New Learnings, New Rules

Although our private anchorage was beautiful, it was also very rolly
(perhaps this why it was private?). When the anchorage is rolly, I don't
sleep, much. After four days of not sleeping, much, we were eager to make a
move to a new location and when a weather window appeared to go to Nassau
(northeast winds, northeast waves 15-20 knots, waves 6-8 feet from both NOAA
(text and grib) and Windguru) we thought we'd go for it. So after coffee,
the anchor came up and we headed out of our little harbor.

When I meet these weather forecasters, I will have a thing or two to say to
them! There were big waves out there, really BIG waves. The wind was from
the east and the waves were not from the northeast, they were definitely
from the southeast. Actually, to be fair, those weather forecasts cover a
huge area and localised weather can be quite different, but I would think
the grib files which purport to cover local areas should be a bit more
accurate.

So we left the harbor into the biggest seas we've encountered thus far and
watched as the bow of the boat rose up into the air and then plunged over
the top of the wave into the trough. Now since I drive the boat, I get to
experience this first hand, right there in the moment, rather than letting
Steve do it and curling up in a ball somewhere. Try to think of driving a
40 foot long, single car garage up and down 10 (Steve thinks they were 8, I
think they were 15!) foot waves, remember, it doesn't bend in the middle!

Well, the only way to learn how to sail in weather is to sail in weather so
we kept going thinking it might get a bit smoother when the water got
deeper. We also had a couple of points where we could change our minds and
head back in if we choose to, at the foot of Bond Cay and Chub Cay. At 7000
feet deep, the water was as smooth as it was going to get and it wasn't too,
too bad. Every few minutes a big series of waves would come through and
we'd look up to the top of the wave from the bottom of the trough (if we're
looking up at waves from the cockpit of the boat, the waves were big). We
were about 10 miles into the journey at this point so we decided to
continue, with me retaining the right to call for a return to shore at any
point.

It wasn't too bad. We didn't really eat much because it was rocking and
rolling so hard. Everything in the cabin was tossed around, including the
trash (sigh) - we'll talk about new rules in a minute. I did 'nervous
knitting' for most of the day, you know when you really need something to
distract yourself knitting is great (knit 2, purl 2, knit 2, purl 2 - no, I
don't see that really big wave there!). Steve drove the boat over the waves
because he likes to (and to save the autopilot).

By about 2:00, we were heading into Nassau Harbor just before which the
waves got even bigger! We read about this in 'The Gentleman's Guide to
Passages South', if the wave energy has a lot of room to dissapate (deep
water) the waves will be smaller, if there is little room for the wave
energy to dissapate such as in shallow water, you get big waves - and we
did! And then we turned the corner past the breakwaters in the harbor and
all was calm!

After cruising by five enormous cruise ships and a couple of bridges tall
enough for our 60 foot mast to fit under, Steve hailed the marina and they
said they had a slip for us so we headed in. Now whenever I see these slips
as I'm driving towards them I always say to Steve, "We're NOT going to fit
in there!" And he always says, "Yes, we will, keep going." And we turn in
and the boat fits right into the slip! We made it!

A celebratory dinner was in order (to heck with the budget!) so we went to
The Poop Deck restaurant which overlooks the marina, Bahamian food and
seafood. After putting the boat to rights and showers (unlimited hot water,
yippeee), we headed up there. Conch fritters and wings to start (both of
ours are better thanks to Emeril and Jess's recipes), Steve had Bahamian
fried chicken and I had the whole grilled snapper. We want to try whole
fish grilling so this gave us an idea of what the end result would be like -
delicious, time to go fishing again! All accompanied by a nice bottle of
wine and a shared slice of key lime pie for dessert. Too much food so half
was boxed for another lunch / dinner.

New rules, new learnings. We wanted to finish out the day so we would know
that we could do it and were very pleased that we did. Would we choose to
do it again? Nope, but at least we know we can. So the new rules and
learnings are: Follow the rules! We have them for a reason. If the
forecast says you won't be going to windward, but you get out there and you
are, change the plan (because we don't want to go to windward so much
anymore!). Have more confidence in your own assessment of the weather where
you are and move anchorage rather than location if you need to. Get used to
that you can wait for a week or more for a weather window. Tie the books in
the cabin and trash bin down better!

After that rather busy day, we collapsed into bed at 8:00 and slept, a lot!