Fair winds and following seas

“Wishing you fair winds and following seas”.   That phrase is something boaters say to each other as they depart.   The vast majority of the boats cruising the Bahamas are sailboats; as much of 90% is our observance.  On a sailboat, the wind is our friend, guide and sometimes our foe.   Funny thing though; the majority of the trip from the Chesapeake to the Bahamas we don't get to sail very often   Oh, we pop the jib whenever we get the chance on the bigger rivers of the ICW but day after day, we motor along at 5-6 knots.   So when we get the chance to sail, really sail, we are happy boaters.

Friday, January 20 when we left the Abacos bound for Royal Harbor was the perfect sailing day with both fair winds and a following sea (actually on the port quarter which is even better).   Originally, we thought we would make the trip on Thursday but the wind and seas kicked up earlier in the week so we gave them an extra day to calm down.   Good thing because the reports from boats who did cross on Thursday were less than glowing.   The route requires a passage of approximately 50 miles across the Northeast Providence Channel and some of the deepest water we will see on our trip.   Our electronic depth sounder stops somewhere around 200 feet but the charts show depths of over 15,000 feet (yes, we have our life jackets on, see Joe in the picture).  As a reward for waiting until Friday we had  an average of 15 knots of wind from the north/northeast and since we were headed south/southeast, it was perfect!   There was a 4 foot swell to the ocean with an 8 second interval and we just surfed over the roll and flew down the channel.    We think 10 to 15 knots of wind is the perfect wind velocity for our particular boat and we had all 3 sails up and flying.    It was about a 9 hour trip and we only ran the engine for the first half hour to get out of the cut in the Abacos and slightly less than an hour to get in the cut to the Royal Island anchorage.   We saw a maximum of 7.7 knots SOG (speed over ground) and spent a good portion of the trip at 7 knots or better.   Sailing just doesn’t get much better than that!    Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to photograph in the middle of the ocean.   The pictures below show the instrument panel on the boat and are probably only exciting to those of us who covet the wind.  But picture this:  the water turns a beautiful dark royal blue because of the depth and the only company was 2-3 other boats, flying fish and a few sea birds too far away to identify.     Ahhhhhhh…..

Great Sailing!

Proof that Island Packets really can fly