The Good with the Bad

The year 2014 closed its coffin loudly for Taia, setting up its successor, 2015, for an even louder and rather uncomfortable start. On the last evening of the year, Taia was anchored in front of Lynyard Cay, a common staging anchorage for boats aiming to cross south to Royal Harbour, Spanish Wells, or Nassau. Unbeknownst to Taia's crew, the outgoing year had arranged for wind speeds considerably higher than had been forecast. The crew dropped the hook on the last afternoon of the year and, as they prepared the boat for the 55-mile crossing, wondered why the wind was picking up to 15 knots and then to 20 knots, when it should have stayed at 10 to 15. “Oh well,” they said naively, “it'll quiet down through the night.” Not!

January 1^st, 2015, was a rough day at sea. As Taia plowed through confused seas that seemed to come from everywhere, including the sky and the bottom of the sea, her crew fell in a less-than-festive mood. While Taia romped happily in 20 to 25 knots of wind, the crew held on, white knuckled, and failed miserably at keeping down their New Year's Eve dinner. Chucking into a bucket quickly deteriorated into a feeble poking of the head out of the cockpit and barfing all over the side deck. No matter, though, as there was enough spray to wipe it all off within seconds.

In reality, the picture wasn't one of complete and utter lack of control. On the contrary, although the crew were uncomfortable, they made sure the boat kept moving safely and quickly towards their destination. There was quite a bit of wave surfing and lurching and suddenly stopping. Taia moved fast and arrived in Royal Harbour without incident.

Bad days are a necessity. How would we appreciate the good ones without the contrast that the bad ones provide? Fortunately, though, it's easy to coerce life into giving us more of the good ones than the bad. And so it is that, after a quick day of recovery in Royal Harbour, Taia and her crew kept moving and enjoying a string of good days.

There was the afternoon at the beach on Meeks Patch, which included a quick spear-fishing outing that produced a tasty lionfish. There was a beautiful night at anchor in front of Current Settlement and the subsequent crossing of Current Cut to get to the west side of Eleuthera. It was then that we started learning that the landscape of the island of Eleuthera is different than everything else we've seen of the Bahamas.

Cleaning lionfish while at anchor in Meeks Patch. The spines can be lethal, so I cut them off wearing thick gloves

Eleuthera has cliffs on both the bank and the ocean side. This island is long and narrow. At Glass Window, the narrowest spot, it is possible to see the Atlantic Ocean from the banks and vice versa. Without the highway bridge that was built there, Eleuthera would be close to becoming 2 different islands.

The Glass Window, Eleuthera, viewed from the bank side. The Atlantic Ocean lives on the other side of the bridge 

Ocean side cliffs at Glass Window

The Queen's Baths, on the ocean side, are a collection of natural pools on the rock formation that have water coming in from the ocean. We were there at low tide and waded in a couple of the pools, which were receiving a gentle stream of sea water from the waves breaking against the rocks. I'm told that at high tide, and especially when the easterly wind is blowing hard, the pools are swamped by the waves and wading in them is not a safe option.

The day we visited Glass Window and the Queen's Baths, we dinghied over to what we thought was a hotel or restaurant on the beach. We thought we'd go in, have a couple of drinks and use their infinity pool overlooking the bank. As we approached, a couple got in the water and came to say hi. It turns out the place is a private house and they were renting it for a week. Chris and Angel, along with 12 other members of the Munson (Mundson?) family, invited us for an evening of drinks and conversation by the pool. What a treat! These guys are extremely nice and we had a lot of fun with them. It was a great ending to a great day.

The next day we had planned on sailing to Hatchet Bay and join Hold Fast. But there was a blow coming a couple of days later and Hold Fast was sailing to Governors' Harbour and then on to Rock Sound for good protection. We decided to sail directly to Rock Sound, a 45-mile run from Glass Window. The wind was perfect that day and we flew the spinnaker most of the time. A pod of 6 dolphins swam in our bow wave and gave us a wonderful nature show. All 4 of us spent a few minutes on deck watching the dolphins while the auto pilot and the sails kept Taia moving at over 5 knots. Another good day.

Dolphins spent some time with us while we sailed from Glass Window to Rock Sound

Camila had her birthday in Rock Sound. That day we met Juliana II and Almost There, two kid-boats that had been sailing together for a few days. We all gathered in the gazebo by the ocean hole and had some cake. The kids took advantage of the school playground when the conversation turned to fixing boats, weather, and cruising in general. Good for them!

Camila's birthday with the kid crews of Juliana II and Almost There

A good weather window presented itself to cross Exuma Sound and most of the boats in Rock Sound took advantage of it. It was another excellent sailing day, calm in the morning and more challenging in the afternoon. My laziness that morning payed off. I was feeling guilty for not hoisting our spinnaker in the mellow conditions, but I knew the wind was going to be too much for that sail later in the day, and I didn't want to get caught in over 12 or 13 knots of wind with the chute up. As I procrastinated, I found the perfect excuse to not use the spinnaker: I was going to troll a fishing line for the first time. Out came my spanking new fishing pole and lure.

Just to make a good day even better, a mahi mahi decided to eat the lure at the end of the line. Ten minutes after I deployed it! Camila started jumping and pointing at the pole in the stern, which was obviously under load. I jumped on deck and started reeling in. And so I caught my first mahi mahi. Everything worked out in our favour: the seas were calm, the fish was relatively small and easy to land, and it wasn't a shark or a barracuda or any other type of fish I wouldn't want to bring on deck. I cleaned the mahi underway and we ate half of it that night. Delicious bounty from the sea! By the time I was done cleaning the fish (and the deck!), the wind had picked up and it was too much for the spinnaker. Procrastination for the win!

First time using my new rod and reel. Smug smile after catching my first mahi mahi

There you have it. One bad day with a silver lining that landed us a good string of good days.

We're now anchored in the southern edge of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Our plan is to take a cursory look at the rest of the Exumas as we make a bee line to George Town. Auto Paul is flying there in a fortnight and he'll spend a few weeks with us as we sail south to the Caribbean. Hopefully there'll be few bad days and many good ones on our longest passage to date.

The plane wreck used as dinghy mooring between O'Brien's Cay and Little Halls Pond Cay

(Note: I wrote this about a week ago and only just posted it. We're now in George Town)