{"id":11130,"date":"2020-05-09T12:33:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T17:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11130"},"modified":"2020-05-09T13:08:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T18:08:56","slug":"half-way-home-sheltering-in-great-inagua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11130","title":{"rendered":"Half way home. Sheltering in Great Inagua."},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday morning and here we sit, at anchor, in Great Inagua, the most southern island in the Bahamas where we will “shelter” until the coast is clear to make our way to Florida and the second half of our journey as part of the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound Flotilla<\/a>.\u00a0 We are one of over 200 boats that are taking advantage of the support of this wonderful group.<\/p>\n

I should note that I am a proud member of the SDSA board of directors and am thrilled with what all the volunteers are doing to support cruisers making their way home during this difficult time.\u00a0 \u00a0Up until only a few days ago, even being able to stop and rest here was forbidden and is only now available to us, in part, as a result of the hard work by SDSA volunteers and their work with the Government of The Bahamas on our behalf.<\/p>\n

The sunrise as we approached Great Inagua yesterday morning was spectacular. \"\"When we first arrived, along with another 7 flotilla boats, we had a welcome sight, a USCG chopper paid us a visit. \"\" The USCG is always really supportive of the Salty Dawgs and carefully track the movement of the fleet each year.<\/p>\n

It was a welcome sight to spy land for the first time since leaving the USVIs.\u00a0 Not much to look at, I’ll admit. \"\"As we rounded the western point of Great Inagua, one of the very few lighthouses anywhere in the Bahamas.\u00a0 \"\"Along the way here, we saw some spectacular sunsets.\u00a0 \"\"And the setting full moon. \"\"And a day that had so little wind and calm seas that it might have been a sunrise\u00a0 in August on Long Island Sound. \"\"Brenda and I are thankful for the many notes of encouragement congratulating us on being able to rest for a few days before heading out again.\u00a0 \u00a0 Let me temper the thought of “resting” as the anchorage is remarkably rolly with the wrap around swell from the ocean.\u00a0 And, with little wind, it’s oppressively hot and sticky.<\/p>\n

As this chartlet shows, this is hardly a harbor, as we are basically resting in the lee of the island with the wind coming, more or less, from the east.\u00a0 That’s Pandora, the red triangle to the left of the island.\u00a0 BTW, the east in this chart is to the right.\u00a0 As you can see, not much protection at all.\u00a0 \"\"The swell that’s coming around the point isn’t particularly large but as it’s hitting us on the beam, causing us to snap-roll, up to as much as 15-20 degrees in each direction, sometimes violently enough to dislodge everything on the counter in the galley.\u00a0 Last night, horrors, my stemless wineglass went flying on the chart table, with the contents of the “full” glass draining down into where the charts are stored.\u00a0 The ensuring mess paled when compared to the terrible waste of wine.<\/p>\n

And later, as I was pulling a package of meatballs from the freezer for dinner, they spilled back down into the freezer.\u00a0 Fortunately, as Brenda made them herself, she knew exactly how many there were so I could confirm when I had collected every last one from the depths of the freezer.<\/p>\n

Also, a bit unnerving is that we are anchored so close to a “cliff” where the water depth drops from the 20′ that we are anchored in to depths of 1,000′ and more, only a mere half mile away, as shown by the “ruler” on this chart. \"\"I thought that it would perhaps be helpful to provide some context on where we are, waiting for Chris Parker to give us the “all clear” to get underway again. BTW, that’s likely to be Monday a few days from now.<\/p>\n

Our arrival in Great Inagua marks the successful completion of the first half of our voyage, with 550 miles of the 1,100 to Florida, now under our keel.\u00a0 You can see the route in it’s entirety below.\u00a0 Again, we are the red triangle.\u00a0 Note that we are just north of the Windward Passage, marking the separation of Cuba and Haiti, the passage that Brenda and I took to get to Santiago de Cuba when we landed there from the Bahamas back in 2016. \"\"The remaining distance between us and Ft Pierce, where we will make landfall late next week, still seems like a long way off, and it is.\u00a0 \u00a0The run will take us west through the Old Bahama Channel, waypoints 13-16, and the Santarin Channel, waypoints 16-18 and then the rest of the way up to Ft Pierce.\u00a0 The northward current in the GulfStreem will provide a boost of several knots,\u00a0 as we make our way north the final 200 miles to our destination.\u00a0\"\"Of course, being in Florida will not really be “home” as we will still have to drive the rest of the way to CT.\u00a0 Our plan, once on land, is to leave Pandora in Ft Pierce and rent a car to make the run home non-stop, with me and Brenda sharing the driving, or should I say “standing watch”.\u00a0 Oh boy, what we wouldn’t do to have a self driving car waiting for us.\u00a0 I’ll return to retrieve Pandora in a few weeks with crew for the run to CT, as I have until mid July to have Pandora north of 35 degrees, or Cape Hatteras.<\/p>\n

So, here we sit, waiting for the all-clear from Chris to get underway again.<\/p>\n

I thought that I’d provide a look at his forecast for the rest of the trip, with some thoughts on what it should mean for us.\u00a0 Of course, the last few days days of the forecast, in particular, are a long way off so they may very well change.\u00a0 But, for the moment, it appears that the really nasty weather, that’s hitting the waters of Florida and the northern Bahamas over the weekend, should be history when we are making our run back to the US.<\/p>\n

We expect to depart on Monday, the exact time subject to a revised forecast by Chris.\u00a0 Here is Chris’s forecast as of today with his assumptions on how things will look each day as we make our way to Florida.<\/p>\n

Chris:\u00a0 During Monday the 11th daytime and nighttime: The wind will be variable at 0-15kts from a variety of directions.\u00a0 You will be motoring.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob:\u00a0 That’s good as it will be fairly calm and while we have motored a good amount already, we still have plenty of fuel left.<\/p>\n

Chris;\u00a0 On Tuesday the 12th all day and into the evening, the wind will be from the NE to ENE, building from 10k to 15k, with sailing on a beam reach.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob:\u00a0 At that point, we should be near waypoint #12, north of Cuba. That should be good sailing as Pandora performs well with full main and jib in those conditions.\u00a0 The seas should be reasonable and our speed, in the 6-8kt range.<\/p>\n

Chris:\u00a0 On Wednesday the 13th, the wind will be ENE at 15 with gusts to 20, ideal for beam reach sailing.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob: At that point we will be in the Old Bahama Channel, a narrow waterway north of Cuba.\u00a0 The conditions Chris describes sound pretty good, with the wind hitting the boat directly on the starboard beam, a comfortable point of sail and at those wind speeds, with little heeling, probably about 12 degrees.<\/p>\n

Chris; On Thursday the 14th, wind will be from the east at 20, with gusts to 25 in GulfStream, sailing on a beam to broad reach.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob:\u00a0 By then we will be off the coast of Florida and moving north.\u00a0 With wind at 20 with gusts to 25 the sailing will be “sporty” but with a reef in the main, we should be OK.\u00a0 At those wind speeds, and wind aft of the beam, but not too deep on the wind, Pandora should be hitting 8 to as much as 10 kts through the water helped along by the current of the Gulf Stream, giving us speed over the bottom of 10-14kts over the bottom.\u00a0 This will, I hope, be very fast sailing.<\/p>\n

Brenda:\u00a0 “Fast sailing perhaps, but that day will pretty bumpy, or should I say shitty!\u00a0 Just sayin…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris:\u00a0 On Friday, heading north with the GulfStream from Miami-FtPierce, the wind veers from E to ESE or SE at 15-20 with gusts to 25.\u00a0 \u00a0And <\/em>there may be a few mild squalls with up to 30kts of wind at any time between the Old Bahama Channel north to Ft Pierce.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brenda:\u00a0 “Shit, Shit, Shit.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, there you have it, here we are, sheltering in Great Inagua, waiting for the dust to settle along the path between us and Florida.\u00a0 At least we can have a glass of wine in the evenings and not worry too much about the weather.\u00a0 \u00a0Of course, with all the rolling, we will have to hold on tight to our glasses.<\/p>\n

While this post is, and nearly always is, “all about us”, there are a lot of other boats making the same journey now and in the next few weeks, with the next group heading out in the next few days.\u00a0 This is a screen shot of the tracker as of Saturday morning.\u00a0 That’s a lot of boats are underway.\u00a0 \"\"You can see this tracker in real time, for yourself as the upcoming days unfold by following this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One more thing…\u00a0 Sunday is Mother’s day and Brenda is none to happy about spending it here, having to clutch that celebratory wine glass tightly to keep it from spilling.<\/p>\n

At least we have excellent cell coverage here so our son’s Rob and Chris will be able to talk to their mother.<\/p>\n

And I know that they will, as they always are, very attentive to their mother.\u00a0 They are very good boys!<\/p>\n

Wish us luck.\u00a0 500 miles to go to the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday morning and here we sit, at anchor, in Great Inagua, the most southern island in the Bahamas where we will “shelter” until the coast is clear to make our way to Florida and the second half of our journey as part of the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound Flotilla.\u00a0 We are one of over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11149,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions\/11149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}