The forecast today was for northerly winds to increase from nothing at dawn to about 12 knots by noon and building to 18 knots by late afternoon so we took our time and were the last to leave the anchorage around 10:30 am as the northerly was starting to build with a single reef in the mainsail. Today we needed to return to George Town to prepare to meet up with Katie and her boyfriend James who are arriving on Friday. Halfway across, the winds increased and seas were building to 5 feet, so we put in a second reef in the mainsail and reduced the jib and were still making 8 knots on a close reach towards the northwest entrance to George Town - Conch Cay Cut. We had a favorable tide, flooding with the wind to keep waves down at the cut, but were at the very beginning of flood, meaning that it was low tide. When we were about 20 minutes from Conch Cay Cut, Harry radioed for input on conditions at the cut. The person on the other end suggested with with our 6’ draft that we might have trouble making over one of the sand bars.
Our choices were such that we could either wait for the tide to get up a bit higher, to head south to the southeastern entrance to George Town. This too has it share of tricky reefs to avoid and is more narrow but more importantly in this case, the water is deeper. We had already crossed the Conch Cay Cut on our earlier visit to George Town but the conditions were much milder then. After sometime discussing the situation, we decided upon the southern entrance. We entered several waypoints into the GPS help us guide Juno safely past the reef and into the calmer waters of Elizabeth Harbor, dropping anchor off sand dollar beach along with the 150 others who were taking cover from the northerly winds.
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| The sunrises are as beautiful as the sunsets |
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