The currents through Current Cut are very swift so timing the passage to have the current with you, and not against strong winds is important. Today, we would be westbound through the cut so the prevailing east winds would be lining up in the right direction. Also the current was to be in the westerly direction from 10AM to 4PM so we had lots of cushion with the timing. It was another beautifully sunny day as we sailed sailed southeast and arrived at the Current Cut about 11am. The pass through was easy with a maximum of 4 knots of current. After clearing the cut we headed up in the lee of the western shore. The water remained typically blue and clear and the western shore gave us a gentle breeze without any waves for a quiet anchorage.
The settlement of Current is a quiet community that we quite enjoyed visiting last time. This year though we decided to just enjoy the afternoon on Juno and also kept an eye on the storm clouds to the east. The storm wasn't headed directly towards us but was creeping closer as it moved south. After a couple of hours the storm began to pull the winds around from the southeast, to northeast, to north, and eventually northwest. Now instead of the western shore offering shelter we had winds increasing from the opposite direction causing the seas to build. The wind did get to 15 for a while but mostly stayed under that. This still gave us a constant bouncing as the waves, having built from 6 miles to the northwest, passed by. This wave action continued through the evening until sometime in the middle of the night it quieted down and Juno was sitting calmly to her anchor when we woke in the morning to continue on to The Abacos, the last segment for us in the Bahamas.
We had two different forecasts for this 50 mile journey. Both were for easterly winds and we were headed north so that was great. However one said winds would be light enough that we would have to motor, or motor-sail, most of the way to make it before dark. The other was for very strong winds that would mean an uncomfortable sail. The former looked like the most likely so we decided if the wind in morning was not on the strong side, we would head out for two hours and if the winds stayed to light to reach the cut at the Abacos, we would turn around and wait for the next day, chalking it up to a nice day-sail. As it turned out the winds were between the two forecasts and we were able to sail comfortably the entire way.
Harry had his fishing lure out, and as in 2019, about half way to first Abacos island there were large amounts of sargasum weed which, as in 2019, kept snagging on Harry's lure. So Harry brought in the line and lure, defeated again. In the last eight miles the weed became almost non-existent so Harry deployed his lure for one last attempt. After about 30 minutes a Mahi bit. Sarah slowed the boat some and helped Harry get his gear together - gloves, lifejacket, knife for cutting the line loose if Harry or Sarah got tangled in it, and a few other items. With his gloves and lifejacket he pulled the Mahi towards Juno. The fish began to tire and as Harry got it closer he realized it was a smaller female. So he brought it aboard with the intention of releasing it, but once it was in the cockpit it had already expired, and one eye had been injured, perhaps by the hook. So with that, Harry continued with the filleting process giving us fresh Mahi for two substantial meals.
By the time Harry was done putting the fishing gear way and cleaning up, we were only a few miles from the Little Harbour cut. The current, as planned, was in the right direction for the cut so we steered in with Sarah keeping an eye on our track on the iPad while Harry steered. Having cleared the reef and breakers, we headed north and found a quiet anchorage behind Lynyard Cay where Sarah prepared our Mahi with a light Panko breadcrumb topping.
No comments:
Post a Comment