The Berries are one of the places Renne’ and I have always
wanted to see. We have heard so much
about them. This was one of those
hideaways the celebrities would come to.
So when we knew we were headed to The Bahamas again, it was where we
wanted to go. Our friends, Chip and
Joanne, our next dock neighbors in Boca Chica, spent a month there and raved
about it. Done deal!
So Sunday morning, 09 April, 2017, at 0730, the anchor was
retrieved and off we went as an armada of boats. The first two hours weren’t bad, but winds
picked up, and as the old saying goes, “It doesn’t matter what direction you
are headed, the winds will always be on your nose!” And so it was!!
Of course in sailing, you can’t sail directly into the wind. A sail is really like the wing of an
airplane. The angle-of-attack is
critical. On our boat, the jib gives
out at about 43 degrees to the wind, as does out mains’l. The stays’l remains helpful in stabilizing
the boat in waves, but adds little to forward motion at less than 20 degrees to
the wind. When the wind is directly off
your bow, sails are worthless, all must come down, and the motor gets you
wherever you are going.
By mid-morning, seas had grown to 2-3’ off the bow, by 1pm,
we saw some 4’s and maybe a 5’ or so.
Needless to say, we were all uncomfortable, and Scimitar was running as
hard as she could to make 4kts. I
nautical mile is equal to 1.1508 normal land mile or statute mile. So to give you an idea, imagine traveling in
your car 46 miles at 4.6 mph. You could
almost run that fast, and without the up and down movement of the bow!!! At least half of the day, we fought just to
keep above 4.0kts. Each time a wave hits
the bow, the boat slows, sometimes dramatically. We saw 2.2kts more than a few times during
the day.
We did set out a new green and white Jet-bead lure and found
we had a 30” barracuda gnawing on the lure.
Needless to say, he was NOT HAPPY!!
Have I said I hate barracuda?!?!?!
I gaffed it and it immediately settled down. As I dragged it aboard, it began to
fight. To tell you the truth, those
teeth are frightening!!! I asked Renne’
to get me alcohol to put on it’s gills, and almost immediately I was able to
begin fileting the fish. I am not really
good at it, but in 10 or so minutes, we had meat for breakfast and more.
Miss Piggy was 7 or so nautical miles ahead of us all of the
way. About 10nm out from Great Harbor,
we began to see the waves begin to settle down.
The way the island lies, it adds great protection from winds and waves
generated from the Northeast to the Southeast.
By 5nm out, we were in pretty calm water, and back up to
5.2-5.5kts.
We arrived in Great Harbor by 1700 (5:00pm) and found Miss
Piggy at anchor off of Rat Cay, just north of the Great Harbor Cay City
Docks. We searched for a good anchor
area, and finally snagged the anchor about 150 yards from Miss Piggy. An hour later, the other three boats joined
us and dropped anchor. It turns out this
trip has much more wind than previous trips for us to The Bahamas! Listening to Chris Parker Weather, it looks
as though we might be here for a week or so at anchor. We will have to see.
Once again, out at anchor, and not able to get you out here
for cocktails. We will have to make
special arrangements for you next time!
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