for drinks at some point and discuss the possibility of traveling together, at least to TCI (Turks & Caicos Islands). The rest of the day was a light chore and recuperation day. After breakfast, Dave & Dad got the starboard generator running again. I guess it just needed a nap. Then Dave made water and went out to give our gunnels a freshwater rinse after our very salty passage. I did laundry and then relaxed the rest of the day.
After checking the forecast predictions on Friday, we and Guajira determined that Sunday would be a perfect day to cross to TCI. So I spent the morning clearing us out of the Bahamas and starting the clearing in process for TCI, both done online. In the afternoon, Juan and Alison from Guajira came over for drinks and snacks and we talked nonstop for several hours. They are kindred spirits! We planned to cross to TCI together on Sunday. Juan also allayed our concerns about transiting the north coast of Dominican Republic, when the time comes, so now we feel like we have more options than making the single, 120+ nm jump from Luperon to Samana against wind and sea. We knew short hops were possible but had had some concerns about safety in the isolated bays.
Saturday morning we moved Lady to the east end of the bay so we could dinghy ashore to explore the town. On our walk to town from Government dock, a nice lady stopped in her vehicle to greet us. She was the former principal of the island high school- a fellow educator! Then a nice officer hailed us in town to see if we needed anything. We were looking for lunch, so she called a friend of hers to see if she could make us lunch (from her house, not a restaurant). She could make us either burgers or chicken with fries. We ordered the burgers and walked about a bit while we waited. We stopped at the “grocery store” next door and chatted with the owner, Reggie. He grew up on the island until age 14 when he moved to Nassau to work. He traveled the world a bit, always returning home to visit. He finally moved back permanently when his mother passed away over ten years ago. Reggie and we agreed that if more people traveled, they would be more accepting and less fearful of peoples’ differences. It was a lovely chat. We ambled back to the house of the woman making us lunch to tell her we were nearby whenever our food was ready. Then a nice woman hanging her laundry next door offered for us to sit at her makeshift benches and table under a shade tree. We chatted with her for a bit, and she even brought us some sugar cane to chew on while we waited and then let us eat our lunch there. It was a lovely few hours on shore and everyone we met was so friendly and welcoming. I really appreciate that about the family islands of the Bahamas.
We returned to Lady, hauled anchor and moved about 11 nm to Southeast Point to stage for an early morning departure for TCI the next day. Guajira dropped anchor there just before us. We confirmed our plans via radio and then settled in on our own boats for a good night’s sleep, dreaming of a calm passage, which I will talk about in my next post.
Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
Life on Lady 