First Leg of Trip to Bahamas

We weighed anchor at Petit Bois Island the morning of the 13th and were underway at 08:18. The wind had picked up to about 15 knots from the northwest overnight but the anchor didn't budge. This was the first time we had used our new 75lb Rocna anchor and I'm happy with it so far. We motor-sailed pretty much southeast all day and into the evening with a light wind on our port quarter (from the left-hand rear of the boat). By early evening, the wind and seas began building. We reached our waypoint of 29 degrees 20.5 minutes North, 087 degrees 40.7 minutes West at 21:00 and came to our new heading of 075 degrees. By this time the wind was moderately strong, in the 20 knot range, and the seas getting higher, but with our new heading, we are taking them on the port beam (left-hand side of the boat). The waves were not so large as to be dangerous, but they were definitely large enough to make the ride unpleasant. As time went on, the wind continued to build to about 30 knots and veered more to the north-northeast. The seas continued to build accordingly, and became confused, which means that waves from different directions are intersecting each other. When that happens, some of them cancel each other out, and some of them combine. This is called destructive and constructive interference patterns in physics. It's quite interesting in theory, but very unpleasant to sail through. We were regularly taking heavy spray across the bow and occasionally the bow would plow into one of the waves and green water would rush down the deck. I had tucked a reef in the main before dark, so we should have been set to just grit our teeth and ride it out, unfortunately though, the reef line chafed through and parted with quite a bang. This meant I had to go out on deck and put in a second reef. As I was hauling the main down to the second reef point, I looked at the end of the boom, which was out over the water. I couldn't see it well, as it was dark and everything was moving, but it looked to me as though it may have been damaged when the reef line parted. I also noticed that at least a couple of the slugs (sliding things that attach the main to the mast) had broken, so instead of putting in another reef, I just took the main down all the way. We aren't balanced very well with just the jib, but the autopilot doesn't seem to be having any problem holding course and I decide to wait for calmer weather to evaluate the condition of the main and the boom.

Finally around 09:00 on the 14th the wind started decreasing and by 10:00 the seas were calming down. We have been making good time, but with the wind becoming more NNE, we haven't been able to sail directly to our next waypoint of Port St. Joe, Florida, but have had to sail a few degrees south of it. It looks like we will arrive well after dark. Normally, we wouldn't enter an unfamiliar harbor in the dark, but we are very much ready to drop anchor and get some rest. The chart shows that the channel is well-marked and the markers lit with flashing lights. We decide to go ahead and enter in the dark. We got to the entrance at 20:55, the evening of the 14th and began looking for the flashing lights of the channel markers. Unfortunately, they don't flash anymore. We had to use a spotlight, the chart, and the GPS to find the markers and keep the boat between them, so it was a little stressful entering Port St. Joe. Since it was dark, we didn't try to find a "perfect" anchorage, and dropped the hook in 8 feet of water at position 29 degrees 46 minutes North, 085 degrees 23 minutes West and promptly crashed for a few hours. It was just after midnight when we finished anchoring.

When we got up on the morning of the 15th, it was very calm and we got our first look at St. Joseph Bay. It is a rather large and very pretty bay and we were enjoying sitting still. When we listened to the latest weather forecast, though, they were predicting storms for the next couple of days with winds reaching gale force from the north and east. The spot where we are anchored is very nicely protected from the west and south, but totally exposed from the north and east. Bummer. Scanning around the bay with binoculars, I could see a marina across the bay to the east of us, so I tried calling for "Port St. Joe Marina" on the VHF and sure enough a response came back. We picked up the anchor and headed for the marina, arriving at about 15:50, and here we will remain until we get a good weather window to continue on. It is the morning of the 16th as I write this and I haven't checked the weather today, but as of yesterday, it may be Saturday or even later before we can leave. At least it will give us time to rest up and make repairs to the boat before continuing on. It is raining right now, which is nice because it is washing off all the crusted salt from the deck and rigging of the boat.

I'll try to make another entry just before we leave Port St. Joe. Also, check out the new "Position" link on the homepage. It will take you to a map showing our last reported position. I've also put up a re-designed home page and will, over time, get all the other pages updated as well. The layout hasn't really changed, but I'm doing things differently from a coding perspective to make updates easier.