Category: Captain’s Log

Captain’s Log – Wed 5/7/25

Anchor up at 6:10am, we departed for the 75nm crossing of the Bahama Bank to South Riding Rock. We motor sailed through mid afternoon for maximum speed when the wind completely died leaving us only motoring the rest of the afternoon. We dropped anchor at 7:15pm off of Riding Rock, which offers a little better protection than South Riding Rock. And reported better holding. All in that was about 78nm in 13 hours for an average of about 6kts. We were actually moving faster than that most of the time, it’s the putting in and out of anchorages that skews the average. That’s the second longest passage in a single day Alicia and I have done together, only the overnight to the Dry Tortugas being longer a couple years ago. We try to avoid marathon passages when possible as it can wear you out and take some of the fun out of it. And it’s supposed to be fun, that’s kinda the whole point right?

The remainder of the Northwest Passage was benign in the morning and overall a pleasant day on the bank. If conditions would have permitted we would have sailed taking our time, stopping halfway to anchor for the evening but it was forecast to get rolly overnight with the wind picking back up during the night. And it did, glad to behind Riding Rock. It was still pretty darn rolly there. Neither of us slept great. It’s a bit nerve wracking anchoring so close to giant rocks and then start rolling around.

Sadly, tomorrow we head back to the Keys. We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Bahamas. 🇧🇸 Must come back. It will be another pretty long day. The crossing is about 60nm. A little less than today. If it’s calm enough we might try to stay out on the reef tomorrow night. We’ll see. Otherwise we’ll have an another couple hours to go find an anchorage inside the reef.

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Captain’s Log – Tue 5/6/25

After waiting for a cruise ship to come in, Nassau Harbor Control cleared us for departure from Atlantis at 7:15am. We motor sailed the first hour then the breeze picked up enough to sail slowly the rest of the 35nm to Chub Cay. We sailed dead down wind for a couple hours before we could hold a broad reach which made the remainder of the passage slightly less rolly. Seas were about 3’ with an occasional bigger one. All in all, a pretty easy crossing of the tongue of the ocean.

We are actually anchored at Frazer’s Hog Cay. The main Chub Cay anchorage is expected to be rolly tonight as the wind picks up overnight. I found two last bone in pork chops in the freezer for jerk pork chops on the grill with roasted garlic red potatoes for dinner.

Tomorrow will be a long day. It’s supposed to be too rough to anchor halfway overnight on the Bahama Bank, so we’ll have to cover 75nm to get across to Riding Rock where hopefully we can anchor for the night and get some rest before crossing back to Florida on Thursday. We plan to depart at 6:am as soon as there is enough light to get out of the anchorage.

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Captain’s Log – Mon 5/5/25

This morning we reviewed the weather forecasts, consulted with the meteorology service again and prepped the boat for an early departure at 7:00am.

As I was doing a final check, I took a fuel sample and it looked a bit cloudy. I suspect some of the fuel I’ve bought here in the Bahamas might have had some water in it. It’s different looking here because it’s not died red like it is in the US and it mixed with the red US fuel so now it’s barely pink anymore. I ran the fuel polish circuit for an hour, then tested the engine. It seems to run ok and looks a little better so maybe I’m overthinking it. For peace of mind, I may try to find a fuel polishing service when I get back to Key Largo before going further.

The wind forecast lightened up a bit so we may have to do some motor sailing to make time the next few days. Going to need that engine.

We spent our afternoon at the grotto pool one last time. I could stay here another month! Tonight we got an extra large pizza so we’d have some easy left overs for the long sailing days ahead.

We head from Nassau to Chub Cay in the morning, about 35nm crossing the Tongue of the Ocean.

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